Reunions & Events

A summary of OR events and reunions that took place over a somewhat different academic year

SEPTEMBER 2019

OR Recent Leavers v OR Invitation XV

A really good turnout of players and supporters for this match at Reeds Weybridge. For final result, see page 47.

Bi-annual International Club Tennis Match

Whilst representing GB in the bi-annual International Club tennis match against the US, former teacher Simon Bramwell, met up with ORs Ben Draper and Jack Molloy – both Bristowe 2017 and both tennis scholars at Berkeley in California. Simon reports that both young men are doing really well and that their coaches spoke highly of the Reed’s tennis academy!

Totnes Reunion

73 not out! That doesn’t refer to the Ashes but instead to our ORs who attended Reed’s in Totnes that many years ago when it was evacuated during the War.

It is always a real honour to share the special and enduring friendships and bonds they have with each other and this year was no different. It was also particularly lovely to see a few ‘OR newbies’ including OR Committee members, Roger Mew (Bristowe 1959) and Andy Wotton (Mullens 1975), who joined us to learn about the anecdotes, antics and rich heritage of the School at that time. All ORs are welcome, so if you are interested in joining us, do get in touch.

OCTOBER 2019

Film for the Foundation

Who would guess that you could transform the Assembly Hall at Reed’s into a Mamma Mia film set, complete with rowing boat, café, lemon trees and lines of washing!? Well, that’s what happened for our fourth Film for the Foundation fundraising event. This is an extract from a note received from Charlotte Mocatta (Mullens 1988) whose OR brother, Simon Church (Mullens 1979), and friend, Jonathan Turner (Blathwayt 1979) we honour and in whose names we raise money for the Foundation. ‘It was fabulous to feel so much love in the Assembly Hall; Simon and Jonathan would be amazed by what we are doing 39 years after their deaths. Mum and I are really grateful that you do so much to fulfil their legacy.

Memorial Service for Richard Nicholson

We were honoured to host a memorial service for former member of staff, Richard Nicholson, who sadly died earlier in the year and to welcome his two brothers, extended family, ORs, former colleagues and staff. For those unable to attend, we received some wonderful messages and anecdotes about Richard which were put into a book of remembrance for the family (see Foundation section).

Reunions & Events

OCTOBER 2019

AFA Launch

It was wonderful that so many OR Foundation pupils from across the decades were able to join us at Grocers’ Hall for the 204th Annual Foundation Appeal Launch. As our new 2019/20 Appeal President, The Rt Hon David Laws, said at the time: ‘they represent all that is good and unique about the Foundation and Reed’s’.

NOVEMBER 2019

#WeWillRememberThem

Our 73 OR Heroes who gave their lives in World War Two, were commemorated by pupils in the annual School service: Jack Angus, Harry Archer, Denis Balaam, Harold Balshaw, Norman Bennett, Anthony Blacklin, Anthony Blaikley, Stephen Blower, Geoffrey Boit, Leslie Bond, Patrick Brace, Donald Bruty, John Budd, Allan Cantle-Jones, John Cantle-Jones, William Chapman, Frederick Colson, Geoffrey Cox, William Coxshall, Frederick Craven, Raymond Dale, Richard Dawson, Malcolm Dent, Noel Eldridge, Lawrence Farr, William Good, Francis Goodship, John Gwynne, Geoffrey Hall, Richard Hazell, Alan Hodgson, Mabel Houghton, Peter Hughes, Lewis Kirk, Vincent Lambert, George Landray, John Lane, Harold Lang, Clarence Leonard, John Lindley, William Lindley, Herbert Little, James Lloyd, Donald Mackinnon, Peter Marshall, Hugh McLanachan, Alan Mills, Thomas Moss, Ronald Oswald, Harold Page, Reginald Pedley, David Pledge, Henry Pocock, James Price, William Prosser, Denis Read, George Rowden, Allan Smith, Brian Stacy, Robert Steele, Gilbert Stiles, Harold Tayler, Leslie Thomas, Thomas Trinder, William Tyrie, Norman Walls, Herbert Waterton, Charles Wells, John Whittingham, Percival Williams, Raymond Willshire, Robert Withers, Robert Woods.

Andrew Reed Lecture

On 15th November, we held our biennial Andrew Reed Lecture at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in Kensington. In the hallowed Ondaajte Theatre – where the likes of Darwin, Shackleton, Livingston and Scott are memorialised – our guest speaker, Dr Keith Scholey (Bristowe 1975), captured the hearts and minds of some 500 guests from across the Reed’s community, with a little bit of help from world-renown, natural historian Sir David Attenborough.

Prior to the Lecture, it was wonderful for Keith to catch up with former Biology teacher, Howard Robinson, as well as other OR guests. Keith is the co-founder of Silverback Films, the company that produced the award-winning ‘Our Planet’ series for Netflix. As a zoologist who also headed up the BBC Natural History unit working very closely with Sir David, Keith was well-qualified to deliver his thought-provoking lecture, ‘Our Planet, Our Responsibility’. This topic so aptly reflected the reason why we hold this biennial event: to celebrate our Founder, Rev Dr Andrew Reed, and to reinforce the values on which he built our School. Keith definitely sparked our curiosity.

Please read the lead article on page 24 in which Keith provides some compelling evidence as to why we need to take responsibility for our planet.

Reunions & Events

JANUARY 2020

2019 Recent Leavers’ Drinks

Nearly 60 of our 2019 leavers joined us for their first official drink as ORs and we even had a cake for birthday boy Gus Baker (Mullens). Everyone was on top form, enjoying their new experiences since leaving School, although missing us at the same time!

Melbourne meet-up

What a coincidence that Val Wakefield should meet up with Becks Booker (Mullens 2006) in Australia who was using her veterinary nursing skills to help the fire damaged animals in and around Melbourne!

2013 OR Reunion

There can only be one caption for these photos: ‘friends for life’. It was lovely to be asked to join our 2013 ORs for their reunion in Battersea, with some coming from as far away as Milan and Glasgow! A fab time was had, with a few hilarious hours spent going through the 2013 Reedonian magazine, spotting themselves amongst the pages. Do let us know if you are getting together and send photographs please!

FEBRUARY 2020

Totnes Lunch

This special photo demonstrates what a community for life really means! The average age of these ORs – who all attended when it was evacuated to Totnes – works out to a remarkable 88.5. However, at our lunch yesterday, we were lucky enough to be served by fellow OR Calum McDermott (Blathwayt 2015), who brought this down to just 81!

MARCH 2020

South Africa

Capel boys forever! There may be 60 years between these two young men – Jim Williams (1959) and Adam Matthews (2019) but the Capel spirit lives strong. Meeting up in South Africa at the weekend, where Jim lives and where Adam had been working for four months, they were able to share many stories and much laughter. The book Jim proudly holds is his Howard Rose award for ‘Most Improved’ pupil which was awarded to him at Speech Day in 1959 – FIDE!

Reunions & Events

APRIL 2020

The Art of Letter Writing

As lockdown started to take its toll, we started an initiative whereby we ‘matched up’ Lower Sixth pupils and some staff with ORs from our Totnes and Dogmersfield era. This match was based on something simple like the same house, a similar interest or even just a shared birth month! It was very humbling to see the wonderful letters that were exchanged between pupils and ORs, bringing about much mutual respect and support for each other’s lockdown experience! We are hoping that when the next School reunion takes place, we can get these ‘pen pals’ together to meet in person.

London Marathon

We know it didn’t happen in April, but our ‘Magnificent 7’ of Marathon runners, including ORs, Megan Bennett (Bristowe 2009), Kimble Stuckey (Capel 2014) and Max Anderson (Mullens 2020), along with parents Paul Anderson, Robert Duggan, Nick Farmer and Mel White took part in the #TwoPointSixChallenge, splitting up the 26.2 miles between them, with some impressive routes and times. Keeping everything crossed we see you cross that London finishing line in 2021!

MAY 2020

Bristowe 10/5 Challenge

OR Bristowians Chessie & Miles Horwood (2018 & 2020) and Alex Greenwood (2015) joined other ‘housemates’ to help raise a whopping £3460 for Refuge in the Bristowe 10/5 Challenge, led by fellow OR and Housemaster, Adrian Blackman.

ATP Champions Tour

As part of a series of podcasts put out by the ATP Champions Tour, it was great to see two former Reed’s tennis scholars getting together, with Tim Henman (Blathwayt 1991) interviewing Jack Draper (Bristowe 2020).

JUNE 2020

Reunion Day

We had a great line up of activities planned for Reunion Day on Sunday 28th June with the aim of bringing ORs together virtually! In usual fashion, it was kicked off with recorded messages from Mark Hoskins (Headmaster) and Marcus Baker (Governor & OR President).

Our first live session was a ‘Cricket Chat with Mr Dunn & Medders’. With a back drop of Big Side Pavilion, our cricketers from across the decades regaled stories about dropped catches, personal bests, tough matches, umpires, school tours and everything in between. Mr Dunn even had his stat books to put Oskar Kolk (Blathwayt 2015), Sam Brandon (Capel 2008) and Toby Tarrant (Blathwayt 2010) right on a few scoring myths!

In our ‘Virtual Lessons,’ Caroline St-Gallay set a tough challenge by asking attendees to complete a selection of more obscure Shakespearean quotes. Luckily, we had some young brains on board, so the ‘OR face’ was saved, but we know it was interesting for ORs to find out what digital learning has been like for our teachers and pupils.

With the same passion and drive that many ORs will know, Head of History, Adam Waller, led a ‘What Happened Next...?’ session which went from putrefaction to exploding molasses! The lesson had it all and had a gripped group of ORs hanging on his every word!

It’s not often you get past and present Reed’s School luminaries like Alex Balls, Geoff Martin, Kim Lambert, Jen Lawrence, Mandy Francis, Lucy Balls, Val Wakefield and, of course, Paul Kemp in one room but we managed that on Reunion Day with our virtual ‘Tea with Kempo’ event. It was great having so many ORs popping in to say hello, including Blathwayt 1997 leavers, Mark Russell from the US and Rahim Lalani from Pakistan; thanks for missing breakfast/dinner for it gents! The day ended in traditional style with a Dylan Paris XI v School match, but this time it took the form of a cricket quiz against Reed’s staff. Some 45 varied questions were expertly put together by the Quiz Master, Angus Darroch Warren (Capel 1986), with teams captained by Chris Gore (Mullens 1987) and Reed’s Adam Waller. Please see the OR Sport section to read the full match report, in typical Gore style.

Reunions & Events

JULY 2020

Tipple with a Teacher

There are not many reunions where you can have a beer with friends from the US, ‘up north’ and several home counties plus a couple of your former teachers, but that is exactly what we did with our ‘Tipple with a Teacher’ evening! Reed’s leading lights Ian Clapp and Mark Vernon hosted a great ‘zoom’ gathering with some of their 1992 rugby squad each with a beverage in hand! From the outset, you could tell that the camaraderie and banter had not diminished with time!

Thank you for taking part gents: Tim Watney, Rupert Bryan, Seyi Aiyegbusi, Dan Murray, Dan Bayat, Wayne Linton, Matthew Penney, Dominic Margetson, Ogden Coke, Nick Gray, Toby Makzhangi and Matthew Margetson.