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THE REEDER 2017
WELCOME from our OR President
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very warm welcome to you as you delve into the 2017 edition of the Reeder, which offers us a new beginning with a new design. This was inspired by the remarkable and humbling story of OR Alex van Holk, whose story you can read in the Main Feature. I must admit that it was the front cover photograph of Alex, featured in a mock-up of the proposed new design, that convinced me we should make the changes; I am sure you will be similarly inspired by Alex’s story and I hope you will enjoy our new format. I also hope that you will approve of our decision to move the annual publication date to the autumn so we can capture news from the full school year. Even though we are embarking on a new beginning with this publication, I am delighted to say that now we also have greater visibility into the past through the launch of Reed’s Heritage, an online archive of everything about the School going back as far as our research can take us.
I would urge you to log in to the Heritage website (reedsschoolheritage.co.uk) and wander through the sections to see what interests you, always bearing in mind that this is a live project that will see more material added as time and funds allow. Once again, I must mention Andy Wotton (Mullens 1975) and his extraordinary commitment and drive to making this project happen, working alongside Sharmaine, Meg Fitzgerald and other colleagues. I would particularly point you towards Andy’s research on The War Years which extends the work he did on completing (and correcting!) the Remembrance Boards in the School Chapel. I know others have worked tirelessly alongside the team to make this project a success (you know who you are) and each of you deserves our thanks which I am delighted to record here.
So, how much do you remember about your time at Reed’s, your contemporaries or, perhaps, later years with the Old Reedonians? An OR magazine, or more accurately a newsletter, was published twice a year in and around the time I left, and I discovered in one of them the destinations of several Mullens housemates after they left the School; a little more research will help me build a better picture of my contemporaries who passed out of sight and mind as we went our separate ways. I also discovered, for example, that I did a stint as the OR Auditor back in the late 70s/early 80s after I had resigned (or been sacked?!) as OR Cricket Captain. I had no recollection of that at all but memories are now stirring.
I am immensely proud of the extra-ordinary contributions made by ORs of all vintages to the daily life of the School. I laughed at the late, great Nick Simmons’ report on OR cricket of a similar vintage, although the batting averages reminded me that some of us were never as good as we think we were – if only we had had Reed’s new cricket centre to practise in! Read all about that and its importance to future funding of the Foundation later in this edition. With that in mind, I’m delighted to report that the OR Committee approved a donation of £25,000 towards the cricket centre costs, using funds accumulated many years ago, and this donation will be memorialised in a display board that will remind all visitors to the centre of its essential role in providing a regular income stream to the Foundation – it is, truly, a legacy project! Reminiscing about the past year or so, many highlights come to mind. We enjoyed a wonderful OR Reunion Day
at the end of June, with those celebrating a decade anniversary invited to lunch ahead of the general invitation to tea. The weather was kind, the hospitality from the School was excellent, the cricket looked to be at a scarily high standard and the planning and organisation was, as always, superb. Many “thank yous” were delivered at the time and are repeated here in the aggregate, but I must, of course, tip my hat to Sharmaine and her colleagues in the Development Office: Alison, Ed, Lucy and Ruth, under the leadership of Kathryn, each of whom contributes so much to both Reunion Day and the OR community generally. We all owe grateful thanks for their wonderful support and, for those of you who haven’t been to the School for a while, you will always be assured of a warm welcome from Sharmaine and the ‘Team’. Do take the opportunity to join us next year. Looking through the reports in this edition of The Reeder, as President of the ORs I am immensely proud of the extraordinary contributions made by ORs of all vintages to the daily life of the School. You will read elsewhere of the ways in which ORs help current pupils and the Foundation on multiple occasions through the year, and I would like to highlight the contribution of Peter Verstage (Capel 1965) who stepped down as a Reed’s Governor after 10 years of committed service. As well as sitting on the main Governing Board, Peter held positions on various sub-committees – notably the Finance Committee and Marketing Committee, always adding value to the discussions and decisions made. Peter made me very welcome as a new Governor in 2014; I hope he enjoys his ‘retirement’ although I’m sure we will see him at Reed’s on many occasions in the future.
