Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine 2008 by AGSFP Club

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

124th year No. 246 (New Series 113rd year No. 237)

Vol 111 September 2008

The Magazine is published under the auspices of The Former Pupils’ Club each year

General Editor Brian K. Crookshanks, TD, MA, LL.B & Editor of 99 Fountainhall Road Notes etc. Aberdeen AB15 4EB

Secretary of the John F. Hendry, LL.B FP Club 36 Albyn Place Aberdeen AB10 1YF

Treasurer of the Alan W. Marr, CA FP Club 4 West Craibstone Street, Aberdeen AB11 6YL

Membership W. Robert Hutcheson, LL.B, CA Secretary 35 Cairn Road, Bieldside Aberdeen AB15 9AL

The General Editor is happy to receive contributions for the next issue of the Magazine at any time before mid-May 2009

Former Pupils are encouraged to provide details about themselves or others for inclusion in the Notes Section of the Magazine Information may be sent by E-mail to briancrookshanks@lineone.net

In order to assist in the distribution of the Magazine, members of the Former Pupils’ Club are requested to advise the Membership Secretary promptly of any changes of address

OUR ADVERTISERS

As a Club we are most grateful to all our under-noted advertisers who have supported the production of this Magazine by taking advertising space. Club members are encouraged, in turn, please to patronise our advertisers who would value our members’ custom every bit as much as we value theirs.

Aberdeen Asset Management

Aberdeen Property Leasing

Adam Cochran

Anderson, Anderson & Brown

Bain Henry Reid

Bell Lawrie

F.G. Burnett

Country Ways

Flower Vogue

Michael C. Hastie

Richard Irvin

Kenway Tyres

MTM Construction

Michies the Chemist

Petrofac

Aberdeen College

Aberdeen Solicitors’ Property Centre

Albyn Hospital

Atholl Hotel

Bank of Scotland

Bower & Smith

Campbell Connon

Steven Esson

D. M. Hall

IFB Internet

Jamieson & Carry

Langstane Press

Marcliffe at Pitfodels

Northsleep Ltd

Raeburn Christie & Co

N. Sainsbury & Sons University of Aberdeen

William Wilson & Co

Williamson & Dunn

Senior Pupils 2007-08

Caitlin Taylor, Natalie Smith, Robert Samuel, Ross Taylor

School Section

Rector’s Report

This session we have seen significant developments in the School’s sports facilities. In October the Lord Provost, Peter Stephen, opened the new Sports Hall. This magnificent, large facility is well equipped, including high quality ICT, projection and sound systems. The hall and the changing rooms are strikingly different from the facilities of the ancient gym which FPs will know and love! School and community groups, including disabled users, make full use of this new facility seven days per week, often until 10pm. We are delighted that work on building the new pavilion at Rubislaw began in August 2007 and we hope to be using the facility by November this year. Some major structural repairs are underway in the swimming pool, which has closed for a four month period.

As readers may know, the School reintroduced the award of the Dux Medal to the academically most able Sixth Year pupil in 2006. With the support of the Former Pupils’ Club we were able to reproduce the original medal design and present this for the first time in 2007.

A group of teachers and pupils have reviewed the School’s Colours Awards system. From session 2008-09 there will be no division into “sports” and “non-sporting” colours, all blazer braid will be red, and half-colour ties blue. Additionally, pupils will receive a certificate for inclusion in their Record of Achievement and a blazer badge indicating the activity of their Colour award.

The strong cultural life of the School was evident in the production of “Peter Pan” in March and “Black Comedy” in November. Our musicians performed to full houses at the Autumn and Spring music concerts. As you will read later in the Magazine the Concert Band was very successful in Scottish and UK-wide competitions and managed to tour Northern Italy in October. Our senior debaters had a very successful year winning some of the most prestigious competitions in the UK, with two S6 pupils selected for the Scottish Schools Team. In September the whole School embarked on our second annual sponsored walk, raising enough money to purchase a new minibus and to donate over £6,000 to various charities. We are now awaiting an extension to our minibus garage before the delivery of the new bus in the Autumn.

Our pupils continue to perform well in national examinations, with the Scotsman newspaper placing the School 9th equal of the state schools in Scotland. This success is due to the hard work of pupils and teachers and the support of parents.

A piece of the School’s history was part of the exhibition “Silver Made in Scotland” in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh from January to April. Visitors to the Museum enjoyed The Aberdeen Grammar School silver arrow and medals, dating from 166499. These sporting trophies were awarded to pupils to encourage archery and shooting.

Despite living in a “challenging financial environment” in local government, the School continues to perform well.

Aberdeen Grammar School GRAHAM LEGGE June, 2008 Rector

School Office-Bearers - Session 2007-2008

Head Boy: ROBERT SAMUEL

Depute Head Boy: ROSS TAYLOR

S6 Prefects:

CHRISTOPHER BALLARD

JONATHAN BROWN

DUNCAN CAIRD

SCOTT CALDERWOOD

JOHN COBBAN

TIMOTHY COLEMAN

JAMIE CROCKART

NICHOLAS FENNELL

MATTHEW GARDEN

MATTHEW GRAHAM

RUARIDH HAMILTON

MICHAEL LI YAN HUI

NICHOLAS LLOYD

ANDREW McALLAN

DONALD MACANDREW

NEIL MEARNS

ANDREW NICOLL

JACK NICOLL

IAN RICHARD

THOMAS RUTHERFORD

Head Girl: NATALIE SMITH

Depute Head Girl: CAITLIN TAYLOR

JANE ADAMS

VERITY ARROWSMITH

APOORVA BALLAL

HEATHER BLAIR

CIORSTAN BLAKE

CARA COGHILL

SAMANTHA COPELAND

PHILIPPA DAVIES

REBECCA GRAHAM

ELEANOR ILETT

MHAIRI JOHNSTONE

FFION JONES

HANNAH KNUDSON

NATALIE MAIR

ANNA PLASBERG-HILL

NAOMI RAYNER

MEGAN ROBERTSON

HELEN SAWYER

ROSALYN SCLARE

STEPHANIE SMART

LINDSAY SMITH

SUSAN STEEL

SHONA THOMSON

RACHEL WATSON

LORNA WOOD

S5 Prefects

Fraser Anderson, Blair Bellamy, Joe Boyd. Graham Clews, Josh Connon, Liam Cowie, Stuart Foubister, Neil Fraser, Grant Henderson, David Law, Philip Lawton, Rory Leslie, Kenneth Lypka, Nicholas Macandrew, Stephen Molloy, Jack Morrison, Finlay Mudie, Alex Sharples, Mathew Smith, Stirling Smith, Mark Wareham, Euan West, Magnus Willett, Gary Wilson, Josh Winton, Scott Wisely

Morven Alexander, Satya Anandavijayan, Lucy Bagshaw, Olivia Begg, Lauren Blacklaw, Laura Burns, Annabel Butler, Carolyn Butler, Robyn Clark, Ailsa Cowie, Rachel Dick, Emily Drew, Ariana Feroz, Caroline Fettes, Alexandria Grant, Rebecca Gray, Rachel Hammond, Anna Harrison, Jenny Langskog, Kate Longmuir, Isla Lynch, Anna McKay, Claire McKie, Cara Mason, Laura Matson, Mhairi Michie, Rachel Milne, Rachel Murphy, Rebecca A. Murray, Kirsty Nicoll, Rhianne Reid, Mhairi Ruddy, Emma Sibbett, Leesa Souter, Catherine Stanton, Eleanor Taylor, Chloe Watson, Claire Webster, Sarah Yeaman

School Prizes 2007-2008

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Chemistry Laura Burns

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Administration Michael Li Yan Hui

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Graphic Communication Kevin Ferguson

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Philosophy Joint Timothy Coleman Award Philip Goldie

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Modern Studies Julia Carruthers

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Physical Education Rebecca Graham

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Physics Laura Burns

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Human Biology Laura Burns

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Religious & Moral Studies Joint Ilka Reglitz Award Catherine Stanton

The Former Pupils’ Club Prize in Spanish Cameron Adam

The Former Pupils’ Prize in Drama Rachael Canale

The Former Pupils’ Prize in Home Economics Fiona Hewitt

The Samuel Pope Prize in Art, The Arthur L. McCombie Prize in Art History and The Donald Paton Prize for Painting Catherine Lafferty

The John Muir Robertson Prize in Accounting & Finance Ffion Jones

The ALBA Trophy for Business Management Natasha Ross

The Gordon McMinn Prize in Computing Studies Mark Allan

The Masson Bain Prize in English Euan West

The William Brebner Prize in French Euan West

The German Consulate Prize Rachel Hammond

The Charles Alexander Walker Prize in History Laura Matson

The Campbell Connon Prize for Geography Rory Leslie

The J. Mortimer McBain & George G. Whyte Prizes in Mathematics Stephen Molloy

The Gavin Falconer Memorial Prize in Music Joseph Boyd

The Wellmac Ltd Prize in Product Design Antonia Hausler

The Basil Emslie Memorial Prize in Technological Studies Tom Jones

The Caritas Cup for Contribution to Charities Group Activities Leanne Caie

The AGS Dramatic Society Award for Drama Joint Award Christopher Ballard Nicholas Lloyd

The AGS Junior Literary & Debating Shield David McCreath

The Rector’s Shield for outstanding contribution to the running of the Literary & Debating Society Joint Award Ciorstan Blake Timothy Coleman Megan Robertson

The Edith & David Bishop Prize for Public Speaking Joint Award Rachael Watson Natalie Smith

The Andrew Middleton McLaren Prize for Enterprise Isla Lynch

The Philip Love Trophy Joint Award Natalie Smith Rachael Watson

The Jamie Blair Fiddes Award Ailsa Cowie

The AGS “Face the Music” Award for an outstanding Performance in the School’s Musical Production David McCreath

The Pied Piper 2000 Award for outstanding talent and Commitment from a Cast or Crew Member

Sports Awards

Timothy Coleman

The Arthur McCombie Senior Golf Trophy Andrew Burr

The David Swanson Junior Golf Trophy Andrew Steel

The Isobel O Anderson Medal for Swimming Rachel Milne

The Fowlie Cup for Swimming (Girls) Rachel Milne

The Rector’s Medal for Swimming Greig Morrison

The Dr Morland Simpson Cup for Swimming Greig Morrison

The Damian Reidy Rugby Trophy

Joint Award Christopher Ballard Matthew McCall

The Ronald MacKinnon Trophy for Athletics Rory Leslie

Inter-House Competition Awards

Junior Inter-House Cookery

Junior Inter-House Debating Trophy

Keith/Dun Clare Armstrong Julia Stubbins

Melvin Mugdha Nagrath

S5/6 Inter-House Football Cup Byron Jamie Hume

S4 Inter-House Football Cup

Byron Callum Bagshaw

S4/S6 Inter-House Boys/Girls Basketball Keith/Dun Matthew McCall

S2 Inter-House Boys’ Basketball

Byron Douglas Russell

Iain Wolstenholme Inter-House Swimming Cup Melvin Greig Morrison

The Inter-House Challenge Cup

All-Round Awards

Byron Matthew Graham

The Dr Alexander Cormack Prize to the best All-round Pupil in S1 Rebekah Page

The David Alexander Irvine-Fortescue Prize – S2 Susanna Ingold

The Norman Mackie Memorial Award in S3

Jennifer MacKay

The Former Pupils’ Club All-Round Award in S4 Beth Fiddes

The Former Pupils’ Club All-Round Award in S5 Fraser Anderson

The Former Pupils’ Club “1965” Award Helen Sawyer

The Runner-up to the Former Pupils’ Club All-Round Trophy for Girls Joint Award Natalie Smith Rachael Watson

The Runner-up to the Former Pupils’ Club All-Round Trophy & the Agnes Durward McDonald Prize

Robert Samuel

The Former Pupils’ Club All-Round Trophy for Girls Anna Plasberg-Hill

The Former Pupils’ Club All-Round Trophy & the John Ivo Dawson Prize Christopher Ballard

School Cap

Dux Award

Colours Awards

Natalie Smith

Rachael Watson

Timothy Coleman

Anna Plasberg-Hill

Sport

Athletics

Half Colour

Basketball Full Colours

Junior Colours

Cricket Junior Colours

Football Full Colours

Half Colours

Junior Colours

Rory Leslie

Caroline Fettes, Rebecca Graham, Naomi Rayner

Keir Bellamy, Michael Cobban, Douglas Russell

Michael Blues, Alex Shepherd

Ruaridh Hamilton

Fraser Anderson, Matthew Bremner, Graham Clews, Josh Connon, David Law, Nicholas Lloyd, Riyadh

Nacef, David Ross, Danil Tough, Andrew Will, Josh

Winton, James Workman

Natasha Mutch

Golf Full Colour David Law

Half Colour

Junior Colours

Nick MacAndrew

Ashley Anderson, Andrew Burr

Hillwalkg/ Junior Colours Richard Duffy, Sofiane Kennoche

Rockclimg

Hockey Full Colours

Half Colours

Junior Colour

Verity Arrowsmith, Fergus Kulasinghe, Neil Mearns, Alistair Melvin, Rebecca Murray, Andrew Nicol, Ian Richard, Thomas Rutherford, Helen Sawyer, Susan Steel, Caitlin Taylor

Scott Calderwood, Caroline Fettes, Alexandria Grant, Andrew McAllan, Kirsty Nicoll, Leesa

Souter, Magnus Willett

Chelsea Gray

Rowing Half Colours Catriona Bain, Rachael Hadjitofi, Gary Wilson

Junior Colour

Rugby Full Colours

Half Colours

Niall Rundle

Chris Ballard, Jonathon Brown, Duncan Caird, Andrew Cairns, Mark Davie, Matthew McCall, Robert Samuel

Jamie Finlayson, Sam Knudson, Philip Lawton, Patrick Watson

Junior Colours David Diack, Tiernan Duthie, Jim Gordon, Calum Hutcheon, Harry Jones, James Lord, Cameron Park, Douglas Russell, Duncan Samuel

Squash Junior Colour

Swimming Full Colour

Chris Leiper

Blair Bellamy, Rachel Milne

Half Colour Greig Morrison

Arts & Culture

Music Full Colours Jane Adams, Timothy Coleman, Pippa Davies, Matthew Graham, Alexandria Grant, Claire McKie, Natalie Moir, Anna Plasberg-Hill, Andrew Ross, Stephanie Smart, Rachael Watson

Half Colours Satya Anandavijayan, Fraser Anderson, Joseph Boyd, Laura Burns, Ffion Jones, Harry Jones, Laura Matson, Rachel Murphy, Ilka Reglitz, Rhianne Reid, Alex Sharples, Matthew Smith, Euan West, Andrew Will

Junior Colours Kirsty Cassie, Eilidh Crawford, Tiernan Duthie Sean Harrower, Elliot Holmes, Paul James, Maxine King, David McCreath, Duncan Mearns, Aifric Muller, Claire Repper, Iain Ross, Anna Rushworth, Kate Stephen,

Pied Piper /Face Full Colours Chris Ballard, Heather Blair, Timothy Coleman, the Music Nick Lloyd, Anna Plasberg-Hill

Half Colours Callum Bland, Ailsa Cowie, Philip Goldie, Ffion Jones, Isla Lynch, Kenneth Lypka, Emma Sibbet

Scottish Country Half Colour Heather Blair

Dancing

Extra-Curricular Activities School Sports Clubs

Cricket

Our first match after a very wet pre-season, in which early games had to be postponed, was against RGC 1st XI at Countesswells. Although we bowled well in difficult conditions, their international openers, A. Lewis and A. Malik, put on 179 for the first wicket. We might have broken the partnership earlier, but we missed two straightforward chances and

a couple of more difficult catches. We also gave the opposition too many runs with our ground fielding where singles were being taken when they should have been prevented, plus a few attacking throws for run outs which missed and went for four. All the bowlers bowled well but inevitably took some tap by the batsmen who both enjoyed themselves on a sporting artificial wicket which offered indifferent bounce.

When we batted, openers James Lord and skipper Sam Knudson looked comfortable and secure until Sam holed out to long off when he was on 23. Next ball James was bowled by one that kept low. What followed is best left in the annals of experience. Two unnecessary run-outs saw the end of Douglas Russell and Daniel Josephs who both might have got us close to the 205 target. Derek Hoogerbrugge, batting at 3, was ninth out for 22 as the team reached 74 all out. The run-outs seemed to knock the spirit out of the guys after the successful opening partnership, as their slow right armer H. Niven took 4-17 in his tidy five overs. Shortly after the game finished at 5.25p.m, the heavens opened and a deluge saturated everything around. It looked like the rain god had his RGC tie on that day!

When the weather finally relented, a beautiful May evening saw the under-15 League team take on Shire at magnificent Mannofield – probably the best cricket ground in Scotland. For various reasons we had to borrow four of their players as we arrived with only seven players. However, we bowled and fielded well on the superb playing surface and managed to restrict our opponents to 125 for 6. Mid innings chat tried to persuade the team to believe the target was possible at a smidgen over six runs per over. In the event, the slow bowling of their young Davey did for us as we managed a very commendable 75 for 7 after our 20 overs. Our hosts looked after us royally and it was a good experience for our youngsters to play in such an august setting. Skipper Sean Harrower led by example with his overall inspiration and performance. The fact that he had exams on both the day of the match and the day after, showed a commitment that others in school clearly lack. (This remark is based on the number of games we have had to call off or play with reduced numbers this season due to player unavailability.)

The following day we took the 1st year team to RGC. Again player shortage was a problem as we had only six willing souls, one of whom, Dylan Day, had been roped into play at registration. No matter. RGC lent us fielders, which was decent of them. We bowled, fielded and caught extremely well to restrict our opponents to 71 for 8 in their 20 overs. When we batted we decided to go about our task calmly and steadily and chip away at what we felt was an achievable total. We almost made it. Needless to say, with a full 11 players available to bat we would have coasted it, as we were all out 8 runs short. This meant the game ended in defeat with the team losing only 5 wickets. A full team would surely have scored the extra runs needed to secure victory. The team captain for the day had a superb game, scoring 27 and taking 2 wickets for 4 runs in his five overs.

Next came an U-17 evening league game at gloomy Rubislaw against Banchory. We scored 76 for 6 in our 20 overs, with Sam Knudson hitting 22 under the watchful eye of his dad Roland, the FP 1st XI captain. In reply our visitors reached the total in the 19th over when one of our players we loaned to them, Jake Shepherd, held an end up while their batsmen at the other end scored the last few runs.

Brother Alex Shepherd had a marvellous game in our next match –v- RGC on their newly rolled pitch three days later at sunny Countesswells. Alex took 3-16 in 5 economical overs, bowled at some pace. He then top scored when we batted as the team did well to bat out 25 overs reaching 71 for 9. Adding that to some thrilling saves in the field, it turned out to be a good day for him. Alex’s attitude has been first class over the years and he deserved his bit of glory.

Back up at Mannofield in a re-arranged game against Shire, the U-17s batted first unusually and scored 43 for 9 in their 20 overs against some very good and varied bowling. All of our batsmen were out-bowled, a strange fact in itself which confirmed the accuracy and consistency of the Shire attack. On an excellent wicket, in conditions which got better

STEM 2008

The team with Frank Doran MP and one of the mentors at the introductory day held at the University of Aberdeen

Stem in the Pipeline 2007 Team members – AGS Roughnecks

L – R Issmael Fergague, Fergus Kularinghe, Jonathon Brown, Matthew Graham, Ian Richard, Robbie Samuel

Debaters

Natalie Smith and Rachael Watson with the Ross Cup

All Round Trophy Winners

Rachael Watson, Natalie Smith, Christopher Ballard, Anna Plasberg-Hill and Robbie Samuel

The New Games Hall

as the evening wore on, our hosts reached their target for the loss of two wickets in the ninth over.

The next game for the U-17s was not a great success. Huntly batted first at beautiful Castle Park and scored 166 in their twenty overs. We were all out for 35 with only Sam Knudson with 19 and Mike Blues’ 12 not out managing to trouble the scorers. One positive was the good all-round performance from the aforementioned Mike Blues, who bowled well in his four allotted overs before his good effort with the bat.

This is not a very cheery note on which to end this year’s dispatch. However the deadline date for the Editor has passed with still games to play and other issues to be decided. We are looking forward to finishing our school session on a high with many of our players continuing their game through the summer in Grades cricket. Two teams, one school and one FP, in the evening leagues, plus a fixture against new opponents, The Gordon Schools, Huntly, suggest that some progress has been made this season. Next year we expect to be stronger in all departments. We should have one heck of a 1st XI in 2009! This is an exciting prospect to help us through the winter. We hope to have better luck with school House matches next season. Matches were scheduled for mid-April, but rain and team-raising problems proved insurmountable obstacles.

Thanks are due to John Lord, Roland Knudson, Richard Ferro from FPs, Les Hutton, Mike McLeod and Keith Milne from School, plus groundsman Hughie Miller for all their help and support. In the end the game is all about players. The boys who did play and turn up for practices deserve the highest praise for their effort and ability. Well done to them!

Girls’ Hockey

It has been a brilliant year for the senior girls’ 1st XI hockey team. The team, captained by Verity Arrowsmith, assisted by Vice-Captain Susan Steel, was very successful. It was a very strong team with the majority of its members being S6 pupils, and excellent friendships and team-bonding were shown by all girls throughout the year.

Many games were played by the girls all season against schools such as St. Margaret’s School for Girls and Albyn School, in which the Grammar girls remained unbeaten for almost an entire year, winning the vast majority of their matches.

In December 2007 the girls selected a squad to enter the indoor competition, which was held at the RGU gym. This was the first time for many years that the Grammar Girls had entered an indoor team. The team played excellently after adapting their skills to suit the indoor rules, with only a few weeks of training, and just missed out on entering the next round of the competition.

In March this year, the senior girls’ hockey tournament was played at Countesswells on Astroturf for the first time. The girls entered the competition with high hopes, and these were fulfilled when they were awarded silver medals for 2nd place in the tournament, out of ten teams in total. They were only just beaten by one goal in the final, so the girls really did extremely well. The other teams beaten by us included Ellon Academy, Mintlaw Academy, Albyn School and St. Margaret’s.

The girls’ 2nd XI senior team, captained by Anna Plasberg-Hill, also had a successful year. They were only beaten on a couple of occasions and remained a strong and enthusiastic team. The players within the team have all improved tremendously and will be great assets to Grammar hockey next year.

The junior teams (S1- S3) have all worked very hard this year following the great example set to them by both senior teams. The girls’ skills and fitness levels have improved and the team work displayed amongst the younger players is very encouraging. Their vast improvement has been shown in their match results.

The Annual Hockey Festivals were also in full swing again this year. All years are invited along to the occasion. Having previously been placed in a team consisting of all year groups each player is asked to dress up in the festive costume chosen by the captain of their team. “Santa’s Hockey Fest” and “The Easter Fest” both had very successful turnouts from all year groups. The “Reindeers” won the friendly competition at the Christmas Tournament and it was a draw between the “Easter Bunnies” and “The Lambs” at the Easter Tournament.

This year the school waved goodbye to the dedicated hockey coach, Carrie Welsh, who has been in charge of the Grammar School Girls’ hockey for the past twenty-nine years. In celebration of Mrs Welsh’s time at the School, a senior pupil organised a revival of an old Grammar School tradition, with help from various FP hockey players. This was a match played between the Former Pupils of Grammar and the current senior girls’ 1st XI.

Mrs Welsh stepped back in time and adopted the role of Coach for one last time, coaching the FP team which consisted of players who had all been coached by her during their school days at Grammar, ranging from some whom she had coached nearly thirty years ago to some of her more recent players. This was a true representation of the great work which she has put in for the school girls.

Both teams played excellently, with the end result a win of 4-2 for the FP team. The school girls were narrowly beaten by the ladies due to the FPs bringing in a former Scottish player as a surprise on the day!

Overall the day was an amazing success, with good sportsmanship shown by all players. The teams then retired to the club house afterwards for light refreshments. The occasion was re-named “The Carrie Welsh Cup” which will be played every year from now on as the girls’ equivalent to the boys’ “John Drummond Trophy”.

Mention must be made of various FP hockey club members as they have contributed to the schoolgirls’ success and helped greatly in coaching the school teams, having given up their time and shown great dedication to the girls. These coaches are Gill Graham, Sari Johnston and Morag Wisely. Unfortunately, Mo is resigning from the post of senior team coach after several years, and it is safe to say that she will be sadly missed by all of the school girls, especially the senior pupils.

All in all a great year for Girls’ Hockey! Hopefully next year there will be as many, if not more, successes.

Kirsty Nicoll 5B2

Under-14 Football

The School under-14’s had a good season in 2007-08, reaching a final, a semi-final, the last 16 of the Scottish Cup and finishing fourth in the League.

Congratulations must go to Mr Milarvie for coming in at the last minute to coach the team and giving up his time to take charge and encourage us greatly throughout the season, despite his other commitments with the School Show.

We were undefeated until the Scottish Cup match against Milne’s High School in Fochabers, where we conceded our first goal in the last fifteen minutes of the game, finally losing 3-0, which was quite a good result considering that we travelled with only eleven players (no substitutes).

The highlight of our season was the final of the U-14’s Sportsman’s Club Trophy when, after leading 2-0 in the first ten minutes, we unfortunately lost 4-3 – the whole team being devastated after putting up a very strong performance against a very good Kincorth team, who took all local honours in this age group.

There were a couple of match reports in the local paper showing the standard of performance Aberdeen Grammar put on throughout the season.

Our most exciting game was against St Machar in the Aberdeen AFC Trophy, where we won 5-3 after extra time, having drawn 2-2 in normal time. Mr Milarvie always

wondered why we had to do it the hard way, as we took quite a few games into extra time before eventually winning!

After getting off to a great start to the season, being undefeated in our first seven games, we started to fade away after Christmas, but thankfully we managed to pull it all back towards the end of the season.

The team had a solid core with Grant Wright in goal showing an amazing amount of agility and bravery; in defence Kane Winton (captain) went in for every tackle, never backing down to a challenge and saving us on many occasions; also in defence we had Daniel Stevenson and Lewis Macaulay who worked very well alongside Kane; Efe Ibojie and Sammy Animdo were both very quick and rarely let anyone pass them down the wings. We had a strong midfield with the speed and height of Liam McCall on the right and my own skill and pace on the left; in the centre we had a great passer in Scott Mackie and the versatility of Conar Ryan; Lucas Duncan also played in the centre of midfield, using his strength to win the ball. Our speedy forwards were Seamus Duff, Jack Hughes and Lawrence Sahebi, who scored some magnificent and vital goals throughout the season; they were often supplied with perfect lay-offs from Gregor Connon.

Occasionally we were helped out by Tommy Morrison, Tom Perritt and Matthew Henderson who stepped in to help at short notice when we were short of players.

Overall, the team played well and worked well together, and we hope to play just as well (if not better) next season and maybe this time take a trophy back to Aberdeen Grammar rather than be runners-up!!

We thank Mr Milarvie for giving up his valuable time for the benefit of the team and hope that he, or whoever coaches us next season, will give us great encouragement and lead us on to bigger and better achievements.

Greg Alexander

Senior Rugby

Following the departure of the former Senior Team Coach, Damian Reidy, at the end of last season there were concerns about the longevity of Senior Rugby in the school. Thankfully for all concerned, a more than capable replacement was found during the summer break, namely the highly experienced Mike O’Donovan, and Senior Rugby continued this season under his direction.

Training began early in the academic year, originally with regular after-school sessions at Rubislaw but as the weather deteriorated the newly completed school games hall proved to be an ideal venue for weekly lunch-time training sessions. In particular, this provided a great opportunity for the considerable number of younger players, newly promoted to the Senior Team, to ‘find their feet’ and learn how the game works at this heightened level.

Our first game of the season was away to Tain Royal Academy in the 1st round of the Bell Lawrie Scottish Cup. We performed well, winning rather emphatically 575, and secured a place in the 2nd Round, when we were to meet Madras College. This rekindled some rather painful memories for some of the older boys in the team who had unsuccessfully faced Madras in the final of the Scottish Plate competition the previous year. Despite a spirited performance from us all, history was to repeat itself and Madras came out victorious 31-12. Following this we were entered into the Plate competition in which our first game was against the Royal High School, Edinburgh. An excellent performance from the team, particularly in the first half, secured us a comfortable victory 51-31. Our opponents in the 2nd round were Queen Victoria School, Dunblane. Due to heavy rain, the surface at Rubislaw was unsuitable for play so the match was played at Countesswells. Sadly, we were unable to replicate our past successes in this competition and we were defeated 26-12 by a well-drilled Queen Victoria side.

Our attention then turned to the North of Scotland Cup. In the first round we were drawn against Shetland Schools in an away tie to be played in Lerwick. Thanks to generous

sponsorship from Greg Davie of Zenith Oilfield Technology twenty boys were able to make the trip north on the ferry, helping us to secure a 65-0 victory. Following this success we progressed to the semi-final stage of the competition where we were to face Gordonstoun School. Numerous injury problems left our team rather weakened and, despite a determined performance from the boys who played, we were unable to defeat a strong Gordonstoun side which progressed to the final.

Throughout the course of this season all of the team members have performed to a high standard. A special mention should be made of the large number of S4 pupils, in particular Jamie Finlayson and Lawrence McClelland, who represented the School at U-18 level for the first time this year and rose to the challenge exceptionally well.

As always thanks must be given to Mr Montgomery, a largely unsung hero, who devotes so much time to developing rugby in the school. Thanks also go to Mike O’Donovan for his superb efforts coaching the team this year and to Mr Gibson for accompanying the boys on the trip to Shetland.

Rugby Award Winners:

The Damian Reidy Rugby Trophy – Chris Ballard and Matthew McCall 5th and 6th Year Rugby Award – Ross Taylor

Top Try Scorers were Matthew McCall, Ross Taylor and Duncan Caird Squad Members: Ross Taylor (Captain), Robert Samuel (Vice-captain), Matthew McCall (Vice-captain), Chris Ballard, Chris Brown, Jonathon Brown, Andrew Cairns, Hamish Crake, Duncan Caird, Mark Davie, David Diack, Thibaud Dubrule, Matt Smith, Jamie Finlayson, Neil Fraser, Ruaridh Hamilton, Harry Jones, Christian Keating, Sam Knudson, Phillip Lawton, James Lord, Lawrence McClelland, Duncan Samuel, Mike Stewart, and Patrick Watson

Secondary 1 Rugby

The first year rugby team had a successful and enjoyable season. Whilst some of the players who came along had played rugby before with the FP Minis, for others this was their first taste of the game. It was a bit of a struggle at times with numbers, but we had up to 16 on some occasions. The new players seemed to enjoy their first experience and some chose to go along to FP rugby as well. These boys were Lewis and Calum Reid, Robert Seivewright and Gamu Mukaredzi.

The team didn’t have too many matches, with five games against Gordons II, a match against Mackie and a game with Huntly combined with the S2s. The boys won six out of the seven games, and all players improved their rugby skills over the season.

A big thank you is due to the coaches who helped out over the season – Johnny and Robbie from S6 and Ross Kinnear, the head coach. Hopefully next year we can continue to attract some new players and get a few more matches to develop as a team.

Gavin Kinnear

S2 Rugby

The S2 Rugby Squad is ace. We have been training every Saturday morning and every Monday night on the Astroturf. There are sometimes 30 boys there. The coaches will only let us play “touch rugby” on the all-weather pitch, but it soon turns into “rough” touch rugby which might have contributed to Cameron Dalton’s unfortunate injury! Regrettably we can’t get enough matches on a Saturday as there aren’t enough teams to play, and we have ended up playing Robert Gordon’s Bs and Cs, with the odd game against Huntly and Westhill. Nobody can remember the scores, but we have put in great performances and almost always won.

Mr Montgomery told us we were great and suggested, as a reward, that we go on tour. Everybody wanted to do this and even more boys came along to training. We got sponsorship from different sources but principally from The Fifth Business which allowed

us to buy a brand new strip, and we set off on our first rugby tour to Ayrshire and Glasgow. We were promised lots of curry and lager.

The first match was against Carrick Academy in Maybole. We looked brilliant in our skintight new strip. Unfortunately the monsoon season in Ayrshire had just finished leaving the pitch 60% surface water and the rest just plain wet. We had taken the First XV psysio, Patrick Watson, with us to warm us up and get us in the right state of mind. It was an excellent game. Both teams scored five tries but Carrick won because they managed one more conversion than us. Later in the season Carrick became champions of their area so at least we know that we were beaten by a top side. Then we were off to the showers, ten pin bowling, laser tag and a night in Glasgow youth hostel. The following morning we turned up at Belmont House School; this time we had to wear our traditional Grammar jerseys as the others had been ruined in the mud of Maybole.

This school has a real rugby history and they wheeled out a former pupil, James Eddie, who is now playing for Glasgow Warriors and Scotland A, to try to put the wind up us. It didn’t work because Paddy told us how to nail their big boys which we duly did and won by 4 tries to 1. More showers and back on the bus to Aberdeen.

Special thanks to Mr Montgomery, Paddy Watson and all the dads who came along, Moz, Steve, Bernt and Peter. Unfortunately there was no lager or curry.

We had one last game of the season against a team who came up from Richmond, London especially to play us. Although we lost 27-19 the score didn’t really reflect the game. These Londoners claimed to be in second year, I thought more like second year at University (they were huge and even had facial hair etc). Can’t wait till next season!

Squad included Tommy Morrison (captain), Nick Logan, Cameron Howe, Cameron Robb, Lawrence Sahebi, Finn Muller, Cameron Johnston, Josh Evans, Campbell Simpson, Ross Youngson, Lewis Clark, Matthew Henderson, Matthew Bell, Seamus Duff, Billy Clegg, Kalle Leopoldt, Joe Grant, Craig Stephen, Scott Doherty and Michael Christie. Tommy Morrison (Capt)

Secondary 3 Rugby

Over the year we have had some new additions to our team. Euan Adam came all the way from Brazil in October and was greatly welcomed by the rugby team for his running and ball-carrying skills. Another newcomer was Mat Maddox, who played scrum-half, thus allowing Calum Hutcheon to move out to standoff and giving the backs more attacking options.

We had some good and some bad games this season. Our best game, without a doubt, was against the RGC ‘A’ team who narrowly beat us by two points. We also had good games against Westhill and RGC ‘B’. In all these games we won convincingly. Our not so good games were against Mearns Academy, who beat us 20-10 in the North of Scotland Cup. This was our worst performance of the season, because we didn’t play as a team until the last ten minutes of the second half. Stewarts Melville College beat us in the Bell Lawrie Cup, but not all was lost as we enjoyed playing at Inverleith on the “old” Scottish International pitch.

We would like to express our thanks to Neil Gordon and Pete Blake for their assistance in helping organise the team and for coaching us all season long. The team would not have been able to function without them. We would also like to extend our thanks to Mr Montgomery for organising our rugby games, and to all those who witnessed our tremendous victories and our not so tremendous losses. Squad members: Alex Adair, Euan Adam, Finn Blake, Alex Brown, Dan Coghill, Graham Doig, Jim Gordon, James Griffin, Martin Hammond, Findlay Harkins, Calum Hutcheon, Liam Humphreys, Graham Love, Will Mcleod, Mat Maddox, Fraser Masson, Cameron Park, Pete Sclare and Craig Yeaman.

Calum Hutcheon (Captain)

Rowing

The season started well, last summer, with several members of the school taking part in the National Rowing Championships of Great Britain. Those who participated in the competition were Niall Rundle, Rachael Hadjitofi, Catriona Bain, boys’ captain Gary Wilson and former pupil Joy Davies. Joy managed to achieve first place in the Women’s Junior 18 coxed four. Rachael and Catriona won silver in the Women’s Junior 16 coxed four. This was of particular merit as they were J14 and J15 respectively.

The following weekend Joy and Catriona rowed as part of the Scottish team in Cork, Ireland. Unfortunate not to come first, they gained second place in a four and Joy also managed to do extremely well in her pairs race, which was to be her last as part of the club.

After the holidays Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association gained another Grammar School pupil, Niall Ford. He has had a very good first year in the sport by coxing many crews to victory.

During the winter months the club competed in several head of the river races in which Grammar pupils fared well. These included races in Aberdeen and further afield from Inverness to Middlesbrough. All our rowers managed to win several competitions.

During the Easter holidays the club went on their annual training camp in Ghent, Belgium. There is no doubt that rowers improved their skills in both sculling and sweeping over the week and a half they spent there. This allowed our pupils to be ready for the start of the main season. One example of this is at north-east regatta when they collectively managed to win nine tankards.

At the Strathclyde Park Regatta in April Grammar pupils again put up a good performance with another hoard of medals to bring back up the road with them.

It is clear that the four training sessions per week, consisting of water outings and land training, are paying off for this dedicated group of athletes!

Catriona Bain

Golf

This session has seen major successes for various members of the School’s golf team. In September 2007 they won the Paul Lawrie Schools Competition with the team of Donald McAndrew S6, Nicholas McAndrew and David Law, both of S5. David Law has had incredible success this year on the international scene as a member of the Scottish Under-18 team, winning the Scottish Golf Union Junior Tours event in East Lothian in May.

The School team were top of their league in the Aberdeen City Schools Golf League but were beaten by Robert Gordon’s College in the semi finals. Pupils playing in this league were Donald McAndrew and Mhairi Johnstone of S6, Nicholas McAndrew (Captain), David Law and Mark Wareham of S5, Ashley Anderson and William Rennie of S4 and Cameron Johnstone of S3.

Most recently, Nicholas McAndrew won the Craibstone Aberdeen Schools Competition (Scratch Section), beating his brother Donald by one stroke, and Mark Wareham won the Handicap Section in the same competition.

Andrew Burr S4 is the School Champion this session, winning the Arthur McCombie Trophy, and Andrew Steele S2 is the junior School Champion, winning the David Swanson Junior Trophy.

Clubs and Societies

Craft Club

Another year has passed and the Aberdeen Grammar School Craft Club is still going strong, with over 25 pupils of S1 and S2 attending each Wednesday to create a variety of wonderful crafts. The year has been filled with much hard work and fun. The club is run by Mrs.Arthur, a Geography teacher, who has bravely taken on the task of keeping the group running, sacrificing her lunchtimes and, I’m quite sure, a lot of her own personal art supplies in aid of the group. In respect to Mrs.Arthur I would like to say a huge thank you to her for her dedication, for without such an amazing member of staff our beloved craft club would be no more.

The main event of this year was costume-making for the school show Peter Pan For those pupils who volunteered to make the costumes there was a seemingly endless number of tasks to be done, spending months working for hours during lunch-times and even after school in a blistering effort (literally – our fingers will never be the same again) to produce many fantastic costumes to a very high standard. Our pride and joy were the mermaid costumes, which turned out brilliantly. The pupils also gave up their nights to work backstage during the show making sure everything ran smoothly.

Throughout the year the group has made some profit by making decorative Christmas cards and funky ear-rings and selling them at School events with some success. The group has raised a substantial amount, over £200, which will be going towards more super art supplies for the group to continue this great club which has been running for many years and hopefully, with support from the School, will continue to run into the foreseeable future.

Geraldine Cooper

Lunchtime Club

The Lunchtime Club has been running for three years and provides an opportunity for pupils to mix and participate in a variety of activities. Starting secondary school can be a daunting time for some youngsters and the welcoming atmosphere of the lunchtime sessions enables friendships and confidence to develop. Although aimed at mainly first and second year pupils, many third year students regularly attend. The activities on offer are determined by the pupils and have included games, quizzes, charades and craft. The organisers of the Club are most grateful to the Amenities Fund for providing a grant for resources.

Mrs Cumming and Miss Murray

School Debating

Senior Debating Society

Once again, the Senior Debating Society has achieved national success throughout the session. The team of Natalie Smith and Rachael Watson, both S6, have gained national recognition by their achievements this year. They won the St Columbas School’s National Competition at the beginning of the debating season in September 2007; they went on to win the Edinburgh University Schools Competition and then the biggest prize of all – the Cambridge University International Competition in February. They have been the top team in all other competitions throughout the year, including the Dundee and St Andrews Universities Schools Competitions and were the best Scottish team in the Oxford University Finals Day. Their supremacy in Scottish debating was demonstrated in the last competition of the year when they won the Ross Cup – a cup competed for by the top 4 teams in Scotland throughout the debating year. In recognition of their ability in debating, both girls have been selected to represent Scotland

in the forthcoming World Schools Debating Competition to be held in Washington DC in September. Both Natalie and Rachel are hoping to continue their debating career when they go on to Cambridge University (Natalie) and Oxford University (Rachael) next year. The photograph on page 14 shows the girls with the Ross Cup in the Debating Chamber of Cambridge University.

Junior Debating

We have experienced yet another successful year in junior debating. We regularly have in excess of thirty pupils turn up for our topical debates at Wednesday lunchtime. Motions this year have ranged from “This house would boycott the Beijing Olympics” to “This house wishes it could be Christmas everyday”. Regardless of the motion, we have an eager group of participants and an equally enthusiastic audience keen to participate in our floor debates.

This year we have been fortunate in having the expertise of Natalie Smith and Rachael Watson (S6) who offered fortnightly coaching sessions to our junior debaters. Both Rachael and Natalie are seasoned debaters, having won a vast array of prestigious competitions, and have recently been selected to represent Scotland in the World Debating Championships. Supporting Natalie and Rachael, and taking an integral role in organising junior debating, were Timothy Coleman, Ciorstan Blake and Megan Robertson. These pupils were all part of our S6 and all one-time junior debaters themselves.

Our S1 to S3 debaters were represented in a range of junior competitions at both national and international level. National competitions included the Courier and English Speaking Union juniors. David McCreath (S3) and Mugdha Nagrath (S4) fought their way to finals day of the International Competition for Young Debaters at Oxford University in April.

At a more local level we took part in the ‘Auld Hoose’ Competition at Robert Gordon’s College. Our ‘A’ team comprising David McCreath and Mugdha Nagrath made it to the final and Euan Christie, one of our first-year speakers, won the prize for the best novice speaker.

The School Inter-house Debating Competition was won by Melvin House, thanks to Mugdha Nagrath. Second place went to Clare Armstrong from Keith/Dunn and third to Euan Christie representing Byron. We had a large number of excellent participants and continue to be delighted by the high level of debating skill demonstrated within this competition.

The fabulous P7 turn-out to junior debating on Wednesday 18 June suggests that junior debating will go from strength to strength during session 2008/9

Sally Lewis

Music

Another hectic school year is drawing to a close and the music department can look back fondly over its many successes and achievements of the past twelve months. There has been the normal round of school concerts, Prize-giving and Christmas events featuring the School’s numerous ensembles e.g. junior and senior choir, orchestra, chamber group, woodwind group and jazz band. The jazz band was this year directed by an S6 pupil, Matthew Graham. Our ceilidh band has gone from strength to strength, too, under the charge of AmyBeth Smith who has been a member of the music department for six months. They provided Scottish music as entertainment for the visiting Australian rugby players at a special ceilidh organised in their honour, and a splendid time was had by all.

The highlight for many of our pupils was the concert band trip to Italy in October. Based in Lido di Jesolo, the band performed at three venues in and around the town, experienced the delights of Venice and enjoyed a fun day at Gardaland. They were fortunate

enough to have time to visit Verona and its magnificent amphitheatre. Some pupils seized the opportunity to view Romeo and Juliet’s balcony and were only too happy to immerse themselves in the history and culture of this beautiful city.

On their return, it was back to work immediately as they were performing in a University concert in November, a fundraising concert for muscular dystrophy in the Beach Ballroom in December, and also participating in the Scottish rounds of the National Concert Band Festival in Glasgow. At these heats, they performed to an exceedingly high standard and were rewarded with a gold medal enabling them to go forward into the national competition in Warwick in April. Under the direction of their conductor, Alan MacDonald, they gave up their weekends to complement their usual after-school practices in order to rehearse a brand new programme for the event. The band members gained enormous experience in hearing the calibre of the other bands at national level and although they only earned a bronze on this occasion, are determined to raise their game as they now know the level to which they wish to aspire.

Once again, our thanks must go to the dedicated band of instructors who unstintingly give of their time to conduct and direct the numerous extra-curricular activities on offer and, at the helm, our outstanding Principal Teacher of Music, Jean McLeod. But most of all, heartfelt and sincere gratitude goes to our talented pupils, who loyally and happily attend rehearsals throughout the year in order to maintain the exceptionally high level of musical achievement and excellence at Aberdeen Grammar School.

The Wildlife Garden

It has taken many years, much fund-raising and hundreds of hours of work by staff and pupils, but the quadrangle in the middle of the School is becoming a favourite area of the School (especially with the seniors).

There is, of course, an ongoing need to raise money and a strong reliance on the pupils to maintain the garden. Pupils are invited to help with the maintenance and development of the garden by attending the wildlife garden group which runs after school on Tuesdays and is attended by pupils from a variety of years. Senior pupils also opt to help with the area as part of their commitment to the S6 citizenship programme.

Fundraising takes the form of occasional grants from a variety of bodies, but is mainly dependent on funds raised through plant and bulb sales. Bulbs from Suttons catalogues will be on sale in September and will raise 20% for the school garden. Sales of summer flowering bulbs will take place in the spring of next year.

Face the Music: “Peter Pan”

This year, with the departure of Miss Adams from the drama department to take up the role of Depute Rector, pupils, including myself, felt that Face the Music productions had an uncertain future. However, we need not have worried, for Mr Milarvie, new to the drama department, with Miss Smith at his side, armed with a group of willing teachers and a script, bravely took on the role of directing this year’s show. We were in for a surprise though, as Mr Milarvie announced that the show for this year would be ‘Peter Pan’, a straight acting play instead of our normal musical!

So, unsure what lay ahead for us over the next few months, we embarked upon this new adventure, and from the outset we realised that Mr Milarvie liked a challenge. Not only did we have to condense a show that ran for almost three hours down to an hour and forty five minutes, there were the un-enviable tasks of making people fly, finding a dog that could be a nanny, a ticking crocodile and creating Neverland on the Grammar School stage! With the performing dates fast approaching the cast, with the help of Miss Smith and Mr

Milarvie, started rehearsing hard. The art department were painting pirate ships, Ms Robb was locating swords, shadows and teddy bears, and Mrs Arthur, with the help of her band of crafty girls, commenced the massive project of creating all the costumes for the show. Despite our initial doubts the show was taking shape slowly but surely and we were starting to see some hopeful signs. Then, just a few weeks before the show, disaster struck. Due to various circumstances we had been left without a choreographer and things weren’t looking too good for the dances. Thankfully, nothing can stop a Face the Music show and Heather Blair, assisted by Miss Barr, the drama student teacher at the time, set about fixing up all the dances, something that wasn’t easy with a cast where a lot of people had two left feet! Finally, after countless hours rehearsing, painting and sewing (and in the case of several people huge loss of sleep) the audience was in and the show was on. And what a show it was! The audience were thrown into a magical tale with pirates, Indians, sword fights, fairies and a boy who just would not grow up. It was no wonder that tickets sales rocketed for the next two performances, resulting in extra seating having to be put in to the hall – a testimony to all the hard work that was put in from everyone for this show. Being part of ‘Peter Pan’ was one of the best experiences I have ever had! I looked forward to every rehearsal and enjoyed all of them – as I’m sure did the rest of the cast. Finally, on behalf of the pupils, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who made ‘Peter Pan’ such a magical and fantastic experience!

Pied Piper: Black Comedy by Peter Schafer

Pied Piper Productions was set up ten year ago to give senior pupils the opportunity to produce and direct shows in their senior year. In November 2007 S6 pupil Timothy Coleman directed the Peter Schafer farce Black Comedy. This production was certainly one of the most challenging plays yet directed by a senior pupil, but nonetheless the resulting production was outstanding. Timothy was also recognised with a special award at the Aberdeen City Awards Ceremony for his achievements in pulling off such an innovative production. His advice to any other ‘would be director’ is invaluable!

How to Direct a Play – by Timothy Coleman

1. Make sure that you have no experience in directing whatsoever. Taking drama beyond first year is distinctly unnecessary. Enthusiasm, and ignorance of what lies ahead, is the only prerequisite.

2 Choose your play. Preferably choose a comedy (hard to pull off), a short play (so that everything has to be extremely exact), or a farce (if possible involving physical comedy requiring tricky timing); farces where there are only eight characters, and most are on stage for the whole time, are particularly good. If possible, choose a play where the ratio of male to female characters is exactly the opposite of the ratios auditioning. This only adds to the challenge!

3 Audition and cast the play. Have at least two casting auditions just to confuse everyone taking part, and then find others who didn’t turn up to either and audition them privately. It is useful if you know everyone auditioning already, so that you can take into account the complex web of friendships and rivalries in your year-group; this should hopefully enable you to offend as many auditionees when you post the cast list in the corridor.

4 Try to get a list of all the technical people – light, sound, costume, make-up, props, set, tickets, posters, programmes, publicity and so on. If at all possible, make sure that you get these lists about three months before the show, so that everyone can call off the week before the show, having forgotten that they signed up in the first place. This will add tension to the proceedings and ensure that the play does not sag at the crucial moments.

5 Do NOT book any of the rooms you wish to use, either to rehearse or perform. This

will simply confuse the janitors, who much prefer it when you simply use various rooms around the school as the whim takes you. The janitors also prefer it when there is no adult supervision. There is no need to ask them about using the flats; they’re sure to be available as and when you need them, not locked away in a cupboard by health and safety regulations. Remember – janitors are your friends. They will go out of their way to help you in whatever you need to do.

6 Plan the set design. You will need to plan ahead in choosing the play; after all, you want the most complicated set you can find, with extremely detailed and contradictory instructions in the script about exactly what goes where. Extra complexity can be added by selecting a play in which all the characters have to move various large pieces of furniture silently around the stage, or by having various implements and objects that need to get broken three nights in a row. If in doubt, go for both. (It can also be useful to choose a play in which an integral part of the set is an extremely unusual object, such as a Buddha, or a surreal sculpture.)

7 Rehearse the play. Remember, of course, to pick a cast who cannot agree on a rehearsal day, and who either have to regularly leave early or who are good at forgetting that a rehearsal is even on. Don’t worry about buying spare scripts; everyone will remember to brings theirs every week, without fail (won’t they, Mr Callum Bland?!). The same with pencils; actors will always remember pencils, being naturally shy, quiet, hard-working people, and write down accurately your instructions. Don’t worry about planning rehearsals beforehand; making up directions on the spur of the moment adds a certain je ne sais quoi – spontaneity, if you will. Equally, there is no need to write down what you say each rehearsal, because everyone else is doing so; and their notes will all match. Never worry about them learning their lines – they will all do so with at least a few weeks to spare.

8 Weekend rehearsals – always plan them early on Saturday mornings, because all your cast will get a good night’s sleep on Friday. Saturday mornings are a good time to block kissing scenes, because no one will be hungover. Will they, Scott?

9 The scenery and props – these will be easy to get. There is no need to pursue every legal (and a few illegal) means of getting what you need; they will either be in the drama department or provided by a helpful pupil or staff member. You will not need to do any of the following: send someone to bid for a rocking chair at an auction; raid TK Maxx at eight o’clock at night and buy their entire stock of porcelain Buddhas; extricate a sofa from under a metric tonne of debris collecting underneath the stage; consider using Miss Innes’s table as a prop.

10 Programmes – forget about these until a few days before the show. They virtually do themselves; it’s not a big deal. Ditto tickets. Also, remember to print out far too many tickets; the spares can always be tied up in bundles and used to insulate a small mansion.

11 Staff – there is no need to ask any in advance if they will help out. Simply demand what you want the day before you need them, and they will comply. Most will enjoy nothing better than helping you during their free periods, after school or at weekends.

12 The technical weekend. Get there nice and early, because every one else will be there on time and raring to go. Wear some of your best clothes; being the director, you won’t have to move any heavy scenery or frantically paint various odds-and-ends (or, as the techies like to call it, the work of art.) Feel free to take your cast off somewhere to rehearse; the stage crew will have the initiative to keep working without your prompting and instructions every five minutes. Don’t worry if you know nothing about the lighting – just tell the crew what you want, and they’ll have a plot within half an hour. Remember, a good director never filthies his hands with any technical know-how – after all, what’s a stage crew for?

13 The dress rehearsals. Do not worry about these. They will go very smoothly indeed. There will be no technical glitches, no one will forget their lines, the lighting will be fine, and you will not have various pupils looking in through the door and putting the actors

off. Emulate Miss Adams – she never gets stressed by shows, and sails serenely through every production with a smile on her face. So should you. Promise your cast that you will do another show next year, having so enjoyed this one. Laugh a devil-may-care sort of laugh at anyone with nerves; you know that this play will be perfect. Go to bed easy and contented.

14 The show nights. You will not need to pace around the hall nervously, as everything will have gone so well. If you want, stand at the door, smiling at the audience as they come in. Sit calmly at the back during the show and laugh heartily at the jokes. There is no need to take notes; the cast will be word-, action- and accent- perfect. Repeat this until the end of the show.

15 After the show. There is no need to tidy up the stage; someone else will take care of that. Go to someone’s house afterwards and civilly sip a soft drink, such as apple juice. Engage in some light boogying, and walk home, making sure to arrive before midnight. Repeat these fifteen steps. Congratulations! You are now a theatre director. The world is at your feet – health, wealth and fame await you. So what are you waiting for? Happy directing!!

Timothy Coleman directed in 2007 the play ‘Black Comedy’ as the Pied Piper Production. He is now considering a career in teaching others how to deal with stress, having dealt so successfully with his own.

Charities Group

The nature of this brief dispatch reflects the wide ranging nature of the School’s fund raising for the past session. By no means are all donations made to good causes channelled through the Charities group, which has met usually on the first Friday of every month. A great many staff and pupils have been involved in raising money for good causes. Some projects were more insignificant than others. For example the Sponsored Walk in September raised over £6,000 for charity. This was increased to £7, 500 thanks to Mrs Eliot’s initiative in locating and acquiring additional funding. .

Compare this major effort with one of much less significance – the daily healthy eating tuck shop, with its ‘everything for 50p’ raised periodic profit for giving away. Demands on our funds were great this year, particularly for many good small local causes, all doing good work for people, which were adversely affected by the Council’s cuts and mismanagement.

An awful lot of people are going to be offended by this report for not getting a personal mention for what they have done over the past year. Suffice it to say Mrs Ross has done a great job handling all our income and donations and keeping the writer right when information and help was requested. The Charities Group need to find a way next year of keeping a track on news sheet notices which report ‘who has done what’ for the purposes of this digest of effort for the FP Magazine.

This year saw the retirement of Mrs Welsh from the PE Dept, a pocket battleship of a fund-raiser for many causes and with the heart of a lion to go with it. All her efforts that we know about (and those we don’t) will leave a massive void in our School community in terms of what we try to achieve in our basic purpose and raison d’etre. Words cannot describe how much we miss her and her enthusiasm. Mention must also be made of the talented and hard working, and regrettably retiring, Mrs McLeod, PT of Music, who has brought inspiration to thousands and pleasure to many more with the wide range of music she has provided and managed in the time she has been here. Many of her concerts and recitals have made a great deal of money for charity, not least of which is the superb music she purveys at our annual Christmas Carol Service at St Machar’s Cathedral. Here is another lady who will be sorely missed in the future. Some of the donations made in 2007-08:

There were also other donations made by members of the School community which did not filter through the Charities Group.

Cool Science

Transition – Progression – Support

Cool Science is part of a plan to raise the profile of Science by involving both primary and secondary sectors in Aberdeen Grammar School Associated Schools Group.

Pupils were coming from primary school with varied experiences, and in the course of S1 were switching off Science. Later, in S2 course choice, pupils were choosing sciences but largely as a means of getting into courses in Further Education, not for the study of science. Nationally, we were hearing that this country is not producing scientists in sufficient numbers.

We wanted a way of liaising with our primary schools to see what they were doing and how. We thought that, if we could find common experiences, continuity could keep alive enthusiasm through S1 and S2.

With backing and co-operation we set up a Science Liaison group which had a member from each primary school and Andrew Goodlad and myself from the Grammar. We met regularly and discussed widely, but came unstuck over common experiences. We decided then that it was more important that pupils came with common skills, and this is the route which we have evolved.

We devised a Link project which would involve both P7 pupils and the Grammar. This involved P7 teachers and pupils identifying a topic loosely within the area of Energy. The pupils worked on this in their primary school and then came to the Grammar to research their topics in the school library with the guidance of our librarian, Ms Allard. The final outcome was a poster which was displayed in the School during the transition week.

I thought that transition week was the time to enthuse pupils for science. Careers Scotland and the Scottish Science & Technology Network felt that the idea had merit so I was backed to plan and provide a science experience that would be challenging, interesting and fun.

We call it Cool Science and it involves the entire P7 cohort for a day in May/June. There are seven or eight activities which are open-ended and require pupils to work cooperatively and make decisions to achieve their end result. Activities are run by school staff or by people from industry or further education. We wish pupils to see that science can be a career option so we want outside involvement. Our mentors have been chemists from BP, research engineers from RGU, lecturers from the University and science ambassadors from many different areas of the oil industry. Everyone brings enthusiasm and commitment to the day.

The loose theme for the day is energy; we have had a windmills activity, chemical

cells, an energy debate, waterwheels, solar cells, the decommissioning of an oilrig, and making and racing a buggy. Pupils do three of the activities, each lasting for an hour. They are organised into groups of 20. Each class has Buddies assigned from our S3 pupils. They move from activity to activity with the groups, along with a Primary 7 teacher.

When pupils arrive in S1 they participate in the Bio Bubble project which takes the Link Project and Cool Science day a step further. It is research-based and involves pupils in examining how life might be sustained in space. They can choose to research food production, getting rid of waste, taking energy from the sun and others. Their findings have to be recorded and presented. The activities are planned to be open-ended. This allows participation at all levels and does not preclude pupils who find that writing and reading difficulties hamper them.

This open-ended, cross-curricular approach should dovetail with the aspirations of Curriculum for Excellence to encourage pupils to take more responsibility for their learning.

Margaret Maclean

Enterprise Education

Enterprise education in Aberdeen Grammar School can be divided into two categories, the formation and development of Young Enterprise companies within the School and fostering the business partnerships the school has established with a number of local companies.

Young Enterprise

Young Enterprise Scotland is a charity working to provide practical experience of enterprise and entrepreneurship to school students. Young Enterprise Grampian is organised by an allvolunteer Board comprising people from industry and education.

This year the number of senior pupils wishing to participate in Young Enterprise was so high that two Young Enterprise companies were formed. They were called ‘Pure : Sound’ and ‘Ace of Spades’. The companies do everything from setting the company up, opening a bank account, devising products to sell, raising capital, producing, marketing and selling their product, keeping accounts and finally presenting a report to Young Enterprise Grampian.

‘Pure : Sound’ produced and sold fine hand-made Christmas crockery while ‘Ace of Spades’ sold Christmas stocking fillers and some items of clothing. Produce was sold in the school and at Christmas Fayres held in Aberdeen’s Music Hall and in Inverurie Town Hall.

‘Pure : Sound’ was the more successful of the two companies and secured a place as one of the six finalists from 23 companies in 15 participating schools. ‘Pure : Sound’ also won the ‘Best Sales and Marketing’ award in Inverurie and ‘Best Product’ at the Aberdeen Christmas Fayre. They also won the award for ‘Best Presentation’ at the finals held in the Marcliffe Hotel and made the most profit of all the companies in the competition. Despite these successes they failed, by the narrowest of margins, to win the competition outright.

Using the wealth of experience gained from being involved in Young Enterprise all twenty pupils sat and passed the University of Strathclyde’s Young Enterprise Scotland examination. Four pupils passed with ‘Distinction’ and fourteen achieved ‘Credit’ passes.

Business Partnerships

Aberdeen Grammar School continues to develop existing partnerships with local companies and simultaneously form new partnerships. At present we have signed partnership agreements with four companies, CNR International, Acumen, the John Clark Group and the Copthorne Hotel. The partnership is a two-way exchange of information and participation in a number of

events and projects. Most companies have visited the school informally or sent speakers to the school to talk to both pupils and staff about a variety of topics, including activities which they could expect to experience in different working environments. In turn, teachers and pupils have visited all of the companies to gain first-hand knowledge and an insight into the world of work. A number of pupils have made profitable links with some of the companies.

STEM in the Pipeline 2007

The STEM in the Pipeline Project runs from August to December. It is a three- part oil and gas industry project designed by oil industry professionals. Organised by Techfest-Setpoint, teams of S6 pupils have to complete the three tasks and produce a field development plan for the STEM field. This year’s team was mentored by engineers from Chevron who paid several visits to the School. The team – Issmael Fergague, Fergus Kulasinghe, Jonathon Brown, Matthew Graham, Ian Richard and Robbie Samuel – completed the project with a presentation at BP Dyce. Each team member received a Silver CREST Award.

Home Economics

Ready Steady Cook Competition

In January, the Home Economics department organised a ‘Ready Steady Cook’ cookery competition as part of the School’s programme of inter-House competitions. The competition, which was open to S1 and S2 pupils, was held on Monday 21 January 2008 at the end of the school day. Teams of two pupils were invited to submit an entry by selecting from a ‘goody bag’ a combination of ingredients with which they could create a recipe for a nutritious, original and interesting savoury dish.

Three S1 teams and three S2 teams took part in the ‘cook-off’ and had 35 minutes in which to prepare, cook and present their chosen dish. Each team gave a fiercely competitive performance and presented their completed dishes on time. The finished dishes were of a very high standard and the pupils’ enthusiasm was a joy to see.

The winning House in the S1 category was Byron, with Keith/Dun in second place and Melvin in third place. The winning House in the S2 category was Keith/Dun, with Melvin in second place and Byron in third place.

The overall winners of the competition were Clare Armstrong and Julia Stubbins, both S2 pupils in Keith/Dun House.

Staff Change

A character has disappeared from the School scene with the retiral of Carrie Welsh, who has been a member of the PE staff for twenty-nine years and has coached hundreds of hockey players during that time. She has also been the contributor of reports on Girls’ Hockey at the School for the Magazine during these years, always to the point and often containing a message about the state of Rubislaw. She will be delighted to see the refurbished Pavilion there – and not a moment too soon for her.

A Testimonial match in Carrie’s honour, to mark the end of her involvement in North District hockey, took place at Rubislaw in March . The teams were a Carrie Welsh Select against a School side.

The great lady herself claimed that she was unable to run, or actually play, but she was still able to lead her Select to hold a Grammar side to a 3-3 draw, with Carrie scoring the final goal of the match. Perhaps, however, the sixteen players from Carrie’s Select on the pitch at one time against the eleven players from Grammar did give Carrie’s team a bit of an advantage!

The day was hosted by Grammar FPs as a way of recognising and commemorating all that Carrie has done for the School, Club, District and in fact for Scottish hockey in general. With sixteen Grammar School Internationalists emerging from Carrie’s coaching, many have much for which to be thankful. Other players and Internationalists have also benefited from Carrie’s wisdom and guidance, and it could be said that Scottish hockey would be far worse off had Carrie not been around.

The day was rounded off with an evening session at the FP Club Centre, where interteam and district rivalries were forgotten to give Carrie a great send off.

Parents Council

Firstly, we should probably explain what Parent Councils are. Parent Councils came into being in August 2007 when School Boards were abolished as part of the Scottish Executive’s initiative to encourage parents to become more involved in their children’s education. The first meeting of the Aberdeen Grammar School Parent Council was held at the beginning of October 2007 and it has continued to meet regularly since then. While the majority of the members of the Parent Council are parents of children who attend Aberdeen Grammar School, to reflect the close links which exist between the School and its FP Club we invited a representative of the Club to be a member of the council and were delighted when Gill Graham joined us earlier this year.

The Parent Council is pleased to see the new Games Hall, for which the former School Board campaigned over many years, fully operational and being heavily used by both the school and the wider community. We are also pleased to see the progress which is being made in building the new Pavilion at the Rubislaw Playing Field – this was another facility for which the former School Board campaigned.

On a less positive note, we are disappointed to see the cuts in staffing and budgets which the school is being required to make as part of Aberdeen City Council’s attempts to balance its budget for 2008-09. Among other things, these measures will see eleven teachers leave the school, Depute Head Teachers returning to teaching for at least oneand-a-half days per week and class sizes increasing. These changes, unfortunately, have already led to low staff morale. We are confident that the staff will do everything possible to minimise the potential adverse effect on the standard of education which is currently provided by the school. It is particularly disappointing that these cuts were announced without any consultation with parents and we are, therefore, currently working with other

Parent Councils from across the city to form a group which Aberdeen City Council would be required to consult on any future cuts in staffing and budgets and other controversial proposals such as the four-and-a-half day school week.

On behalf of all parents we would like to thank all FPs who regularly support the pupils at the Grammar by coaching and organising sports such as girls’ and boys’ hockey and rugby.

Parent Teacher Association

The new PTA was set up in February 2008 and under the guidance of Senior Depute Rector Helen Innes a new constitution was drafted.

The Association wants to raise money for the School and in doing so encourage everyone to get together and enjoy the events which we are planning. We greatly appreciate the support and funding which the School already receives from the Former Pupils’ Club. We are also keen to let FPs know what we are up to, invite them along to our events and enjoy their support.

Chaired by Hilary Smith-Milne we are raising money for a new grand piano for the school hall. The old piano has been deemed to be “well past its sell-buy date” after having to be tuned twice in one day when a visiting pianist was in school! We are also raising money for new benches for outside the school, have purchased magazines for the library including The Economist and National Geographic, and we are also supporting the purchase of the school diaries.

The grand piano has “struck a chord” with many parents and we got off to a fantastic start with some very generous donations. Money was collected at the School’s music concert and the School play Peter Pan and we soon had £8000 towards the piano and £1600 towards other items. A car boot sale also raised £90.

A quiz night on June 27 at the Grammar FP club raised £681 and was attended by nearly 100 people. With Len Hutton as quizmaster the evening was a resounding success. Local companies kindly donated prizes and the winners were .........The Teachers!

Our next event is the Autumn Ceilidh on Friday October 3 in the school hall. Top local ceilidh band Galik Bred will be playing. Tickets will be on sale next term in the school office or by e-mailing pta@grammar.org.uk. This will be our major fund raising event and we invite your support by attending this social function and raising money towards the piano, which may cost £23,000. There will be stovies and a bar and great dancing.

We are keen to talk to, listen to and help parents, teachers and Aberdeen Grammar FPs, and encourage people to get together and enjoy themselves.

PTA plans for 2008-2009 include;

• Book Sale

• Fashion Show

• Ethnic Food Tasting Evening Look out for the events and please put them in your diary when the dates are set.

We are asking the children at school what they want us to raise money for and we are appealing to parents to muck in and help organise events.

We really value support from FPs. Our aim is to work together as “one team” for the benefit of both Aberdeen Grammar School and pupils. You can keep up to date with events via our link on the AGS website www.grammar.org.uk

The Phil Love Trophy

Natalie Smith and Rachael Watson have consistently been one of the top debating teams in the UK over the last three years, reaching the final of many major competitions. It has really been this year, however, that they have cemented the position of Aberdeen Grammar School as the school to beat in UK debating.

They began the season well, winning the St. Colombo’s national invitational competition. This success was followed up by wins at the Edinburgh University competition, and Scotland’s “champion of champions” debate in St. Andrews, as well as winning the most prestigious competition in the UK, the Cambridge University Schools debating competition. This was a particularly important achievement for Natalie and Rachael, as they had been the runners up in the competition for the previous two years, narrowly missing out to Dulwich College and Haberdashers Askes School.

Based on their successes over the years, Natalie and Rachael were invited to trial for the Scottish National Debating Team this year. Both girls were successful and they now form part of a five-person team heading off to Washington DC in September to compete in the World Schools Debating Championships. They will compete against sixty countries including Mongolia, Jamaica and Brunei to retain Scotland’s title as World Champions.

THE SWIM OF THE GULF OF CORRYVRECKAN

( Reference for Maps - OS Maps 55 and 61, 1:50000)

It started with an advertisement which my wife saw in the paper. I thought that Corryvreckan was a mountain! In fact it is the sixth largest whirlpool in the world, 1200 metres wide and a two mile strip between Jura and Scarba (O.S. Map 55). Regarded as one of the most dangerous and wild strips of water in the world, the Royal Navy classifies this stretch of water as unnavigable, a powerful vortex, an amazing rip-tide but, at the slack-tide window, relatively calm. The whirlpool is caused when floodtides of around 15 m.p.h. collide with a steep pyramid column of basalt rock 30 metres under the surface, the tides coming from the Atlantic and from the Sound of Jura creating the whirlpool which, in certain conditions, can be heard ten miles away. The whirlpool is caused by the floodtides creating waves up to ten metres high which rush through the gulf and bounce off the cliffs. George Orwell, who had a house on Jura, lost the engine from his boat when it was dragged off by the whirlpool and his boat capsized. He and his son were rescued some hours later after managing to scramble on to a rock. Slack tide, or slack water, is the period of calm water around the turn of the tide and this was when we swam it, in the 15 - 30 minute window, although you still had to give it the utmost respect. At the time of the swim, early August 2007, because of the effect of the Gulf Stream, the water temperature is normally about 15 degrees Centigrade although with the poor summer it was probably nearer 12 degrees.

I was in the company of nine people, including two German ladies, Adele and Birgit – Birgit has swum the English Channel! Then there was Anna, a charming housewife with two young children, from Leamington Spa, and six others including myself – a triathlete Matthew, and Alastair who is presently training to swim the English Channel. We others made up the full complement by being there for the challenge. At 60, I was the oldest in the group; Steve was 50 and the others were in their thirties and forties. What attracted me was that not many people have swum through such a whirlpool and that for all of us was the reason for being there in one of the most dangerous of seas. We were all strong swimmers, had trained for this and were properly prepared.

The swim coaches and organisers on the trip were John, who I believe is a part-owner of the company which had organised the tour, and Georgina, a University graduate who had worked with the company since its inception, latterly in Croatia. The tour was to include almost 9 kilometres of swimming in four days, with one day hill-walking on the Paps of Jura, and wild camping for four nights.

On Monday August 13th, Day 1, I left Aberdeen at 6.20 am and arrived at Craobh Haven (the finish point) (Grid reference 794074) at 10.30 am.Two others who introduced themselves, Matthew and Steve, were there with their cars. Matt and I left our cars in the Marina car park and Steve drove us to the Islay Ferry at Kennacraig. What a depressing place, and not a good advert for Scottish tourism! One would think there would be a cafe for passengers, or at

least a snack bar, but no, it was simply a prefabricated building and parking area with a ticket office, a coffee machine, and toilets. We caught the 1 pm ferry to Islay – Port Askaig – and started to meet the other adventurers as they boarded the boat. We arrived at 3 pm and then caught the ferry to Jura, to the port of Feolin, at which point we were collected by a minibus and transported to Craighouse, in front of the Isle of Jura Whisky Distillery, where we helped to erect the tents in front of the Jura Hotel and overlooking the beach. John, the guide, then told us there would be a swim in the bay before dinner to grade us into groups, the idea being that on the swims the slowest group would go first, followed a few minutes later by another slightly faster group and finally the fastest, the timing such that we would all finish the swim together. In the early evening, we prepared and John stripped off to his trunks and swam out about 100m to a marker buoy. Georgina then told each of us to go and under their watchful eyes we swam out to John and then back. Wet suits were available for use and I chose to wear one for protection as 1 had noticed there were quite a few jellyfish in the sea in this area. Some years ago, when swimming off Aberdeen beach, I was very badly stung when I swam through a two-feet wide red jellyfish and suffered great discomfort for a couple of days after. I had no wish to experience that again. At this stage all of the party opted to use the wet suits. After the swim around John and back to the shore, we were graded into three groups. I was put into the slowest group with Steve, Dave, Anna and Thomas. Group 2 consisted of Birgit and Adele, with Group 3, the fastest, being made up of Alistair and Matthew. After the swim we went to the Jura Hotel for a bar supper and introduced ourselves and got to know each other. We were thereafter allocated tents, and whilst the others shared, two per tent, I had one to myself.

Tuesday, Day 2 – After delicious porridge and bacon butties made by Georgina (readers who have camped will appreciate how much better some foods taste when cooked over a camp stove in the open air!) and endless cups of tea at 8 am, we organised ourselves for the bus back to the Sound of lslay to swim from Port Askaig to Feolin, approximately 800 metres. At this stage the midges were dreadful. I had prepared for this by acquiring a well-known brand of skin cream used by the British Marines and meant to be an excellent insect repellent, but all that it did was run down my face and into my eyes causing great irritation! I had also taken a spoonful of Marmite on each day of the previous week as this was meant to be a deterrent through one’s perspiration but, you know, neither was any use! John, who had obviously been here before, wore a bush hat and mosquito-net over the hat and tucked into his collar. I had taken the same and found this was the only solution, but it made drinking tea difficult! During the evenings in my sleeping bag I wore a balaclava with a mosquito net over my head and that worked. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, we were not too much troubled by midges subsequently during the week because of high winds, cooler weather and rain.

We caught the minibus to Feolin and the ferry across, during which time we were issued with luminous red swimming caps which we were obliged to wear so that we could be located in the water; health and safety

was paramount at all times. When we arrived at Port Askaig at 10 am John consulted with a local colleague and friend who stayed in a house close to the ferry overlooking the Sound, who was expert on the tides. We were told that the swim would take place at slack tide across the Sound at approximately 1 pm. We had a few hours to kill so the group of us walked to a charming little lochan called Loch Allan, located to the south of Port Askaig. As the hour approached we returned and prepared and Thomas, Adele’s partner, chose to forego the wet suit. Georgina was in an inflatable boat, called a Zodiac, and accompanied us across. It was a lovely day and the swim was very pleasant, across a calm sea, a suitable introduction to what was to follow. Anna, however, found swimming in a wet suit restrictive and uncomfortable, and was to discard this during the remaining swims and swim only in her swimming costume. The swim took 35 minutes and we all noticed members of the public waiting for the ferry from Feolin to Port Askaig taking photographs, thinking we were all mad! We returned to Craighouse, rested and ate. Before dinner that evening we were to swim to Pladda, one of the Small Isles, approximately one kilometre, where we were told there was a colony of seals. We walked from the campsite and started from a point just south of Feolin Farm (Map 61 grid reference 532692). As we started to swim it began to rain. There is really nothing like rain plopping round you on a calm still sea as you rhythmically go through your stroke, stopping occasionally as instructed to check on the rest of your party and confirm that they are OK. On reaching the island I could not believe how sharp the rocks were; we had a quick swill of glucose juice and then swam back. The idea was to change back at the beach before the walk back to Craighouse and showers at the hotel, but because it was now raining quite heavily some of us chose to jog back in our wet suits and change at the campsite – we must have been a rare sight jogging along the road in wet suits! The total swim was almost two kilometres, so on this day we had swum almost 3K in the sea. Again we retired to the hotel for dinner and were briefed about the next day.

Wednesday, Day 3 – This was to be the hill-walk over the Paps of Jura, and Scott, a young Royal Marine back in Jura on leave, to whom we had been introduced in the pub on the Tuesday night, was to be our guide. We were to walk to the raised beach at Cumhann Mor on Loch Tarbert (grid ref 546810) with the idea of swimming across Loch Tarbert, half a kilometre, and then being taken by boat up the west side of Jura along its rugged coast to look out for dolphins, sea eagles and other wildlife. We were then to sail through the Gulf of Corryvreckan to our next rough campsite at Ban Ruhba on Scarba (Map 55, grid ref 060720). However, atrocious weather, wind and rain, meant we were to go to “Plan B”, walk up to a smaller top, Corra Bheinn, from the bridge of the Corran River (grid reference 544720) and then down to Rubh a Chamais (Map 61 grid ref 600787) where the boat would collect us for transit from Lagg Bay (grid reference 598787) to the next camp site at Ban Rubha. The walk was to be memorable, with the typical Scottish four seasons in one day, and fantastic panoramic views manifesting themselves periodically through the low drizzle clouds over all of the Inner Hebrides, a magical location! The geology of these islands is truly amazing. Scott, the young Marine, regularly fell-runs on the Paps of Jura and had just passed

through the arduous Marine training programme (excuse the pun, but he had apparently sailed through it!) and was based at Arbroath. The going was to be tough; as there are no sheep on Jura the grass was long, and Marines don’t believe in taking paths! Higher up, however, as hill-walking readers will visualise, the heather became thinner as the going became rockier and easier, similar topography, 1 thought, to my favourite mountains in the North-West around Inchnadamph and Ben More Assynt. I was the only one of the group who had hill-walked before, and it was interesting to see their perception of what was going on. Phrases we use all the time and take for granted, “loch, burn, coll, bealach, cairn, corrie”, were a foreign language to them and had to be explained, e.g. Steve asked me on approaching the top how we would know we were there and I told him that there was usually a cairn at the highest point. “What’s a cairn?” he asked. A couple of our party found the going tough; being a strong swimmer does not necessarily make you a good hill-walker and Scott left Anna behind a rock which he had marked with a bright anorak where she could be seen and where the rest of us would descend to after our climb. All (notably the Germans) loved the views and the rest of the party from England were, without exception, enchanted by the views and the ambiance, Matthew and Steve vowing to come back with their families for a longer break. Steve said he would contact me for recommendations for the best areas (Glencoe, Glen Nevis, Torridon, Skye, Rannoch Moor, The Grampians, The North-West – we are awash with amazing scenery –what could I recommend?). Coming off was rough and tiring going, tabbing through paddy fields of long grass until we ultimately reached the road. Scott, according to good mountaineering skill, remained with the slowest walkers and Steve and I waited for the rest of the party who joined us in straggling groups along with Scott, and then we all walked towards the pick up point at Lagg Bay. Scott, when home on leave, stays with his father in a lovely cottage by the side of the road on the way there, and he invited us all in for a most welcome cup of tea. He had beautiful springer spaniels in pens, working dogs for his father who is head stalker to the local estate, and had a lovely collie pup that proceeded to make friends with all of us. About 4 pm the boat that was to be with us for the next two days with its skipper, Duncan, arrived and we boarded. We asked Scott, the young Marine, how he would get back to his car at the Corran river and he said he would run back to it before his evening meal, eight kilometres! Nostalgically, I recalled to myself that I was once that fit!

We boarded the boat and sailed up the east side of Jura which was awash with wildlife, passed the house where George Orwell used to stay at Kinuachdrachd (705988) and sailed round for our first view of the Gulf of Corryvreckan. The whirlpool is located in an area in the west of the pass, close to the island of Scarba and just below its cliffs. The skipper manoeuvred the boat close to the cliffs where there was an area of relative calm. We were all apprehensive and I was now realising the seriousness of the undertaking before me. When you are actually there feeling the wind, experiencing the rise and fall of the sea, the spray, the atmosphere, then it is totally different from seeing it detached in your home in pictures or on television. It was simply mind-blowing, nature at

its mightiest. I had theorised about my swim and what I was to do on the day, I had trained for this, mile-long swims in the local pool, all year swimming in the sea off Aberdeen beach, and now I was about to find out if all of this training would pay off. I thought of the phrase “an ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory” – I was about to be tested.....

The boat was tossed about like a cork, which did little to ease our apprehension. There were strong blustery winds from the north-west and intermittent sun and showers. Leaving the relative shelter of the cliffs, the skipper turned the small craft from ploughing into the wind and waves and we were carried at a fair old rate of knots like a surfboard, the tide assisting the engines, past the promontory of Rubha Righinn (grid reference 703025) and round into the Sound of Luing and our next rough camp site at a small pier near Ban Rubha. We proceeded to erect the remaining tents and set up the rest of the camp, which had already been started by John. Georgina had prepared a delicious meal of pasta and wine and we planned for the next day, hoping to swim the gulf at noon, slack tide, weather permitting. The weather forecast was not good and I reflected on how bitterly disappointed I would be if the swim was called off for safety concerns.

Thursday, Day 4 – The weather was mixed. After breakfast we sailed into the Gulf of Corryvreckan at noon. After looking at the cauldron for a few minutes, Duncan, the skipper, announced it was too dangerous to swim and we made our way back to camp, disappointed but also grateful that Duncan, and our guides John and Georgina, were so professional and were taking no chances. We were to return in the evening at 18.30, slack tide, when the situation would be assessed again. After arriving back at the camp we had some refreshment and set off for an early afternoon swim across the Sound of Luing (from Scarba to Luing, two kilometres,) and were transported back to the camp after the swim by boat. After a short rest we climbed a small hill on Scarba with amazing views over to Mull in the north-west and to the north to the uninhabited island of Lunga with its spectacular cliffs and rock formations. We had views also across the Sound of Luing and were surprised, looking from the heights, at the distance we had swum. This took our minds off the challenge and uncertainty lying ahead. At 18.30 we arrived back at Corryvreckan; both sides of the gulf were choppy with visible rip-tides and with a calm area in the middle – an area of calm in a sea of hostility. Duncan considered the situation with furrowed brow and deep in thought, and after a few minutes scrutinising the surface and conditions, said we should go, and go quickly! We stripped off, donned wet suits where appropriate, and dropped over the side into the sea a few metres from the cliff, Carraig Mhor. We swam and touched the base and then we were off. Anna, Thomas, Steve and David went off first a few minutes before; I had, after the first day, now been placed in the second group with Adele and Birgit, with Alastair and Matthew, the fastest, coming after us. My feelings? Very apprehensive. Steve had been sick before the swim, was it seasickness or nerves? Through my goggles the water was clean, cold and dark green. I started, trying to get into a routine with my front crawl, lying my body as close and parallel to the surface as possible to minimise resistance, keeping my fingers together to maximise pull, easy kicking so as to avoid cramp in the

cold, pull, kick, breathe, mouth full of sea water, exhale..........Through my goggles I could see Adele and Birgit, who both had beautiful easy front crawl strokes, making their endeavours look effortless, two swimming machines! We stopped occasionally to check on each other and that we were OK. At all times the boat with its skipper Duncan, and Georgina and John in the Zodiac inflatable buzzing round us at speed, accompanied us. For a few seconds we were in calm, next in choppy water, next in calm, with the swollen sea rising and falling like scores of large balloons inflating and deflating, next in massive waves topped with white horses; it was difficult to get into a swimming routine, and time and time again as I turned my head to breathe, I got a mouthful of, and gulped down, sea water. I periodically turned on my back to swim backstroke to get some relief from the waves, but still had to watch my breathing and also, given the difficult conditions, ensure that I was swimming in the right direction. I recalled Georgina earlier round the campfire telling us of one time, on one of the early swims across Corryvreckan, that the swimmers had scattered like marbles once off the boat, due to the currents, one of them being recovered by the guides a mile to the west of the gulf, such was the rip of the sea. The water was swamping us in all directions; physically and mentally this was the most challenging task I have ever attempted. Gulping sea water, I also got an earful of water which was uncomfortable. I recalled Orwell’s brother, who I believe completed the first recorded swim, saying not to swim against the Corryvreckan, but to complement it, to be part of it. Tosh! This was a challenge and I was a part of it, I was against it and the Corry I felt was fighting me! We reached the north side of Corryvreckan, according to my watch, 22 minutes 45 seconds later, I confirmed the time with Birgit who replied that it was 23 minutes according to her watch. We agreed the time at 23 minutes. The swim had been 1000 metres and finished just to the east of the whirlpool and 1K west of Rubha Righinn. We touched the cliff and then had to swim back to the boat, about 25 metres from the cliff, as it was too dangerous for Duncan to come any closer. That short last swim was hard. Exhausted, with fatigued arms, we were helped aboard the boat and joined the first party and Matt and Alistair. We had all done it! There was euphoria all round, hugs, handshakes and great relief which was tempered somewhat when Duncan pointed out that we must now leave the area as soon as possible as the situation was getting dangerous.

Tired and happy, we sailed from Corryvreckan and skirted round the impressive coastline of Scarba the 6K back to the camp, arriving at approximately 8 pm. We dined on chicken curry and drank more wine than we should, sitting round the camp fire as it got dark, sharing our good feelings and reminiscing on our experiences. Tomorrow was the last day. I retired to my sleeping bag and slept a physically and mentally exhausted sleep; we had walked and swum three kilometres today in the sea and across the Pass of Corryvreckan.

Friday, Day 5 – a lovely happy day, sunny with great visibility. There was porridge and bacon butties for breakfast cooked by Georgina. No midges! We packed up the camp, leaving the kit to be collected by the organisers over the weekend. Our swims today were across Shuna Sound, 800 metres, and then Shuna to Craobh Haven, 1 K. The boat came and we sailed to Black Mill

Bay on Luing (733088) and walked across the island to Toberonochy. We prepared to swim across Shuna Sound and today was a complete contrast, a calm sea. Unfortunately my ear had not cleared from the Corryvreckan swim and this swim across Shuna Sound exacerbated the discomfort even although I had tried to clear the blockage when I was swimming. I was now deaf in my left ear. Duncan collected us after the swim at the bottom of the cliff, where we saw a mink, and the boat then took us south round Shuna Point to a point just to the south of Poll na Gile (773078). We had a lunch break, some chocolates, and then the final swim. I declined this last swim as my ear was playing up now. After the final swim Duncan took us back into Craobh Haven, a man-made yachting Marina full of magnificent yachts, where we started to unpack our belongings from the boat. Showers were available and we made use of these, changing into fresh clothes. Anna met her husband and children who had come to meet her – they were to have a further few days in Oban and touring the West Coast. Friendships had been made and a common bond, a love of sea-swimming, the hills and the wild open spaces, had been forged between us. John and Georgina, the swimming guides, cooks, lifeguards and everything else, then had to prepare for the next party of mad people coming on Monday to attempt what we had done. I wonder how they fared? Were they all successful?

I believe that less than one hundred people have swum Corryvreckan to date, and it is planned to have a reunion of the swimmers in London each November. In the words of Captain Matthew Webb, “Nothing great is easy”.

The company organising the holiday is Swimtrek Swimming Adventure Holidays, and they can be accessed on the Internet. They run similar holidays in Croatia, the Mediterranean and Finland, and if you want a taster, they have two-day weekend trips in summer hill-walking and swimming the lakes and mountains in the Lake District.

But who needs to go abroad? Even with the four seasons we had in one week, it is the diversity of our weather which gives us our wonderful lush scenery and makes this God’s own country, the most beautiful place in the world.

Roger D. Houghton (1959-63)

Former Pupils’ Club

Founded 11 September 1893 Club Office-Bearers, 2008-2009

Honorary President: GRAHAM LEGGE, BEd, MEd (Rector)

Honorary Vice-Presidents:

JOHN W. CRADOCK (1941-46), CA (President, 1977-78)

T. GORDON COUTTS (1938-49), QC, MA, LL.B (President, 1980-81)

JAMES A.N. WATT (1927-39), CA (President, 1982-83)

BRIAN K. CROOKSHANKS (1934-46), TD, MA, LL.B (President, 1983-84)

ERIC D. WATT (1937-50), BEd (President, 1984-85)

Prof. PHILIP N. LOVE (1952-58), CBE, DL, MA, LL.B, LL.D (President, 1987-88)

W. MORRISON BROWN (1933-46) (President, 1988-89)

T. IAN MORRISON (1934-47), TD, BSc, MSc, CChem, FRSC, (President, 1990-91)

DR. J.R.S. INNES (1923-35), MB,ChB. (President, 1991-92)

A. KEITH CAMPBELL (1944-53), TEng (CEI), FInst AEA (President, 1992-93)

IAN M. DUGUID (1938-43), OduM, MD, PhD, FRCS, FCOpth, LL.D, DO (President, 1993-94)

JAMES C. LYON (1953-59), RIBA, FRIAS (President, 1996-97)

J. EDWARD FRASER (1936-49), CB, MA, BA, FSA(Scot) (President, 1997-98)

RICHARD H. CRADOCK (1940-51) (President, 1998-99)

CHARLES RITCHIE (1945-51) (President, 1999-2000)

RICHARD F. TYSON (1944-49) (President, 2000-01)

STEPHEN A.C. ROBERTSON (1939-51) MBE, MA, LL.B, MUniv. (President, 2001-02)

DOUGLAS G. FOWLIE (1950-64) MB,ChB, FRCPsych. (President, 2002-03))

ALEXANDER E. McILWAIN (1945-51) CBE, MA,LL.B, SSC, WS (President, 2003-04)

IAN H. McLEOD (1951-55) (President, 2004-05)

GORDON G. MILNE (1950-61) MB.ChB (President, 2005-06)

DAVID L. ALLAN (1945-58) QPM, LL.B, MPhil, FCMI (President 2006-07)

GARY J.G. ALLAN (1963-76) QC, LL.B (President 2007-08) (Specially Elected)

ARTHUR L. McCOMBIE, MS, FSA(Scot) (Deputy Rector, 1973-90) (Elected 1991)

ALISTAIR M. NORTH (1937-50) OBE, BSc, DSc, PhD, FRSE, FRIC (Elected 2004)

WILLIAM J. JOHNSTON, BSc, DipEd (Rector 1987-04) (Elected 2005)

President: JAMES M. CLARK (1947-59)

Vice-President of Club and Chairman of Executive: DOUGLAS M. WATSON (1979-85) LL.B

Secretary: JOHN F. HENDRY (1951-65) LL.B

Treasurer: ALAN W. MARR (1969-75) CA

General & Notes Editor of Magazine: BRIAN K. CROOKSHANKS (1934-46) TD, MA, LL.B

Regional Centres

Edinburgh: President – JAMES H. RUST (1963-71)

Secretary – NEIL BORTHWICK (1952-65) neilbort@blueyonder.co.uk

Glasgow: President – STEFAN COLLING (1990-96)

Secretary – PETER CAIRNS (1945-57) peekAirns@aol.com

London: President – A. GRAHAME B. YOUNG (1940-47)

Secretary – SANDY NICOL (1962-71) anicol@lineone.net

Yorkshire: President – DOUGLAS SKENE (1959-64)

Secretary – MARTIN COULTER (1983-89) martin@estateplans.co.uk

Canada: President – R. HALSEY G. BRADFORD (1951-65)

Secretary – J. PETER JEFFREY (1944-59) jpjeffrey@shaw.ca

Secretaries of Sections

Cricket – RICHARD S.T. FERRO theferrofamily@lineone.net

Curling – IAN P. SOUTER (1947-61) ianpsouter@aol.com

Football – AUDREY NICHOLSON richardn@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Golf – PETER M. ROBERTSON (1967-73) pmrobertson@adamcochran.co.uk

Men’s Hockey – DUNCAN HARRIS (1985-91) dharris@technip.com

Women’s Hockey – EMMA A. MAIR (1985-91) emma.mair@subsea7.com

Pétanque – JOAN COMBER r.comber@sky.com

Rugby – GORDON THOMSON g.thomson@talk21.com

Swimming – ANGUS J. THOMPSON (1969-75) era.aberdeen@virgin.net

Executive Committee

DOUGLAS M. WATSON (1979-85), Chairman H. ALAN S. HAMILTON (1943-56), Vice-Chairman

The Secretary, the Treasurer and the General Editor of the Magazine, ex officiis The Rector of the School, ex officio

NORMAN K.B. EDWARDS (1959-64) LAURA JARRET (1982-88)

RUSSELL GRAY (1951-65) DOUGLAS McALLISTER (1961-74)

GRANT A. HAMILTON (1988-94) LORI MANDERS (1979-85)

DEREK A. HARLEY (1974-80) LUCY MITCHELL (1985-90)

IAIN S. HOPKIN (1962-68) HARVEY E. MORRISON (1951-65)

W. ROBERT HUTCHESON (1962-68) BARRY J. SHEPHERD (1988-94)

ANGUS J. THOMPSON (1969-75)

Section Representatives

Club Centre – DOUGLAS M. WATSON (1979-85)

Cricket – JEREMY D. MOIR (1969-75)

Curling – MARIO L. VICCA (1952-56)

Football – RICHARD NICHOLSON (1975-81)

Golf – DALLAS G. MOIR (1969-75)

Hockey –

Pétanque – RONALD R. COMBER (1947-52)

Rugby – MALCOLM COPLAND (1968-71)

Swimming – ANGUS J. THOMPSON (1969-75)

Women’s Hockey – GILLIAN M.E. GRAHAM (1991-97)

Staff – JANET C. ADAMS (1980-86)

Auditors

Messrs. BOWER & SMITH, C.A

Club Centre Committee

DOUGLAS M. WATSON* – Chairman

BRIAN DEIGHTON* – Secretary

HARVEY E. MORRISON – Treasurer

K. DOUGLAS, N. GARDEN*, L. GEDDES, G. HAMILTON, A. HAMILTON D. HARLEY, P. HENDERSON*, J.F. HENDRY, I.S. HOPKIN*, R. HUTCHESON, D. INKSON, C. McGOWAN, J.D. MOIR, C. PHILIPS M. ROSE, K. STUART, I. TAYLOR, J. WILLIAMS, D.YOUNG (* Denotes member of Management Board)

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), Box 7, Site 5, RR #2, Okotoks, Alberta, Canada T0L 1T0 E-mail: singsing@telusplanet.net Tel. 00 1-403-995-0331

Canada – PETER J. GREEN (1946-57), 506 Slater Road, RR#2, Kemptville, Ontario, Canada, K1G 1J0 E-mail: chantagrie@sympatico.ca Tel. 00 1-613-989-3940

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.ey.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.

Malaysia – GRAEME W. KING (1966-72), 26 Jalan Pakat, Ukay Heights, 68000 Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia E-mail: gwking@pc.jaring.my Tel. 0060-3-4252-9297

New Zealand – MICHAEL B. THOMSON (1938-51), 39 Jubilee Road, Khandallah, Wellington 4, New Zealand E-mail: thomson.wgtn@xtra.co.nz Tel. 0064-4-479-5678 Thailand – Prof. ALASTAIR M. NORTH (1937-50), 79/78 Soi 7/1 Mooban Tararom, Ramkhamhaeng Road Soi 150, Saphan Soong, Bangkok 10240, Thailand E-mail: amnorth@ksc.th.com Tel. 0066-2-373-2818

United States – Michael G. King (1951-60), 806 N. Northpointe Road, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103, USA E-mail: MICHAELKING@comcast.net Tel 1-801-363-3097

Annual General Meeting

The One-hundredth Annual General Meeting of the Club was held at the Club Centre in Aberdeen on Monday 26 March 2007, with Mr Douglas Watson, the Vice-President, in the Chair. The Chairman reported as follows: In this first year as Chairman I have discovered the true extent of the activities of the Executive Committee over the past few years. Many projects have been ongoing and I am amazed at the amount of work undertaken by my predecessor. None of the members of the Executive was in any doubt that it would be impossible to find someone to assume the responsibility and tasks previously undertaken.

Martin Jeffrey stood down at last year’s AGM as Chairman and then, earlier this year, as Membership Secretary. The Executive wishes to record the thanks of all members to him

for his years of devoted service, not only as Chairman but as Vice-Chairman before that, and as Membership Secretary. Bob Hutcheson has agreed be Membership Secretary, and we are indebted to him for agreeing to undertake this important role.

In accepting nomination as Chairman, I made it clear to those concerned and to all other members of the Executive that I would not undertake the enormous commitment fulfilled by Martin Jeffrey over the previous seven years. At the first meeting of the Executive following last year’s AGM, duties were assigned to a number of Committee members and were accepted without hesitation and with a degree of pleasure at being able to support the Club, tempered only with a concern for the unknown which lay ahead, a feeling which I indeed shared.

During the year we have been saddened by the death of a number of our strongest and oldest supporters, many of whom have been mentioned in the Newsletters issued during the course of the year, including past Editor of the Magazine and author of “1256 and All That”, David Yule. Our sympathies are extended to the families and friends of them all.

As Chairman I have continued to sit on the Amenities Fund Committee, the Rubislaw Field Committee and the Rubislaw Project Board, of which more later. My gratitude is due to my Vice-chairman, Alan Hamilton, and our tireless Secretary, Jock Hendry, without whose wise counsel this past year would have been all but impossible for me. The AllRound Trophy Committee and Amenities Fund Committee have been strengthened by the introduction of new and younger members, and I am grateful to Bob Hutcheson, Derek Harley, Lorraine Manders and, most importantly, Alan Marr, the Club’s Treasurer, who will soon complete his eleventh year in that role, and I hope that he will continue, at least to make it a dozen, if not more. Alan’s careful control of all things financial in relation to the Club ensures that a strong future lies ahead.

The Amenities Fund has been strengthened by the fund-raising activities of last year, all of which were detailed at length in the Chairman’s report published in the last Magazine. A generous contribution was received from the School from the proceeds of the “Bon Record” show held at His Majesty’s Theatre. Legacies have been received and the Executive agreed to divide these legacies between the Club’s Second Century Fund and the Amenities Fund.

I am delighted to report that the first publishing run of David Yule’s book “1256 and All That” was a sell-out and a further reprint is now available for purchase through the Secretary, Jock Hendry. The surplus from the book (over £2000 to date) has also been added to the Amenities Fund, strengthening the Club’s ability to support extra-curricular activities at the School. At this year’s Fund Committee meeting a total of fourteen extracurricular clubs and sports received grants totalling over £2,700.

At Rubislaw, the Rubislaw Field Committee has been re-convened after a period of almost eighteen months of inactivity. The City Council are understandably keen to regularise the use of the Field, particularly in light of the massive commitment to expenditure which has been made in the refurbishment and extension of the pavilion. All our Sports sections have contributed to the discussions in relation to Rubislaw and we continue to have a close working relationship with members of the Local Authority through the Local Councillors and their officials. The Club is grateful for the commitment which the Council has made and we hope to continue and build on this relationship in the years to come. Our Sports Sections, rugby, hockey, cricket and football, all of whom are principal users of the Rubislaw facility, must be acknowledged for their patience and co-operation throughout the building project at the pavilion.

The refurbishment of the pavilion commenced in August, with the foundation stone being unveiled on 27 September 2007. I have sat on frequent Project Board Committee meetings along with my Vice-chairman, Alan Hamilton, and it is pleasing to note that the contribution made by the Former Pupils’ Club to the refurbishment project has been welcomed by all those involved. The project, whilst being a number of weeks behind schedule, is due to be completed in the latter part of 2008. Completion will bring with it

a magnificent facility for the use of the pupils and former pupils of the School, along with the wider community.

As all members will know the 1256 Appeal Fund had as one of its primary purposes the raising of funds in connection with the pavilion refurbishment. I am pleased to report that the Executive has agreed to commit £5,000 from the Appeal Fund proceeds towards the provision of audio-visual equipment within the War Memorial Hall. This will provide enhanced facilities to the pupils and FP Club users, which would not otherwise have been available within the terms of the standard contract. In addition, the Canadian Centre raised approximately £4,000 to be allocated to the provision of a new pavilion clock, to be known as The Canada Clock, and this will take pride of place in the refurbished building.

The 1256 Fund was also to be used for the refurbishment and upgrading of the War Memorial situated in the School Hall. Alan Hamilton has brought together an experienced and highly skilled team of craftsmen who will proceed with the refurbishment works later this year for completion before the start of the Autumn 2008 term. The cost to the Fund will be approximately £10,000 excluding VAT.

A Memorial Plaque commemorating the School’s 750th Anniversary has been commissioned and will be placed in the entrance hallway to the School, which was thought to be a more appropriate location than within the School grounds in order to avoid vandalism or damage in future years, and I am grateful to Executive member Angus Thomson for his hard work in taking this project forward.

There will be a balance within the 1256 Fund after meeting all of the above commitments and the Executive will look closely to the Appeal Fund documentation to ensure the wise distribution and investment of the balance of available funds.

Internally the Club remains in extremely good health with steady membership numbers of both the Club and the Club Centre. Eighty-four school leavers intimated an interest in the Club following a short address to them prior to their leaving school in 2007, and it is hoped that a similar presentation this year will bring similar numbers forward. Our retiring President has expressed a very keen interest in looking to encourage the younger members of our Club, and whilst this year is one in which our President is to be honoured and not asked to undertake additional tasks, I hope that next year his interest will remain such that he may become involved once again in the closer administration of the Club with a view to formalising a plan to encourage our youth members to take a more active and continuing interest in the Club.

The Club’s website is seen as one of the most important avenues for communication with all sectors of the Club – at home, abroad, the older and the more youthful members. Electronic communication helps in cutting administrative costs and these are avenues upon which we hope to build in the very near future. My thanks are due to Grant Hamilton, who has taken forward a project for the creation of a new website. It is hoped, following a tender process which has been undertaken, that the early stages of this project, being a new, modern and attractive Website, will be published towards the summer of this year.

The Club Centre continues to operate on a largely break-even basis. Costs of running the Centre continue to climb but I am pleased to report that the trading figures remain solid, with turnover up from previous years and a deficit caused largely by the cost of work carried out to the former Steward’s house and a fall in rental income during the last few months. The Executive Committees of both the Club and the Club Centre have agreed on a plan for refurbishment subject to available funding and Bank assistance. This will involve complete internal refurbishment of the premises at Queens Road to encourage more use by members, greater facilities for Sports sections, and corporate meeting room facilities for letting to members and local businesses. This will increase the revenue generated by the Club and enable the Club to meet its financial commitments in relation to loan finance, which will be required to meet the refurbishment costs. In addition, the Executive is actively involved in promoting a commercial use for the Steward’s house at 1 Bayview Road. Primarily this will increase revenue and reduce potential liability for upkeep and maintenance in years

ahead. All these projects are to ensure the strength and continuing viability of the Club Centre premises for all future generations of former pupils and for our existing members. The Club is indebted to all those members of the Club Centre Committee and to the Sports sections for their support and it would be remiss of me not to thank, as I have done in past years, as Chairman of the Club Centre Committee, our Secretary, Brian Deighton, for his enormous commitment on a daily basis to the well-being of the Centre and its continued strength. My thanks also go to the other members of the Club Centre Committee and in particular our Treasurer, Harvey Morrison, and the Management Board of Ian Hopkin, Derek Young, Peter Henderson and Norman Garden.

The Centre continues to provide an excellent facility for all members and I would encourage former pupils who do not visit the Centre very often to do so in the weeks, months and years ahead.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention special thanks to Barry Shepherd for taking on the organisation of a most successful Dinner earlier this month, where we were privileged to enjoy the company of our President Gary Allan and his principal guest Lord Kinclaven. Barry has done a magnificent job in organising his first Dinner for the Club and cannot be thanked enough for the time and effort which he put into all the arrangements.

The above is only an outline of the many activities, which have been undertaken by the Former Pupils’ Club over the past 12 months. We cannot be complacent and it is always important to examine how we operate and to this end the Executive has formed a sub-committee comprising senior and more recent members of the Club to review its Constitution and framework. It has been agreed to enlist independent expert advice with a view to achieving the most beneficial and long-term results to this review. We will not change for change’s sake, and on completion of the review we will report to the full membership on any proposals.

It has not been possible for me to mention by name all of those people who have been involved in assisting me in my position as Chairman. I believe that, with more people involved and taking an active interest in the activities of the Club, we are stronger now as a Club than we have been for many years.

It has been a busy year but one which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I look forward to the challenges ahead during my second and final year as Chairman of the Executive.

General Business

Section Reports

Reports were submitted by representatives of the various Sections and of the Club Centre, and similar Reports appear elsewhere in this Magazine Accounts and Treasurer’s Report

The 2007 Accounts (reproduced at the end of this Magazine) showing a deficit of £5,700 were submitted and approved. The Treasurer explained that the deficit arose from the fact that the property at 1 Bayview Road had been vacant for the second half of the year and work of necessary refurbishment prior to re-letting had been charged in these Accounts. The Balance Sheet confirmed, as before, that the Club is in a healthy state.

Election of Office-Bearers

Officials of the Club were elected in accordance with the list published elsewhere in this Magazine.

Auditors

Messrs. Bower & Smith, CA, were unanimously re-appointed Auditors of the Club and Section Accounts for the coming year.

In terms of the Club Constitution, the Annual General Meeting is always held on the last Monday in March. The 2009 A.G.M. will therefore be held on Monday, 30 March at 7.30 p.m. in the Club Centre, 86 Queen’s Road, Aberdeen

President’s Report

It came as something of a surprise for me to be elected President of the Club, but the year has been one of great joy and satisfaction. Though I am hardly in the first flush of youth, my election was seen as a step towards addressing the continuing challenge of recruitment of younger Former Pupils to the Club. It was therefore to that issue that I addressed myself most closely in my very enjoyable year in office.

The year began with my installation at the AGM in March 2007 when I was delighted to accept my presidential medallion from David Allan, my predecessor in office. There then followed a succession of events of various kinds throughout the year which my wife, Margaret, and I were delighted and honoured to attend and represent the Club.

I attended the School Prize-Giving in July when I presented the FP All-Round Prizes, including the Trophy, which I was delighted to remember had my own name some considerable way back down the list! We attended other social events such as the retiral dinner for the Assistant Rector, Russell Gray, when the renewal of old acquaintanceships with members of staff was a particular pleasure. We also attended the fantastic Bon Record Show in His Majesty’s Theatre, after which the Lord Provost entertained us all so generously at his Civic Reception honouring the School and its 750th Anniversary.

The central events of any President’s year are the Centre dinners to which we were so kindly invited. These started in May in Edinburgh at the magnificent Bruntsfield Links Golf Club. We enjoyed superb hospitality as always. We also were fortunate enough to be able to accept the Canada Centre invitation to attend their Re-Union Weekend in Calgary, Alberta in September. The dedication of FPs from all over North America in finding some way of attending puts home-grown FPs to shame! As appears to be the great FP tradition, we were provided with wonderful personal hospitality and generosity, which was greatly appreciated, and the formal dinner in the magnificent Museum of the Regiments will stay in our memory for ever. It was great to meet up with FPs of whom I had not heard nor seen for decades, including one who was a former neighbour from Aberdeen! It was also delightful to have the company of the Crookshanks and the other Allans who were also in attendance from Scotland.

September also saw my attending the Yorkshire Centre Dinner in York, where a delightfully intimate dinner was a very happy contrast with Canada, but served equally to bring together a “school” of FPs from all the airts who looked after me very well indeed and had a great evening together.

October meant Glasgow, where I am a committee member, and it was a little curious, having been involved in organising a number of the Glasgow dinners, this time to be in the role of guest, but it was a great evening of chat, entertainment and nostalgia.

My final dinner was in March 2008, in Aberdeen, when there was a tremendous turnout for our parent club Annual Dinner at the Marcliffe at Pitfodels. Around one hundred and ninety FPs and guests helped create a wonderfully vibrant atmosphere. Our principal guest and speaker, the Honourable Lord Kinclaven, Senator of the College of Justice, entertained and amused the company in his toast to the School and the Club, with his recollections of his time at the School in the early sixties, and with his father and three uncles also FPs he had much material with which to work. He and Lady Kinclaven were generous enough to join me, Margaret and some of my oldest friends in a warming glass or two well into the wee small hours in the post-dinner trip down memory lane which always is part of these dinners, and he was clearly thrilled to be welcomed back to the fold he left so long ago.

It was indeed a weekend to remember, as we were also invited to join the Class of 1958 in their wonderful re-union reception in the Art Gallery and in a re-creation in the Cowdray Hall of the (in)famous Madam Murray’s Dance School. What an extraordinary and happy event it was!

In all of my meetings with FPs, wherever these have taken place, it has been made absolutely clear to me that the FP Club is very important indeed, and not an anachronism as some have tended to suggest. Equally it does appear clear that the fruitful recruiting ground may not be the School avenue on the last day of schooling, but rather later when the experience of university, college, work, travel, training and life have brought home some experience and realisation about the importance of roots and belonging. This has been the experience of centres throughout the country and beyond, and we must take account of that. I will be pleased to continue in my efforts in these matters beyond my own presidential term.

I was honoured in March 2008 to attend the AGM and hand over the presidential medallion to Jim Clark. His commitment to FPs has been immense and I wish him all the good luck and pleasure which has attended my own year in office. That I should be able to hand over to Jim a Club in such good health, about which I have been able to report so optimistically in all the speeches I have made, is a source of great joy. It is a testament to the unstinting efforts of so many FP stalwarts.

Naming individuals is always invidious, but it would be remiss of me not to thank our Centre presidents and secretaries. I would wish to pay tribute to Jock Hendry, our parent club Secretary (who kept me right at all the important times!) and Brian Crookshanks, whose encyclopaedic knowledge of all things School and FP Club was, and is, a priceless resource. I also want to thank Douglas Watson for his considerable and unfailing support as my Vice- President and for his outstanding contribution as Chairman of the Executive and Chairman of the Club Centre.

It has been a tremendous honour to have been the FP Club President and I shall always treasure the memories.

Gary J.G.Allan (1963-76)

Presidential Profile James Milne Clark (1947- 59)

When my old school friend telephoned me to say that he had just been elected President of the Former Pupils’ Club I was absolutely delighted. Knowing that he had shown some reluctance when initially asked, I was pleased that he had accepted as, out of all our school contemporaries, l could not imagine anyone more deserving of this honour.

It is hard to believe that it is sixty-one years since we sat together in the kindergarten wearing our matching blue smocks. As I had spent the previous year in the nursery Jim was the new boy, and I was able to show him around and keep him right as to which peg to hang his coat on.

Jim was very popular with his classmates but was never known to take class-work too seriously. He played rugby and cricket but, although he was a good fast bowler, on taking up golf at the age of twelve this became his passion. He was a member of the 1st Aberdeen (Grammar School) Scout Group, held the rank of sergeant in the Army Cadets, and was an enthusiastic small bit actor in the School dramatic society productions.

On leaving school we went our separate ways. It was to be fifteen years before we met up again when, by chance, Jim, now married to Senga with two daughters and two sons, moved house, and we became neighbours and renewed our schoolboy friendship which has continued to this day.

I then learned that Jim had served an engineering apprenticeship with John M. Henderson & Co Ltd., a firm specialising in the manufacture of various types of cranes and overhead cableways for large construction and dam projects throughout the world. After two years gaining practical experience on the shop floor and attending evening classes three nights a week for his Higher National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering, he was moved up to the drawing office, where he completed his apprenticeship as a mechanical and structural design draughtsman. To gain wider experience he moved to a small company

offering repair, maintenance and modification of machinery and equipment to the granite, paper-making and fishing industries. Responsible for all the company activities in the absence of the Managing Director, he gained valuable experience in general day-to-day management, estimating, financial controls and sales and marketing.

It was during his time with this company that oil was discovered in the North Sea, but no one could quite comprehend what this would mean for local businesses until drill ships started berthing in the harbour, and American supply companies were moving into the city. Having been considering a move away from Aberdeen, Jim now found his engineering background and experience much in demand on his doorstep, and a `phone call at home one evening resulted in his going offshore as a project engineer on the construction and hook-up of the topside facilities on the Frigg Field platforms in the Norwegian Sector. This was before there was a strict two week on/off rota, and he was expected to stay out as long as possible to get the work done. This did nothing for his family life, and on completion of this contract, having been offered a job onshore as General Manager of a welding and fabrication company which had been formed on the strength of the oil industry, Jim decided to take it.

Over the space of five years, the company grew from strength to strength; opening new premises and starting a subsidiary company in Halifax, Nova Scotia to service the Canadian offshore industry, which Jim, now a company director, visited from time to time. But, due to the price of oil dropping below ten dollars a barrel in the late 1980s (hard to believe compared to the current price) work dried up overnight, orders were cancelled, and the company, overstretched financially, went into liquidation. The next few years proved a very difficult time for Jim as he was now funding his children through college and university. However, with Senga’s continued love and support, and having been a great believer in “being nice to people on the way up because you never know when you might need them on the way down”, this point was more than proved by the help he received from friends he had made through business. This resulted in him working directly for oil companies under contract, albeit some short term, before ultimately finding a permanent position to last him through to retirement.

Jim joined the FP Club as soon as he left school and was an active member of the Rugby section playing regularly in the front row for the 2nd XV throughout the 1960s. He is a past captain of the Golf section and played regularly for the Curling section. He is a founder member of the Club Centre and was first elected to the Executive in 1986. As Entertainment Convener (1985-90) he organised the Annual Dinner and the Ball which was then still regarded as one of the events not to be missed in Aberdeen’s social calendar. He was Vice-Chairman of the Executive in 1996-98 and Chairman and Vice-President of the Club in 1998-2000).

Jim and Senga, having survived the ups and downs that life has thrown at them, are now settled in Ballater, and doting grandparents to two grandsons and three granddaughters. Never one to ‘rest on his laurels’, Jim is caught up in the community life of the village as Chairman of the Ballater Royal Horticultural Society, Vice-Chairman of the Village Halls Committee, a member of Probus and an elder of Glenmuick (Ballater) Parish Church having first been ordained at Queen’s Cross Church in 1977. Despite all this, he still finds time to play golf, bowls, petanque, outdoor curling when there is ice (which isn’t often) and enjoys hill walking, gardening and country dancing. Obviously he has come to be very well known in the village and it is frustrating to be out walking with him as our conversation is continually interrupted by people stopping him to pass the time of day or shouting “Hi Jim” from the other side of the street !

I have no doubt that Jim will prove a worthy ambassador for the Club and, like his predecessors, will uphold the honour of our famous Club and I take this opportunity of wishing my old and very dear friend all the best in his Presidential year.

P.W.G.(1946- 58)

Rubislaw Pavilion Project

Councillor Martin Greig of Aberdeen City Council has been Chairman of the Rubislaw Project Board which includes Councillors and FPs, and readily agreed to provide a report on the present position of the Pavilion Re-development, adding, for good measure, comment on the School’s new Games Hall.

Sport has always occupied a central role in the curriculum of Aberdeen Grammar School so it has been a genuine pleasure for me to chair the two Project Boards which have supervised the upgrading of both indoor and outdoor sporting facilities at the School. The Former Pupils’ Club has always been a great supporter of both projects and its representatives key members of the Rubislaw Project Board.

The recently completed state-of-the-art Sports Hall has been recognised as one of the best indoor games facilities in the city. The Council allocated £2.35 million to this new build which has been constructed in the space between the swimmingpool and Whitehall Place. It is proving to be a very popular and well used resource.

Even before the opening of Rubislaw Field in September 1916 the idea had been put forward to erect a pavilion there as a permanent memorial to the Former Pupils of the School who had died in the Great War. A month after the Armistice a public meeting established a War Memorial Fund for this purpose and generous subscriptions from FPs met the cost of the building – just under £5,000 – which was opened in June 1924.

Improvements at Rubislaw Pavilion have been overdue for many years. The Council is funding this much-needed £3.5 million upgrade. Lord Provost Peter Stephen was joined by FPs, the Rector, officials and councillors when he formally launched the construction work in September 2007. The Provost unveiled a plaque which will later be mounted in an appropriate place within the Pavilion recording:

This foundation plaque was unveiled by The Lord Provost of the City of Aberdeen Peter Stephen, MCIBS

At the commencement of the redevelopment of the Rubislaw Pavilion On Thursday 27 th September 2007

Work is proceeding well and involves refurbishment of the granite Pavilion and construction of a new single storey extension. The original frontage is retained with its inscriptions. Some minor landscaping will be carried out around the Pavilion and new parking spaces will be created next to Bayview Road South.

The new extension will contain four changing rooms for fifteen players and two larger changing rooms for forty players. There will also be officials’ changing rooms, a kitchen area, public toilets, resources room and office spaces.

The groundsman has relocated into the residence in the Harlaw Pavilion and the Rubislaw residence, which was at the rear of the original Pavilion, has been demolished. New roof tiles have been sourced in Germany to match the original red colour.

James M. Clark (1947-1959) President 2008-2009

Lord Provost Stephen starts the Rubislaw Pavilion Project

Carrie Welsh with FP President’s XI

Once completed, the Pavilion will continue to serve its original and correct purpose as a war memorial. The War Memorial Hall is being spruced up and will remain the focus of the new complex.

The FP Club has been closely involved in this project right from the start. Its input has been invaluable and is much appreciated. The partnership working between the School, FPs and the Council is an important living relationship. The new Pavilion clock, kindly donated by FPs with funds raised by their Canadian Centre, and to be known as the Canada Clock, will be a visible reminder of this enduring link. Other donations from the Club, including the proposed IT system, are greatly appreciated. I am very grateful to the FPs for their generous support.

The Pavilion will benefit from the use of innovative technology to harness renewable energy. A ground-source heat pump will exploit the Earth’s constant temperature and power the under-floor heating system in the new Pavilion. The system will give most of the background heat and will be used for hot water. This use of renewable energy will reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and lead to lower energy costs. An underground tank is being installed to recycle rainwater for toilet flushing.

The expected completion in Autumn 2008 is eagerly awaited. The refurbishment will provide a marvellous, enhanced resource for the enjoyment of sport and for sporting excellence. The upgraded Pavilion will ensure that the sporting life of the Grammar School and Grammar FPs continues to have a fitting home at Rubislaw.

Centre Reports

Club Centre

Work on the proposals to refurbish the Club Centre has been on-going, although not with the degree of progress that many of us would have wished. This has been due to a number of issues, centred primarily on the proposals receiving approval from both the Centre committee and the Club Executive. This has now been agreed, subject to funding being made available from the Club’s bank. The Bank have visited the premises and have been given details of the proposed work and costings. They have also been given updated projections following on from the refurbishment.

The costs of refurbishments have continued to rise with increased building costs, and the projected budget will be approximately £550,000. This is likely to require a significant repayment commitment to be funded through increases in revenue – meeting room hire, catering and functions. Whilst the cost is significant it must be remembered that the Club has not undertaken any extensive upgrade or made provision for future maintenance over the last 30 years, and the expense is thought by those involved thirty years ago to be of a similar level of commitment as was undertaken then. As soon as the Bank has confirmed the level of finance available and the committee have agreed terms of a proposal, a Special General Meeting of the Club will be called for approval.

Andrew Garden and his staff have continued to provide an excellent, friendly, polite and efficient service and our thanks are due to Andrew for all his hard work over the year.

Never has the need for refurbishment of the Centre been more apparent than through the reactions of a number of local businesses which have expressed an interest in hiring rooms but delayed to take this further due to the condition – fabric or facilities – of the Club. There continues to be a clear demand for good, cost-effective meeting room facilities which will generate a useful revenue stream for the Club and its members, ensuring the provision to our members of a quality establishment.

Members will be aware of the catering changes which have occurred during the year and we are grateful to Brian Deighton for his efforts in ensuring the least possible disruption

to the arrangements, when on three occasions over the last 12 months he has had to find replacement caterers for the Club lunches and functions.

Functions continue to be well supported and Brian, with the help of an Entertainments/ Functions committee with representatives of the Sports sections, has continued to ensure the continuation of the monthly quiz, the Hogmanay party, and a family BBQ in the summer – all of which were well supported.

Membership numbers from FPs and Associates have remained relatively constant. A membership committee will be looking closely at the current system over the coming weeks to identify any areas for improvement or simplification. Our thanks are due to Norman Garden and Martin Jeffrey for their efforts over the last year, and to the Sports section representatives and secretaries for their prompt and efficient return of information.

The Centre has incurred a deficit for the year in line with the figures for last year. However, underlying turnover is up and the deficit is largely due to a loss of revenue from the letting of Bayview Road and the application of costs associated with the redecoration and upgrading of the house in the current year’s figures. There has also been a reduction in the income from the letting of rooms and the catering rebate due to the changes in catering during the year. The work of the Secretary and Bar Staff must be commended for ensuring a continuing increase in Bar Turnover. Revenue from Bayview Road is hoped to be received again this year with the potential for a new commercial lease being agreed. Details will be released when finalised. Operating costs continue to increase, and it would be hoped that savings would be made in these with modern heating etc in a refurbished Centre.

Last year I reported on a possible Constitutional change to achieve financial benefits. Initial approach to the Revenue to apply for CASC status has been unsuccessful, and the FP Executive is now looking at the overall constitutional framework of the Club and Centre by enlisting outside expert assistance and a report is under consideration.

I cannot complete this report without expressing my thanks to the committee members and in particular to the management board, for their immense support throughout the year which has involved them all in a considerable amount of work. I marvel at the willingness with which these busy individuals give so freely of their time, and can only thank them on behalf of all members for their unstinting support of me and, more importantly, of the Club.

Douglas M. Watson

Canada

The 15th Annual Reunion Weekend of the Centre was held in Calgary on 7-9 September 2007. We were delighted to welcome the Parent Club President, Gary Allan, and his wife Margaret, who fitted our reunion into a busy schedule by flying to Canada for just four days.

The reunion activities started on the Friday evening with a wonderful get-together hosted by Gillian and Tim Thomas and their daughter Meghan at their lovely home in Calgary. Gillian’s parents, Brian and Joyce Crookshanks, were visiting from Aberdeen, and David and Christine Allan also travelled from Scotland for their second Canadian reunion. Brian is Editor of the FP Magazine, and both he and David are past presidents of the FP Club, so the parent club was well represented. We really appreciate the interest and support shown by those who travel from Scotland to join us.

As usual, many kilometres were covered for everyone to attend the weekend. Bill and Margaret Wolkoff, and Michael and Margaret King (recently moved back to Salt Lake City from Sudbury, Ontario), travelled from the States – and Canadian representation ranged from Ontario to Vancouver Island. We were delighted to welcome first-time attendees Keith Boyne, Bill Buyers, Karen Grant, John Hollifield and Tony Stewart. Special mention must be made of our senior member, George Rickart, who is now the most senior member in years of the FP Club, and we were delighted that he joined us from Vancouver. It is also good to see younger people joining the Canadian Centre, especially in Calgary, and thanks go to Gillian Thomas for tracking down these FPs.

The formal dinner took place on Saturday evening in the historic setting of the Atrium of the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary. The evening commenced with the installation of Peter Edwards as our new president. Peter proposed the toast to the Club and the School, and gave an interesting speech based on a headline in the Aberdeen Press & Journal after the disastrous fire of 1986. The Club President, Gary Allan, replied with an informative speech updating us on the School and on Club activities.

Peter Jeffrey then read messages from other Club Centres and FPs, and proposed the toast to Absent Friends. He also talked about the Club’s plans to renovate the School Pavilion and the great success of the Canadian Centre in raising the funds to donate the Canada Clock for the Rubislaw Pavilion.

On Sunday, Gordon and Pat Singer once again hosted a marvellous brunch at their lovely home south of Calgary. The sun shone for us, highlighting the spectacular countryside stretching to the Rockies, and we all enjoyed sharing stories and memories of “the Grammar”. This was the 15th annual reunion weekend and as always it was wonderful to see FPs and their spouses/partners who have been attending faithfully over the years, and to welcome new FPs. We would like to thank Peter Edwards, Gordon Singer and Gillian Thomas for organising such a successful and memorable weekend.

Thirty-one FPs and spouses/partners attended the Dinner. The following FPs were present (in order of entry to School): George Rickart (1923-30), Vancouver, BC; Brian Crookshanks (1934-46), Aberdeen, Scotland; Bill Buyers (1942-55), Deep River, Ontario; Bill Wolkoff (1942-53), Jefferson City, MO; Peter Jeffrey (1944-59), Qualicum Beach, BC; David Allan (1945-58), Aboyne, Scotland; Gordon Singer (1949-50), Okotoks, Alberta; John Hollifield (1949-60), Vancouver, BC; Michael King (1951-60), Salt Lake City, Utah; Ian Thomson (1952-60), Nepean, Ontario; Bob Scace (1954-60), Calgary, Alberta; Peter Edwards (1956-64), Calgary, Alberta; Les Ross (1960-73), Langden, Alberta; Tony Stewart (1962-75), Calgary, Alberta; Gary Allan (1963-76), Houston, Scotland; Keith Boyne (1972-77), Calgary, Alberta; Gillian Thomas (1975-80), Calgary, Alberta and Karen Grant (1976-79), Calgary, Alberta.

This year’s Reunion will be held on September 5-7 in Toronto and is being organised by Halsey Bradford, Colin Caie and Tom Dempster. We look forward to another great weekend.

Edinburgh

The Centre held its Annual Dinner on Friday 25th April 2008 in the Clubhouse of the Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society. President James Rust welcomed the company of thirty members and guests including George Clark, who was the principal guest, the Rector, Graham Legge, the recently installed President of the Parent Club, Jim Clark, Calum Bruce, the President of Edinburgh Gordonians and Stephan Colling, the President of the Glasgow Centre.

George Clark proposed the toast of “The School and the Club” and replies were made by the Rector, Natalie Smith and Ross Taylor on behalf of the School and by Jim Clark for the Club in his first function as President .

At the Edinburgh Centre AGM held during the evening, James Rust was re-elected as President for a second year.

In August the annual golf match with the Glasgow Centre was played at Harburn, the result being a tie on 46 points each, probably the first tie in the history of this event. Edinburgh thus retained the trophy which they had won in 2006. The Mor Brown Trophy was won by past-President Keith Masson with the best individual Stableford score of 36 points, which tied with that of Gordon Barron but a better inward half (on his own course) means Keith holds the trophy for this year. David Kilgour was second and John Barron third.

The next Annual Dinner will be held in the Clubhouse of the Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society on Friday 24th April 2009

Any FP who has recently come to the Edinburgh area and who has not received any communication from the Centre is invited to contact Neil Borthwick at 24, Carfrae Road Edinburgh EH4 3QQ ( Tel. 0131 336 1361). or by email to neilbort@blueyonder.co.uk

The following FPs attended the Dinner (in order of entry into School) : W.M. Brown (1932-46), A.J.K. Monro (1933-46), J.E. Fraser (1936-49), T.G. Coutts (1938-51), D.A. Brittain (1943-49), A.M.M. Beattie (1944-57), J.M. Clark (1947-59), R.S. Rilley (194755), N.M. Borthwick (1952-65), K.I. Masson (1959-72), J.H. Rust (1963-71), R. Dempsey (1969-75), S. Colling (1990-96), D. Bridgeford (1996-02), S. Juroszec (1996-02), L. Morrison (1996-02), A. Weddell (1996-02) and D. Younger (1996-02).

Glasgow

At the time of writing, the 2008 Golf Match against the Edinburgh Centre will be played at Harburn Golf Club, West Calder on 28 August. Last year’s Match was drawn and Edinburgh therefore retained the Caithness Globe for another year. Keith Masson was the winner of the Mor Brown Trophy

The Centre’s Annual Dinner, held once again in the Swallow Hotel, was chaired, in the absence of Stefan Colling our President, by Malcolm Gauld who warmly welcomed the company of 42 members and their guests including Fredrick Bull, who was the principal guest, the Rector, Graham Legge, the President of the Parent Club, Gary Allan, Douglas Watson, Chairman of the Club Executive, James Rust, President of the Edinburgh Centre and Kathleen McPherson and Andrew Sirel, Presidents of the Glasgow branches of ‘The High’ and ‘Gordonians’ respectively. During the evening, the A.G.M. of the Centre was held, the accounts approved and the committee, for their sins, unanimously re-elected. After a short break, came the fun part of the evening. Frederick Bull, himself an FP, delighted us with tales of his worldwide travels as he visited all the Aberdeens around the world and then proposed an excellent toast to the School and the Club. The Rector, ably supported by Robert Samuel, the Head Boy and Caitlin Taylor, the Deputy Head Girl, responded, updating us on the current situation of school-life and what the School has meant to them. Gary Allan, a former President of the Glasgow Centre, replied on behalf of the Club, advising in a most humorous way of the continuing plans of the Parent Club and all the dinners he had had to consume on our behalf. After the formal part of the evening was over, Frederick Bull kindly signed copies of his book Aberdeens around the World, with foreword by Jack Webster – ‘an entertaining and informative read’ – The Glen Almond Gazette.

For three seasons our Curling Team have come last in a six-team Wanderers League, but thanks to two wins and a ‘no show’, we achieved 3rd place this year. Many congratulations go to our squad of Gary Allan, Stefan Colling, Alastair Fyall, Malcolm Gauld and Jim Leask. New members are always most welcome, so contact Malcolm on 01355 237039 or mwrg@hotmail.com

Any F.P. new to the West of Scotland is invited to contact our Secretary, Peter Cairns at 01436 671708 or peekairns@aol.com to have their names added to the mailing list

This year’s Dinner will be held in the Swallow Hotel on Friday 31st October, when the guest speaker will be a leading member of the legal profession.

The following FPs attended the Annual Dinner (in order of entry into school): – Ian Duguid (1938-43), Hunter Cairns (1943-56), Peter Cairns (1945-57), David Allan (194558), Malcolm Gauld (1947-61), Frederick Bull (1949-55), Neil Borthwick (1952-65), Douglas Campbell (1958-64), David McNay (1956-69), Jim Leask (1960-66), James Rust (1963-71), Gary Allan (1963-76), Gordon McNay (1966-70), Alan Kinghorn (1974-79), Malcolm Daniel (1975-81), Margery Taylor (1975-81), John Stevenson (1975-81) and Douglas Watson (1979-85).

London

After the activity of the previous year, 2007 proved to be a much quieter one for the London Centre. Unexpected factors led to a postponement of our intended programme, which is now re-scheduled for 2008. Nonetheless, we did manage to hold a successful outing in October.

On Thursday 18 October a group of FPs and partners met at the Colney Fox pub in London Colney for lunch, hosted by our President Grahame Young. Afterwards we moved on to the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre and Mosquito Aircraft Museum at nearby Salisbury Hall. This historic site, mentioned in the Domesday Book, houses a fine collection of de Havilland aircraft, ranging from DH Moths to modern military and civil jets, and aircraft engines. In 1939 De Havilland chose the site to develop the famous high speed wood construction Mosquito bomber and the pride of the collection is the original prototype Mosquito. The museum is staffed entirely by volunteers and has an active restoration programme. On arrival at Salisbury Hall, we were provided with afternoon tea followed by a talk from museum curator Ralph Steiner on the history of de Havilland and the creation and development of the collection. We then spent a very enjoyable and interesting afternoon touring the exhibits (and clambering into various cockpits!). All in all, a very successful venture.

Dates and details for the AGM and autumn event will be published in late summer.

Yorkshire

“Bletherin, blusterin, drunken blellum in York”

Only part of this headline is accurate, but what is certain is that we had an exceptional School reunion dinner on Friday 28th September 2007 at the Grange Hotel in York.

Our guest list was depleted, as a number of our colleagues from Aberdeen and Edinburgh were unable to attend, following the sad passing of David Yule. Our grouping comes from a wide geographical area with friends travelling from London, Lincolnshire and even from the other side of the Pennines. One special guest, invited by David Galloway, was a visiting teacher from Germany – rest assured that the history of Birse Tea was fully explained to Marcus Polcher.

We were again able to welcome the Head Girl and Head Boy, in the company of the Rector and as in past years their composure, enthusiasm and verve in the description of school life were clearly in evidence, leaving the Yorkshire centre in no doubt about the excellent environment at Aberdeen Grammar School. We were delighted to host the first dinner in our new President’s term of office, with Gary Allan demonstrating all of his advocacy skills in a highly amusing, but punchy analysis of all of the parent club’s activities.

Our night was finished in some style by Malcolm Rennie. Malcolm is a leading actor on the London and provincial stages, appearing in many film and television productions. He is married to Tamara Ustinov, the daughter of Peter Ustinov, and the great man would have been hugely impressed by Malcolm’s presentation of Tam O’ Shanter. He was able to capture all of the characters, bringing the story to life and building the pace to a dramatic finish and the final calm reflection. This was an exciting end to a very enjoyable evening, which we hope to be able to repeat on Friday 26th September 2008. Former Pupils attending the Dinner (in order of entry into School) were:- Wilson McIntosh (1932-45), Alistair Miller (1942-55), Dick Tyson (1944-49), Michael Walker (1946-57), Malcolm Rennie (1952-65), Douglas Skene (1959-64), Ian Fraser (1962-68), Gary Allan (1963-76), David Galloway (1976-82) and Martin Coulter (1983-89).

Section Reports

Cricket

First XI

In summary, 2007 was a poor season for the 1st XI and resulted in relegation from the top flight to Grade 2, along with Artisans.

The season started badly and was marred by a lack of consistency in performance over the summer. The 1st XI will need to consolidate in Grade 2 in the 2008 season and build a decent squad in order to get back to the higher level.

Whilst we were able to field a reasonably consistent XI it was a struggle to compete against the top teams in Grade 1 throughout the season. Everyone contributed once again, although we were much weaker in the bowling department, with continuing injury to Jerry Moir, and others not finding a regular line and length. Grammar only took 91 wickets all season, the second lowest in the league.

Results: Played 15 Won 1 Drawn 2 Lost 12 Void 3 Points 201 44.7%

We competed in the Turiff cup, but lost to Bon Accord in the first round. The Aberdeenshire cup game against Ellon was washed out but then, disappointingly, we failed to raise a team for the revised date and had to withdraw. We also managed to field a team for the Thistle Sports Sevens at Duthie Park but didn’t progress to the knock-out stage.

Once again, and despite injury, Jerry Moir took the 1st XI batting award (total 381 runs at an average of 31.75, including the only Grammar 100 of the season) with good support from John Lord, John Eagles, Aly MacDonald and Chris Clelland. John Eagles took the bowling award with 17 wickets at an average of 17.65, closely followed by Jerry Moir and Aly MacDonald. John Eagles’ 6 for 21 at Kintore was one of the highlights of the season

Notably, Chris Clelland shared the Grades wicket keeping award with 16 victims, while the club Catching Cup went to John Lord.

Juniors Sam Knudson and James Lord continue to develop and produced notable performances for the 1st XI. James’ spell at high-flying Kintore produced one of the balls of the season while Sam’s 3 for 8 against Bon Accord very nearly produced an upset against a form side. James has also been training with the District squad over the winter and we continue to watch their development with interest.

On the facilities side, it was great to see the outdoor nets restored and well used through the season. With work on the new changing facilities well underway we look forward to the timely completion of the works in readiness for the 2009 season.

2nd XI

The 2nd XI ultimately had a successful season in 2007, gaining promotion to Grade 3. We actually finished third in Grade 4, but as two new teams were admitted to Grade 4, the top four teams were promoted.

We played 11, won 7, drew 1 and lost 3 matches, and managed to defeat the two teams who finished above us in the League. Unfortunately, we were knocked out by St Ronald in the first round of the Johnston Rose Bowl competition.

There was a marked improvement in the batting, Luigi Govil being top run scorer with 213, and having the best individual score of 84 at Banchory. Rob Fryer and Martin Budd also scored half centuries during the season.

The most pleasing aspect about our batting was that there were none of the frequent collapses we had last season, and on several occasions our tail-enders carried us to victory, most notably against Methlick away and Banchory at home. We also managed to hang on for draws which would have been beyond us during the previous couple of seasons. Credit

must also go to Karthik (who topped the averages with 33.5), Ben Frizzel, Rory Annand, Tom Murray, Sam Knudson and the Sieve, who all scored vital knocks of over 30 which meant the difference between winning, drawing or losing games.

Our bowlers were at times excellent and at times very frustrating. Our leading wicket takers were Sam Gill with 13 wickets at 14.2, Vito Govil with 12 wickets at 12.5, and Karthik with 10 wickets at 13.7. Unfortunately our extras totals were at times the opposition top scorer; we bowled far too many wides, and unless we can improve on this it will cost us games and vital points.

The All-Rounder award went to Karthik – batting average 33.7, 10 wickets at 13.7, and excellent fielding. The Young Player award went to Sam Knudson – 70 runs at 14, 9 wickets at 7.6.

Our fielding also improved. Our catching was better, with Ian Johnston winning the club Fielding Cup. Due to injuries and unavailability, we were forced to use 5 wicketkeepers this season. Rory Annand was the most successful taking six catches behind the stumps. We used a total of 27 players this season which did not help continuity, but did show that we had a large squad to choose from. It is good to know that we do not rely on one bowler or batsman to win games for us – we have several potential match-winners in our team. Another positive was that we had no passengers in the team; everyone who played contributed to the team performance. It should also be mentioned that the 2nd XI were complimented by the opposition on the spirit in which we played our matches.

Next season in Grade 3 will mean tougher opposition, but if our young players such as Sam Knudson, Sam Gill and James Lord continue to improve as rapidly as they did this season we should have enough experience, youth and enthusiasm to enable us to remain in Grade 3.

Curling

I am pleased to report a small increase to our numbers for the season 2007/08 . We believe that we may have a couple more for next season, although some of our regular members will not be available for the autumn leagues. New members are most welcome and anyone interested should contact me.

We continue to maintain two teams to curl with Rubislaw in a partnership which is working well. Neither team starred this season, but Ian Souter’s team were marginally better than Geddie Hay’s in both competitions.

The facilities at Curl Aberdeen are recognised as among the best in Scotland. I would encourage anyone who wants to see them to call in (just off the Lang Stracht at Woodend) and be shown round the complex which is also an important community activity centre.

Ian Souter

Golf

In 2007 we had two outings to Braemar, one to Huntly which was booked for June but re-scheduled for September due to the course being waterlogged, and a midweek outing to Kemnay which proved very popular. This year we are holding two midweek outings to Alford and Kemnay, in addition to two outings to Braemar and one to Ballater.

The highlight of the season continues to be the weekend trip to Taymouth Castle which was won this year, at long last, by Doug Watson, who has led on numerous occasions going into the last round but has failed adequately to deal with his alcohol consumption on the Saturday night.

We were beaten narrowly in the first round of the Queen Elizabeth Schools Trophy at Barnton by Old Reptonians. Steve Buchan made his debut, winning his match easily with

Canadian 2007 Reunion Weekend

Presidents Peter Edwards and Gary Allan with FP colleagues

5 th Reunion Dinner of 1947-49 School Leavers

Doug Watson. It is hoped that a younger team with Steve and Colin Shaw as the nucleus could achieve better results in the future, particularly with the fine crop of golfers presently going through the School.

It is with great sadness that we record the death of Eric Craig. A long term supporter of the Golf Section and past Captain, he also presented the magnificent mahogany Craig Spoon which is awarded to the Champion Duffer of the year.

Men’s Hockey

Unfortunately this has not been a successful season for Men’s hockey. Although we started the season with one team less than in the previous season it was apparent early on that we could not sustain five teams playing each week-end. We lost too many experienced players at the start of the season due to retirement, leaving Aberdeen or joining other clubs. It is apparent from this season’s experiences that we simply cannot sustain more than 4 league teams next season all playing on a Saturday. The 4th team will become a development side playing on a Sunday, so as not to interfere with Saturday school games. The 5th team, our veteran side, will continue to play their fixtures on a Sunday.

The 1st team have not built on the relatively safe mid-table position of last season and were in fact relegated from the National League setup. AGSFP Hockey can no longer enjoy National League status for next season. The standard of Men’s hockey at this Club will be considerably diminished as a result of not being involved at National level. Years of underachieving as a club have resulted in the worst result possible. On the positive side we have appointed a 1st team coach and 1st team manager and they will remain for next season.

Because the 2nd XI lost so many experienced players at the start of this season it has given an opportunity for schoolboys to stake a claim in our Regional side. The main positive for the 2nd team for next season is the amount of young talent that has played at such a high level this season.

For the 3rd and 4th teams life in North Division One has been very tough this season. Two schoolboys, Alistair Melvin and Alex Lihou, took on the captaincies this season, but the inability to get settled sides has lead to inconsistent results. We have experienced record numbers of players not being available at week-ends – on some week-ends more than 20 players were unavailable for selection. We have ensured North Division One status next season with the 3rds and 4ths avoiding the drop.

The 5th team finished in the bottom half of North Division Two.

Our U-18 side reached the final of the Scottish Youth Cup but lost in the final. This means the nucleus of our Scottish Cup winning U-16 side in 2006 have made another national final. Four of our boys at U-18 level represented the North District at the Interdistrict tournaments. One boy, Thomas Taylor, represented the North District at both Outdoor and Indoor this season. Two of our boys at U-16 level represented the North District at the Inter-district tournament.

Our Web-site has developed further this season. Players can use this to find out about team selection, news events and club documents. We have continued to run all the School’s hockey training on Thursday afternoons. We have volunteer coaches and now also paid coaches to improve the skills levels of these young people. Youth development has yet again been a success story this season.

The John Drummond Trophy was easily won this year by the schoolboys with their highest ever winning margin. Alex Lihou, our 4th team captain, scored a hat-trick of goals for the School. In the first half the School team also had the oldest player ever to play for the School – goal-keeper Innes Taylor, who is 46 years old! This is our biggest fund raiser of the year and was staged on a Sunday for the first time in its 11-year history. We had our biggest turnout ever and raised more money than in previous years.

We lost training time at Rubislaw for part of the season due to what seems to have

been a Council oversight. Doug Watson, Chairman of the Club Executive, has been most helpful in regaining the training time we require through the Rubislaw Field committee. We also fought off a school request to paint football markings on the all-weather surface as the pitch was not designed for football use. The type of surface at Rubislaw is not conducive to such use.

The April Race night raised £2100. Congratulations must go to Andy Fraser for his hard work in this venture. One big fund raising event looks likely to be the norm rather than several smaller events throughout the season.

All club players will have new strips for the start of next season so that we will have a more professional look when representing AGSFP hockey even although we are not competing at National League level.

Petanque

A very successful end-of-season dinner was held in the Club Centre on 23 November at which Peter Henderson, Petanque Captain, thanked all the members and Club staff who had assisted him during the 2007 season.

The results of the 2007 competitions were as follows:

Peter Tawse Memorial Trophy (presented by Mrs. Gail Tawse)

Winner: Ayron Comber

Runner-up: Ron Comber

Maurice Chevalier Trophy (presented by a visiting French team from Paris)

Winner David Earp

Runner-up: Ron Comber

Singles Championship

Winner: James Madigan

Runner-up: David Young

Doubles Championship

Winners: David Earp & Sandy Stuart

Runners-up: Peter & Philip Henderson

Rugby

The Club appointed Mike O’Donovan as head coach for season 2007/08 and we welcomed both Mike and his wife Lorna to Aberdeen when he took up his position in July 2007. Throughout the season Mike has been assisted on the coaching front by Rob Currie, Alan Mekie, Mark Borowski and Alex Duncan, and we thank them all for their hard work and dedication in what has been a particularly trying season at Rubislaw Playing Fields.

A number of new players were recruited to our playing squad this season. Billy Russell returned for a second season with the Club, and among the senior recruits were Andrew Wilson, Andrew Ritchie, Sandy Warnock and Richard Just. They were joined by a good number of new young players including Niall Shannon, Ashleah McCulloch, Callum Scott, Gavin Morrison, Murray Douglas, Michael Lieberum, Donald Sutherland and Matthew Reid, all of whom have gone on and represented the 1st XV at some stage during this season.

Having been relegated from Premier 1 last season it was imperative that we arrested the slide and consolidated our position in Premier 2. While the coaches and players worked hard in their training and coaching, they were severely hampered with the lack of facilities at Rubislaw due to the redevelopment works on the new pavilion,. With a complete lack of changing facilities, together with chronic problems with the floodlighting of the training area, match preparation was severely curtailed, particularly through the dark and often miserable winter nights. Doubtless the situation which prevailed at Rubislaw was reflected

in our results over the course of the season.

1st Team Squad

This season in Premier 2 we finished in 7th position. We started the season reasonably well and kept ourselves in touch with the leading teams until the half-way stage in the league. At that point, while lying 5th in the league, we were only 6 points behind the league leaders. However our results then dipped badly with a string of defeats, this coinciding with the worst of the winter weather and the lack of proper match preparation. The team rallied towards the end of the season and finished strongly, winning their last two league games and scoring 12 tries in the process.

League record: Played 22, Won 9, Drawn 1, Lost 12 Points For – 462; Points Against – 418; Bonus Points – 14; Total Points – 52 In our league only Haddington, with 16, collected more bonus points than us.

In the National Cup we beat Forrester FP (A) in round 4 and Dunfermline (A) in round 5, progressing to the last 16 in the tournament. We were rewarded with a home draw against Hawick at Rubislaw and in an exciting game we led the Premier 1 team for most of the match. Leading 16 - 11 going into injury time it was heartbreaking to lose a try and watch the last kick of the game send us out the Cup 16 – 18.

During the season we have used a total of 35 players in all 1st team games, which is a considerable reduction from last year when 47 players were used throughout the season.

The top try scorer in the league was our Captain, Colin Philips, with 9 tries followed by Ewen Campbell with 7. Top points scorer in the league was Andrew Ritchie with 112 points. In all games played, again the top try scorer was Colin Philips with 11 tries and the top points scorer Andrew Ritchie with 125 points.

While our results over the season could and would have been better with the proper training facilities, it is worth mentioning that of the 35 players who represented the 1st team this season, 17 of them are under 21 years of age, which augurs well for the future.

2nd Team Squad

The 2nd XV had, all things considered, a pretty good season. In all, 64 players were used, most of these both very young and very inexperienced for this level of competition. Eight players who were still eligible for the U-18s played in the team, six of them on a regular basis. With many others just 18 and 19 years old, it was not unusual for 2nds to be fielding a side with 11 or 12 players under 21.

There were a few lows, where harsh lessons were learned, but these were balanced by many highs. The final record shows that they finished a creditable 7th in the 2nd XV, 1st Division, with a record in all games of played 24, won 11 and lost 13. Among the highs were notable away victories over Watsonians and Glasgow Hawks, and an end of season win (46-0) over Boroughmuir which saw some famous names, including Messrs Stanger, Hose and Oddie, come out of retirement to help the young guys.

Paul Hudson was once again an inspirational captain and topped the appearances with 20, followed closely by Scott Donald and Donald Sutherland with 19 each. One of many talented youngsters, Calum Scott was leading try scorer with 9 from 16 appearances. Fraser Rankine was top points scorer with 65 from 10 appearances. Of note, two players, both currently 6th year pupils at the School (Chris Ballard and Ross Taylor) made 16 and 9 appearances respectively.

Much credit must go to Mark Borowski who, in his first year of coaching, has done a fantastic job as 2nd team coach (including four cameo appearances from the bench, where he was able to demonstrate to his young charges the art of being penalised). However, of much greater importance, Mark has been able to impart to the players the preparation and focus which he himself showed as a player.

Mention must also be made of the evergreen Jim Sugden who, at 43, refuses to retire. “Suggy” combines managing, coaching and motivating the 2nds with an insistence

on bringing his boots. Incredibly, he started three games, and came off the bench in another four. He has just bought a new pair of boots, so claims that he will have to turn out again next season!

The 2nds have introduced a lot of very young players, most of whom showed that if they continue to work hard they are capable of making an impact at a higher level sometime in the future, and have been a credit to both themselves and the club.

3rd Team Squad

This year we managed on a few occasions to turn out a 3rd XV at least until mid-season, when the drop off in numbers of players training was such that we could not continue to run the side. Again the lack of facilities at the field no doubt dissuaded many of the new players from continuing with their rugby at the Club.

Youth Section

The club continues to have a strong player base in the community and at present has 218 registered players spread from Primary School to U-18 level.

The Mini section continues to thrive, with training and games on Sundays between 10 and noon. The Midget/Micros continue as a pre-contact training school, which produces a stream of youngsters into the P4 and P5 teams dependant on the child’s age when they join. The Minis have attended various matches hosted by local clubs and have been as far as Madras. The Mini section had a number of festivals to attend throughout May, giving them the longest season in the club.

The Midi section has been successful this season, with the S2 team winning the North District Competition which was hosted at Ellon. On the back of the S2 success the U-15 and U-16 teams both made it to the final of the Caledonia Cup in their respective age groups, when both teams were victorious. Seven of the U-16 team have made the 22 man North East Scotland Caledonia U-17 training squad over the summer.

The U-18s have had a difficult season with some serious injuries and a number of the players being selected for the Senior Club 2nd team. However they battled on and made it to the Caledonia Plate Final which they lost very narrowly to Glenrothes. All in all it has been another good season for the youth section and many thanks to the thirty volunteers who help make the section run so smoothly.

The Academy

We would like to thank Sovereign Oil for continuing their support of the development of our young talented players.

AYRA

We continue to give financial support to the Aberdeen Youth Rugby Association with their development of youth rugby throughout Aberdeen. Gordon Thomson continues as the chairman of the Association and the coaching development team is headed by Colin Philips.

Notable Achievements this Season

Congratulations are due to Angus Dixon on selection for the Scotland U-20 squad for the Six Nations tournament; to Ashleah McCulloch on selection for the Scotland U-19 squad for the Six Nations tournament and to Angus Dixon and Niall Shannon on being invited to join the Scotland training squad for the forthcoming U-20 World Cup.

Leaving / Retiring

A few of our players will be leaving us at the end of the season to seek pastures new or to further their careers and we thank them for their dedication over their time with us and wish them well for their future.

Vote of Thanks

We should record our sincere thanks to all the coaches, team managers and others in both the Senior and Junior Sections for their hard work and commitment throughout the season. These volunteers give up a considerable amount of their own time and turn out in all kinds of weather to help with the furtherance of the game of rugby football. We also thank our physiotherapist, Julie Campbell, and our Team Doctor, Louise McCullough, for their valuable assistance over the season.

And Finally – Next Season

Hopefully by next season we will see the new facilities completed at Rubislaw, with proper lighting in place, which will allow us to focus on our rugby and re-establish ourselves as one of the leading Clubs in the country.

Women’s Hockey

It has been another hectic season for the hockey girls. There has been a great attendance at training from some of our younger members this year and this season a couple of the men’s section helped us out on the coaching front which meant some of our more senior members got a chance to train alongside the youngsters. The highlight was most certainly our indoor 1st VI winning the North District Indoor League again. Outdoors was a bit more of a struggle this season, with several players retiring or moving away from Aberdeen, giving us three quite new-look teams. Some of the old faces were still there to steady the ship and in fact the youngsters who had to step up their game to fill the places of those who were not available played very well and more than rose to the challenges set for them.

The 1st XI had a good set of results this season. They finished in third place in North District Division 1 and, but for an unfortunate start to the campaign when they lost, somewhat surprisingly, to Inverurie, the first half of the season went very well. Then, as ever, the league hinged on just a couple of crucial weekends in February and March. In particular, one game looked to be heading for a draw with one of the other title challengers only for that team to be awarded a goal which should not have been given, in the dying minutes of the game. A true injustice and very disappointing for the team, but they held their heads high and in their very sportswomen-like way did not complain or cause a fuss.

For most of the season the team played with only two thirds of their first choice players available owing to the usual variety of injuries, pregnancies, holidays and work commitments. As a Club we do pride ourselves on playing our fixtures as they are issued and not holding off fixtures until we have a strong side available, and there is no doubt that the girls could have amassed a few more points, but AGSFPs do like to play in the spirit of the game! The girls made it to the quarter final of the Scottish District Cup again this season and faced the eventual winners East Kilbride.

Results: Played 18 Won 12 Drawn 2 Lost 4 Goals For 48 Goals Against 25 Points 38

The 2nd XI was the star squad this season, as they completed the season in second place in North District Division 2. The group enjoyed some excellent victories and thoroughly deserved their second place in the league for the second year in a row. They will now have the option to take a promotion to the First Division which, given the squad they have had this season, will probably be a good option for them and certainly for the Club as a whole. They had a tough time towards the end of the season with both their Captain and ViceCaptain being unexpectedly indisposed. The girls rallied and managed to maintain the high standards they had been achieving earlier in the season, a true testament to their strength of character and playing skills as a squad.

Results: Played 18 Won 12 Drawn 4 Lost 2 Goals For 49 Goals Against 14 Points 40

Season 2007-2008 was a tough one for the third team. With a number of players having stopped playing a lot of the previous season’s stars for the 3rd XI found themselves playing in our 2nd XI, and rightly so. This meant that this season was a rebuilding one for the 3rd XI and, as ever, they played with enthusiasm second to none. Their commitment to training was excellent and a great example to the rest of the Club.

They can be very proud of their many very close games this season and, although it is points that count, they still had a lot of fun even when they didn’t secure a victory. Next season will be another tough one for the 3rd XI as they find themselves again looking to attract new players. However, in true AGSFPs style, the 3rd XI is, and will remain, all about fun.

Results: Played 18 Won 1 Drawn 4 Lost 13

Goals For 19 Goals Against 54 Points 7

As promised in last year’s Magazine notes, the indoor season was a highlight this year. The girls were back to being a little more focussed during the season and showed just what can be achieved, by winning the North District Division 1 Indoor League title. Part of that success was even sweeter given that some of the first choice players were not available every week, and so we had second team players helping out, which meant the league victory was all the more special for the Club as a whole.

Results: Played 8 Won 6 Drawn 1 Lost 1 Goals For 34 Goals Against 16 Points 19

The 2nd VI gave a good account of themselves this indoor season. Again they had a mixture of players from our 2nd and 3rd outdoor XIs, and gave some very strong opposition to some of the better teams in the League. For the first time this season they also got to play on the full size indoor hall at Robert Gordon University, which they all enjoyed.

Results: Played 8 Won 1 Drawn 1 Lost 6

Goals For 8 Goals Against 28 Points 4

Socially the Club had another busy year. As ever, the girls took advantage of the Club Centre facilities as often as possible. There were some organised events, including quiz nights, and this year the gang has helped out with the end of month quiz at the Club Centre on a few occasions. The season highlight was the end of season ball which made a welcome return after a few years. It was very difficult to get a date suitable for all, and as the season was over many people had already made other plans, but a group gathered and enjoyed the hospitality of the Northern Hotel and the sounds of Ceilidh Minogue and had a thoroughly excellent time. Well done to Louise Williams and Claire Drummond for all their hard work.

There were two other significant highlights for Season 2007-08. The Club were the proud hosts of two events to mark the retirement of Carrie Welsh, who has been coaching hockey at the School for many years. She announced that she would be retiring in April and it was decided (prompted by Kirsty Nicol, who plays for both School and FPs) to reinstate the annual President’s XI against the Aberdeen Grammar School 1st XI fixture.

It was a glorious November morning and as a tribute to Carrie, our Club President, Helen Bruce, had selected current FP players along with one former FP player who made the trip North to participate. What she hadn’t told anyone was that the President’s XI would turn up in their blazers, which in most cases still fitted! The spectacle more than amused the assembled crowd! The match lived up to its billing and was full of some excellent hockey skills. Most importantly for the record the President’s XI were the winners of the event this season and they are already looking forward to taking on the challenge of the School next year! Carrie was then asked to present a new trophy, commissioned by the Club, which has been named the Carrie Welsh Cup, to the winning Captain, Helen Bruce.

The second event which the Club hosted was the Carrie Welsh Testimonial match. This was another wonderful occasion with many FPs making the trip to Aberdeen to play for the Carrie All-star Select. They put their skills to the test against an AGSFP select consisting

of both past and present players. The match was great fun for players and spectators alike and the Club Centre then hosted a gathering in the evening which was a highly enjoyable and nostalgic occasion. The Club would like to take this opportunity to thank Carrie Welsh for her tremendous efforts over the years. Many girls whom Carrie trained as twelveand thirteen-year-olds have gone on to international honours. Countless players in North District have at some point been coached by this inspirational figure and the Club’s sincere thanks and best wishes go to Carrie for a very long and happy retirement.

Finally the Club would like to sincerely thank all the supporters, players, organisers, umpires and the management committee for their input to this season. In particular they would like to thank Richard Wallis for his umpiring services – his efforts cannot be underestimated and we are ever grateful to him. Andrew Wadsworth and Dave Beattie also deserve special thanks for all their umpiring. Thanks to Andrew for umpiring for the girls in both indoor and outdoor matches. Thanks also go to Pete Williams for hosting a few pre-season fitness sessions and to Peter Duguid and Alistair Goosen for their coaching efforts. The Club really appreciates the time these people have given up to assist the girls.

As ever, if you are keen to take up hockey again or even have never played before but are interested, you are very welcome to come along to training to see how you get on.

Training is on Tuesday evenings at Rubislaw from 6.00pm – 7.30pm and starts on the first Tuesday in August.

For further information contact - Emma Mair (Secretary) 313386

Helen Bruce (President) 561865

Annual Dinner

The Annual Dinner was held in the Marcliffe at Pitfodels Hotel on Friday 7 March 2008 when a company of about 190 FPs and their guests gathered. The number included many of the 1958 Leavers who were having a Re-union over that week-end. The company as usual included representatives from the Regional Centres as well as guests from local FP Clubs and local branches of the Edinburgh Schools. Also present was the Rector, Graham Legge along with Head Boy, Robert Samuel and Deputy Head Girl, Caitlin Taylor. Such was the pressure on space that it was as well that the recently customary piped parade of past Presidents and the top table party did not take place this year.

The President, Gary Allan, was in the chair and conducted the proceedings with characteristic aplomb. The customary toast to “The School and the Club” was proposed by The Honourable Lord Kinclaven, Senator of the College of Justice who, as Sandy Wylie, was a pupil in the Lower School in 1960-62. From his short involvement with the School he recalled that he was given a sense of belonging, of continuity and of pride in a great school. He expressed his gratitude for a recommendation from James D. Morrison which enabled him to have entry to Kelvingrove Academy when his family moved to Glasgow. He confessed to no recollection of learning anything substantial (although he must have done) but did vividly remember slides on icy playgrounds and the playing of football and cricket. In an interesting departure from past practice he then gave a brief presentation on training for advocacy, with the aid of a not too reliable power point projection.

Replying for the School the Rector brought the company up to date with developments at the School and expressed his pride that the school was ranked 9th in the Scotsman league table. He introduced the two senior pupils who each spoke about aspects of School life and especially of the wide variety of extra-curricular activities open to pupils. As public speakers, both gave a very assured presentation.

Replying for the Club the President spoke of his pleasure at the contacts he had been able to make as he visited the Regional Centres and at the strong support for both School and Club which he had found everywhere.

The following FPs attended the Dinner (in order of entering School): A. Stuart (193245), A.J.K. Monro (1933-46), I. Stuart (1933-46), B.K. Crookshanks (1934-46), A.I. Cheyne (1937-48), A.M. North (1937-50), W. Wood (1937-48), W.D. Brooker (1938-50), B.D.M. Grassick (1938-52), S.A.C. Robertson (1939-51), J.W.Cradock (1940-46), J.H. Duncan (1941-50), H.B. Paterson (1941-50), A.D. Johnston (1942-54), W. Doverty (1943-58), H.A.S. Hamilton (1943-56), D.J. Blair (1944-58), A.H. Cairns (1944-56), A.K.Campbell (1944-53), A. Cromar (1944-50), D.B. Galloway (1944-58), E. Grieve (1944-50), D.R. Harper (1944-58), W.W. Leiper (1944-55), J.C.A. Michie (1944-58), C.R. Smylie (194449), R.F. Tyson (1944-49), D.L. Allan (1945-58), E. Anderson (1945-57), D.K. Parkinson (1945-59), W.M. Rae (1945-58), C.E.G. Riach (1945-50), D.F. Ross (1945-58), W. Yule (1945-58), G.S. Forbes (1946-58), S.A. Howard (1946-58), J.M. Clark (1947-59), J.B. Davidson (1947-60), M.L. Wolkoff (1947-59), W. Balfour (1948-58), H.A.B. Will (194862), M.Webster (1949-57), A.D. Milne (1950-58), M.B. Colvin (1951-65), R. Gray (195165), J.F. Hendry (1951-65), I.H. McLeod (1951-55), H.E. Morrison (1951-65), E.A.S. Porter (1951-58), H.O. Cameron (1952-58), L.B. Cowie (1952-58), A.C. Dickie (1952-58), I.W. Douglas (1952-57), S.J.C. Esson (1952-64), A.F.J. Home (1952-58), W.A. Hutcheon (1952-58), S.T. Leslie (1952-58), P.N. Love (1952-58), C.J.M. Martin (1952-58), R.T. Megginson (1952-55), H.R. Millar (1952-65), A.M. Shaw (1952-58), R.S. Taylor (195258), J.C. Lyon (1953-59), K.G. Jones (1957-66), F.I. Lloyd (1958-65),M.A. Batchelor (1959-65), B.M. Drummond (1959-65), A.F. Wylie (1960-62), D.N. Yule (1960-66), J. Main (1961-63), J.D. Murray (1961-74), K.C. Carter (1962-68), I.S. Hopkin (1962-68), W.R. Hutcheson (1962-68), G.J.G. Allan (1963-76),C.A. Macdonald (1963-76), G.K. Yule (1963-68), G.I. Hardie (1965-70), D.G. Moir (1969-75), A.J. Thompson (1969-75), A.E. Taylor (1974-80), I. Taylor (1974-80), M.J. Moser (1976-80), D.S. Hutchison (1977-83), M.S. Watson (1978-83), P. Alderson (1979-85), G.K. Crookshanks (1979-85), F. Graham (1979-85), J. McKenzie (1979-85), L. Manders (1979-85), S. Robertson (1979-85), D.M. Watson (1979-85), T.J. Rolfe (1981-86), L. Watson (1981-85), A. Robbie (1979-85), J.P. Williams (1986-92), G.A. Hamilton (1988-94), B.J. Shepherd (1988-94), L. Barber (199197), F.E. Cameron (1991-97), M.J. Dunkley (1991-97), I. Durham (1991-97), D. Mathieson (1991-97), A.I.Morrell (1991-97), I.S. Wilson (1991-97) and A.J. Wragg (1991-97).

In addition to the Rector, G. Legge, former Rector W.J. Johnston, and former Staff members A.L. McCombie and W.S. May were present, along with H.J. Innes, N.T. Montgomery and B. Thom of the present Staff.

RE-UNIONS

5th Reunion of 1947-49 School Leavers

Thirty-four members of the Forty-niners held a Reunion in the Atholl Hotel, Aberdeen on the weekend of 16-17 May. Secretarial arrangements were made by Brian Gray, now living in Canterbury, and local assistance was given by Allan Macdearmid, Alastair Hume and Fred Lynch.

An informal reception was held on the Friday afternoon, followed by a more formal dinner in the evening, and friends and wives joined for farewell coffee on Saturday morning. The dinner was up to the Atholl’s usual high standards. Peter Gordon said grace in his usual warm and professional manner. Fred Lynch proposed a toast to the memory of our former Classics master, Mr Ron McLeod, who had been our guest at our four previous reunions. Arthur Tough proposed a toast to the School and, in a witty and entertaining speech, described the difficulties which he had encountered as a soccer player of Scottish youth international standard when he arrived in the fourth year of a rugby only playing

school. Alastair Hume thanked the hotel and everyone involved in making the weekend a resounding success.

The success of the occasion was endorsed by a unanimous vote to have another reunion in two years’ time.

The members of the years present were:- Bill Anderson, David Brittain, Bill Brooker, Sandy Cheyne, Harry Connochie, Bill Coutts, Ian Donald, Keith Farquharson, Eddie Fraser, George Fraser, Peter Gordon, Brian Gray, Myron Hampton, Alastair Hume, Sandy Ingram, Pat Innes, Albert Lawrie, Jim Littlejohn, Malcolm Lyall, Fred Lynch, Allan Macdearmid, George Macdonald, Bill Michie, Bill Morrice, Brian Morris, Campbell Murray, Ron Sangster, Moray Slater, Arthur Tough, Dick Tyson, Martin Wagrel, Michael Williams and Graeme Wilson.

Year of ’58 Reunion

To mark the 50th anniversary since leaving School, the Year of ’58 arranged a weekend of fun and nostalgia in Aberdeen on 7, 8 and 9 March, and participants came from Canada, the United States, South Africa, Belgium, England, Jersey and, of course, Scotland.

The weekend had been planned in such a way as to allow people to ‘cherry-pick’ from a number of events, and many chose to attend the Parent Club Dinner on the first evening. There was some trepidation about being able to recognise former school chums not seen since the 25th reunion and, indeed, thinning hair and bigger waistlines did initially pose a challenge. However, the years quickly rolled away and before long old friendships were being renewed and reminiscences exchanged.

Next morning, a large number visited the School and were given a conducted tour by Russell Gray, the recently retired Depute Rector. For many, the major structural changes were hard to take in. The gym, minus wall bars and ropes, was largely the same, but where were the Combined Cadet Force parade ground, library, dining huts and the great flagstone main corridor? Some of the old familiar classrooms and laboratories had either disappeared or been significantly altered. It was all a bit unsettling, but the present facilities with the new recreation block were impressive. Reassuringly, it was clear that the Rector and his staff are committed to upholding the School’s reputation, traditions and ethos.

Following a delightful evening reception in the central court of the Art Gallery, the company moved into the Cowdray Hall for a ‘Madam’s Night’ complete with a reincarnated Madam in the form of Laura Jarrett (1982-88), who didn’t hesitate to warn some of the dancers that there was to be no ‘cheap affection’. If the dancers’ steps were perhaps a little less elegant than all those years ago, there was certainly no lack of enthusiasm. It was a wonderfully nostalgic night.

On the final morning, the early birds played golf at Inchmarlo while others joined Doug Harper’s bus tour of the City. A buffet lunch at the FP Club Centre rounded off a most successful reunion. Not only did the weekend provide the opportunity to get together again, but it also enabled classmates to share the experience with wives, friends and guests from the FP Club and School; and if that wasn’t enough, the proceeds from the weekend amounted to £2,000. This magnificent sum is to be donated to the School Amenities Fund, administered by the FP Club, which supports the extra-curricular activities of the School.

Another reunion is on the cards but, sensibly, it will not be in 25 years time!

The members of the year present were:- Edward Anderson, David Allan, William Balfour, Leroy Cowie, Quentin Cramb, Mitchell Davidson, Arthur Dickie, Brian Dignan, Bill Doverty, George Forbes, David Galloway, Larry Gray, Tom Houghton, Alex Home, Douglas Harper, Stan Howard, Bill Hutcheon, Lesley Ironside, William Leiper, Stewart Leslie, Philip Love, Colin Martin, George Masson, Robert Megginson, John Michie, Alan Milne, Colin McIntosh, Tom Ogg, Erik Porter, William Rae, Colin Riach, Stuart Robertson,

Douglas Ross, James Ross, George Scott, Alex Shaw, Cecil Smylie, Hector Stewart, Magnus Stewart, Bob Taylor, Jim Watt and William Yule.

The Class of 1967

The weekend of 9-11 November 2007 saw the third major Re-union of this class to mark the Fortieth anniversary of their leaving the School. There was an informal gathering at the Club Centre on the Friday evening when the mirth and fun grew fast and furious. There was a tour of the School on Saturday morning conducted by Depute Rector Janet Adams, who seemed both amused and interested by the memories which flooded back.

Some of the group lunched at the Centre before taking in the Hillhead/Jordanhill Rugby match at Rubislaw. A ‘Taste of Scotland’ dinner at the Centre in the evening was much enjoyed and Jim Roberts’ witty monologue about the Year was well received. Although numbers were down on previous gatherings the week-end was voted a success.

Instead of waiting until the 50th anniversary in 2017 it was decided to play safe and have the next re-union on the 50th anniversary of their first meeting at School, in 2011.

FUTURE REUNIONS

1st City of Aberdeen Scout Group

Centennial Celebrations – 3-5 October 2008

Friday 3 October

Informal evening gathering in the FP Club Centre, any time

Saturday 4 October

11 a.m. Signing in and coffee at Aberdeen Grammar School followed by a guided tour of the School

Light buffet lunch with background films and slide show covering first 100 years. Alternatively those confined to zimmer frames may like to watch a game at Rubislaw, the fixture to be notified nearer the time

Evening Centenary Dinner at the Britannia Hotel

Sunday 5 October

12 Noon ‘Open Day’ at Scout Hall, Forbesfield Lane hosted by the present Scout Group for bacon butty lunch

2 p.m. FP Club Centre ‘One for the Road’ (for those being driven!) and farewells

For more information and to sign up for events –

Dinner/Open Day contact Frances Merson, 35 Quarry Road Cults AB15 9TP

Tel: 01224 861329

All other events contact A. Hunter Cairns, 1 Cramond Vale, Edinburgh EH4 6RB

Tel: 0131 336 5826

Website: http://firstgroupassociates.homestead.com contact page

9th Aberdeen (Grammar School) Scout Group

In our 100th year it is very pleasing to report that “The Ninth” is in very good health, with over 150 members. The boys and girls of the Group are enjoying a programme of commemorative events, one of the most ambitious being the Troop expedition to Arizona in October to camp with American Scouts, learn about the area and visit the Grand Canyon. Court of Honour Dinner

As previously reported in the Magazine there will be a Centenary Court of Honour Dinner to which all members and former members are invited, to be held on Saturday 15th November 2008 at the Altens Thistle Hotel, Aberdeen . Open Day

“The Hut” in Granville lane will be open to visitors on the afternoon of Saturday 15th November. Everyone is welcome to visit to see both our current facilities and our extensive archive of photographs, records and equipment. There may even be a coffee if we can get a fire lit!!

If you would like to be involved, want more detail or Dinner tickets please contact: Neil Lawrie, Group Scout Leader, at 9 Braeside Terrace, Aberdeen AB15 7TS, telephone 01224 316819, or e-mail neil.lawrie@btinternet.com There has been an encouraging response to the Dinner so please do not leave booking your place till the last minute. We extend Best Wishes to all our ex-members and “Happy 100” to 1st (Aberdeen Grammar) Scout Group who also celebrate their centenary this year.

The 1256 Appeal

After last year’s Magazine had gone to the printer two further donations to this very successful appeal were received. These were from James Meff (1941-55) and David Parkinson (1945-59), and are gratefully acknowledged.

The current plans for disbursement of the Appeal Fund will be found in the context of the Chairman’s report to the Annual General Meeting reported earlier in this Magazine.

F.P. Club Membership Subscription Rates

The current policy of the Executive is to review Subscription rates annually, but in normal circumstances we hope that it will only be necessary to amend them every 5 years. The last increase was applied in 2005, so the next increase will hopefully not be until 2010. The Life Member “Top up” scheme – which has been hugely successful – currently involves a payment of £20 to cover the five-year period 2005 to 2009 inclusive. The Life Fund is looking stronger, but still requires further “topping up”. The £20 “Top up” works out at just £4 per year for the 5-year period. We also draw down 5% of the Life Fund each year and this works out at roughly £1 per Life Member, so that, when this is added to the £4 from the “Top up”, the Club receives £5 per Life Member in total each year. This doesn’t yet match the £10 or so we receive from Annual Members, but we are moving in the right direction and we are certainly much better off than we were before the “Top up” scheme was introduced in 2000. We had a tremendous response to the introduction of the “Top up” scheme, which is voluntary, and the vast majority of Life Members responded very positively. The response to the “Top up” appeal for 2005-09 has also gone very well, but there is still time to make a payment if you have not already done so. These payments are a vital part of the Club’s income.

Subscription rates for 2009 are as follows:-

Life Membership:

New Life Members: £100 plus a £20 “Top up” every 5 years, the first “Top up” being payable 5 years after Life Membership is taken out.

Existing Life members: £20 “Top up” every 5 years

Annual Membership:

Ordinary Members: £12.50 by cheque or £10 if paid by Standing Order Under-25 Members: £6 (Members must be aged under 25 on 1 January of Subscription Year)

School Leavers: £5 (covers remainder of year of leaving plus 1 year)

School Leavers –(Extended): £20 (covers remainder of year of leaving plus 5 years)

Note: School Leavers also become Members of the Club Centre when they reach the

age of 18, for the same periods as defined above, for their Membership of the parent Club. Special Notes for Members over 75:

All members of the FP Club become “Long Service” Members from 1st January in the year following the year in which they reach the age of 75.

Life Members over 75 are no longer expected to make “Top up” Payments. Ordinary (Annual) Members over 75 no longer have to pay any Annual Subscriptions. Payment of Subscriptions:

Subscriptions should be sent to the Membership Secretary, Bob Hutcheson, who will also deal with all Membership queries, changes of address etc: His address is: 35 Cairn Road, Bieldside, Aberdeen AB15 9AL. Tel: 01224 – 861135 Mobile 07876 396 751 Email: bobhutcheson@btinternet.com

Donations and Bequests

The Second Century Fund was set up in 2000 to receive all Donations and Bequests. This Fund is used to finance specific School and Club projects, and is not used for normal ongoing Club expenses. As will be seen from the Accounts elsewhere in this Magazine, the total from this source in 2007 was £12,037 of which £5,000 was transferred to the School Amenities Fund. Our grateful thanks go to everyone who has contributed.

New Members of the Club – 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008

Life Members

William Balfour 1949-58 Jim Watt 1950-56

Finlay Crossan 1968-74 Sandy Wylie 1960-62

Gordon McNay 1966-70

Annual Members

Stuart Anderson 1998-04 Stewart Leslie 1945-58

Louise Barron 1994-00 James Lindsay 2001-07

Corinne Boddy 2000-06 Chris McKie 2001-07

Kathleen Clark 1995-00 William Milne 1956-59

Bill Doverty 1943-58 William Rae 1946-58

Richard Duncan 1963-69 Mark Reith 1975-79

Duncan Harris 1985-91 Neill Robertson 1990-96

Greg Herrera 1981-87 David Sinclair 1983-89

John Hollifield 1949-60 Andrew Stout 1951-57

Laura Jarret 1982-88 Alan Western 1987-92

Long Service Members

In recent years we have published the names of our magnificent Nonagenarians. Sadly, four of these have died in the last year, but three others have attained the remarkable age of 90 or will do in the next few months. We congratulate them all and thank them for their continuing interest and support. The full list is as follows:-

George Rickart 1923-30 4 June, 1913

James Mackay 1919-32 18 March 1914

George Matheson 1928-32 7 February 1916

Douglas Jamieson 1922-34 14 May 1916

Trevor Gray 1921-32 10 July 1916

Andrew Taylor 1929-35 18 April 1917

James Morrison Staff 23 July 1917

Hugh Willox 1925-35 1 September 1917

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Donny Innes 1923-35 16 September 1917

John Jamieson 1930-35 27 November 1917

Alan Hutchison 1923-35 25 February 1918

J. Collie Sellar 1924-34 1 June 1918

Ernest Jack 1930-38 2 December 1918

Congratulations to the following members of the Club who will attain the age of 75 during 2008 and so will become Long Service Members on 1st January 2009

Life Members

Ian Brown 1937-48 David Kilgour 1938-50

Sandy Cheyne * 1937-48 Alexander McIlwain 1945-51

George Chalmers 1945-51 Harry McPhillips 1945-52

James Cook 1945-49 Graeme Mearns 1938-50

Gordon Coutts 1938-51 Dennis Norrie 1946-52

Tom Craig 1945-50 John Parkinson 1942-50

Robert Downie 1949-52 Gordon Philip 1939-49

George Findlay 1943-49 John Philip 1946-51

Paddy Forbes 1938-50 Charles Ritchie 1945-51

Leslie Forbes 1938-51 Steve Robertson 1939-51

Robert Gauld 1949-52 Robert Robertson 1946-50

Bill Guthrie 1939-51 William Steele 1945-51

Bill Jack 1945-51 Donald Stephen 1946-52

Dennis Kelly 1940-49 Michael Thomson 1938-51

Annual Members

Neil Kemsley 1941-51 Gordon McAndrew 1944-51

Ian Macdonald 1943-45 James Walker 1941-49

* Omitted in error from earlier list – with effect from 1 January 2006

NOTES about FORMER PUPILS

Honours and Awards

Stephen Andrew Cormack Robertson (1939-51) MBE, MA, LL.B, M.Univ. received the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen at a ceremony held, appropriately, in His Majesty’s Theatre on April 2007. Sharing the honour, which was conferred in recognition of dedication to the world of the arts in the north-east, were his two colleagues from the celebrated Scotland the What stage and television show, Buff Hardie and George Donald. Together, they had put Doric on the map over a twenty-six year period.

Honorary Degrees

At the 2007 Summer Graduation held by Aberdeen University the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) was conferred on Iain Gilmour Gray (1969-75) BSc(Eng), DEng, FRAS After graduating with honours in Engineering in 1979 he worked for British Aerospace in a variety of roles on Airbus programmes. When Airbus UK was formed in 2001 he became senior vice-president before being appointed managing director in 2004. His speciality is wing design, and under his guidance the Airbus team designed and built the 260-feet wings of the Airbus A380, a double-decker super Jumbo jet.

At the same Graduation the degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D) was conferred on Derek Ogston (1937-47) CBE, MA, MB,ChB, PhD, MD, DSc, MLitt, BTh. Since retiring as Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University he has added two further degrees to those he already had. He elected to receive his Honorary Degree along with students graduating in education and music, two of his greatest passions. In recent years he has established the Ogston Prize for history of art and the Ogston Prize for music-making to encourage gifted students to shine.

At a Graduation ceremony at Leeds University in July 2007 Anthony Wren (1941-44) received an honorary degree in recognition of his pioneering work with computers. In 1963 he was responsible for the world’s first computerised train schedule, and he went on to revolutionise the scheduling of transport operations across the world. More recently he has built schedules for the UK’s largest bus operator, FirstBus. Universities UK has placed his software amongst the top 100 world-changing discoveries, innovations and research projects to come out of UK universities in the last fifty years.

Janet Christina Adams (1980-86), who has been on the School staff for several years and was responsible for many of the highly successful dramatic productions staged by the School, has been promoted to the post of Depute Rector in succession to Russell Gray (1951-65) who retired at the end of last session. She is now the Staff representative on the Club Executive and has the added responsibility of collating School contributions for the Magazine

Alfred Herbert Alexander (1930-36) is currently, at the age of 90, studying for his third degree at Aberdeen University. He entered University before World War II but left for war service and never returned. After a lifetime as a butcher he returned to King’s College in the 90s, obtained an MA in 1996 and BSc in 2001. He is now studying sociology.

Edward Anderson (1944-57) after being in general practice as a dentist in Dundee and Aberdeen emigrated to Canada in 1966, settling in Manotik, near Ottawa. He was in practice as a dentist there until retiring in 2000.

Edward Shepherd Anderson (1971-77), managing director of Aberdeen road haulage company A.R.R. Craib for the past six years, has now taken full control of the business following a multi-million pound buyout. He had a minority stake in the company but has now bought all the remaining shares from the chairman and co-founder of the business. The company has a fleet of 200 vehicles, but is also looking to grow its road-to-rail freight business in partnership with a Scottish logistics company.

Richard Anderson (1995-01) graduated in law from Aberdeen University in 2005 and has since completed his postgraduate diploma in legal practice.

Michael Raeside Auld (1942-58) progressed in insurance to be manager of the corporate merger team at the London head office of Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance. From 1979 he was head of public relations for fifteen years before becoming an independent public relations consultant. He is now retired.

William Balfour (1952-58) after a career as an insurance broker in Canada, had to retire on health grounds at the end of the ‘80s. After receiving a heart transplant in 1995 (and told to avoid stress) he started a new career as a travel agent in 1996. While specialising in corporate travel he also handles arrangements for non-government organisations involved with aid and human rights around the world.

Michael Beattie (1944-58) spent a year working on the well-known Dounside Farms at Tarland before going to Agricultural College. Appointed to the Overseas Development Ministry, he spent ten years in Kenya advising farmers on breeding stock. He then joined Scottish Agricultural Industries as an animal husbandry adviser, later becoming the company’s seeds manager. When SAI was wound up he became Scottish manager of Plant Breeding International. He is now retired.

David Blair (1944-58) MA after teaching modern languages in Arbroath became a senior lecturer at Kirkcaldy College of Further Education, playing an important role in the field of adult education.

Colin Glynn Frederick Brockie (1955-60) BSc, BD retired from the parish ministry at Kilmarnock, Grange on 31 October, 2007. He continues to serve as Clerk to the Presbytery of Irvine and Kilmarnock and as Chaplain to Glasgow and West Scotland Wing of the Air Training Corps and to 327 (Kilmarnock) Squadron.

Peter George Bruce (1968-74) BSc, who holds the chair of Chemistry at St Andrews University, has been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. The honour comes in recognition of his pioneering work on the chemistry of materials, which has helped in the development of power supplies for electronic devices such as mobile phones and lap-tops.

Neil Buxton (1948-58) MA, lectured in Economics in Aberdeen and Hull before becoming Professor at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. He was also a visiting Professor in the USA and in Sydney, Australia. After a spell as depute director of Glasgow College of Technology he was appointed director of Hatfield Polytechnic. His final academic post was as Vice-chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire, from which he retired in 2003. His outstanding hockey career progressed from international player to international umpire and then to manager of the Scottish hockey team. He now lives in Australia.

Jams Peter Cairns (1945-57) had a career in banking which took him finally to Dumbarton. After retiring he worked briefly with a local Enterprise Company, but turned down an offer to work full-time. He is Secretary of the Glasgow Centre of the FP Club.

John Brebner Cameron (1946-57) after training at the National College in London was involved in research and then became a design engineer. He set up his own practice of consulting engineers in Aberdeen, retiring in the mid-90s.

Kevin Carter (1962-68), who has recently retired as principal teacher of Biology at Cults Academy, is President of Westhill & District Rotary Club. He has also been principal examiner of Biology with the Scottish Qualifications Authority. His Rotary Vice-president

is Alan Archibald (1968-70), a chartered surveyor with the Balmoral Group in Aberdeen. The Junior Vice-president is Russell Gray (1951-65), who last year retired as Deputy Rector of the School.

Martin Cook (1946-56) served in the Merchant Navy for ten years before returning to Aberdeen University to study. He then emigrated to Canada, settling in Vancouver where he spent thirty years running his own textiles business. He is now retired to the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver.

John Munro Corall (1962-65) was elected to Aberdeen City Council as an SNP member for Midstocket-Rosemount ward in a recent by-election.

Leroy Cowie (1952-58) studied at the Royal Academy of Music and thereafter played double-bass with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, City of Birmingham and Cape Philharmonic, as well as teaching. Now retired to Cape Town, he is involved in the Gilbert & Sullivan Society and working on a cabaret duet.

Quentin Cramb (1944-58) MA, after a spell as a special assistant in English at the Grammar was principal teacher of English at Madras College, St. Andrews. He was appointed to H.M. Inspectorate of Schools in 1972, working in the West of Scotland before becoming specialist in English and Drama in 1975. He led developments which culminated in the establishment of Standard Grade of Talk as an assessable element in English and of new criteria for the assessment of all subjects. He was then a district inspector in Strathclyde, Fife and Central before finishing his career as a Staff Inspector in the Teacher Education and Educational Technology Unit. He later undertook consultancy work with the Dyslexia Trust and a part-time lectureship with the Northern College of Education. This allowed him to trial guidelines for teacher training which he had just written.

John William Curran (1963-69) LL.B, now a partner with UK law firm McGrigors, is leading their new House-building Unit. McGrigors, who have over 70 lawyers based in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Belfast, has established the new Unit to advise clients throughout the life cycle of projects, whether the clients be house-builders, landowners or financial institutions, by bringing together the skills and experience of the firm’s experts.

Jonathan Mahram Daube (1951-53) MA, was recently elected President of the University of Aberdeen Development Trust (UADT) USA. The purposes of the Trust are to recruit undergraduate and postgraduate American students for the University; to organise alumni clusters throughout the United States; and to help raise funds for the University. After thirty years as a college president in Massachusetts and in Connecticut, he plans to retire from his present position in June, 2008. Since 1988, he has been President of Manchester Community College, near Hartford, Connecticut, the largest community college in the state. He has three children and three grandchildren, including twin boys. On a recent trip to the University of Aberdeen, he renewed his love for Dunnottar Castle and was relieved to discover that the Kirkgate Bar and the St. Machar Bar still exist.

Mitchell Davidson (1952-56) trained at RGIT and Belfast Technical College before taking up a post as a Senior Scientific Officer at the Macaulay Institute of Soil Research. In retirement he indulges his lifelong interest in military history. An expert in painting model soldiers, he was instrumental in bringing the bi-annual World Exposition of this hobby to Glasgow in 2000.

Gordon Dawson (1946-58) BSc, was surrounded by former Grammar staff when he took up his first teaching post at Dumfries Academy. He was principal teacher of Biology at two Edinburgh schools before being appointed assistant adviser in science for Lothian Region in 1979. This was followed by a spell as an Exams Officer with the Scottish Examinations Board from which he retired in 1997. He then undertook consultancy work on preuniversity exams which took him to the Baltic states and to the Mediterranean. His passion for fishing sees him being part-owner and manager of four salmon beats in Scotland which include one on the Dee at Aboyne.

George Harley DeLeurere (1957-58) is a Pastor at Hendricks Free Methodist Church in West Virginia, USA. He manages to find time to indulge his interest in antique cars.

Arthur Coull Dickie (1952-58) BSc, PhD, after studying for a Biochemistry degree and a doctorate in Endocrinology at Aberdeen had post as a Medical Research Council research fellow at Queen’s College, Dundee. He then returned to the department of Clinical Biochemistry at Aberdeen, becoming head of department, from which post he retired in 2005. A keen hill-walker, he has ‘bagged’ all the Munros and now collects ‘Corbetts’ and ‘Grahams’.

Brian Dignan (1951-55) went to work with Aberdeen Coal & Shipping Company, rising to be manager and director of the group. He is a past President of the North-East District Scottish Golf Union and youth and coaching convener of that body.

William Doverty (1944-58), after a career in the Customs Service in various parts of the country, is now living in Mintlaw. He was leader of a team training Scottish businesses for Single Market Trading when it was scrapped through Government cuts in 1995. Opting not to return to VAT Control, he chose retirement, but knowing the need of many firms for training he set up his own business, Single Market Systems Ltd, which is still going strong.

Robert Findlay (1952-58) MA, following a degree in Psychology at Aberdeen and a doctorate at Temple University, Pittsburgh was appointed to the chair of Audiology there which he held for twenty years. From 1991 to 2005 he had a private audiology practice at Sequim, Washington.

Alexander Forbes (1952-58) served in the Bermuda Police from 1963, was in charge of the force’s finance department in the 1980s and retired with the rank of Deputy Commissioner in 1995.

George Forbes (1947-58) was Chief Accountant with a Transport Development Group based in South-east London. Now retired, he enjoys sailing in the Hebrides as well as such more traditional sporting activities as golf and bowls.

Alasdair Ritson Friend (1977-83) who was teaching in the London area, latterly as head teacher of a primary school in Hackney, has returned to Scotland and is now headmaster of Leith Primary School, Edinburgh.

David Galloway (1944-58) MB,ChB, embarked on a career in pharmacological research, conducting extensive studies which resulted in the launch of twenty-two new medicines. He worked in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Birmingham, London, Cambridge and in the USA. Latterly he was a consultant physician and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology. Now retired, he has a continuing interest in the field as a director of MARU, Abdn, the largest clinical pharmacology unit in the EEC, and two other companies.

Peter Mitchell Gordon (1939-48) MA, BD and Colin Campbell Reith Macpherson (1935-44) MA, BD both celebrate this year the Jubilee of their ordination as ministers of the Church of Scotland. Both graduated with honours in History from Aberdeen University in 1952 before going on to study Divinity. Colin had two charges, at Inverurie West and at St Margaret’s, Dunfermline, while Peter had three ministries, at Camperdown, Dundee, Brechin Cathedral and Airdrie West Parish. Both are retired, Colin in Edinburgh and Peter in Cupar.

Innes Grant (1983-89) continues to work in information technology in London, living in Wimbledon. He is married with two children. He was Surrey small-bore rifle champion in 2006. His elder sister Maura Watine (née Grant) (1981-87) is still on the staff of GCHQ in between spells of maternity leave – she and her airline-pilot husband have four children. The youngest sibling, Susan Grant (1987-93) works as a free-lance artist, largely in Scotland and the north of England. She recently completed a project at Inverurie Health Centre.

Laurence Gray (1956-58) MA, was a teacher of Drama and English, which led to appointment as Adviser in Speech and Drama for Grampian Region in 1976. He went

on to be placed in charge of all in-service training for Grampian and later training for Aberdeenshire Council. He took early retirement in 1997 following a serious accident to one of his twin sons in America the previous year.

Douglas Harper (1944-58) MB,ChB, worked in Aberdeen and later as senior registrar in Edinburgh before appointment as consultant surgeon in Falkirk in 1976. He was also medical director of that hospital in 1994-99. He returned to Aberdeen as a consultant surgeon and director of Day Surgery at the Royal Infirmary, retiring in 2005. His research interests have been in chronic venous disease and medical audit.

Dennis Hay (1952-59) trained at Jordanhill College and was a teacher of physical education in Renfrewshire and at Melville College, Edinburgh before taking up a Guidance post at Drummond High School in Edinburgh. Following his schoolboy caps in hockey he went on to achieve senior international honours before coaching the Scottish and British women’s teams. He is now Director of Hockey at Edinburgh University.

Thomas Houghton (1952-58) MB,ChB did further medical study at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica before a post in anaesthetics at Foresterhill and general practice at Boddam and Cruden Bay. He moved to sunnier climes in Jersey in 1967. Retiring at age 50 he then undertook seven locum posts in Australia before final retrial in 1999.

Stanley Howard (1947-58) FRICS after a quantity surveying apprenticeship in Aberdeen joined the Development Corporation in Milton Keynes, spent a year in South Africa and then set up his own building contracting company in Edinburgh. He was President of the Scottish Builders Employers Federation in 1987 and was a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Arbitrators. In 1992 he formed a management consultancy practice.

William Hutcheon (1952-58) served thirty years in Aberdeen City Police (later Grampian Police) and was then for twelve years an Emergency Planning Officer. He is now retired.

William Robert Hutcheson (1962-68) LL.B, CA retired from KPMG in December 2007 after 36 years, mostly based in Aberdeen where latterly he was managing partner. Much of this year has been spent trying to build a balance between having a bit more time to himself, charity work and as part-time finance director at the Imes Group of companies. The most onerous task Bob has taken on is Membership Secretary of the FP Club and Centre – not so much for what the job entails but because of the pressure of following on from the excellent job done by Martin Jeffrey and the risk of incurring Martin’s wrath if he fails to continue his good work.

James Robert Stephen (Donny) Innes (1923-35) MB,ChB, who attained his 90th birthday last September, met up with an old rugby adversary at a celebratory lunch to mark the occasion. Donny won five of his eight international caps in 1947 and 1948, and captained Scotland to victory over England in the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield in 1948. The lunch guest was Micky Steele-Bodger who was in that English side and who had nine English caps in these same years. Both are reported to have been in fine fettle.

Leslie Ironside’s (1947-58) qualified as an engineer at Paisley College of Technology and specialised in marine works, heavy foundations, tunnels and public health. Now retired, he is active as a commercial photographer.

Tom Irvin (1945-58) MB,ChB, PhD, ChM trained as a general and colorectal surgeon in Leeds. After a year in a research post in San Francisco he became a senior lecturer in Sheffield University. He received the 1976 Moynihan Prize for his studies of rectal cancer. In 1978 he took up an appointment in general and colorectal surgery in Exeter, from which he retired in 2006.

George Low Lawson (1963-68) is field sales manager in Aberdeen for Icon Office Solutions, specialists in the provision of office equipment.

William Leiper (1944-55) attended Aberdeen Trades College prior to an engineering apprenticeship, and then joined his father’s firm Andrew Christie Jnr, fish processors. He became a director of the company and led the firm until retiring in 2000 and handing over

to his two sons. He is a former deacon of the Hammermen Incorporation of Aberdeen’s Seven Incorporated Trades.

Stewart Leslie (1945-58) qualified as a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and after a year in retail joined the industry. He was appointed to the board of Napp Laboratories in 1981 as Director of Research. He was responsible for the development of controlled release oral drug delivery systems which were marketed for the treatment of severe intractable pain. He retired in 2000.

Yvonne Margaret McAllister (1984-90) joined BP Exploration as a Legal Adviser based in their Aberdeen office supporting their North Sea operations in 2000. In February 2007 she moved to Houston and assumed the role of Legal Adviser with BP America supporting their onshore exploration and production activities in the San Juan basin of Colorado and New Mexico and offshore exploration and production activities in the Gulf of Mexico. Despite loving life in Houston she has made unexpectedly frequent visits to Aberdeen to follow the highlights of the Dons’ European footballing fortunes, as well as stay in touch with her family (father, Lawrence McAllister (1959), sister Elaine (1985-91), brother-inlaw Martin Wiseman (1984-90), and nephew Jonathan Wiseman (who currently resides in the AGS catchment area and so hopefully 2016-2022).

Colin McIntosh (1952-58) MB,ChB is a consultant physician and endocrinologist in Surrey. He was for a time in Queen Mary’s Hospital and Harley Street, and taught in Chelsea and Westminster Medical School where he helped to create the first MSc course in Diabetes in collaboration with the University of Surrey. He is involved with a medico-legal practice.

Ian McIntosh (1950-56) has now retired after a career as a computer programmer. From School he joined Bruce Peebles in Edinburgh on a student mechanical engineering apprenticeship, becoming an apprentice draughtsman after three years. He later served as a senior draughtsman in Fife before joining Ferranti in Edinburgh. He became a programmer on projects for driving numerically controlled machinery. After some years writing software for Computer Aided Draughting, and doing other computer-related work, he was recruited into working on the latest CAD project, later named Mazurka. He headed the applications team, designing all, and writing most, of the software from the user interface down. He became redundant on the collapse of Ferranti, but Mazurka was sold on twice in following years and Ian followed it, finally working with Vickers Defence. Now retired, he lives in Edinburgh.

Alex Main (1953-60) MA is now, in his retirement from academic life, working pro bono as a psychotherapist with traumatised refugees from Central Africa and the Middle East, including many who have been tortured. In addition, he serves as a board member of UnitingCare West, the largest non-government social agency in Western Australia, with a special portfolio to facilitate the agency’s work in mental health and disability services. To offset the pressures of these activities, he spends one week each month in the Benedictine Community at New Norcia, a unique monastic town established by Spanish missionaries in 1846. While there, he returns to his first love, History, and is researching the establishment of an extensive network of wells which opened large areas of the barren countryside of Western Australia to agriculture, animal husbandry and population growth during the 19th century.

Andrew Marjoribanks (1952-58) obtained a degree in Metallurgy from Glasgow before joining Colvilles Ltd, the main Scottish steel producer. He had a number of technical roles at Ravenscraig Steelworks near Motherwell before moving to marketing in Australia. He has held a number of posts, latterly with BHP. He served for ten years on the International Iron & Steel Institute’s Marketing Committee, four of these as chairman. He retired in 2003 but still does some consulting and is absorbed by the environmental issues with which the steel industry is faced.

Colin Martin (1952-57) having been a flying instructor, holder of a short-service Army commission, freelance writer photographer and archaeologist, helped in 1973 to establish the Institute of Marine Archaeology in St Andrews. He was awarded a doctorate in 1983 and retired as Reader in 2001. He has worked on Spanish Armada shipwrecks in Ireland and Scotland and on two 17th century wrecks in the Sound of Mull. He is an external examiner at University College, London and serves on the Advisory committee on Historic Wreck Sites (UK).

George Masson (1952-58) became a chartered civil engineer specialising in cement and concrete technology. He joined Blue Circle Cement and rose to become national technical manager before retiring in 2000. He is involved in voluntary work for the Prince’s Trust.

Douglas Maxwell (1948-53) MB,ChB left the Lower School on a family move to Glasgow. He later graduated in Medicine and, after a spell at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, moved to the world-famous Liver Unit at King’s College Hospital, Tooting. He became clinical director and Professor of Medicine and was awarded a Churchill Travelling Fellowship to study graduate medical degree courses in Australia which led to radical changes in Tooting.

Robert Megginson (1952-58) is a successful Hollywood scriptwriter, living in Hollywood itself, which he describes as “that quaint, magical little village on the left-hand side of America in which the primary activity is not, as one might guess, making movies but rather spending money one doesn’t have to buy things one doesn’t need to impress people one doesn’t like”.

David Gavin Millar (1948-61) MB,ChB, who was a general practitioner in Peterculter for thirty-five years, retired last summer. After graduation he was for a time a vascular surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary before becoming a partner in the Peterculter Health Centre. He has been actively concerned with palliative care, working part-time with Roxburgh House in Aberdeen and with the Macmillan Cancer service. He has been elected President of the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society for 2008.

David George Miller (1953-60) is now retired after a career as an architect in Aberdeen. He has now published two books on Aberdeen architects. The first, Archibald Simpson (1790-1841) – His Life & Times looks at one of the city’s most celebrated architects, reminders of whom are to be seen on every hand. The other volume, Tudor Johnny, looks at the life and work of John Smith, City Architect for much of the first half of the 19th century.

Peter Miller (1952-58) MA qualified as a teacher in Aberdeen and, after a two-year break in Derbyshire has taught modern languages in Fife. He taught French and Spanish in Kirkcaldy and for twenty years from 1971 was principal teacher of French in Woodmill High School in Dunfermline.

Alan Ducat Milne (1950-58) MB,ChB, councillor for Lower Deeside on Aberdeen City Council, has been elected leader of the Conservative group on the Council. Together with Labour councillors and an Independent they are in opposition to the majority coalition.

Tom Napier (1946-58) BSc, MSc worked for several years for European research organisations in Leeds, Holland, Switzerland and Edinburgh. He moved to the USA in 1981 and has been involved, as an engineer or manager, in developing commercial equipment for scientific research. He is now a freelance electronics consultant and has published over forty articles in technical journals.

Naseem Nekonham (1995-01) graduated in Law at Aberdeen University in 2005 and has since completed her postgraduate diploma in legal practice.

Thomas Ogg (1952-58) MB,ChB, served with the RAMC with the rank of Major. He then took up a post as consultant anaesthetist and director of the National Demonstration Day Surgery Unit at Addenbrooks Hospital, Cambridge. He was President of the British Association of Day Surgery in 1992 and of the International Association of Ambulatory Surgery in 1999.

Roderick Phillips (1969-75) has, with a partner, established a new business in Aberdeen, Creative Force. The business operates as a creative design and advertising agency, with a team of designers and web developers and has been successful in winning contracts from a wide range of companies from several industry sectors. Roddy is a regular columnist as well as stage and art reviewer for the Press & Journal

Murray Pittock (1973-78) was appointed Bradley Professor of English Literature at Glasgow University in 2007, having previously held chairs at the Universities of Manchester and Strathclyde. In 2007-09 he is convening the global Burns network, with events from Edinburgh to Beijing planned for 2009.

William Rae (1946-58) CB has had a distinguished career in the RAF, including his role as Personal Briefing Officer to the Chief of Defence staff during the Falklands War and taking the Trident project through the Cabinet committees. He then specialised in national and NATO nuclear, chemical and biological weapons policy and became Chief of Special Weapons Branch and chairman of the Senior Directing Staff at the Royal College of Defence studies. He retired with the rank of Air Vice-Marshal.

John Ritchie Alistair Rattray (1989-95), a professional skateboarder, was recently home in Aberdeen to demonstrate his skills at the city’s new flagship extreme sports facility. There he gave some advice to up-and-coming skaters. Based in California, he is presently filming for US extreme sports channel Fuel TV. He has skated with some of the world’s best exponents and has even been turned into one of the characters for the computer game Skate.

David Thomas Graeme Reid (1975-80), now a partner with Knight Frank, estate agents, is living in Dollar and covers three of their Scottish offices, including Aberdeen. He also owns the well-known deli, Reids of Dollar. He reports that his sister Pauline Margaret Macleod née Reid (1980-86) has lived in Melbourne, Australia for several years, where she has her own physiotherapy practice. Married with two sons, she is active in sports, including tennis and swimming. Their brother John Kevin Martin Reid (1976-82) is in Khan Kaen, Thailand, where he teaches English to both children and adults. Graham Reid (1951-69) reports that he has been living in Thailand for the last two years. He was mine host of the Corner House Hotel in Montrose for 29 years until retiring in 1999. He then lived in Cumbria for six years before his move abroad. He will be delighted to hear from and meet up with any old School friends who chance to be in Thailand, where his telephone number is 044315714. His email address is reidthai@hotmail.com

Norman Hayden Reid (1953-66) has been out of touch with the FP Club for some time but has now put that right and hopes to meet up with some of his former class-mates. After leaving Aberdeen in 1982 he settled with his wife and three children in the Midlands of England, working with various organisations in the retail and financial services sectors. He retired in 2004 from the position of Group Finance Director and Company Secretary with Life Assurance Holdings Corporation Ltd, a company based on Windsor Life Assurance Co. Ltd set up to acquire and manage other non-active life assurance and pension funds. He is now enjoying an active retirement in both Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds and in the Tarn-et-Garonne in France.

Alexander Brodie Robb (1969-78) who has been a chartered surveyor with Paul Gee & Co in Aberdeen for twenty five years has now branched out on his own account, practising as A.B. Robb in the city’s Queen’s Gardens. He was previously a trainee valuer with Messrs. F.G. Burnett in Aberdeen.

Iain William Robertson (1961-74) was recently presented by the Prime Minister with a Vodaphone Lifesavers Award in recognition of his part in the rescue of a father and son who had been swept from a capsized yacht in the North Sea. He is serving as a Flight Lieutenant in the R.A.F. and at the time was captain of a Search & Rescue helicopter.

Stephen Andrew Cormack Robertson (1939-51) MBE, M.A.,LL.B, M.Univ. was in May elected by the students of Aberdeen University as their Rector. He emerged victorious in a three-candidate race. His installation will take place in the autumn term.

Stuart Robertson (1952-58) MB,ChB, after graduating from Aberdeen, took up a post at

the Royal Eye Hospital in Manchester. He returned to Aberdeen to lecture in Anatomy before switching to public health medicine. He retired as a senior clinical health officer for Grampian.

Sebastian Ashley Sam Rochford (1985-91) continues to enjoy success as a jazz drummer and was a member of the group Basquiat Strings, founded by cellist Ben Davis, which was one of the nominees for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in 2007. He was a nominee in the previous year also with his own jazz band Polar Bear.

Alan Philip Rockwell (1983-89) LL.B has moved to Connecticut, USA, with his wife and family, and will now be based in the New York office of White & Case LLP as a partner in the Bank Finance Group with responsibility for the English law aspect of the Group’s work.

James Ross (1945-57) after some years as a tea planter in India returned to be licensee of the Crown Hotel in Keith. Another climber, he has achieved all the Munros and Corbetts.

Leonard Duncan Scorgie (1946-59) is now living in retirement in Inverness after a career as a solicitor, mostly in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, where he ran an old-established practice on his own account for twenty years until 2001. He then eased himself into retirement by a two-year stint as a locum throughout the Highlands. His interests are classical music and New Orleans and Dixieland jazz, the latter fostered by attendance, like many Grammarians, at the jazz club in Abergeldie Road in the early 60s.

Charles George Scott (1945-53) after nine years as a surveyor trained as a teacher, but has now retired after thirty years in the profession.

Alexander Shaw (1952-58) has spent his entire career working with British Leyland and Silicon Glen in the field of industrial relations and employment law.

Alison Norma Smith (née Smart) (1982-86), the managing director of Activepayroll, an Aberdeen firm, was the 2007 winner of the Northern Star Business award to the Small Business Category. The award is one of a number presented annually in recognition of the achievements of people and businesses operating in a variety of fields. Her company provides payroll and other workforce accounting solutions to employers.

George Bruce Pirie Smith (1951-64) LL.B featured in a poll of planning lawyers conducted by Planning Magazine, the journal of the Royal Town Planning Institute. He was voted as one of only two solicitors in the highest ranking for planning lawyers in Scotland. Senior partner of Paull & Williamsons since 1995 and chairman of the firm for the last three years, he retires later this year.

Hector Stewart (1957-58) started as a cameraman with Grampian TV in its early days and went on to direct and produce a wide range of programmes for Central Television. He went freelance in 1997 and retired in 2003.

Magnus Stewart (1952-58) MA was principal teacher of Chemistry at Northfield Academy until retiring in 1997.

Neil Stirton (1992-98) won Silver in the Men’s Prone at the ISSF World Cup in Munich in May. In the qualification round he had a new personal best and British International record which took him into the final in second place, tied with the World Champion. His final total score is also a British Final record.

John Stott (1954-67) LL.B is the President of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen for 2007-08. The Senior Vice-President is Denis Noble Yule (1960-66) LL.B who is a partner in city law firm Mackinnons.

Edward Strachan (1947-58) has now retired after thirty-eight years in general dentistry practice in Wilmslow, Cheshire. For twelve of these years he was a post-graduate dental tutor in Macclesfield.

Innes Taylor (1974-80) has been appointed the Scottish Hockey Union North District Under-18 Boys Lead Coach. His son Thomas Scott Taylor (2002-07) has been appointed Assistant Coach.

John Wilson (1945-58) FICE worked in various firms in Glasgow, Falkirk and Aberdeen until 1973 when he became senior design engineer for Arch Henderson & Partners. He was

senior partner from 1985 until retiring in 2001. He is now a consultant. He was involved in many harbour and other civil engineering projects in Scotland.

Ivan Charles Fraser Wisely (1948-61) MB,ChB, senior partner in the Brimmond medical group in Aberdeen, has demitted office after thirty years as a member of Grampian Local Medical Committee. He was also a member of Grampian Health Board, chairman of the BMA Grampian division and vice-chairman of the Scottish general medical services committee. He continues to be a GP appraiser and is involved with the development of Aberdeen’s community health partnership.

William Yule (1945-58) MA has spent his career in clinical psychology as clinician, teacher and researcher. His work on the effects of lead in petrol helped to have this removed from the environment. He has concentrated in the last twenty years on developing treatments for children affected by traumas such as disasters and war. The Bill Yule Adolescent Unit at the Bethlehem Royal Hospital is named in his honour. Now retired, he is engaged on the preparation for the aftermath of disasters and terrorism in the UK and across Europe, as well as working in Sri Lanka to help mitigate the effects of civil war. He is chair of the Children & War Foundation, a charity which he helped set up in Norway.

Marriages

Fitzpatrick (1975-81) – At Drumtochty Castle on 12 April 2008 Brian Innes Fitzpatrick son of Dr & Mrs Ewart A. Fitzpatrick, 76 Burns Road, Aberdeen to Louise Gibb, daughter of Mr & Mrs Roy Gibb, Ellon McCraw (1992-98) – At Midstocket Parish Church, Aberdeen on 1 September 2007 Andrew Sinclair, Edinburgh to Fiona Margaret McCraw, younger daughter of the late Mr Iain McCraw and of Mrs Ann McCraw, 8 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen Willox (1983-89) – In Coral Bay, Australia on 21 August 2007 Euan Thomas Willox, son of Mr & Mrs Kenneth Willox, 43 Woodstock Road, Aberdeen to Pam Murison, Montrose. Wilson (1988-93) – At Midstocket Parish Church, Aberdeen on 20 October 2007 Gareth Melhuish-Jones to Diane Jane Wilson, daughter of Mr & Mrs Eric Wilson, 192 Midstocket Road, Aberdeen Wisely (1988-94) – At Midstocket Parish Church, Aberdeen on 1 March 2008 Paul Rose, eldest son of Mr & Mrs William Rose, Insch to Morag Wisely, younger daughter of Mr & Mrs David Wisely, 100 Cornhill Road, Aberdeen

Obituaries

Theodore Martin Allan (1930-36) MB,ChB died peacefully at an Aberdeen nursing home on 14 July 2007 aged 88. A prefect and captain of the School 1st XI in 1936, he graduated in Medicine from Aberdeen University in 1941. After house surgeon posts he was awarded a Garden Fellowship to pursue research in the University Bacteriology Department. He became a medical officer with the North-east of Scotland Blood Transfusion Service in 1947, became assistant director in 1956 and continued his career in medical research and in the Service until his retiral. A member of the FP Cricket Section for many years, he was, in 1948, captain of the first FP side to win the Strathmore Union Championship. He contributed an interesting account of that season’s success in the Magazine of 1985 (vol.88, page 31).

He is survived by his wife, who he married in 1953, and by two daughters and five grandchildren.

Edward James Barron (1953-55) MB,ChB died peacefully in Burnie, Tasmania on 24 June 2007 after two years of illness resulting from a stroke. He was aged 69. After graduating from Aberdeen University in 1961, he held the usual house officer posts at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the City Hospital. He then emigrated to Tasmania and spent a year as resident

medical officer at the general hospital in Burnie, where he subsequently entered general medical practice. His former class-mate Gordon McLeod Cheyne (1951-55), along with a number of other Aberdeen graduates, attended his funeral. He is survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter. His brother is Hugh Wilson Taylor Barron (1953-60).

Club’s Oldest Member

Norman Robert Beattie (1921-31) CA, died peacefully at Alastrean House Care Home, Tarland on 6 September 2007 aged 94. He was the oldest member of the FP Club. He was apprenticed to Bower & Smith, chartered accountants, qualifying in 1937. He practised as a CA with Gray & Kellas, solicitors, before being appointed Assistant Harbour Master and Treasurer in 1946. Ten years later he became General Manager and Treasurer to the Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners and in 1959 became General Manager and Secretary of the Aberdeen Harbour Board, and as such the chief executive of the Board. He retired in 1978. Norman served on the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, and held many appointments associated with the Ports and Fishing industry. He was a Justice of the Peace, a Burgess of Guild, a past Captain of Deeside Gold Club of which he was the oldest member, a former member of Aberdeen Indoor Bowling Club, a past President of Aberdeen Rotary Club and an elder of Cults West Church. He was the last survivor of four Grammarian brothers – Eric William Beattie (1921-28), Ronald James Beattie (1927-36) and Colin Strachan Beattie (1931-40). He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret, in 2006, after 65 years of marriage, but is survived by two married sons and two grandsons.

Iain Ritchie Bishop (1950-55) OBE, BSc, MSc died peacefully at his home at Eydon, Northants on 25 August 2007 after a long illness. He was aged 69. At School he played in the 1st XV at Stand-off. At University, he studied Zoology and Botany, graduating with honours in 1959. He then studied at Southampton, graduating MSc in 1963. For the next eight years he lectured, first at Guy’s Hospital Medical School and then at Leicester University, with an interruption when he was seconded to lead the Royal Geographical Society Mato Grosso Expedition to Central Brazil. This was a major undertaking with huge obstacles and hazards to overcome. In 1970, while still only 32, he was awarded the OBE for services to science.

In 1972 Iain was appointed a senior scientific officer with the Department of Zoology at the Natural History Museum and in 1982, as a senior principal officer, he became Deputy Keeper of Zoology. From 1985 to 1998 he was Associate Keeper of Zoology and Director of the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum at Tring. During his time in Tring he threw himself into community life He was an enthusiastic member, and one-time President, of Tring Rotary Club and was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship by Rotary International. He retired in 1998 and settled in Eydon. Iain is survived by his wife and two sons.

Alastair George Keith Bisset (1957-59) died peacefully in hospital in Edinburgh on 12 December 2007 having taken suddenly ill while at COSLA headquarters to attend a meeting. He came to School in 4th year from Elgin Academy and on leaving followed his father into journalism. His first post was with the Ayrshire Post, but he returned to the north-east the following year to become district reporter for the Press & Journal based at Fraserburgh and Peterhead. He was appointed chief reporter for the Moray area at Elgin in 1965, a post earlier held by his father, and he rapidly made the post his own. Nothing happened in the district but he knew all about it, and it was a busy area, with floods, distilleries, politics, air-sea and mountain rescue, and two service bases at Kinloss and Lossiemouth, not to mention his beloved Elgin City Football Club. He had a rare genius for ferreting out anything unusual which was newsworthy.

He took early retirement from journalism in 1999 to enter local politics as an Independent councillor on Moray Council, vowing to chase politics out of the council chamber. He became Vice-convener of the Council after the 2007 elections. In his council work he was thorough and persistent, fighting for every cause in which he believed and working tirelessly for those who elected him. A former chief executive of Moray District Council said of him “He was intelligent, articulate, sociable, mischievous, and compassionate, and it was this compassion and interest in people and in their communities that drew him into public service after a distinguished journalistic career. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

William John Wyness Clark (1950) MA died suddenly at his London home on 12 December 2007 aged 73. The son of an Aberdeen trawlerman, he spent only three terms at the School before being accepted by the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture at the age of 16 – two years younger than any other student. After graduating he went to London to work with Sir Basil Spence before National Service call-up to the RAF, in which he was commissioned. On demobilisation he won a scholarship to Princeton University, graduated with an Arts degree and then spent a year as an associate professor of architecture. He then became enthused about Hollywood and secured work designing sets for MGM. He returned to Britain and soon became a successful production designer on films such as Performance, The Railway Children, Jesus Christ Superstar and Tommy He returned to architecture and, after a spell in Ketley, Gould and Clark, in 1981 he set up his own practice, John Clark Associates, developing a reputation for his contributions to British retail architecture. Among these were the award-winning West Orchards shopping centre in Coventry, the Drummond Centre in Croydon and a series of department stores for the Burton Group and Allders. He also designed one of the first hotels to be built on Pangkor Island in Malaysia.

Fellow-architect Bill Jack (1945-51) writes: “As a student Bill was a talented and fearless designer, always pushing the boundaries. He was ambitious and confident, and his foray into the film world in the USA and in the UK illustrates this. As an architect it was very much in character that he found entrepreneurial clients and made his name in the commercial sector, mainly in retail projects.”

Bill, who was married and divorced, is survived by his two sons.

William Catto Connon (1928-40) BL died peacefully at an Inverness nursing home on 7 July 2007 aged 83. He served with RAF Bomber Command during the second World War, returning to Aberdeen University to study Law. He graduated in 1949 and was an assistant solicitor with James & George Collie in Aberdeen before joining Mayer & Fraser of Keith and Dufftown, becoming a partner in 1951. He was then in practice on his own account in Dufftown in 1955. He was for twenty-one years Town Clerk and Chamberlain of Dufftown and was for a time also Town Clerk of Aberlour and Grantown-on-Spey. In 1971 he was appointed senior solicitor with East Kilbride and Stonehouse Development Corporation. After retiring he moved to the Inverness area. He is survived by two sons and two daughters.

Past President

Eric Craig (1934-46) died in a hospice in Edinburgh on 21 May 2008 following a short illness, aged 80. (1940-46) writes: “Eric thoroughly enjoyed his school days although he was not noted for tremendous scholastic prowess. His best achievements were on the sports field where he excelled as a centre threequarter with a deft dummy and sidestep, gaining his full cap. In later years he played for FPs and North Midlands. He also reckoned he was the best fine leg and Number 11 batsman the 2nd XI ever had. He did his National Service in the RAF, achieving the high rank of corporal, and thereafter joined the family firm of Craig Stores, involved in the catching side of the fishing industry.

“His main hobbies were golf at Royal Aberdeen and fishing, but he also wrote poetry á la McGonegal and enjoyed painting, claiming that his Van Goch Sunflowers were better than the original. Eric was a fun-loving and funny man, with an endless supply of jokes and stories. He was a great fan of George Formby and no party would be complete unless Eric brought out his ukulele.

“Eric was a keen FP. A founder member of the Club Centre, he was Chairman of its Management Committee in 1974-79, overseeing the major upgrading works. A longserving member of the Executive, he was its Chairman in 1984-86 and later President of the Club in 1989-90. He was also closely involved in the Club’s Centenary celebrations three years later, chairing the committee which produced the special Centenary issue of the Magazine

“In recent years he moved down to North Berwick. He is survived by his wife, Pat, who had to put up with his snoring for over fifty years, by daughter Alison, a BBC broadcaster, writer and author in the same vein as her father, and by his grandson Louis.”

Eric’s brothers also attended the school – Joseph (1927-39) and John (1929-38).

Distinguished Academic

Eric Kennedy Cruickshank (1920-32) OBE, MB,ChB, MD, FRCP, FRCPG, died at his home near Marlborough, Wiltshire on 8 August 2007 aged 92. A Prefect in his final year at School, he was scrum-half of the 1st XV and described as “the best since 1924”. He continued to play for FPs while at University, captaining the 1st XV for a season. He graduated in Medicine in 1937, achieving distinction in his final professional exam and being awarded a number of University medals and prizes. He was a Research Scholar and Fellow of Harvard in 1938-39 and assistant to the Professor of Medicine at Aberdeen before being called to War service with the RAMC. Reported missing at the fall of Singapore, he spent the rest of the War as a prisoner at Changi POW Camp, where he served as a Medical Specialist. He was twice mentioned in dispatches for his work with the Malayan Field Ambulance and with his fellow prisoners.

He was a senior lecturer in medicine at Aberdeen before being appointed as the first Professor of Medicine at the new University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica in 1950. There, he rose to the challenges of establishing a completely new Faculty, obtaining funding, attracting staff and winning the respect of the Jamaican physicians at the Kingston General Hospital. The present Chancellor of the University has written in tribute that “he was a superb clinician and his emphasis on intellectual honesty and rigour, his sharp observational skills, his overall diagnostic acumen and his empathetic attention to his patients as persons and not cases have helped to shape the practice of medicine in the Caribbean for generations”.

From 1972 to 1980 he was Dean of Postgraduate Medicine at Glasgow University, at the same time serving on the General Medical Council and on Greater Glasgow Health Board. He returned to the West Indies for a time as Professor of Medicine and Director and Coordinator of medical programmes at St Georges University School of Medicine in Grenada. He was a World Health Organisation consultant on Nutrition from 1955 and in Medical Education from 1959. He finally retired to Wiltshire, where he is survived by his wife.

James William Lawson Davidson (1968-74) died tragically as the result of an accident while gliding near Tomintoul on 2 September 2007. He was aged 51. A Prefect and rugby player at School, he had a varied career, latterly working in finance. He was introduced to gliding as a young man and became passionately enthusiastic for the sport in which he was very experienced. He regularly travelled throughout the UK for competitions and events. He was former chairman of the Deeside Gliding Club at Aboyne and had held a number of other offices. On the occasion of the accident he was taking part in a competition as part of a Mountain Soaring Championship organised by the Club.

James, who was unmarried, was the son of the late Lawson Douglas Davidson (1934-40).

Douglas Stanley Duncan (1928-33) MA, BSc died peacefully at his home in Aberdeen on 28 November 2007 aged 90. He graduated with honours in Arts in 1937 and in Science in 1938 from Aberdeen University. He trained as a teacher before being called for War service in 1940. He was a forecaster in the Meteorology Office of the Air Ministry before being commissioned in the RAFVR as a Flight Lieutenant in the Met Branch. He taught in Aberdeen from 1946, becoming principal teacher of science at Ruthrieston Junior Secondary School in 1956. He was deputy head teacher at Northfield Academy from 1967. He was predeceased by his wife but is survived by three daughters and a son. His elder brother was Thomas Duncan (1924-31).

John Alexander Gray (1926-35) died in Edinburgh on 26 December 2006 aged 88. Born in London, he was the son of Professor Alexander Gray of the chair of Political Economy at Aberdeen. From School he went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study stage management with a view to film work in the future. After a season as assistant stage manager at the Theatre Royal, Bath, he was a sound recorder with the GPO film unit in London, and went on to work with the documentary maker John Grierson. From 1940 to 1978 he worked in radio for the BBC. He was a war correspondent, a London-based senior sub-editor on the European News Service and a chief assistant at BBC Scotland. In this post he reflected many aspects of Scottish cultural life and was responsible for many fine feature and documentary programmes. As a major contributor to this cultural life himself, he co-founded the Edinburgh TV Festival in 1976, and later the Radio Academy Festival and the Manchester Broadcasting Symposium. He was chairman of the Board of Scottish Ballet and played a leading part in the Scottish arts lobby Salvo. Always on the look-out for broadcasting talent, he recruited as programme research assistants many talented people who have gone on to successful careers in television, radio, film, as writers and in other related branches of the arts and media. After retiring from the BBC he taught at Napier University, in what he described as an attempt to close the ‘big divide between the study of communications and the practice of communications’. He was awarded a prestigious Radio Academy Fellowship in 1998 and, just a week before his death, he received an honorary arts doctorate from Napier. He is survived by his wife, son, daughter and grandson.

Ian Michael Hay (1965-71) died very suddenly in Phuket, Thailand on 20 December 2007 aged 54. He trained as an armature winder in Aberdeen before going into the oil industry. He had been working in Dubai for the past four years as a technical manager with World Wide Power, an oil services company. He was a former player for a number of Aberdeen amateur football teams. Divorced from his first wife, he had married in Dubai earlier in the month and was on honeymoon at the time of his death.

Peter George Henderson (1951-61) BSc died suddenly, due to unhealed injuries sustained when attacked at home by a convicted murderer, in George, South Africa, on 27 August 2007, aged 64. Born in Greenock, he spent his early childhood in South Africa before returning with his mother to her home town of Aberdeen in 1950. He graduated from Aberdeen University with honours in Chemistry in 1966 and after teacher training had a two-term teaching attachment in the wilderness of Montrose before returning to the Grammar as a member of the Chemistry department. In addition to class teaching he was involved in the Ski and Hillwalking clubs, and organised astronomy evenings. He retired in 1992. Three years later he emigrated with his family to South Africa, and settled in George in the Southern Cape. He was a founder member, and later chairman, of the Garden Route Centre of ASSA, and gave many courses and lectures on astronomical and related subjects. He was involved with sailing, acting as crew to his son, and did a lot of hillwalking and

photography. He also taught Cambridge O- and A- level subjects privately. Peter is survived by his wife, Janet, and his son, Martin, aged 19.

Arlene Heron (neé Rodger) (1976-79) died peacefully at Roxburghe House, Aberdeen on 1 January 2008 after a short illness. She was aged 45. She studied first at Aberdeen Commercial College and then at Aberdeen University before joining Grampian Police in 1981. She was in uniform working in various areas of the city for a few years and then served in the Criminal Investigation Department until leaving to have family. She later returned to work, first to Aberdeen University in the Land Economy office, after which she was for four years Office Manager in the Engineering department of Robert Gordon University. At this year’s summer graduation at RGU she was awarded a posthumous MSc. Degree.

She is survived by her husband Allan, and by a son and daughter. Her brother is Graham Rodger (1976-78)

Hockey Internationalist

Alexander Henry Innes (1933-45) MB,ChB died peacefully at his home in Aberdeen on 19 May 2008 after a short illness. He was aged 80. A member of the School Hockey 1st XI as well as an able cricketer, he continued both sports with FPs. He was secretary of the Hockey Section, captain of the 1st XI in 1947-48 and later, while playing for the University he was awarded a Full Blue in 1950-51. He was twice capped for Scotland against Ireland and England. He set up an alternative and very successful touring side called the Thistles. In the early ‘70s he was a selector for Scotland when they won the Grand Slam and he was medical adviser to the British team for several years.

He studied Medicine at Aberdeen University, graduating in 1952. He was a house officer at the Royal Mental Hospital before completing National Service at the RAF Psychiatric centre at RAF Holton in Buckinghamshire. Returning to Aberdeen he worked closely with the physician superintendent and set up a work therapy unit at Cornhill Hospital where patients could take part in projects such as gardening, joinery and packing food hampers. He set up Unicorn Enterprises to provide sheltered employment for patients with severe and enduring mental illness, recognising the value of work to his patients. He later became consultant forensic psychiatrist for Grampian Region in 1971 and went on to run a mixed medium and low security service as a single-handed consultant for twenty years. Recognised as a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, he was deputy superintendent physician at Cornhill Hospital for several years before becoming medical administrator. He retired in 1990.

Sandy is survived by his wife Sylvia, with whom he celebrated their Golden wedding in 2007, by two daughters and a son, and by six grandchildren. Two of the children attended the School – Elisabeth Ann Innes (1974-80) and Alexander James Innes (1977-83).

James Gilchrist Innes (1932-39) MA, LL.B died peacefully at his home in Aberdeen on 5 August 2006 after a short illness. He was aged 84. His father was a farmer at Culsalmond and he came to the Boarding House to enter Middle School. Later he was a prefect, served on the Games Committee, played rugby and was awarded Cricket colours. He served in tanks with 7th Armoured Brigade during World War II and on demobilisation attended Aberdeen University. He graduated in Arts and Law in 1949, and having served an apprenticeship with Wilsone & Duffus, advocates, he was assumed as a partner in the firm in 1952, joining four other FPs. He was admitted to the Society of Advocates in 1953. He was latterly senior partner, and continued as a consultant until 1991. Someone who never sought the limelight, he was a highly respected practitioner whose wise counsel and sound advice was often sought and seldom questioned.

An Elder of Mannofield Church for 43 years, and roll-keeper for 30 of these, he was much respected by members of the congregation and by his fellow office-bearers. He was a keen hill walker, swimmer and bowler, but his greatest love was his highly productive garden in which he took great pride. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, to whom he was married in 1953, and by a son and daughter.

Maxwell Alexander Allan Innes (1932-45) MA died peacefully in hospital in Aberdeen on 13 August 2007 aged 80. On leaving School he was called up to the Army and served as a Sergeant in the Royal Engineers in 1945-48. He then attended Aberdeen University graduating in Arts in 1952. After teacher training he joined the staff of Tyrie school from which he moved after a few years to Fraserburgh Academy where he taught English and Geography until his retirement. A keen hockey player at School he was one of a number who ran the FP Hockey Section in the early 50s, playing at Right-half. He captained the side in 1951-52 but his involvement ended with his move to Fraserburgh. He had a lifelong interest in fishing and was very knowledgeable and proficient. A keen gardener, he had a special skill for grafting roses. He was unmarried and in retirement did not enjoy good health.

Senior Diplomat

Arthur Roy Handasyde Kellas (1926-32) CMG, MA, BA(Oxon) died in Edinburgh on 6 March 2007 aged 91. The son of Henry Kellas (1881-87) advocate, he went up to Aberdeen University to study Classics, winning several prizes and graduating with first class honours in 1936. He was awarded a scholarship in Classics at Balliol College, Oxford and, having been placed in the First Class in the Final School of Litterae Humaniores he graduated in 1938. He was described at the time as ‘one of the finest classical scholars the School has produced’. He spent the next year in Germany and at the Ėcole des Sciences Politique in Paris before succeeding in the Civil Service competition for entry to the Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service. Instead of taking up a Foreign Office post he joined up and was commissioned in the Borders Regiment. He later responded to a call for volunteers for dangerous operations and joined the 10th Independent Company, the forerunner of the Commandos. After months of inaction, and its disbandment, he joined 11th Special Air Service. After being badly wounded in North Africa he joined the SOE and after first helping to run agents in and out of the French Resistance he transferred to the Greek section and operated with Greek partisans. He was twice mentioned in despatches.

Recalled to the Foreign Office in late 1944 he was posted as Third Secretary in Teheran. It was while there that he met his wife, the daughter of another diplomat. He was at the Foreign Office in London for a period at which time he was actively involved with the FP Club London Centre. He then served in Helsinki, Cairo, Baghdad, Tel Aviv and Nepal. He was Ambassador to Aden and finally High Commissioner to Tanzania.

The Magazine of July 1953 records an answer in the House of Commons as to Mr Kellas’ return from the Embassy in Cairo. “The facts are that H.M. Ambassador at Cairo was told by the Egyptian Foreign Minister that Mr Kellas was persona non grata on the grounds that his activities were against the interests of the regime. No evidence was produced by the Egyptian Government in support of this allegation” and the reply went on to say that Mr Kellas had not been recalled but was now in London on leave. The Daily Express suggested that the reason for his banishment was that he offered comment on a bellicose statement by Col. Abdel Nasser, then second-in-command to General Neguib, threatening fire and slaughter of British troops, to the effect that “the Dog barks but the Caravan moves on”. It seems that the remark was used by the Egyptian authorities as a pretext for getting rid of a press attaché who may have been explaining too effectively to press correspondents the British point of view in the Anglo-Egyptian dispute.

After retiring he wrote two short autobiographical books, Down to Earth and Ready Steady Go

Mr Kellas had two sons and a daughter. His brothers were Henry Ronald Kellas (1926-31) and Derek Mario Mitchell Kellas (1924-35)

Peter Forbes Kemp (1928-39) AMICE died peacefully in hospital in Aberdeen on 24 August 2007 aged 84. He served an apprenticeship as a civil engineer with Aberdeen County Council before being called to War service which was spent with the RAF in Palestine, Egypt and the Western Desert. He was mostly attached to an airfield construction squadron building permanent airfields for air trooping to the Far East. On his return he was employed as a maintenance engineer with the County Road Surveyor’s Department, with responsibility for public water supplies and drainage systems. He was predeceased by his wife and his daughter, but survived by two grandchildren.

John Alexander Grant Laird (1928-40) BSc, AMIMechE, MIPlantE died peacefully in hospital in Kirkcaldy on 22 November 2007 following a short illness. He was aged 85. After War service he attended Aberdeen University, graduating in Mechanical Engineering in 1949. He became an assistant engineer with Coates Bros & Co in Kent, later moving as works manager of a new factory in South Wales. In the mid-60s he spent three years as construction manager with Marples Ridgway (Construction) in Edinburgh before appointment as chief engineer with Nairn Floors in Kirkcaldy in 1968. He was project engineer on their expansion programme for the last few years before retiring in 1987. He was predeceased by his wife to whom he had been married since 1950, but is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren.

Duncan Herdman McDougall (1921-36) CA died peacefully in hospital in Aberdeen on 13 December 2007, after a short illness. Another of the Club’s celebrated nonagenarians, he was aged 91. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1940, having been apprenticed to Messrs. Bower & Smith in Aberdeen. He was commissioned in the Royal Army Service Corps. After demobilisation in 1946 he worked briefly in Glasgow before joining James A. Jeffrey & Co in Aberdeen. He was assumed as a partner in 1952, later becoming a partner of Meston & Co and then of Deloittes after mergers in the 1970s. He retired in 1981. He was for many years the honorary auditor of the accounts of the various Sections of the FP Club. Predeceased by his wife, he is survived by two sons and granddaughters.

He was one of five FP cousins all of whom were at the School for some years in the 1920s.

The others, who all spent their careers in Canada, were Charles Ivan Ross McDougall (192528), David Lorne McDougall (1922-28), Ian Anderson McDougall (1915-23) and James Lyle McDougall (1915-23).

Ian Desmond MacNay (1949-63) died suddenly in hospital in Aberdeen on 14 July 2007, aged 62. At School he excelled at maths and music, and enjoyed playing tennis during the long summer evenings. These passions continued throughout his life, except that tennis soon became a spectator sport. With twenty years’ experience of manufacturing and retailing, and being their accountant, he was appointed to the board of Clifton Collier in Aberdeen in 1986 with the role of finance director.

Ian was a member of Mensa and always enjoyed challenging his mind against any kind of puzzle – the harder the better. Through his love of singing and theatre he became a member of Aberdeen Lyric and then a founder member of Pro Arte. After suffering a stroke in 1997 he could no longer sing but continued to enjoy listening to music, especially opera. Having become an elder at a young age he was a member of St Machar Cathedral.

Devoted to his family, he is survived by his wife Lesley, his son Ross, and daughters Sarah and Lucy. Gordon Roberts MacNay (1951-65) is his younger brother.

Former London Centre Secretary George Mitchell (‘Peter’) MacPhee (1930-41) died peacefully at his home in Lochawe,

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Argyll on 12 October 2007 aged 84. From School he entered the Army, serving with the Scots Guards in India and Burma, and after the end of the War in Siam and Malaysia. On demobilisation, he was offered work with the Caxton Press in Aberdeen but opted to move to London to train at the London School of Printing. In 1950 he was appointed assistant works manager with the Amalgamated Press in Gravesend, later becoming assistant production manager at their printing works in London. In 1955 he took up the same post with the Reader’s Digest. In 1964 he was appointed production manager for Great Britain, India, South Africa and Nigeria. Ten years later he became head of their print buying team. He retired in 1985 and moved from Buckinghamshire to Ballater. After his wife’s death in 1998 he moved to Argyll to be near his daughter.

Peter was a longstanding member of the London Centre of the Club, and served as secretary of the Centre for a number of years in the 1960s and ‘70s. He is survived by two sons, a daughter and two grandsons.

Patrick Findlay Creighton Milne (1944-59) MA died peacefully at his home in Poole on 4 June 2007 after a long illness. He was aged 66. His brother, (1938-52) writes: “At School, Patrick’s passion for music was kindled; he studied piano, organ and violin and developed a fine voice. The distinguished adjudicator, Helen Henschel, judged his rendering of a Scottish song to be ‘as beautiful as it can possibly be’. Thanks to the keen talent-spotting of John Dalby, then director of music, he was encouraged to take up the bassoon (which he did with glee) and under the tutelage of Mr Spittal he was honoured to become a member of the NYO, along with three other Grammar boys. After graduating at Aberdeen University in 1962 he went to the Royal College of Music where he studied bassoon with Archie Camden and Martin Gatt (1948-54) and piano with Lamar Crowson. He freelanced and played in several London shows before joining the Northern Sinfonia. He next played with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra which was to remain the greatest experience of his early musical life. In 1966 he became a member of the LSO, staying with them for ten years and playing both at home and on many tours.

“He was then invited to become Principal bassoon with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, described in The Times as “one of the finest chamber orchestras in Britain”. He features as soloist in many of their CDs. He remained there until the Arts Council withdrew its grant in 1999 and dealt a deathblow to the orchestra. Patrick was devastated, typically more for his colleagues than for himself. Being a gifted teacher of both piano and bassoon, he was much in demand.

“Blessed with a wonderful sense of humour and mimicry, Patrick was a much loved colleague, and when he succumbed to bowel cancer in June last year his funeral service was attended by musicians from all around”.

Eric Keir Morrison (1922-32) MA, FIL died peacefully at Weston-super-Mare on 20 November 2007 aged 94. At School he was secretary of the Literary & Debating Society, vice-president of the Dramatic Society and joint School editor of the Magazine. He went on to Aberdeen University, graduating in Arts with honours in modern languages in 1936. He served as a Regular Army officer for twenty years from 1940, and in 1951 became a Fellow of the Institute of Linguists. On leaving the army he became principal lecturer in German at Bristol Polytechnic until retiring in 1978. He was predeceased by his wife but is survived by two daughters and three grandchildren.

Nigel Murray (1953-62) BSc, ARCM died peacefully at St Columba’s Hospice, Edinburgh on 17 November 2007 aged 64. A Prefect and a violinist with the National Youth Orchestra, he studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Leonard Hirsh, and also in Lucerne and Italy with the foremost violinists. He played with many of the UK’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in The Fields, the Yehudi

Menuhin Festival Orchestra, the Bath Festival Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. After his professional playing career was affected by an arm injury he studied psychology at Edinburgh University. In 1973 he was joined the staff of St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, teaching violin and coaching in chamber music and conducting. He also taught violin in both the senior department of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama as well as privately. He was appointed director of music at St Mary’s in 1980 and remained there until becoming director of the Lochaber Music School in 1996. He has been described as one of the most gifted and admired musicians in Scotland.

Nigel was the son of the late David Murray, a member of School staff in 1956-59 and director of music at St Machar Cathedral. He was predeceased by a few months by his twin sister Lorna, who was married to William Stevenson (1948-59), director of chapel music at St Andrews University.

Harold Bean Pearson (1928-36) died in Belfast on 26 February 2008, aged 87, following a short illness. He went up to Aberdeen University, but his studies were interrupted by War service. Commissioned in 275 (Highland) Field Regiment Royal Artillery, he served in France, North Africa and Italy, latterly with the rank of Major. On leaving the Army he joined C. Davidson & Son at Mugiemoss Mills as a management trainee, moving to London in 1949 as assistant to the General Manager of Lewis Berger & Son, paint manufacturers. He returned to Davidson’s as Secretary in 1958, later becoming Commercial Manager. In 1965, when the Davidson Radcliffe Group was formed, he was placed in charge of the board division. He was appointed managing director in 1969 and Chairman six years later. He retired in 1985.

Sadly his wife suffered a stroke two years later, prompting a move to Belfast to be near their daughter and her family. He cared for his wife until her death in 2002. He is survived by his daughter, two sons and three grandchildren. His son Roderick John Pearson was at the School in 1959-64 before moving on to Drumtochty Castle School.

Alexander Milne Rennie (1925-28) TD, MB,ChB, FRCS died peacefully in hospital in Aberdeen on 14 February 2008 after a long illness. He was aged 96. Brought up on a farm near Kintore he came from Fintray School to the School in Middle IV, leaving three years later as Classical Dux. He studied medicine at Aberdeen, graduating in 1933 and was the winner of several academic awards. A house officer at the old Woolmanhill Infirmary and then at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London and in Birmingham, he was a fellow in orthopaedic surgery in Aberdeen in 1937. In 1939 he was commissioned in the Royal Army Medical Corps and served with 154 Field Ambulance. He was appointed head of the orthopaedic department at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 1947, consultant surgeon in orthopaedics in 1958, and professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery at Aberdeen in 1972. He was a leading authority on the medical condition known as slipped epiphysis, a condition affecting the hip joints of children. After retiring in 1975, he spent some time in Kuwait setting up a specialist orthopaedic unit.

Predeceased in 2006 by his wife after 64 years of marriage, he is survived by his son, and two daughters as well as by eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Eric Rogers (1940-43) BSc died peacefully in Aberdeen on 27 May 2008, after a short illness, aged 82. Born in Jamaica, he came to the Grammar in 1940, living in the Boarding House. A Prefect, House Captain of Dun and a member of the 1st XV, he was Modern Dux in 1943. After returning from military service he studied at Aberdeen University, graduating in Civil Engineering in 1950. After a spell in London he worked in the Pitlochry area in connection with the construction of the Tummel/Garry hydro-electric scheme. In 1955 he went to West Africa as senior assistant engineer to the Lagos Parks Authority. In 1962 he became deputy chief resident engineer with Binnie & Partners, consulting

engineers, in the former West Pakistan, where he was concerned with the Mangla Dam project, a combined hydro-electric and irrigation scheme. It was at that time the largest civil engineering contract ever let. After a further three years in West Africa he returned to Aberdeen and became a director of William Tawse Ltd. He retired some years ago. Eric was predeceased by his wife, but is survived by a son and daughter and six grandchildren. His two brothers were Ian Grant Rogers (1941-46) who died in 1991 and James William Rogers (1940-43) who died in 1997.

Distinguished Medical Consultant

James Knox Russell (1932-37) MB,ChB, MD, MRCOG, FRCOG died on 27 October 2006, aged 88. After graduating in Medicine from Aberdeen University in 1942 he became a medical officer in the RAF, serving in Bomber Command at the height of the offensive against Germany, then with Fighter Command and with 125 Fighter Wing during the liberation of Copenhagen. Post-war, he trained as a gynaecologist in Aberdeen under Sir Dugald Baird before moving in 1950 to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. From 1958 he was professor of obstetrics and gynaecology there and later, in 1968-78, Dean of postgraduate medicine. He became a consultant to the World Health Organisation on human reproduction in 1965, in the course of which he travelled extensively, especially in India, Pakistan and the Far East, working in the field of family planning programmes and undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. Also at this time he became honorary obstetrician to the Medical Research Council unit on reproduction and growth when it moved from Aberdeen to Newcastle.

With a group of colleagues he designed, and implemented at Newcastle, the first integrated medical curriculum (by which students are introduced to clinical studies from the start of their undergraduate training) which has since been widely adopted by other medical schools. He was a member of a committee of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology which recommended improvements to the training and examination systems of the specialty which still apply.

Prof Russell’s main research interest was in the medical, social, educational and legal aspects of pregnancy in young teenage girls, on which he published a great deal, including a well received book in 1982. He also wrote extensively in medical journals. In retirement he took up an old RAF interest – the early detection of serious stress in aircrew. Away from medicine and medical education, he found time to pursue his hobby of curing and smoking salmon, sea trout, and other fish as well as bacon and chickens in a smoke-house in his garden near Morpeth. He was predeceased by his wife, but is survived by two daughters.

George Scott Skakle (1927-39) MA died peacefully in hospital in Aberdeen on 6 April 2008 aged 88. He attended Aberdeen University to graduate in Arts and study for the ministry of the Church of Scotland. He spent five years at St Machar’s Cathedral, first as Student Assistant and later as Ordained Assistant to Rev Dr. J. Wilson Baird. In 1947 he was inducted to Powis Church, Aberdeen and he spent his entire ministry of forty years faithfully ministering to that congregation and parish. He became involved in the work of the Leprosy Mission and was chairman for most of the 52 years he served on the local Committee. He spent many years with Christian Aid as ward and city convener at various times. From his years at St Machar he was chaplain to Bridge of Don British Legion, a post which he held until well after retirement. A dedicated member of the Presbytery of Aberdeen, he served on many of its committees and was its Moderator in 1966-67. He is survived by his wife, by his daughter Janet (1979-85), and he was delighted to meet his grandson Jack, born in January.

Donald Robert Stewart (1945-58) MA died peacefully after a short illness on 24 December 2007 aged 67. Born in Aberdeen, Donald was a keen supporter of the Boys’ Brigade in his

youth and was awarded the Queen’s Badge. He studied for a degree in Modern Languages in Aberdeen and, after postgraduate work in Vienna was, for six years, a lecturer in German at the University of Wales in Bangor. In 1972 he joined the University of St Andrews as Establishments Officer. Latterly he served as Examinations Officer and Senior Assistant Secretary in Registry, a post from which he retired in 1995.

Donald was an elder of St Leonard’s Church in St Andrews for over twenty years, a loyal supporter of many church activities and served at one time as chairman of the Congregational Board. He was a very keen birdwatcher and undertook a number of local surveys as well as enjoying bird-watching visits throughout the UK and abroad. He was at different periods secretary and chairman of the Fife Branch of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club and was a keen supporter of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. His tall, distinctive presence on ornithological outings will be missed, especially as he had an uncanny knack of recognising birds by their songs and calls. He was also a member of the New Golf Club and enjoyed the occasional round of golf.

Donald was a quiet man with a dry sense of humour. He married relatively late in life and enjoyed his new family enormously. He is survived by his wife, Jean, his step-children Lesley and Ric, and grandson Alastair.

Former Magazine Editor

David Kenneth Yule (1951-65) MA died peacefully at his Aberdeen home on 20 September 2007 aged 60. In the 1st XV, on account of his height, he bore the brunt of the line-out. His prefect’s profile said that he ‘sings, talks and laughs fortissimo’. He claimed, justifiably, to be the last pupil alphabetically on the School roll to progress through from Nursery to Upper VI. At Aberdeen University he graduated with honours in English. After a postgraduate course he was briefly involved in personnel management at the former Robert Gordon’s Institute of Technology before joining the administration of Aberdeen University in 1971. In a long and devoted career with his alma mater David served in many roles, but two in particular he made his own: the Clerkship of the Faculty of Medicine – from which period cohorts of medical graduates and staff have fond memories of the ‘gentle giant’ – and the Clerkship of the University Court, in which he served the members of the University’s governing body and its senior officers with distinction until his retirement in 2000.

He was for 14 years Editor of the FP Club Magazine, to which task he brought a sense of mission. His diligence, allied to his own not inconsiderable literary craftsmanship, was inspiring, and all in the old days of typesetters and galley proofs and other traps set for unwary editors. When plans were afoot to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the earliest known date of the School’s existence, David conceived, compiled and published on behalf of the Club the book 1256 and All That, a remarkable collection of historical material, much of it culled from past Magazines, which has been much acclaimed. He undertook the extensive research which this involved with enthusiasm and diligence and this book bears eloquent testimony to his devotion to both his old School and the FP Club. It is not widely known that the idea for the successful School theatre production of March 2007 came from David.

He is survived by his wife, Marian, by a son and daughter and a grandchild. He was, sadly, predeceased by his daughter Joanne a few years ago.

(1951-65) writes: “Dave Yule became a lifelong friend during our days at the Grammar School where not only was he an excellent scholar, particularly in English and languages, but he was also fully involved in a variety of extracurricular activities. He was a notable bass in the school choir, he had major supporting roles in the dramatic society, he was one of the school editors of the Magazine and he was a 1st XV stalwart in the lineout.

“Unfortunately, although his acting in school plays was outstanding, his acting when trying

to bluff us in the 3 card brag school was not of the same standard. I can still picture the upstairs room of the family home in Craigton Road, with Buddy Holly playing in the background. There is Dave’s gangly frame sitting forward in the chair, rubbing his hands, smiling and with a glint in his eye as he tried, usually unsuccessfully, to convince us he had a winning hand.

“After Dave graduated he and Marian married and I had the honour of being his best man (and he mine). While the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood led to a degree of maturation, Dave never lost his infectious capacity for adolescent fun which contributed to making him a great father with an unselfconscious ability to genuinely enjoy playing with his children.

“Sadly, he and the family had to endure the tragedy of their third child’s death in infancy, the later development of the progressive and ultimately fatal illness of their fourth child, Joanne, and Marian’s health problems. All these were borne by Dave with impressive calmness, resilience, good humour and a positive attitude. He also remained wholeheartedly committed to supporting his ageing parents, his mother dying only a year before his own death.

“He was very proud of his two surviving children, Nick and Snow, delighted to see them in settled relationships with Maria and Kevin, and he became a proud grandfather the year before he died.

“Although Dave was stoic and uncomplaining in dealing with his family misfortune, this is not to say that he couldn’t more than adequately play the role of grumpy old man and have a good moan along with the rest of us. This would be about Aberdeen Football Club, Scottish rugby, Grammar FP Club committees or some such, but never about his own personal troubles.

“More than anything, Dave’s life was characterised by what he did for others. There are many in our school year (the “65 year”) who can testify to the efforts he made to bring us all together in formal and informal re-unions. While most of us would relate well to a relatively small sub-group within the year, it was striking how Dave was well liked by everyone. He was instrumental in raising money from us for the “65 Year” school prize which is voted for by final year pupils for the person who has made the greatest contribution to the life of the school. There is no doubt that if we had the vote amongst the 65 Year he would have been the clear winner”.

Former Members of Staff

Ronald McLeod, M.A. died peacefully in hospital in Aberdeen on 28 October 2007 after a tiring illness. He was aged 90. Ron, as he liked to be known, was one of seven children and was educated at Sunnybank Primary School and Robert Gordon’s College. He graduated with honours in Classics from Aberdeen University in 1939. During the second World War he served in the Royal Air Force as a navigator in Bomber Command, flying mainly in Blenheims. During the war he met his wife Edith, who was also serving in the R.A.F, and they married in 1944. In 1946 he was appointed as an assistant teacher of Classics at the School, later becoming principal Classics teacher and remaining for the rest of his teaching career until retiring in 1982. Well loved and respected by his pupils, he was popularly known as ‘Tarzan’ on account of his strong physique. A keen sportsman, having played rugby at Gordon’s College, he took part in a lot of School sporting activities, refereeing and umpiring, and always played in the Masters -v- Boys Cricket and Golf Matches of former years. He continued his R.A.F. connection as Squadron Leader and Commanding Officer of the School’s C.C.F. Contingent for many years.

A very fine musician, he became well known as a Trumpet player, playing Jazz Trumpet in many of the well-known Bands in Aberdeen during the Dance Band and Big Band era. His reputation at the School was much enhanced when a pupil turned up one Monday morning to tell his classmates “you won’t believe this, but I saw Tarzan playing

the trumpet in the Northern Hotel on Saturday night”. He could have pursued a career as a professional musician. One evening, he deputised at the Plaza Ballroom in Spring Garden whose trumpet player was ill. That evening the famous jazz trumpeter Nat Gonella, with his band, the Georgeans, was making a guest appearance. A few weeks later, Gonella contacted the Plaza to ask that their trumpeter come south for an audition with a view to joining his band. The man for whom Ron had deputised went down, only to be told that he certainly wasn’t the man whom Gonella was expecting and there was no job for him.

Ron was for many years the Welfare Officer for the Aberdeen Branch of the Royal Air Force Association and was, until the time of his death, Chairman of the Aberdeen Branch of the Scottish Veterans Garden City Association.

Exceedingly well read, with always a book at hand, he had a wonderful retentive memory for literature and poetry, and was much in demand as an after-dinner speaker at Burns Suppers and at social events held by the FP Club and by the Gordonian Association. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, by two sons, Ian Ronald McLeod (1952-63) and Alan William McLeod (1956-69), and by four grandchildren.

William George Watt MA, BD, who was a member of the School Staff for almost twenty years, died peacefully at Alastrean House, Tarland on 18 November 2007 aged 95. His service with the RAF during the second World War saw him fly in over 36 bombing operations over Germany in 1942-43. He was later chief instructor on the Flight Engineer Leaders’ Course, with the substantive rank of Squadron Leader. On leaving the forces, he qualified as a teacher and was appointed to the Technical Department at the Grammar. In 1960 he transferred to the Mathematics Department to ease a shortage of maths teachers. He was a gifted and popular teacher, patient and understanding, looking for the good in people and ever ready to help where needed. His RAF experience led him to the School Cadet Force and he was for several years Contingent Commander with a special interest in the RAF section. Many boys who became expert flyers owe much to his early encouragement, ability and enthusiasm.

In 1968 he changed career, trained for the ministry of the Church of Scotland, and spent seven years as the highly effective minister of South St Nicholas Church in Aberdeen’s Kincorth suburb. He spent his retirement in Aberdeen and is survived by his wife of 68 years and by three generations of family.

EXPENDITURE

Abstract of Accounts for Year ended 31 December 2006 F.P. Club Centre

Expenditure Account

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine 2008