News of Old Boys and Former Staff

If you would like to get in touch with any of the Old Boys featured – or any other Old Boltonian – please contact the Development Office.

After a life of travel (working in more than 40 countries), Norman retired three years ago at the age of 82 and now entertains himself, if not many others, in writing poetry, prose and music. Most recent are Tales to Tickle The Intellect (inexpensive on Amazon), Poems to Help You Think, Smile and Learn (likewise), his autobiography The Boy from the Back Streets of Bolton (reviewed in the previous edition of The Bugle) and a French version of the Tales of the Conflent called Le Conflent Sublime (more expensive). Norman stays in good health by walking the dog and running – away from Covid-19! He believes that none of this would be possible if he had not attended Bolton School so many years ago.

After a lifetime’s interest in cars of all shapes and sizes, Doug decided to buy a sports car while he was still able to enjoy the pleasures of openair motoring. Not wishing to spend the rest of his spare time in repairs or tuning etc, he was widely advised to buy a Mazda MX5; these cars are not expensive and are extremely reliable. The next step was to join the MX5 Club which has several thousand members and has active regions throughout the UK. Doug and his wife, Judith, decided to join the North West section and have enjoyed the benefit of this for some time. The club members organise Sunday and mid-week runs on a regular basis and these usually cover about 100 miles. Often there will be up to 20 cars taking part. Doug and Judith have personally organised several of these events, mainly in the Ribble, Lune and Hodder valley regions. There are also member-organised weekends and holidays of 5-6 days in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The Slacks’ own next trip, however, is in the Cheshire/Derbyshire area in mid-May. If any Old Boltonians are interested in the MX5 experience, or would like to discuss ownership, Doug would be happy to arrange a test run in his car; he may be contacted via the Development Office.

Doug and his grandson share a love of cars

Roger fought two Cumbria County Council by-elections in 2021, winning the second with a 71% share of the vote (increasing Liberal Democrat vote seven times). He will be standing for the new Cumberland Unitary Authority in May this year. So, three elections in 12 months! A key factor in Roger’s success has been being visible by cycling everywhere in his large rural constituency. The 1966 School mock election was excellent preparation – although he wishes there had been electric bikes in those days!

Stuart lacked the confidence to take advantage of all Bolton School offered. His major gripe was being refused a place at the Easter cricket school at Lilleshall; he was apparently not good enough to go, although he never knew why Ronnie Booth had formed that opinion and it has rankled ever since! On leaving School with (by his own admission) a less than stellar academic record, Stuart entered articles of clerkship with a firm of chartered accountants in Wigan. When his family moved back down south he transferred to a London firm of chartered accountants, where – much to his amazement and his parents joy – he passed his accountancy exams and qualified at 21. At this point he realised that he had eventually learnt what hard work was, was a late developer and was fulfilling his Bolton School potential. After two years working in the City, Stuart decided that a career as a chartered accountant was not for him and he joined British American Tobacco, with whom he spent 30 fantastic years, 22 of which were overseas with postings to Central America, the Caribbean, Finland (twice), Nigeria (twice), New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia. He spent the early 1990s seeking acquisitions in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, after which he ran the company’s interests in Australasia and then Malaysia and retired, happily exhausted, in 2002.

Stuart and his wife settled back in the UK in the deep countryside near Henley on Thames. They continue to travel extensively, all the time maintaining close links with their two children and grandson. Stuart often thinks of his time at Bolton and although, sadly, he has no links with any former pupils, he is immensely proud of the School and how it has progressed and prospered. He notes that the Direct Grant scheme meant his classmates came from all sorts of backgounds – and that was of as much educational value as the formal teaching.

Congratulations to Steve and Jenny (née Smith, Class of 1968) who celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on 29th December 2021. The pair met at School in 1967 and so it seemed fitting to invite family and friends to spend the weekend between Christmas and New Year at Patterdale Hall, the School’s outdoor pursuits centre, where a fabulous time was had by all. Over 30 guests, aged from two years to nearly 80 years old, including three generations of Old Boltonians, travelled from all corners of the country to mark the occasion. Old Boys and Old

Three generations of the Gorski family celebrate

Girls joining Steve and Jenny were: Chris Gorski (Class of 1964), Richard Waterfield (Class of 1975), Julia Miskelly (née Gorski, Class of 1995), Erin Chuter (née Gorski, Class of 1996) and Cathy Malley (née Bullough, Class of 1993), plus current Bolton School pupils Katy and William Malley. After a wet and windy walk to Aira Force and back, the celebrations continued with a splendid meal and some emotional speeches, followed by a good old Polish Sto Lat toast in real Polish vodka. The party continued with family games and karaoke and Jenny, who had donned her old School uniform, surprised Steve with her father’s wedding ring to wear. In these strange times it was good to gather together and there were some tearful goodbyes at the end of the festivities. Steve and Jenny thank Bolton School for bringing them together and for being part of their lives again as they celebrated 50 years, and the staff at Patterdale Hall are to be congratulated on their hospitality, warmth and welcome.

For two years now, the Covid-19 pandemic has dominated world news. But while a number of governments have ignored much of the advice from Public Health (while nevertheless claiming credit for anything that has worked well) it has been Public Health teams at local level who have just got on with the day-to-day management and containment of the pandemic. Andy worked with a group of distinguished Sudanese Public Health doctors and the World Association for Sustainable Development in 2020 and 2021 to address low vaccine uptake rates among black and minority ethnic groups in the UK. While Andy played only a small role, his colleagues worked all hours via online broadcasts to get across to many UK communities the fact that the vaccines were safe, and that by getting vaccinated themselves, individuals were also helping protect others. In addition to their already fulltime day jobs, Andy’s colleagues also worked many extra hours with faith and community leaders in Sudan to increase vaccine-mediated protection among communities in Sudan already affected by food shortages and health programmes. Andy was therefore shocked to open an envelope one morning, to find he had been awarded a medal by the President of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians for services to Public Health in 2021. However, this being literally the only prize of any kind he has ever received during a long and completely undistinguished career, he could not take it lightly. While Andy cannot take any personal credit for the medal however, he would like it mentioned here as recognition of the largely unsung work of his colleagues in the UK Public Health profession who, behind the scenes, prevented huge numbers of further deaths from Covid-19 in the UK. And also of those Sudanese and other doctors from many countries who died while working for patients in the NHS in 2020 and 2021.

Meric, a Professor at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, was recently interviewed by six children about oceans and climate change for the BBC Earth Facebook page. The ‘Kids v Scientist’ interview can be seen here bit.ly/3II7525.

Simon, Professor of Russian History at University College London, recently joined Melvin Bragg’s In Our Time for a fascinating discussion of the 19th century anarchist and polymath, Peter Kropotkin. The broadcast can be listened to here: www.bbc.co.uk/ programmes/m0014pfr.

Congratulations to Paul, a Partner at Ward Hadaway LLP, who has been elected President of Manchester Law Society for 2022.

Giles took up his latest diplomatic service assignment, as British Ambassador to Sudan, in October 2021. A military coup less than four weeks after his arrival has made it a challenging first few months in the role.

This year Andy has become an entrant in the 174th edition of Who’s Who. He continues in his role as Chief Executive of Shropshire Council.

Elliot and his wife, Louise (née Dixon, 2003-2010), welcomed their son, George, in June Happy family: Elliot 2021 – a new and and Louise with much-loved brother George and Teddy for Teddy.

After graduating from Warwick University with a First Class degree in MORSE (Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics), Jonathan spent four years working as a Statistician at the Transport Research Laboratory in Wokingham, Berkshire. However, in Summer 2021, he finished at the Laboratory to embark on a journey into full-time Christian ministry. The first step on that journey is a twoyear ministry trainee position at Carey Baptist Church, Reading, which began in September. After this, Jonathan hopes to go and study at theological college, before taking up a church leadership position, hopefully somewhere back up North!

Hadley has joined The College of New Jersey for the spring semester, to teach Global Representations of Healthcare. Non-fiction and fiction literature, news media, films, and TV shows are explored in the course to both describe how health and healthcare professionals are imagined and represented in the media, as well as to compare those representations across culture and in comparison to reality. The course explores themes of ethics, equitable distribution of healthcare resources through public