Annual General Meeting

President’s Report

I felt very honoured to be nominated as President of the Former Pupils’ Club two years ago. After presiding over the 2017 Annual Dinner, which I had believed to be my final duty as President, I was surprised but even more honoured to be elected to serve for a second year. The significance of my being the first person to serve two consecutive terms is not lost on me.

I have much enjoyed my several contacts with the Head Teacher and the School, and the interviews for the All Round Trophy in April were an inspiring revelation of the quality of pupils currently in the School – not only were all the candidates well equipped academically but all gave back in volunteer hours in both School and community and also had sporting and musical talents which left me wondering how they had time to sleep.

I was disappointed in April when, having returned from Canada to attend the Edinburgh Centre dinner, I found that it had been cancelled for lack of numbers. This is a major problem in Club life as our membership ages and numbers decline. I am pleased that this is a matter which is being addressed as a matter of urgency.

Planned surgery, from which I took longer to recover than had been foreseen, prevented me from attending the Yorkshire and Glasgow dinners and the School Christmas Service at St Machar’s Cathedral as well as other local dinners in Aberdeen, which I much regret. I am most grateful to those others who deputised for me at these various events.

I am proud to have been associated with the updating of the Club Constitution resulting from the proposal advanced by my own Canadian Centre which brings the proceedings of the Club into the 21st Century and the technological age.

When I returned home following the AGM I had travelled over 100,000 kilometers as President which, while taxing, has been my great pleasure to do.

One of my key interests as President has been the establishment of links between School Leavers and the Club, which have rather fallen by the wayside in recent years, and also planning a renewal of contacts between FPs and the Club. I have made contact with people who were in my year at The Grammar and now have details of over 60 classmates, some of whom were at this year’s Dinner. Each has been asked to reach out to all their school friends and this has grown arms and legs. I hope that this may be taken on board by other years and help to revitalize the Club. This is an ongoing project in which I will continue to be involved.

May I say, as I did in my Report in last year’s Magazine, how grateful I am for the support which I have enjoyed from my Aberdeen ‘team’ - Alan Campbell, John Michie and my father, Brian Crookshanks.

New School Science Laboratory

On the sunny afternoon of 26 June 2019 a remarkable ceremony took place in the familiar surroundings of the Head Teacher's room at School.

Brian K. Crookshanks who was Club President in 1983-84, and who first entered the School 85 years ago, made a gift of £10,000 to the School for the provision of an additional science laboratory. Brian was responding personally to a plea made by Head Teacher Alison Murison at a meeting of the FP Club Executive in the School Library in 2018 which had highlighted the issue of providing a further laboratory to cope with the pressure on science facilities, given the increasing demand for science subjects.

In the photo Alison Murison is receiving the donation and expressing her heartfelt gratitude for Brian’s generosity and on-going support. Brian's daughter Gillian Thomas, immediate past President of the Club and Secretary of the Canada Centre, is on his left. Also in the picture is Mark Stage, Head of Science at the School, who spoke passionately about the expansion of science teaching at School to cope with demand and the important addition to facilities which would be available for the new term after the summer holidays as a result of the gift.

Current Club President Iain Hopkin said, 'In my 50 plus years as a Former Pupil of Aberdeen Grammar School I can think of many stalwarts of the FP Club but I struggle to think of any Former Pupil who has put as much in to both the Former Pupils’ Club and the Club Centre as Brian. Even before my time as a Former Pupil arrived, Brian was heavily involved in the Club and held every post available on both the Club Executive and Club Centre Committee. Brian's work on the Magazine over many years is rightly acknowledged as being outstanding. But now, looking forward, Brian is making another very important contribution to Aberdeen Grammar School in the field of science and technology by donating a significant sum to the conversion of a classroom to a science laboratory at the school. This is a tremendous gesture and one that will greatly benefit the School and pupils for many years to come.'