KEEP IN TOUCH
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Harrow Association
Visit harrowschool.org.uk/oldharrovians to: Find out more about the Harrow Association and view the regularly updated events calendar.
Read the latest issues of The Harrovian, Follow Up! and the Harrow Record.
President
Timothy Bentinck MBE (Moretons 19663)
Chairman
Adam Hart (West Acre 19771)
Board
James Darley (The Park 19843)
James de Broë-Ferguson (The Grove 19813)
Will Orr-Ewing (Elmfield 19983)
Pierre Ali-Noor (West Acre 20013)
Peter Hedley (West Acre 20083)
Harry Melsom (Elmfield 19983)
Mumtaz Habib (Bradbys 20033)
Philip Gajland (Druries 20103)
Karim Wilkins (The Knoll 19843)
CONTACT THE TEAM Director
Will Landale (The Grove 19783) landalewjf@harrowschool.org.uk
Alumni Officer
Shama Alimohamed alimohamedsp@harrowschool.org.uk
Communications Manager
Jessica Bellringer bellringerjr@harrowschool.org.uk
Data Management Officer
James McLeod mcleodj@harrowschool.org.uk
Digital Communications Officer
Emma Pinto pintoel@harrowschool.org.uk
Financial Manager
Debbie Hannaway hannawayd@harrowschool.org.uk
Administrative Coordinator Parul Jobanputra jobanputrap@harrowschool.org.uk
DIGITAL ARCHIVES
View The Harrovian archive at theharrovian.org
Learn about multi-generational Harrow families at harrowfamilies.org
Read digital editions of Contio dating back to 1770 at harrowcontio.sds.websds.net
Access digital material relating to Harrow and WWI at harrowschool-ww1.org.uk
Telephone us on +44 (0) 20 8872 8200 Visit us: Harrow Association, 5A High Street, Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex HA1 3HP
The 2022–23 year has been another busy one for the Harrow Association, with the culmination of the 450th anniversary celebrations, the rousing Churchill Songs at the Royal Albert Hall, numerous Harrow 450 dinners across the globe and much more. How wonderful it has been to see so many of you at these events. Read more on pages 26-37
In September 2022, Perena Shryane retired after 17 years of tireless service with the HA, latterly as our Director. As Nick Shryane, Perena’s husband, retires as the Harrow School Bursar after a tenure of 25 years at the end of August 2023, we thank them both for their unfaltering commitment to Harrow and wish them well as they contemplate life after the Hill. Do read the fascinating interview with Nick Shryane on page 66.
As a consequence, we were thrilled to welcome Will Landale (The Grove 1978³ ) as the HA Director.
I am delighted, and not in the least surprised, that Will has hit the road running and has brought an energy and enthusiasm to the role that you might expect from an OH!
We have also welcomed new members to the HA Board during the last year: Pierre Ali-Noor (West Acre 2001³ ), Harry Melsom (Elmfield 1998³ ), Mumtaz Habib (Bradbys 2003³ ), Philip Gajland (Druries 2010³ ) and Karim Wilkins (The Knoll 1984³ ), who join James Darley (The Park 1984³ ), Treasurer James de Broë-Ferguson (The Grove 1981³ ) Peter Hedley (West Acre 2008³ ) and Will Orr-Ewing (Elmfield 1998³ ).
Our thanks go to Heyrick Bond-Gunning (West Acre 1985 1 ), who retired as a Board member.
May I also thank all members who completed our 2022 survey (part of our ongoing strategy to check periodically that the HA is meeting the expectations of our members). We gleaned a number of useful ideas from you and we are already acting upon some of your suggestions. Highlights from the survey are available on OH Connect.
The HA Board has now created a dedicated group of sub-committees whose membership includes members of the HA executive team and Board members, to lead and develop the five key areas of the HA’s operations: Community and Clubs, Communications and Data, Careers and Employability, Heritage, and Legal and Financial. We are, I believe, already seeing the value of this structure and, I am confident, the benefits will be shortly felt by you too. These focus areas are reflected in the pages that follow and I hope you enjoy reading about the global activities of the HA, including the wide-ranging and impressive achievements of many OHs and, of course, news from the Hill.
Stet Fortuna Domus Adam Hart (West Acre 19771) Perena Shryane, Harrow Association Administrator, Manager, Director (2006-22)Following nearly 17 years with the Harrow Association, our Director, Perena Shryane, retired at the end of August 2022.
The many Old Harrovians who have dealt with her over the years will know of her dedication and deep affection for Harrow School and all things Harrovian. We are sure you will join us in extending our sincerest gratitude for her tireless commitment to the HA and the School, and for the numerous initiatives she introduced during her tenure. Old Harrovians have all enjoyed the benefit of her efforts and we all wish her well for what will no doubt be a busy retirement.
Front cover: Will Perry (The Head Master’s 1997³ ) Photo: David Ince
Editors: Jessica Bellringer, Catharine Robinson Design: thecircus.uk.com UK Print: Optichrome Advertising enquiries to: editor@harrowschool.org.uk
Contributors: Will Perry ( The Head Master’s 1997³ ), Toni Fola-Alade ( Rendalls 2012³ ), Seung Chong ( The Knoll 1979³ ), Arnold Wong ( The Park 1987³ ), Andrew Kuk ( Bradbys 2000³ ), James Darley ( The Park 1984³) , Douglas Collins, William Young, Will Landale ( The Grove 1978³ ), Catharine Robinson, Nick Shryane, Julia Walton, Alex Trotter ( The Head Master’s 1980² ) Dale Vargas ( Druries 1952³ ), Emma Pinto, James McLeod and Shama Alimohamed.
Photographers: Will Cooper, Adam Duke, David Ince
Due to space constraints we have not listed the OHs who supplied correspondence, event reports or their own news and images for News in Brief, but we are very grateful to them.
BRADBYS
O Ait El Caid
D Aspandiiarov
M Behar-Sheehan
JJ Cockburn-Miller
MJW Gaffaney
BDH Goldberg
AS Inpan
S Liu
ZZX Low
TT O'Brien
HT Procter
WJ Rienow
FJ Smith
CM Timlin
DRURIES
A Abuov
K Calvert-Davies
PA Elliot
SC Francis
KHL Keey
HB Layzell
JCH McLean
HAM O'Shea
TJ Pollock
WTC Sotir
ELMFIELD
AK Amin
AC Corsellis
CAJ Davis
DG Doros
ALO Du Roy De Blicquy
BLT Dunne
TE Ferneyhough
CWG Kingsley
TLJ Lam
PE Truscott
YP Tsoi
JWR Turner
Y Wei
K Zaveri
THE GROVE
WH Chan
DE Eldridge
RC Eveleigh
A Fontana
JM Gardner
F Han
SFG Jarrett
CA Jolker
EO Olowe
VK Rajayogan
JS Riddell-Webster
GNS Urselli
THE HEAD MASTER'S
JW Artis
AOAMKF Awolesi
AOAMTF Awolesi
AK Hargraves
OPL Hills
CCH Ho
C Liu
CR O'Flaherty
T Photpipat
AC Seely
TJ Soyemi
AO Tait
JML Thompson
HC Woodcock
THE KNOLL
AOC Banfield
H Dong
AY Ghani
TCK Haworth
J Kunitomo
T Magomedov
SI Moscoso
W Nsouli
BC Obatoyinbo
VR Patel
S Santhamoorthy
KC Simpson
FJ Smith
DJP Wauchope
LYON'S
QYB Chen
FNDMJA De Robert
Hautequere
TD Edjua
TO Edun
WJ Howitt
MC Kantaris
AJE Kay
AY Kim
LA Lord
BA Morrison
Y Shen
BN Sheopuri
WID Treherne
Pollock
MA Zakhir
MORETONS
BSJ Ashley
SV Baranov
TMC Emery
JW Gisborne
VG Grant
SGD Harrison
GTG Lam
KHA Ma
MAC Morgan
DRJ Neal
HWW Rowntree
JH Williams
J Yu
NEWLANDS
ABKP Adomakoh
CJE Cross
FEL Douglas
JJ Esposito
LEO Gordon-Pullar
TJ Hobbs
OOM Kolawole
OJ Miall
KJ Morishige
JC Phillips
RC Ponniah
JDA Rates
M Van Aeken
CJH Young
THE PARK
GF Ansell
AF Da Silveira
Pinheiro
YT Ding
IWJ Doyle
KYH Leung
ID Ojomo
CUC Orji
LRG Parry-George
J Qi
HJ Ridley
J Ro
CTR Stone
ACY Wong
RENDALLS
N Bibolat
CJ Ellis
MJ Foulston
OC Gleason
NP Hanbury
ME Kawkabani
EY Morales
Quintanal
S Oh
JR Owens
PYM Pang
ST Pound
SVH Rawal
IS Thayil
J Tse
Y Yang
X Ye
WEST ACRE
OAJ Adejolu
AES Aldrich-Blake
GC Black
APP Cherpion
CKA Chow
APC Gupte
Y He
PG Heywood
M Kuner
HFJ Morse
EH Taylor
LCW Walton
Z Zhao
Over 450 beautiful photographs which include rarely seen artefacts from the Harrow School Archive, Old Speech Room Gallery and views from across the estate.
THIS BEAUTIFUL BOOK is a visual biography of Harrow School. From its founding to the present day, photographer Will Cooper takes us on a journey that delves deep into Harrow’s archives and collections, buildings and traditions.
We visit the quieter corners of the School, rediscover familiar friends, uncover the unknown and travel through time to enjoy rarely seen artefacts from the School’s collections.
From Byron’s slippers to Churchill’s letters, from the Fourth Form Room to Lyon’s, these stunning photographs make up a unique record of 450 years of Harrow School.
BY WILLIAM COOPER £80 plus P&PHOW TO ORDER
To order your copy visit harrowschoolenterprises.com/a-photographiccelebration-of-harrow-school or scan the QR code.
Postage and packaging will be an additional £4.40
Thank you again for sending in your letters and emails throughout the year. If you have a story or note you’d like to share with the OH community, send your correspondence for future issues to editor@harrowschool.org.uk. Correspondence may be edited.
On 6 May 1972, Leeds United beat Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 100,000 to win the FA Cup. The occasion marked the 100th anniversary of the inception of the FA Challenge Cup, the brainchild of Charles Alcock (Druries 18553 ) whose idea was based on the Harrow School Cock House competition. The match was preceded by a parade around the hallowed turf depicting 100 years of Cup Finals with each FA Cup-winning club represented. No club existing in 1972 was more closely associated with Wanderers, the first winners in 1872, than the OHAFC, who were invited by the Football Association to represent this famous club, which was founded in 1859 and dissolved in 1887. Four OHs had played for the Wanderers in that first Cup Final triumph at Kennington Oval, London – C W Alcock (Druries 18553), M P Betts (The Head Master's 1862 2), W P Crake (West Acre 18663), and R C Welch (Home Boarder 1864) – before a crowd of 2,000 on a pitch devoid of crossbars, goal nets, centre circle and free kicks. As Wanderers were the first winners, naturally their OH representatives led the 1972 parade ahead of the Old Etonians seen waiting in the wings in the photo below as the fourth name on the Cup after Oxford University and Royal Engineers. Five-time winners Wanderers were represented by five OHs – Fred Woolley (West Acre 19573), Chris Holt (Elmfield 19612), David Buik (Elmfield 19573), Garth Bearman (Moretons 19602) and James Cox (The Grove 19592) – as symbols of each year Wanderers had won the Cup.
Fred Woolley (West Acre 19573)
DEAR HARROW ASSOCIATION, I recently visited HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal when in Amman, Jordan. This picture was taken in the Palace Garden. We hada most interesting and entertaining talk together. I just thought you may like to include it in Follow Up! magazine.
Best wishes, Joe Barclay (Elmfield 19593)
HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal (The Park 19603) with contemporary Joe Barclay (Elmfield 19593) in Jordan.
DEAR EDITORS,
You may be interested to see this photograph of George Gibson Richardson Jr (The Head Master’s 1856 1 ) taken at The Photographic Society on 28 April 1856, shortly after he went to Harrow under Dr Vaughan (1845 to 59). He was the eldest of the six sons of my great-great-grandfather George Gibson Richardson Sr, who all went to Harrow in The Head Master’s between 1856 and 1871.
In 1867, George Gibson Richardson gave to Harrow School an oil painting entitled Black Monday, by William Redmore Bigg R.A.
Simon Tosswill (West Acre 1949 3 )
It is now sixty-four years since four new boys joined the other five hundred faces when they entered Bradbys during 1959, on the first day of term experiencing the hubbub of all the other boys arriving who were bigger, stronger, more confident and appeared to know all the arcane rules. We were surrounded by Giants of Old.
Each of us came with our own personal issues, fears and anxieties; it was natural to come together for comfort and reassurance more than anything else. Back then, Harrow was a robust culture where you were expected to deal with your own problems in silence. Trusted friends were essential in the process of coping. The concepts of stress and counselling had yet to be invented. The group developed a strategy of whenever a relative took us out to the Hill the other three had to come too: a fourfold dividend return on our investment and shades of things to come.
Moving further into the early teenage years, it was time to develop a character that would allow you to be part of the House and School life, while beginning the Harrow School process of becoming the complete man. After three years, responsibility and accountability appeared and the need to create a mature personality with lasting values for the wider life to be. Friends soon tell you the honest truth and you always need that to progress. Also, they are genuinely pleased for your successes, a vital trait in friends to satisfy the need for praise in all of us.
Then the heady days of the final Sixth Form year with more trust, total personal freedom, and an example to set. Great days to remember, with our group at its relaxed best and making a mark as we fully matured, with the wider life to be ahead.
Now on to the chaos of the final day at Harrow, with the wild regret of the last goodbye as we all scattered to become new boys again at universities and colleges. But, this time, we were mature, confident and robust enough to face the real world’s tribulations, and yet we still remained in contact as old, valued friends.
Parties, events, Founder’s Day, Songs and the faded glories of Lord’s kept the links going: we were so pleased to hear the schoolboy chants of ‘We have beaten Eton’ for the last time at the ground.
The group expanded as girlfriends then wives appeared, with family gatherings to attend. Now we were confident that, if disaster occurred, help was only a phone call away, that vital insurance policy which was always there but never used.
As we moved into the more mature years, with successes behind us, and we were now experiencing the ultimate delight of grandchildren who will take our beliefs and values far into the future. The friendship of a lifetime had carried us through it all and we still meet regularly as content old friends sixty years on as last Follow Up!
Have we lived up to the Giants of Old? Of course we have, each and every one of us!
Forty and fifty and sixty years on.
DEAR EDITORS,
Visit to the Hill
I live in Australia and have done for many years. As luck would have it, I managed to choose the warmest and most beautiful summer to come home for an extended holiday with one of my three daughters and a group of her friends. One of her friends is a teacher of physical education at a large private school in Sydney. When she heard that I was lucky enough to have been educated at Harrow School she asked if I could arrange a tour. Shama from the HA office could not have been kinder in providing us with Director William Landale (The Grove 19783) armed with a large bunch of keys to show our group around. It is nearly 60 years since I started my time in The Grove, a long time in the life of a school – 12 school generations. My visit showed me just how much the School has, on one hand, moved confidently and purposefully to offer incrementally more to the lucky pupils who attend it. The facilities added over the decades are a tribute to careful and well-thought-out forward planning. The plans for the future are no less bold and exciting. The visit also showed me how well the beautiful old buildings and new additions have blended seamlessly to maintain the character of a world-leading educational establishment. I am absolutely sure that the current pupils will carry forward all the best traditions that us old boys fondly remember.
James Heaton (The Grove 1963 3)OHs have been sending us their news throughout the year. If you have news from 1 April 2023–31 March 2024 that you would like to be included in next year's Follow Up!, let us know at oldharrovians@harrowschool.org.uk.
HSS Trotter DFC (The Head Master's 19371) received the Legion d'Honneur as a part of the French government's recognition of veterans of the Battle of Normandy. Hugo was invited to visit his old RAF Squadron, No 12, and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in May. Hugo celebrates his 100th birthday this year.
HEM Stone (The Knoll 19422), together with Jim Horne, started a hostel in Battersea for eight alcoholic vagrants in 1969. Now, St Mungo’s helps and accommodates 31,500 homeless men and women every night as well as providing extensive rehabilitation facilities.
I Fitzlyon (Rendalls 19493) celebrated his blue sapphire wedding anniversary with his wife Josephine in April 2022.
The Revd JA Kirk (The Grove 19503) was recently appointed Trustee of The Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology.This research centre in Cambridge encourages students under its auspices to engage in research projects that connect the Christian faith to important social, cultural, political and other issues of concern in the public square. It publishes journals, offers free seminars and conducts hubs for specialist research subjects.
MTSJ Dury (The Grove 19522), having retired after serving in the Grenadier Guards and selling his own company, has been writing music and poetry for charity. The Harrow School choir kindly sang and recorded a Christmas carol, which was also performed in Holy Trinity, Sloane Square, for a festival for the then Prince Charles' Foundation for Children and the Arts. Mark’s poems can be found at simplymypoems.co.uk for all members to read and to pass on.
MJH Weedon (Druries 19542) – you need to have been Head of School, double 'blood', Cambridge Law degree, cricket blue and a Harvard B School MBA with Distinction before you are qualified to trap moles! Mark caught 40 in 2022 and 53 in 2021.
M Hedley-Whyte (Moretons 19541), WEF Samuel (Druries 19543), JDC Vargas (Druries 19523), PW Pett (Druries 19542), MJH Weedon (Druries 19542), AJ Coni (Druries 19532) and HV Reid (Moretons 19543) met at the Army & Navy Club on 21 March 2023. The group meets three to four times a year.
The Revd AF Anderson (Rendalls 19582) joined a number of Old Rendallians for another annual lunch at the Oxford and Cambridge Club on 27 October 2022. Their friendship goes back to the years when George McConnell and Tim Warr were the House Masters. That it is now about 60 years on, making these reunions all the more special. Pictured from left to right: PW Mitchell (19592), DWW Norris (19593), NBQ Back (19623), PR Siddons (19563), RL Millbourn (19581), JH Cook (19603), RdeWK Winlaw (19563), A de Grunwald (19582), JP Swain (19563), JH Bonas (19573), AF Anderson (19582), RGN Nabarro (19583), JFD Williams (19573) and CHB Dorin (19593).
Professor RCA Harrison (West Acre 19573) is partly resident in the State of New York and partly in Hastings in the UK. Carey is a Professor of Comparative Literature and has taught at the City University of New York for 30 years. Carey previously taught Comparative Literature at Cornell, the University of Texas, the University of California San Diego and the University of Essex. He is a lifelong novelist and playwright; most of his 12 novels are available on Amazon and he has sold over 200 plays and scripts. In 2022, he and his wife moved from Woodstock to a mountainside above the town in the Mount Overlook Wild Forest. He would love to hear from any OHs who remember him, and even from those who do not.
PH Radcliffe (The Grove 19592) has written a book about his family that includes an abundance of references to their ties to Harrow. Peter notes, "It took seven years to write in between travel and other interests. The internet is an amazing resource, but I also visited many sites in the North of England and talked to historians who were only too willing to spare their time and provide both documents and leads. I have ended up with plenty of relevant literature."
Dr RB Packard (The Head Master's 19602) was the first recipient of the M C Luthra Gold medal at the IIRSI meeting in Amritsar.
RL Millbourn (Rendalls 19581) has joined Dowgate Capital as a Consultant. Dowgate supports proven entrepreneurs and helps their small and medium-size businesses to grow.
JCWA Caulcutt CBE (West Acre 19602) was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Charity and to Philanthropy in the New Year Honours List 2023.
GH Harris (The Grove 19633) has published several books on Kindle since retiring from teaching history in 2010. He has also sung a lot of church music, played with grandsons and painted several pictures. George's next exhibition is at the Coniston Institute and is in aid of the Coniston Mountain Rescue Team.
ENS Allen (The Head Master's 19633) is now enjoying retirement. Edward studied Civil Engineering at Loughborough University and began his career working on projects including Kings Cross House and Brent Cross Shopping Centre. Edward built railways in Natal in South Africa, and designed trackwork for the Army at Lulworth Tank Ranges, the high-speed line in Iraq from Baghdad to Basra and the Docklands Light Railway. He then moved back to Norfolk where he ran manufacturing and repaired scientific instruments, mainly mercury barometers and thermometers, at which he became the world expert, and worked in Kazakhstan and Papua New Guinea to repair barometers.
Professor CH Carr (Moretons 19652), Professor of Corporate Strategy, University of Edinburgh Business School, has given invited seminars on his book Global Oligopoly: A Key Idea for Business and Society at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow and, most recently, Durham, Warwick and York universities. In April, he presented three papers on cross-cultural leadership at the Academy for International Business, hosted by Glasgow University. As Vice Chairman of the Marlowe Society, he organised the February London Marlowe Day in Deptford, with five speakers (four authors from the USA and Canada and one eminent British professor), all addressing the Marlowe/Shakespeare authorship issue.
TPF Robarts (The Grove 19661) has written a blog (robarts.com/blog/) featuring recommended books that he can supply to readers of the blog, as a result of his partnership with the London Library. The blog also contains videos on yoga and mental wellbeing, provided by Tim’s wife Michelle. For more information contact Tim at tim@robarts.com.
Colonel PRC Flach MBE (Moretons 19662), Lieutenant of His Majesty's Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, and HG Robertson (West Acre 19703), Lieutenant of His Majesty's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard, served at the State Arrival of the President of South Africa at Buckingham Palace on 22 November 2022.
DR Levinson (Bradbys 19673) retired last year after 40 years in Australia, and returned to his roots in the UK with his wife Ena. In 2022, he completed a 1000km charity walk in aid of Diabetes NSW in Australia, walking 20km a day for 50 consecutive days. David and Ena's love for long-distance walking continues; last year they walked 298km along the Thames Path from the Thames barrier to the sea, and recently trekked for eight days (154km) along the West Highland Way from Glasgow to Fort William. This year, they are planning to walk the Via Francigena, a 2000km pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome, taking three to four months and camping and hostelling along the way.
GR Elliott (Moretons 19692) stepped down as Chairman of Sir John Soane's Museum in 2022 after a decade. He is now Chairman of Venice in Peril Fund CIO and of The Prudence Trust.
MW Hall (The Park 19691) was one of five OHs who met at AJ Anderson’s (Rendalls 19522) home in Berkshire on 24 July 2022. The group included three members of the 1957 Lord's team. Pictured from L to R: DWW Norris (Rendalls 19593), MW Hall (The Park 19691), AJ Anderson (Rendalls 19522), JDC Vargas (Druries 19523) and MJH Weedon (Druries 19542). It was Anthony's idea to entertain five locals who had all played for the XI. Messrs Norris, Anderson and Hall are all members of Huntercombe Golf Club and regularly play golf together.
JRB McBeath (The Head Master's 19673) was installed as Master of The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, and formally accepted the keys to the Proof House on 2 November 2022 at the Gunmakers' Nomination Dinner at Mansion House. He succeeded Major GAF Hill VR (Newlands 19763).
BM Covell (Moretons 19682) represented Great Britain in the 2022 World Triathlon Age Group Championships in Abu Dhabi and the 2022 European Triathlon Age Group Championships in Poland.
MCG Peel (Druries 19703) released his latest book, Gilly:The Turbulent Life of Roy Gilchrist, in March and is set to release his next biography, Yorkshire Grit: The Life of Ray Illingworth, in July. Mark is currently working on a biography of Donald Dewar, Scotland's first First Minister. He much enjoys his frequent meetings with Ross Beckett (former beak 1966–2004, House Master of Elmfield 1983–95) and Peter Hunter (former beak 1985–2018, House Master of The Park 2001–13) at the New Club in Edinburgh.
DR Busk (Druries 19712) and his wife Sophie were awarded a Guinness World Record in March 2023 for the longest espaliered plant. The champion espaliered pear tree Beurre Diel covers the westfacing wall in the garden of their home, Houghton Lodge Gardens, with a width of 16.33m.
WR Wieloch (Rendalls 19723) and MTO Stanley (Druries 19703) met at Cowes on 29 June 2022. In 1975, Martin was captain of sailing and Rupert was captain of boxing at Harrow; six years later, they were armoured troop leaders together in the 17th/21st Lancers and, 40-something years on, Rupert was Secretary of the St Moritz Tobogganing Club and Martin is currently the Vice Commodore of The Royal Yacht Squadron. In November 2022, Rupert returned to the Hill to give a talk to the Alexander Society on Old Harrovian Giants at El Alamein.
EC Gordon Lennox (The Grove 19742) represented the England Over-60s cricket team in the Carib Cup in Barbados in February. England beat the Aussies in the final of the competition at the Kensington Oval to lift the trophy. Edward top scored for the team in the competition and was Man of the Match in the final. Having beaten the West Indies in the semi-final, and as a reminder of the School tour to Barbados in 1979, England gained a supporter in ML Sealy (Rendalls 19752), himself having won the USA Masters Squash tournament the week before. Seniors' sport growing very fast!
AB Dick-Cleland (The Park 19743) is Property Manager at the Hardwick Estate near Whitchurch-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire, where he looks after 27 houses. Alastair also works at the Landmark Trust as Project Development Manager for three days a week,
DN Wijewardane (Moretons 19781) is General Services Coordinator in the Directorate of Administration at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where he has worked since 2020. Having worked for UNICEF on relief and humanitarian work in Pakistan and Iraq from 2009, Nishy joined the Vienna-based Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation in 2015, engaging in preventing nuclear proliferation. Nishy’s wife is Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka and they have two children, one a graduate of Durham and LSE in Law and the other of McGill in Public Policy.
Dr DA Taylor (Newlands 19783) gave a talk to current Harrovians in November 2022 on his career as a Consultant Respiratory Physician as part of the Careers Business Lunch Programme.
CT Andrew (Rendalls 19731) is proud to have been selected for the second year in a row to photograph the prestigious calendar for Scania trucks. The project took Tim all over the UK, clocking up 4000 miles to capture company-owned trucks at work and at their headquarters. Each month features the hero shot and is accompanied by more images and the story behind the photos on the Scania website.
AJM Shearer (The Head Master's 19743) is Co-Founder of Bell and Loxton Innovations, developing intellectual property around valorising abundant, protein-rich agricultural waste streams and creating high value biorenewables for the nutrition and personal care sectors. The business has been awarded an Innovate UK SMART grant for manufacturing development and scale up.
PS Wannamethee (Rendalls 19783) assumed the post as Ambassador of Thailand to Belgium and Head of the Thai Mission to the European Union in 2021, and was engaged with the negotiations leading to the signing of the Thai-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement in December 2022, as well as a playing a role in the official resumption of the Thai-EU Free Trade negotiations in March 2023.
RJ Fairer-Smith (Newlands 19793) was invited to exhibit 100 of his backstage fashion images in a solo exhibition at SCAD FASH in Atlanta, Georgia. Backstage Pass: Dior, Galliano, Jacobs, and McQueen was curated by Director of Fashion Exhibitions, Rafael Gomes, and was presented in association with Atlanta Celebrates Photography. Robert was also invited to exhibit 40 images as part of the Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse exhibition currently on show at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, which will be moving to the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec in the summer of 2023.
Dr JG Crowston (The Park 19793) recently relocated to Australia after four years at Duke-NUS in Singapore to take up a position as Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he works as a consultant specialising in the diagnosis and management of glaucoma.
JC Florey (Newlands 19801) is a Director of Gentium Advisers, a multi-discipline service company, based in Bahrain with offices in London, Manama and Manilla, supplying companies and individuals with services from technical procurement to real estate finance. John spends his free time on the usual expat pastimes: golf, paddleboarding, badminton and padel tennis. Anyone in the region, please feel free to get in touch at johnflorey@gentiumadvisers.com
NI Siddiqi (West Acre 19803) is Senior Partner at Novo Holdings, based in London and Copenhagen. He has built his career in backing medical innovation. At Novo, he is a venture capital investor investing in life sciences companies across Europe and the US. He is married and has two children: a daughter who is completing a Masters at Oxford University and a son who is an undergraduate at UCL.
MD Pacifico (The Knoll 19863) was elected President of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, a post he will hold for two years alongside the running of his private clinic, Purity Bridge, in Tunbridge Wells. He is regularly invited to lecture and teach across the world and, this year, has invitations to India, Morocco, the Czech Republic and Italy among others. His principal interests are plastic surgery to the face and breast.
JGAS Churchill OBE (The Grove 19893) was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to International Trade and to the Dyslexia and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Community in the New Year Honours List 2023.
AJ Trotter (The Head Master's 19802) spends time between London, Lagos and Paris. The fast-food restaurant business Alexander co-founded in Nigeria in 2018 has grown to 30 stores and, at the end of 2021, received private equity investment from a fund backed by the IFC and UK governments. Alexander hopes to see OHs in Lagos at a get together later in the year. He is also involved in Oxford University's Africa Initiative and is enjoying reacquainting himself with the School as a Trustee of the Harrow Club and Mission and seeing the fantastic work being done.
WTD Sankey (The Grove 19803) celebrated his 21st year as publisher of the The Good Shopping Guide. Starting out as a ten-edition reference book, the guide quickly established itself as the world's leading resource on the ethical rating of companies and brands. The ongoing research aims to cut through all the greenwashing and provide a true ethical comparison for investors, supply chain managers, consumers, employees and journalists, with the BBC and other news outlets regularly featuring. Over 15 ethical and sustainability criteria are used to produce the GSG Ethical Scores across 70 product sectors, with thousands of brands individually scored and ranked. You can now access this open-source guide at thegoodshoppingguide.com.
Brigadier SJ Cartwright OBE (West Acre 19813) has been appointed Under Treasurer/Chief Executive of The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn.
Lt Gen Sir CRV Walker KCB DSO (The Grove 19833) was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the New Year Honours List 2023.
FM Nicholls (The Park 19833) graduated from Northumbria University with Distinction in November 2022 with an MA in Education SEND/Inclusion, having relocated to the North-East in 2021. Fiona enjoyed every minute of the course and being a student again, and has accepted an unconditional offer for a fully funded PhD studentship at Northumbria University, starting in October 2023. The research project concerns adapting and applying a whole-school intervention for autistic 8–10-year-olds in mainstream classrooms to increase school participation and connectedness.
Dr JM Ross (Newlands 19853) was appointed as Music Director of King's College London Symphony Orchestra in September 2022.
GRA Hindley (Moretons 19893) and his wife Amber recently completed the purchase of the Grade 1 listed Gisburne Park Hospital, Guy's old family home. This completes the final piece of the jigsaw in re-establishing Gisburne Park Estate and allows them to start converting the hall into one of the North of England's leading hotel and wellness resorts. Established in 1614, Gisburne Park Estate is situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, about 45 minutes north of Manchester, and is already a thriving holiday destination, film location, wedding venue and wildlife sanctuary.
OHs have been sending us their news throughout the year.
If you have news to feature in next year's Follow Up! email oldharrovians@harrowschool.org.uk
AT Nehorai (Druries 19903) completed his third London Marathon in 2023. This year, Alex ran in support of Macmillan Cancer Support and finished with a time of 4 hours 11 minutes.
AEC Gray (The Head Master's 19943) has gained a MSc in Transpersonal Child, Adolescent and Family Therapy. He is now working for Achieving for Children as a CAMHS Clinician and Child Psychotherapist. This post sits within the Mental Health Support Teams in schools throughout Kingston to undertake assessments, deliver high-quality, low-to moderate-level interventions to children and families, provide and develop workshops and support for parents, provide consultations, support and training to school staff, and line management for junior staff. Alexander is also the Founder of the OH Wellbeing Society. Contact him at oldharrovianwellbeingsociety@gmail.com.
MBW Jeffers (West Acre 19943) completed the London Marathon 2023. Having taken quite different career paths, this is the first race in which Matt has run with Mo Farah since they both represented Middlesex at the cross-country nationals in 1999, some 24 years ago!
HRG Syms (The Knoll 19963) joined Willis Towers Watson in October 2022, after spending 17 years at Lloyd's of London insurance brokers Howden (formerly R K Harrison) in their Fine Art team. Harry continues to specialise in arranging bespoke insurance solutions for private and corporate art collectors, as well as dealers, museums and international exhibitions.
DJ Foster (West Acre 19963) recently returned to the United States after 15 years of living and working overseas, primarily in Southeast Asia. Jemison has settled in Fort Collins in Colorado, where he has formed his company Odyssey Admissions, which provides university admissions guidance remotely to students around the world. Outside work, Jemison spends his time with his five-year-old daughter, hiking, mountain biking and enjoying life in the mountains.
S Datta (Bradbys 19973) won the prestigious Aga Khan Music Award in October 2022. Soumik released his new album Silent Spaces on 24 October to coincide with Diwali and then began his UK tour with Choose Love in support of refugees.
PJ Kennedy (The Knoll 19913) starred as Will in Atlanta in 2022 and, in 2023, played David Cartwright in Death in Paradise and Mark Bolton in Liaison
GR Schaad-Jackson (The Park 19913) launched Cooking Smarter Not Harder this year, an app with live, interactive, virtual cooking masterclasses. Using his 15 years of professional cooking experience, his Engineering degree and Diploma in Diet & Nutrition, Gregory created a step-bystep six-week coaching course to help people eat more healthily. Alumni of the programme have so far testified to gaining confidence, being more efficient in the time it takes them to cook regular meals, and consuming a greater variety of fresh foods. Gregory is passionate about helping people improve their long-term health through an enjoyable and balanced diet.
PS Sednaoui (The Grove 19963) recently launched a new business, Fogdog IT Ltd, the UK offices of a San Francisco-based IT support and services provider. As Director of UK operations, Paul is excited to bring the firm's distinctive philosophy of ‘adaptive enterprise’ to the SME market in the UK and is actively soliciting new business. He welcomes the opportunity to share the firm's value proposition with interested parties. Further information can be found at fogdogit.com.
JDOR Schneider (The Knoll 19973) and RPF Schneider (The Knoll 19993) are the Founders of Gardenia Technologies. They are excited to announce their Partner status with AWS, as the pre-eminent ESG calculation and management platform for global corporates. Through the partner status with AWS, their platform will deliver automated and effective ESG solutions to our global clients.
LM Raffety (Rendalls 19983), AM Raffety (Rendalls 19953) and WLGH Gossip (Rendalls 19963) work for fine wine merchant Turville Valley Wines and specialise in the world's finest, most collectible bottles. Thanks to the input from these OHs, the company was awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2022, having seen substantial and sustained growth in both sales and profit. Established in 1979, Turville supplies the world's rarest wines to drinkers, collectors and investors across the globe. While the company trades in the star producers from both the old and new worlds, it is best known for its extensive selection of the greatest wines of all, those of Domaine de la Romanée Conti.
Dr OL Duke (Newlands 19993) participated in Comic Relief's Keep Dancing challenge, helping his BBC Good Morning Live co-star Gethin Jones complete 24 hours of dancing and raising over £1 million for the charity. In May, Oscar returned to the Hill to deliver a talk to the Medical Society entitled ‘You Can't Be a Doctor!’.
DYP Kim (The Head Master's 20003) joined Watson Farley & Williams in London in November 2022 as an International Arbitration Partner.
JH Robinson (Rendalls 20003) and his wife recently relocated to Rwanda for his work. Jack currently works for Bboxx, an offgrid clean energy company, and would be interested in hearing from any other OHs in the region or those visiting.
CR Osborne (The Head Master's 20013) was appointed as a Partner of law firm Slaughter and May in May 2022.
PLSI Ali-Noor (West Acre 20013) is now a Jersey-qualified advocate practising at Carey Olsen. He has a busy and varied disputes-focused practice but specialises increasingly in the Court-related aspects of trusts and private wealth work spanning advisory, administrative and contentious trust matters.
The Hon JF Bowes Lyon (Bradbys 20023), BT Busk (Druries 20023) and Old Etonian W Bolitho began an 180-mile walk along King Offa’s Dyke from Chepstow (in the south) to Prestatyn (in the north) in February 2023. The group completed the challenge over the course of 14 days to raise money for Maggie's Cancer Care.
SA Northeast (The Head Master's 20033) became the first batsman to score 400 in the County Championship since 1994. in July 2022, Sam hit 410 not out off just 450 balls for Glamorgan, making him the fourth man in history of the county game and the first player for Glamorgan to score more than 400 runs in an innings.
EFV Voelker (Druries 20053) married Dr Caitlin Mahoney on 23 May 2022. The couple were married by former beak, Chaplain and Eliot's late stepfather, Father Peter J E Jackson (1990–2001). The ceremony took place at Holy Trinity Anglican and Episcopal Church in Nice.
EJ Armstrong (Elmfield 20053) held an exhibition entitled Wake at the South Parade Gallery in London during December 2022–January 2023. The exhibition featured Ned's paintings, which take drawing, imagination, memory and his own photography as a departure point. Ned is a versatile artist who is comfortable painting in a variety of ways and is not tied down by any set aesthetics, categories or styles. His work engages with art-historical references from a typically British muted colour palette and German 20th-century Modernism to contemporary painters such as Amelie von Wulffen and Allison Katz.
ACG Blount (Elmfield 20073) began a 4000-mile solo cycle across the USA, zigzagging from LA to New York, in February 2023. Arthur is raising money for Only a Pavement Away, a charity supporting prison leavers, veterans and people facing homelessness into careers in hospitality. He is hoping to complete the challenge by 1 May and has so far cycled 725 miles and raised £8,000. Arthur’s fundraising page can be found at justgiving.com/page/arthur-cycleacross-america
AH Elsey (The Head Master's 20063) became Associate Director at Savills UK in January 2023 after a successful eight years at BNP Paribas Real Estate. Alexander works within the National Development Consultancy team in the OCM Division.
MA Fosh (Bradbys 20083) made his solo debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on 29 August 2022, performing his "hilarious and unpredictable" comedy show Zocial Butterfly. On Christmas Day 2022, Max hosted a show on Radio 1 as part of their TikTok Takeover programme.
AHP Olesen (Rendalls 20083) featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2023 for Social Impact. Alexander serves as CEO of Babylon Micro-Farms Inc., a company he founded in 2017 at the age of 22. It has now grown into one of the world's leading providers of distributed vertical farming technology whose clients include IKEA, LinkedIn, Aramark and Sodexo. To date, it has raised $17 million to commercialise its technology. The company was awarded Emerging Technology Start-up of the Year in 2022 and featured in Emmy Awardwinning documentary Made In Virginia.
CHW Short (Rendalls 20093) was cast as Nick Massi in Jersey Boys in September 2022 for the new UK and Ireland tour.
ES McGovern (The Knoll 20103) and JW Lane (The Park 20103) and their production company, Indigo Productions, put on three shows at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, including MA Fosh’s (Bradbys 20083) Zocial Butterfly
BPD Maxwell (Elmfield 20113) held an exhibition of his work at the Pasmore Gallery at Harrow in January 2023. His work featured a series of world maps made from faux fur attached to an amalgamation of found objects. Ben works across all media but is predominantly a painter.
JJA Simoes (The Head Master's 20123) is an organist studying at the Royal Academy of Music where he has released a CD with Delphian Records of the choral and organ music of Edward Nesbit. Joshua’s CD has been critically acclaimed, receiving five-star reviews from Choir & Organ magazine and was the Gramophone magazine’s Editor's Choice.
HJF Smith (Lyon's 20113) has founded and been developing his company Sentium over the past three years. Sentium is a cutting-edge tech company that designs and builds powerful AI-driven data systems. Sentium has a track record of success using AI to transform the finance, pharmaceutical and technology sectors. With a rapidly growing international team of 40 engineers, designers, consultants and analysts who are on a mission to reshape the future, Sentium offers AI and data consultancy and product development services to large and small businesses.
NEP Trotter (The Head Master's 20123) completed his master's in Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology at Imperial College in October. Nicholas is now working at PicturaBio, an Oxford-based biotech start up, developing a diagnostic test powered by AI, capable of identifying within minutes and from one nasal or throat swab known respiratory viruses such as influenza and COVID-19, improving not only virus identity but also differentiation between strains.
HFD Wan (Newlands 20131) graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Huntsman Program, a unique undergraduate dual degree in International Studies and Business.
MHG Evans-Tovey (Druries 20143) ran the London Marathon on 23 April 2023, fundraising for The Charlie Waller Trust, a charity that teaches parents, carers, educators and employers how to look after young people’s mental health.
A Shashoua (Rendalls 20143) signed for Unión Deportiva Ibiza in July 2022, leaving Atlético Baleares. He played in 51 games for the team across two and a half seasons, scored four goals and had two assists. In January 2023, Armando joined Córdoba on loan until the end of the season.
CH MacLeod (The Head Master's 20153) gave a Careers Lecture in September 2022 on The Third Way: the Degree Apprenticeship in the Old Speech Room Gallery at Harrow.
JA Chohan (Lyon's 20153) signed to Yorkshire CCC in January 2023, on a rookie contract until October 2023.
SAA Malde (Elmfield 20163) and JK Kryca (Moretons 20163) founded Arda, a software for drone delivery start-up in 2021, during their freshmen years at the University of Chicago and Harvard respectively. The company was born out of a series of conversations and initial research between Shubh and Jan while they were in the Upper Sixth at Harrow and members of the School's Drone Society. They raised their first round of venture capital in the summer of 2022 and are now raising their second round. Having participated in some of the USA’s most renowned tech start-up programmes, Jan and Shubh have gone full-time with Arda. They are in West Africa this summer, enabling critical medical supply deliveries by drone with the Gambian government, Red Cross Society and Medical Research Council. In May 2023, Jan featured in Forbes Poland’s 25 Under 25 list after winning the competition in the Business category.
SIW Trew (The Grove 20123) returned to the Hill in April 2023 to deliver an interactive computer science workshop to the Computer Science Society. Sam is a Full Stack Engineer at Solidatus. He previously co-founded Occum Health while completing his degree at Imperial College London.
GDC Davies (The Head Master's 20163) won Gold in Judo for the University of Nottingham in the British Universities and Colleges judo competition. George helped his team win Gold in the men's team for the first time, defeating the University of Bath, a regional British Judo Centre, in the final. George is currently studying Physics at Nottingham and is Vice President of the university's judo club.
MRE Morgan (Rendalls 20163) is in his second year of studying English Literature at Christ Church College, Oxford, and has recently directed Breakwater. Breakwater is a psychological drama set between Oxford and the Suffolk coast, exploring how we connect, forgive and grieve both for others and ourselves. It follows the relationship between Otto, a university student, and John, a retired angler who lives on the coast, who bond over the shared trauma of losing a loved one. This is the university’s first feature-film in 40 years since Privileged, the 1982 film by Oxford undergraduates that launched the Hollywood careers of Hugh Grant, Andy Paterson, Mike Hoffman, Mark Williams, Imogen Stubbs and others. The team are fundraising for the post-production stage of the film and are running a digital auction, which can be found at app.galabid.com/breakwater/items.
HPS Arundell (The Knoll 20163) was the joint top scorer in the 2022 Under-20 Six Nations competition, scoring four tries in three appearances. Henry was awarded the Land Rover Discovery of the Season at the 2022 Premiership Rugby Awards and, in July 2022, he made his debut for England in the first test match of the series against Australia, scoring a try with his first touch and going on to play for England for the Six Nations again in March 2023.
RM White (The Knoll 20163) signed a long-term contract with Sale Sharks in November 2022. In February 2023, Rekeiti was selected to play for England's Under20s Six Nations team, playing against Scotland and then Italy where he scored a try and was awarded Man of the Match.
OHs have been sending us their news throughout the year. If you have news to feature in next year's Follow Up! email oldharrovians@harrowschool.org.uk
JJ Acton Davis (Newlands 1966 3) and Lindsey Bareham: July 2022
AJ Ramsden (West Acre 1993 3 ) and Tamra Burke: April 2022
JB Goodhew (Moretons 1995 3 ) and Katie Sturges: May 2022
MEF Benitz (Bradbys 1998 3 ) and Celia Weinstock: October 2022
HA Sewell (Elmfield 2001 3 ) and Roberta Garbutt: August 2022
BAO Roberts (Moretons 2001 3 ) and Charlotte Gale: March 2023
AWM Dean (Elmfield 2002 3 ) and Olivia van Vredenburch: June 2022
AJE Nicholson (The Head Master's 2002 3 ) and Julia Rea: February 2023
AB Cottrell (Rendalls 2003 3 ) and Rose Macdonald-Buchanan: May 2022
CDA Stevenson (West Acre 2003 3 ) and Natasha Barry: November 2023
LCM Faber (Bradbys 2004 3 ) and Stella Weatherall: May 2022
LG Garvin (Elmfield 2005 3 ) and Courtney Waugh: June 2022
GA McDonald (Elmfield 2005 3 ) and Lucy Bevan: March 2023
TCD Onslow (Newlands 2005 3 ) and Emma Marshall: March 2023
HM Ross (The Head Master's 2006 3 ) and Xanthe Gladstone: October 2022
WGL Rowe (The Head Master's 2006 3 ) and Sophie Foster: March 2023
KN Pittalis (Rendalls 2006 3 ) and Sybilla Pease: October 2022
TWT Harrison (The Head Master's 2007 3 ) and Kiriaki (Kaiti) Soultana: July 2022
ATL Taylor (The Head Master's 2007 3 ) and Emma King: January 2023
RDC Townsend-Rose (Moretons 20073 ) and Georgina Horn: February 2023
CR Ward (Newlands 2007 3 ) and Imogen Bowden-Davies: July 2022
TCR Morgan (Bradbys 2008 3 ) and Anna Goodison: March 2023
HRE Luard (Elmfield 2008 3 ) and Imogen Harries: April 2023
AW Boyd (The Grove 2008 3 ) and Victoria Drysdale: January 2023
AWD Dunbar (The Grove 20083) and Alexandra Suter: April 2023
OJ Cotton (The Grove 20083) and Camilla Hoare: December 2022
TJ Newton (The Knoll 20083) and Lucinda Ellaway-Bell: April 2022
TW Pearson-Jones (The Park 20083) and Clara Davies-Cooke: December 2022
NR Kuznetsov (Moretons 20133) and Amaliya Abdullaeva: June 2022
AJM Shearer (The Head Master's 19743) and Susan Jiemei Avis: 3 June 2023
JA Grant (Moretons 1983 3 ) and Maureen Levey: 9 September 2022
MEF Benitz (Bradbys 1998 3 ) and Celia Weinstock: 10 March 2023
SM Boushehri (Newlands 2002 3 ) and Patricia Cermignano: 28 May 2022
ANR Dent (Rendalls 2002 3 ) and Lizzie Edwards: 20 May 2023
MWRZ Szymanski (The Knoll 2003 3 ) and Virginie de Kerchove d'Ousselghem: 18 February 2023
EGA Chadd (Druries 2004 3 ) and Isobel Anderson: 28 May 2022
EFV Voelker (Druries 2005 3 ) and Dr Caitlin Mahoney: 23 May 2022
Viscount RJC Dungarvan (The Knoll 1992 3 ) and Lucinda, a daughter, Lilah Catherine Rose Boyle: on 29 July 2022
TA van Straubenzee (Elmfield 1995 3 ) and Lucy, a son, Albert: on 3 December 2022
THJH Sowler (The Park 1995 3 ) and Rebecca, a son, Thomas: on 17 January 2023
CM Soames (The Park 1996 3 ) and Georgina, a son, Christopher Frederick: on 27 July 2022
TEM Squire (Druries 1998 3 ) and Grace, a son, Cassian Nicolas Bovis: on 27 March 2023
LJT Hunting (The Knoll 1998 3 ) and Imogene, a daughter, Isobel Francis Hunting: on 21 February 2023
OOA Soyinka (Bradbys 1999 3 ) and Rosie, a daughter, Matilda Iyanuoluwa Edith Childs Adetowunmi: on 2 September 2022
FGdeD Richardson (Elmfield 1999 3 ) and Harriet, a son, Percival William Templer: on 16 November 2022
ECA Brown (The Head Master's 1999 3 ) and Cordelia, a daughter, Lily Tabitha Letty: on 1 February 2023
JJWE Howard (The Head Master's 1999 3 ) and Katerina, a son, Oliver Theodore George: on 8 October 2022
L Oldfield (The Head Master's 1999 3 ) and Victoria, a daughter, Lara: on 23 June 2022
AG del Balzo di Presenzano (Moretons 1999 3 ) and Emerald, a son, Giacomo: on 23 February 2021
DAR Howells (Newlands 19993 ) and Andrea, a son, Spencer Ross Howells: on 30 May 2021
BT Allen (Bradbys 2000 3 ) and Hadley, a son, Bradley Theodore Jr: on 25 October 2019
OAJ Leeming (Bradbys 2000 3 ) and Rosanna, twins, Florence Maria Teresa and Bertram Alexander Holt: on 13 October 2022
MRH Shannon (Bradbys 2000 3 ) and Alexandra, a son, Hugo Francis Maximilian: on 28 June 2022
AHE Torstenson (The Grove 2000 3 ) and Emma, a son, Kasper Erik John: on 19 August 2022
FL Streeter (The Head Master's 2000 3 ) and Davina, a son, Valentine Charles: on 1 January 2023
ZU Mirza (Moretons 2000 3 ) and Amna, a daughter, Zenia Noor: on 14 August 2022
CGC Kennard (Druries 2001 3 ) and Kiloran, a daughter, Grace Teresa Eve: on 7 September 2022
HM Taylor-Restell (Moretons 20013) and Catherine, a daughter, Ottilie Catherine: on 10 August 2022
AN Dennis (Rendalls 2001 3 ) and Emma, a son, Orlando Nicholas: on 12 February 2023
SJH Greenly (Elmfield 2002 3 ) and Sarah, a son, Max Otis Howorth: on 10 October 2022
HD Wentworth-Stanley (The Grove 2002 3 ) and Cressida, a son, Wilbur James: on 21 November 2022
ERG Pratt (Rendalls 2002 3 ) and Connie, a son, Edward Roger Guy: on 4 November 2022
IJ Ruggles-Brise (West Acre 2002 3 ) and Alexandra, twins, Angus David and Kitty Clare: on 17 March 2023
FJA Fife(Elmfield 2003 3 ) and Antonia, a daughter, Cleo Alicia: on 19 January 2023
JC Stephenson (Elmfield 2003 3 ) and Helena, a son, Ivo Edward William: on 29 October 2022
RML Taylor (The Head Master's 2003 3 ) and Joanna, a daughter, Lottie Fiona: on 30 January 2023
TC Batting (The Park 2003 3 ) and Sophie, twins, Poppy Isabella and Rufus James: on 27 October 2022
AJ Fogarty (West Acre 2003 3 ) and Alice, a daughter, Thea June Bertie: on 25 November 2022
Earl of Belfast (Elmfield 2004 3 ) and Oilbhe, Countess of Belfast, a son, Arthur Humphrey John, Viscount Chichester: on 16 May 2022
Captain HCW Sumption (Moretons 2004 3 ) and Lily, a son, Oscar Thomas William: on 12 December 2022
Major HML Cohen (Rendalls 2004 3 ) and Jennifer, a son, Rory Michael Lionel: on 12 April 2022
Dr LJL Williams (Rendalls 2004 3 ) and Emma, a daughter, Florence Catherine Aubrey: on 21 November 2022
P Sprawson (Bradbys 19332) 10 April 2023
W Scully (Newlands 19363) 20 October 2019
PRW Jackson (Moretons 19392) 11 December 2022
GSC Gibson (The Grove 19403) 3 May 2021
CSR Stroyan (The Grove 19411) 20 August 2022
S Stout-Kerr (Druries 19412) 21 April 2022
GR Simmonds (Moretons 19423) 1 March 2023
DC Prior (Druries 19432) 3 March 2023
JJD Bullmore (Druries 19433) 4 January 2023
ERA de Rothschild (Elmfield 19433) 8 November 2022
JF Flatau (Druries 19441) 25 December 2022
CVD Wardell (Elmfield 19441) 5 January 2023
ITH Logie (Druries 19442) 12 January 2023
RJ Sherlock (Druries 19442) 22 March 2023
RG Marlar (The Head Master's & Rendalls 19442) 30 September 2022
TDM Rees (The Head Master's 19442) 20 September 2021
MIW Flynn (The Park 19442) 10 February 2023
AG Roche (The Knoll 19443) 5 January 2023
MWD Northcott (The Knoll 19451) 18 May 2022
SM Wachman (Druries 19452) 14 October 2021
JM Stayt (Bradbys 19461) 9 July 2022
JH Harris (Druries 19461) 1 February 2023
FRA Shortis (Moretons 19461) 24 August 2022
RGTO Thurston (The Knoll 19463) 8 November 2022
JJ Miles (Rendalls 19463) 9 April 2023
SH Walford (The Park 19471) 11 January 2023
MR Wood (Bradbys 19472) 13 April 2022
R Baker Wilbraham (The Head Master's 19472) 26 May 2022
VA Smith (The Park 19472) 11 May 2022
JH Stirrup (Rendalls 19472) 18 March 2023
RMB Harland (The Knoll 19473) 11 December 2021
JFS Northcott (The Knoll 19473) 18 May 2022
TBL Parker (West Acre 19473) June 2022
HCWG Joynson (Rendalls 19482) 12 March 2023
EJM Child Villiers (West Acre 19483) 30 December 2022
MBAKMJ Hyderabad (West Acre 19483) 15 January 2023
BEAKS
JA Streeter (The Head Master's 19492) 18 July 2022
HF Thoresby (Bradbys 19502) 6 December 2022
WG Wright (Bradbys 19513) 26 November 2022
IH McCorquodale (Elmfield 19513) 10 February 2023
JH Proctor (The Grove 19513) 14 October 2022
T Wynne (The Grove 19513) 2 January 2023
JHP Stedall (Moretons 19513) 21 October 2022
TA Davies (Bradbys 19522) 12 November 2022
JCJ Orchard (West Acre 19522) 14 September 2022
DJR Webb (The Head Master's 19523) 29 June 2022
RvonH Spence (Rendalls 19523) 25 October 2022
GW Paul (Moretons 19533) 9 October 2022
DT Dods (Bradbys 19552) 11 February 2022
DJR Stoneham (The Grove 19561) 10 April 2022
TA Bullus (The Head Master's 19563) 16 June 2022
ADP Harvey (Rendalls 19571) 28 October 2022
MRL Beebee (The Knoll 19572) 16 April 2022
PMA Griffin (Newlands 19572) 13 June 2022
AM Bierrum (Moretons 19573) 1 October 2022
TJ Marchant (Newlands 19583) 5 October 2022
PH Dixon Collins (The Park 19583) 23 February 2022
DA Sinclair-Scott (West Acre 19601) 25 February 2023
FDW Cornwall (The Knoll 19613) 3 January 2023
MLD Greig (Moretons 19613) 2 September 2022
JD Guthrie (Newlands 19632) 26 December 2022
JM Ropner (Elmfield 19681) 7 November 2022
PJH Vaughan (The Knoll 19683) 12 May 2022
APR Steinthal (The Head Master's 19702) 6 June 2022
PS Laskey (The Knoll 19702) 7 December 2022
RA Firmston-Williams (Druries 19712) November 2022
INP Dickinson (Elmfield 19713) 12 August 2022
PJA Darling (Druries 19722) 10 October 2022
CD Rayment (West Acre 19733) August 2022
JKR Narayn (The Head Master's 19743) 3 January 2023
AG Haldane (Bradbys 19893) 8 June 2022
WAG Friend (West Acre 20013) 3 July 2022
The Revd PJE Jackson (Chaplain and Religious Studies Master 1990–2001 ) 30 August 2022
Dr JEC Holland (Modern Languages Master 1980–2017) House Master of Elmfield (1995–2007 ) 5 October 2022
SR Key (Economics Master 1969-83) 3 February 2023
RW Ellis (History Master 1952-67) House Master of The Head Master’s (1961-67 ) 14 February 2023
JP Lemmon (The Knoll 19493) (English Master 1957-96) 24 March 2023
GC Whitmee (Matron of Rendalls 1983–2001) (standby Matron 2002-05) (Matron of Druries 2005-10) 29 March 2023
DPK Gaunt (History and English Master 1957-61 and 1972-89) 6 April 2023
Set in a striking converted 19th century church in the heart of Belgravia, Mosimann’s is one of the world’s most prestigious dining clubs.
Our passion for excellence and a warm personalised welcome will make you feel comfortable and at home.
The stunning interior architecture at Mosimann’s lends itself perfectly to a club atmosphere, with the Balcony Bar on the mezzanine level overlooking the main dining restaurant and acting as a gateway to the seven private dining rooms. A beautiful environment for any special occasion.
Our menu focuses on Cuisine Naturelle, created by our father incorporating healthy, delicious, seasonal and sustainable ingredients. We are honoured to be appointed as a Royal Warrant Holder for Catering Services to HRH The Prince of Wales.
We would like to welcome Old Harrovians to Mosimann’s Private Dining, by introducing a very special offer up to the ages of 25, with a £200 annual membership.
Philipp Mosimann (Bradbys 1988³)
Mark Mosimann (Bradbys 1990³)
What have OHs been writing about this year?
The world today is experiencing an epidemic of stress, and the greatest cause of stress comes from toxic situations and toxic people. Toxicity comes in many forms, from overtly aggressive to subtly manipulative and from mildly controlling to wildly narcissistic. Toxic people are found in all walks of life, from the boardroom to the bedroom and the playing field to the coffee shop.
The tragic account of a cricket meteor who crashed to Earth all too quickly because of his flawed temperament. Born into grinding poverty in rural Jamaica in 1934, Gilchrist's prowess as a phenomenal fast bowler quickly gained him international recognition, but the failure to curb his unstable temperament saw him sent home from the West Indies tour of India in 1959 for dangerous bowling. A victim of the class-ridden clique that ran West Indies cricket, Gilchrist hardly helped his cause by refusing to alter his aggressive demeanour. Excessive gamesmanship and constant fights on and off the field, culminating in a prison sentence for attacking his wife with a hot iron, not only put paid to any hopes of reviving his Test career; it also tainted his reputation irrevocably. Sadly, he lived his final years as a pauper afflicted by disease.
Anthony Speelman offers fascinating insights into the often-secretive world of the Dutch masters, covering a lifetime of dealing in fine art at the very highest level. Throughout his long career, Speelman has sold paintings to many of the world's greatest collectors including Norton Simon, Paul Mellon, Baron Thyssen, Harold Samuel, Charles Clore, and the Wrightsmans in New York, along with world-renowned museums such as the Getty, the Louvre, and the National Gallery, London, among many others. In intriguing tales that are sometimes shocking and always interesting, he shares stories of his encounters with these eminent bodies in a light-hearted style. Other chapters go beyond the world of fine art to detail Speelman's interest in gastronomy, his thrilling adventures in the world of horseracing, and his travels to California, New York and Paris.
The Medicine Wheel shows us how to both live and transform ourselves while remaining in balance with the natural world. Indigenous peoples in the Americas, with whom these wheels originate, have a profound understanding of what it means to be human that has been largely lost in the modern world. This book is not just another 'self-help' guide but rather an exploration of an ancient map that shows how human beings and the world work. A wheel is very simple and experiential, dividing the world into the four basic elements of fire, water, earth and air and, on that basis, it creates a deep and transformative psychology, a subtle and practical philosophy and a ceremonial form through which the community can celebrate the sacredness of life.
Surfing the Galactic Highways reveals the power of simple Sun-Moon astrology and the way the outer planets can help us navigate times of transformation. Astrology has the power to take our breath away, to enchant us through the eerie synchronicities it reveals between sky events and Earth events. Life presents us all with periods that are both challenging and potentially transformative. This book shows - in intimate detail and grounded in the author's personal experience - how the outer planets can be used to help navigate and illuminate those testing times. Astrology can guide us through the deep initiatory and transformative experiences that life, if we are willing, offers us, providing an affirmation of an intuitive, non-rational means of knowing that's central to who we are as humans, but undervalued and even denied in our modern age. Surfing the Galactic Highways is a refreshingly bold assertion of the intuitive, non-rational nature of astrological knowledge, and a thorough going refutation of those who would relegate astrology to the status of a 'pseudo-science'.
As the founder of Island Records, fabled music producer Chris Blackwell has discovered and worked with some of the most important musicians of the second half of the 20th centuryfrom Steve Winwood to Cat Stevens, Bob Marley to Grace Jones, U2 to Roxy Music, plus countless others. He is also widely credited with having brought reggae music to the world stage. Now, as he turns 85, Blackwell takes us back to the island where it all began: Jamaica - the place where his family once partied with the likes of Noel Coward, Ian Fleming and Errol Flynn and where, as Jamaican local music began to adopt contemporary American trends, Blackwell's burgeoning musical instincts flourished. It was also the birthplace of the now-legendary Island Records, founded by Blackwell in 1959. In this fascinating memoir, including up to 50 photos supplied by Blackwell's team, the music icon will discuss the many artists he's worked with over the years, as well as unpicking the initiatives, decisions and risks that ultimately brought such success to both Blackwell and his esteemed musical collaborators.
An extraordinary memoir of faith, family, shame and addiction. Matt Rowland Hill grew up the son of a minister in an evangelical Christian church in south Wales and then south-east England. It was a childhood fraught with bitter family conflict and the fear of damnation. After a devastating loss of faith in his late teens, Matt began his search for salvation elsewhere, turning to books before developing a growing relationship with alcohol and drugs. He became addicted to crack and heroin in his early twenties, an ordeal that stretched over a decade and culminated in a period of hopeless darkness. Recklessly honest, and as funny as it is grave, Original Sins is an extraordinary memoir of faith, family, shame and addiction, but ultimately it is about looking for answers to life's big questions in all the wrong places, how hope can arrive in the most unexpected forms, and how the stories we tell might help us survive.
1979³ )
Karl Lagerfeld Unseen: The Chanel Years
)
The World: A Family History
Recounting nothing less than the history of humanity through the overarching theme of family, Montefiore weaves an epic, pageturning story that features everyone from the Leopard-King of Benin to Margaret Thatcher. We begin with the footsteps of a family walking along a beach 950,000 years ago. From here, Montefiore takes us on an exhilarating epic journey through the families that have shaped our world. As spellbinding as fiction, The World captures the story of humankind in all its joy, sorrow, romance, ingenuity and cruelty in a ground-breaking, single narrative that will forever shift the boundaries of what history can achieve.
A glamorous tribute to Karl Lagerfeld's highly influential creations for Chanel, captured behind the scenes by US Vogue photographer Robert Fairer in beautiful, never-before-seen images. Casting a new light on one of the best-loved chapters in fashion history, Karl Lagerfeld Unseen: The Chanel Years illuminates key Chanel collections and creations from behind the scenes. From discreet client fittings in Rue Cambon's immaculate black-and-beige salons to previously unseen backstage moments that show models, hairdressers, stylists, make-up artists and Karl Lagerfeld himself at work, Robert Fairer's stunning and high-energy photographs capture the elegance, glamour and spirit that defined Karl Lagerfeld's shows for Chanel. Texts by Karl Lagerfeld's collaborators and friends provide a fresh perspective on his creative process and reveal the stories behind the now iconic designs. A treasure trove of inspiration, this publication will be a must-have reference for fashion and photography lovers alike, and for dedicated Chanel fans the world over.
2022
Thousands of local residents and friends of the Hill joined a fun-filled community event to celebrate Harrow’s 450th anniversary.
450 Son et Lumière
Pass it On Chapel Terrace – 25, 26 and 27 May 2022
The School staged a spectacular musical production in a specially constructed open-air amphitheatre on Chapel Terrace. Directed by Toby Deacon (Newlands 20003), written and produced by Oscar Blustin (Newlands 20013) and starring West End legend Rosemary Ashe, the production featured songs and scenes from the School’s history and was performed by a large cast of Harrovians and professional actors, including OHs. It all culminated in a breathtaking light show and fireworks display.
4 September 2022
The annual Long Ducker Bike Ride saw OHs, beaks, parents and members of the Harrow community taking part to raise funds in support of the Harrow Club. Read more about the Harrow Club on page 72.
Edinburgh Castle – 30 September 2022
Nearly 100 Scottish OHs and their guests met in the splendour of Edinburgh Castle on 30 September 2022 to celebrate the 450th anniversary. This also gave many the first opportunity to sing God Save the King Guests were welcomed on the pipes by Calum Butler (The Knoll 20153). The Toast to the School was given by the senior OH, James Miller (West Acre 19482), whose reminiscences amusingly reminded us that life on the Hill was rather different then. The Head Master replied with a brief but inspiring message explaining his vision for the future.
Songs were led from the piano by Peter Hunter (Harrow Master 1985–2018) who took the opportunity to celebrate the role played by OHs who had taken part in the recent ceremonials connected to the late Queen's funeral, particularly by members of the King's Bodyguard for Scotland who sang the second verse of The Silver Arrow: "And archers in every glade". The success of the event owes much to the efficient organisation of Jonathan Townsend Rose (Moretons 19723) and William Landale (The Grove 19783).
Peter Hunter (Harrow Master 1985–2018)
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Kuala Lumpur –6 October 2022
The Malaysian chapter of the Harrow Association celebrated Harrow’s 450th anniversary on Thursday 6 October 2022. The dinner and Songs were held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Kuala Lumpur with 80 Old Harrovians and friends attending. His Royal Highness King Abdullah, the King of Malaysia, and Her Royal Highness, Queen Azizah, the Queen of Malaysia graced us as the guests of honour, alongside their son Prince Muhammad Shah (Druries 20103). It was a wonderful celebration, with good food, joy and laughter. The dinner was followed by Harrow Songs, led by William Landale, Director of the Harrow Association. All the guests thoroughly enjoyed the songs to the extent that both Royal Highnesses even participated and sang alongside the rest of the guests. Looking forward to the next celebration!
It was great to gather 70 OHs and parents in Singapore in the Churchill Room of the Tanglin Club to hear news from the Hill, catch up with old friends, reminisce and sing Harrow Songs in honour of the School’s 450th anniversary. Thank you especially to Nick Hadow (The Park 19691) and John Friedman (The Head Master's 19973) who were instrumental in organising the event.
After a four-year gestation period – two years longer than intended due to Covid – the Harrow Wanderers Cricket Club was finally able to celebrate its 150th anniversary with a dinner at Lord’s on 6 October. And what an occasion it was! All anger and resentment with the MCC Committee’s decision to discontinue the School fixture with Eton – the oldest fixture at Lord’s – without consulting the members was temporarily suspended, and Club President Richard Compton (West Acre 19703) welcomed 150 members and guests to the Long Room for the dinner. The Master of Ceremonies was the Chairman of the Dinner Committee, Matthew Fosh (The Head Master’s 19712) and the guest speakers were Kumar Sangakkara, former Captain of Sri Lanka and President of MCC, and Chris Cowdrey, former Captain of England.
After a reception in the MCC Museum, with champagne donated in memory of Jack Webster (1946-1981), former Master-in-Charge of Cricket, the diners adjourned to the pavilion, pausing on the way for an aerial group photograph taken in total darkness by a photographer perched high on an adjacent staircase – or was it a drone? Difficult to tell.
When all were settled at their tables, the President welcomed the assembly, outlining the origins of the club, the Northern Tour and commending its many benefactors.
Dale Vargas (Druries 19523), a former honorary secretary of the club, then read a light-hearted tribute to Donny Walker (Small Houses and Mr Oxenham’s 18583), the founder.
The School XII, led by the Director of Music, David Woodcock, then sang the humorous but less wellknown cricket song The Niner. It was the first of five songs written by Edward Bowen to be sung during the evening.
The next entertainment was an interview with Kumar Sangakkara, conducted by Nick Stewart (Newlands 19653). The discussion covered a wide range of topics including Sangakkara’s childhood in Sri Lanka, his life in cricket, and his decision to settle with his family in England. It was an interesting insight into the life and personality of one of the 21st century’s most distinguished cricketers.
Matthew Fosh (The Head Master’s 19712) then introduced his old friend and cricketing colleague Chris Cowdrey. Cowdrey gave a witty, self-deprecatory speech, studded with many amusing anecdotes that hit just the right note with his audience. He was warmly applauded.
After the speeches, the School XII returned to the stage for Songs, accompanied on the keyboard by Hadrian Ho (The Head Master’s). The Wanderers were in good voice and the Long Room rang to the sounds of Willow the King, A Gentleman’s a’Bowling and Giants before ending in the traditional manner with Forty Years On, Auld Lang Syne and the National Anthem.
Huge thanks are due to the Dinner Committee, whose efforts produced a resoundingly successful evening. In addition to Compton, Fosh and Stewart, there were Andrew Cox (The Head Master’s 19923), Chairman of the Harrow Wanderers, James Gillions (Elmfield 19873), who with Jonathan Pool (The Head Master’s 19853) produced a commemoration brochure, and Fred Woolley (West Acre 19573), former President of the Club. It was a memorable occasion.
Dale Vargas (Druries 19523)
No fewer than 2,917 Harrovians served in World War I. Of these, 690 were wounded and 642 were killed. In October 1921, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Revd Randall Davidson (Small Houses and Moretons 1862) laid the foundation stone for the School’s War Memorial Building.
Along with a handful of Old Harrovians and parents of boys in the School’s CCF, I was invited to a Service of Rededication to mark the centenary of this event. After a parade by the Harrow Rifle Corps, we were invited back to the Head Master’s house for a reception. He told us that there was going to be Service and Leadership Day the following October as part of the School’s 450th anniversary celebrations, focusing on the role shown by Harrovians in leadership and service. Roads were going to be closed off and the Corps would be marching across the Hill.
During our conversation, Toby O’Connor (Druries 19823) (formerly IG), Charles Clark, James Rous (Elmfield 19863) (both formerly Coldm Gds) and I suggested that we should have a band for the boys
to march to. With the School’s strong connections to the Household Division, a Foot Guards band was suggested, along with Lieutenant General Roly Walker (The Grove 19833) who was commissioned into the Micks and commanded 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards to take the salute.
The Head Master was in favour, so I rang Major General Christopher Ghika (Major General Commanding the House Division and GOC London District) about getting a band together and also put Roly Walker in touch with the School. Christopher thought it was a great idea and promised to see what he could do. A few months later, the Brigade Major (London District) and everything was in place. We also managed to get the message out to serving parents of boys at the School as well as Old Harrovians who were serving or who had served to come along and march.
A few months later, the Brigade Major told me that it would be the Irish Guards band that would be playing. I was delighted. With perhaps the School’s most accomplished soldier in Field Marshal Alexander (The Head Master’s 19061) and the last Harrovian to be killed in action, Major Harry Shapland (The Grove 19792), both being Irish Guardsmen, this was especially appropriate.
The sun shone brightly on 11 October 2022. The boys did not know what to expect and were a little apprehensive. Both my sons were on parade. The streets were packed with onlookers. The band played brilliantly, playing St Patrick’s Day and Forty Years On as well as a variety of other pieces of music familiar to the boys. Roland took the salute and he had a chance to speak to a number of the boys afterwards.
The feedback from the boys was excellent, with many of them saying that it was a great day and one which they will never forget, especially marching behind a band. Most importantly, it was a fitting tribute to those who had made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
On behalf of the boys, the School and all those present. I would like to thank the Major General, Roly Walker and, of course, the Irish Guards Band for the part that they played in a very special day.
What a splendid evening. However, it started in a way that, as a GP, is painfully familiar. I was late, delayed by a run-over shift for 111. Despite being in my 40s, the guilt I felt as I dribbled up the M4 to Windsor reminded me of being a Remove late for (2D?) post-break classes, passing The Head Master's House, a mouthful of sweets from ‘The Hill’, my straw pressed against my textbooks as Mr Berry (then House Master of Moretons) would smile archly, "late again Parky?" There is always a sense of occasion with Eton: the reciprocal chants at the annual Lord's fixture, the anticipation of particularly tight matches. No different tonight. The OE orthopaedic surgeon who emerged from a Tesla with his equally glamorous wife kindly guided me to the Election Hall while I fumbled with my bow tie. He pointed out that our dinner venue was frequented by scholars and, he added with some trepidation, those who had sufficiently erred to be sent to the Head Master. The warm welcome on a wet autumnal evening included cocktails and several sumptuous courses including multiple cheese platters. The OEMS president Professor Grey Giddins opened the dinner with an anecdote confirming that for as long as healthcare has been
organised, the challenge is most often not what to do for the patient, but more how to get it arranged. Among the conversations and familiar oscillations between celebration and complaining about our career choices, a consensus emerged: medicine, is as ever, a stressful and frustrating career requiring mettle. Furthermore, an NHS career will not easily fund your progeny to attend one of these great schools. However, as a calling, medicine is unrivalled in its challenge, variety, collaborative spirit and camaraderie. There is even occasionally the chance to leave work punctually and now and then an excellent dinner!
22 November 2022
A spectacular concert that almost didn’t happen. At the beginning of 2022, it seemed doubtful that our five-yearly visit to perform Churchill Songs at the Royal Albert Hall would take place at all. After being closed for a long period during the pandemic, the Hall’s concert diary seemed full. However, thanks to the intervention of two Harrow parents, Col Stone and Mr Da Silveira Pinheiro, we were granted an audience with the Hall’s CEO and Director of Programming. Things soon fell into place and we were allocated the evening of Tuesday 22 November: ideal for the School, a couple of days after the second exeat and two days before the boys’ Trials. In addition, the Hall may have reckoned that our 450th anniversary was a rather special occasion, to go alongside its own 150th year. It was the seventh time the School has celebrated Churchill Songs at the Hall (since 1974, the centenary of Sir Winston’s birth) and the fifth time I had served as its ‘promoter’, meaning that the Hall’s contract with Harrow was signed by the HDT. On each of these occasions, I am always amazed by the organisational effort involved, such as:
The capacity of the Hall is around 5,250 and most of those seats were filled.
Our excellent caterers supplied 1,101 packed meals for boys and staff during the day.
Major Adrian Davies of the HRC organised 52 separate coach trips to and from the Hall, plus a number of van trips to deliver instruments and material.
Mr David Devine and his Custos team ensured the 5,000 souvenir programmes were distributed in all the right places throughout the Hall.
Technicians at the Hall performed around 50 different lighting and sound variations during the course of the concert.
Long-serving beak Peter Bieneman and his office carefully organised specific seating for around 1,000 boys, beaks and staff.
Our Director of Music, David Woodcock, and his musicians held many rehearsals, as did the Readers, as well as the two HRC cadets.
Our ‘Show Manager’ at the Hall, Ms Mo Crowe, who was again on hand to supervise her third Churchill Songs, organised the many moving parts of the day and the concert in her customary quiet and efficient manner.
The surplus revenue from the 450th Anniversary Churchill Songs reached £241,000. These proceeds were shared between the Harrow Club and Young Harrow Foundation and a portion retained for bursary funding at Harrow. For an occasion that, at the outset, may never have happened, it turned into, for many people, the ‘best ever’ performance!
Douglas Collins, CEO of the Harrow Development Trust
St Stephen Walbrook – 5 December 2022
Over 150 OHs, parents and members of the School community gathered under the beautiful Sir Christopher Wren dome of St Stephen Walbrook in the City for the annual service led by Fr James Power. Internationally acclaimed tenor Ed Lyon (The Knoll 19923) performed a breath-taking rendition of O Holy Night and joined in with the selection of carols alongside the gathered OH choir.
Cavalry & Guards Club – 26 January 2023
The West Acre Triennial Dinner, which had unfortunately been postponed due to Covid, took place on 26 January 2023 in the sumptuous surroundings of the Cavalry & Guards Club on Pall Mall. Some 176 years since the House opened as a boarding House, it was wonderful that the dinner was attended by West Acrians of all vintages ranging from those who had recently left to James Miller CBE (19483) (who was perhaps unique in attending a House Dinner with both his son and grandson), as well as by MES (2001–13). As ever, it was a pleasure to catch up with former beaks, contemporaries and West Acrians across the generations. Hamish Haldane, the current House Master, addressed the dinner with an update in relation to the life of the House today, which allowed many of the OHs to reminisce about events and glories twenty (and thirty and forty) years on. With delicious food (even if Andy Shovel's (20003) vegan options consisted only of salad!) and wine that kept flowing, the West Acrians' voices raised the roof of the club in hearty unison.
Until the next time, Stet Fortuna Domus!
Pierre L Ali-Noor (2001 3 )5 February 2023
This year’s Founder’s Day saw a fantastic turnout of OHs for what was a hugely enjoyable day of Harrow football and catching up with old friends. After Morning Prayer, the day began at the Boyer Webb Pavilion where OHs gathered to enjoy bacon rolls and some much-needed coffee, before being joined by the boys for the customary group photo with Head Master Mr Land. The matches kicked-off at around quarter to noon, with it soon dawning on
many of the OHs that the years spent away from the Hill had perhaps taken their toll on their fitness levels. Nevertheless, enthusiasm remained high, with plenty of bases scored and some thrilling matches of Harrow footer being vied for. Next, the boys and OHs flocked to the Shepherd Churchill for a convivial lunch with their teammates, and the day drew to a close after some of the OHs got together for well-deserved drinks – very kindly organised by Dr Crowe –at the Works Department bar.
Cavalry & Guards Club – 23 February 2023
What a memorable evening of celebration for the best house on the Hill. From guest of honour Professor David London (19462) to pianist Yuk-Chiu Lai (20203), over 70 years of Newlanders were united at the Cavalry & Guards Club alongside House Masters past, present and future in Misters Greenstock (1985–97), Higgins (2009–present) and Johnson (House Master elect).
A lively drinks reception commenced proceedings, with the room a hive of updates and stories before we transitioned to enjoy each other’s company over dinner. The highlight – Songs – soon followed, led by Master of Ceremonies Andrew Millett (19783). With this year concluding EWH’s tenure, we celebrated his time at the helm and reflected on the incredible achievements of Newlands over the past 14 years. As Tom Ward (20093) phrased it in his speech, EWH had unfailing pride in our House and, despite his firmness, brought out the best in us. We remain grateful to EWH and we all wish HKJ and Newlands every success in September and beyond. See you in 2028!
Alessio Kenda (20133)
The Harrow Aviation Club had the privilege of holding the final event in Speech Room before renovations began – a film screening and Q & A titled Silver Spitfire –The Longest Flight. The film was produced and directed by Ben Uttley (Moretons 19913) with an original score by Harry Gregory (Moretons 20093) and Benjamin Hollway (The Knoll 19883) orchestrating the official song.The audience were treated to a superb spectacle celebrating British engineering, manufacturing, aviation and military dominance of the skies.
The aeroplane they used on this circumnavigation of the world was manufactured in 1943 in Castle Bromwich. This specific plane is iconic, having flown 51 combat missions over its time. It is a Mark IX Spitfire, finished in polished aluminium to highlight the timeless beauty of the design. Notable moments in the film included circling the Statue of Liberty, formation flying alongside F18s, and undercarriage failures upon touchdown in some rather ropey aerodromes. Ben and Matt Smith OBE gave an entertaining account of their stand-out moments to conclude a wonderful event.
Robert McMahon (The Head Master's 20073)
Regent, Hong Kong – 21 March 2023
It was wonderful to gather over 350 parents, OHs and members of the wider Harrow School community in Hong Kong as we celebrated 450 years of Harrow and our 25-year international education experience in Asia. The auction raised an impressive £1.8 million in ticket sales, sponsorship, bids and donations towards the Harrow Development Trust’s Harrow 450 campaign in support of transforming lives through bursaries and building for the future.
Sir Joseph Banks (Harrow 1753) Scientist, Explorer and Botanist
by Head Master Alastair LandThe Royal Society – 13 March 2023
Over 200 Harrow Association members along with members of the 450 Society gathered for the second in our Harrow 450 series’ of Giant Talks at The Royal Society on 13 March. The Head Master's talk and Q & A on Giant of Old Sir Joseph Banks was thoughtful, engaging and at times amusing, and OHs enjoyed the the opportunity to meet with fellow OHs and parents in the receptions before and after the talk.
The Grosvenor, Stockbridge – 21 April 2023
A number of Peter’s close friends and relatives meet annually at around the time of his birthday on 24 April to remember and celebrate his life. Covid prevented us from holding this annual event in 2022 but nine of us met on 21 April including four OHs, his two sons, one of whom travelled from Hong Kong to be with us, two of his oldest friends and his brother-in-law. We celebrated the occasion by each recounting a small anecdote of our memories of Peter accompanied by good food and wine. It is a testimony to the bond that exists between OHs that some 60 years after our introduction to the School we remain good friends, though I confess we had to look at our Song Books to recall the words of verse 5 of Forty Years On! The OHs present were myself, Tony Haslam (Druries 19621), Colin Liddell (The Head Master’s 19613) and Pierce Brunt (The Head Master’s 19621).
Chris Nichols (The Park 19621)
A fly-in by members with aircraft took place at Elstree Aerodrome on Saturday 25 June 2022.A number of Harrovians, marshalled by Rob McMahon (The Head Master’s 2007³ ) were flown in members’ aircraft, the majority of whom had never been in a light aircraft before. They were also shown around the flying school, Flight Training London, with the senior instructor demonstrating the brand-new DA-42 flight simulator to the boys which enables piloting to take place on the ground in all weathers, thereby cutting down considerably the time and cost required to obtain a PPL. The annual dinner was fully booked and took place in late November 2022 at the club’s Chelsea watering hole, The Fox and Pheasant, hosted by the pub’s owner and HAC member James Blunt (Elmfield 1987³ ), fresh from his Albert Hall duties earlier in the month. The speaker was Ben Uttley (Moretons 1991³ ) who gave us a taster of his amazing documentary film, Silver SpitfireThe Longest Flight.
In 2023, the undoubted highlight of the year took place in Speech Room on 1 March when Ben Uttley arranged a special screening of Silver Spitfire - The Longest Flight Read more on page 37 about this.
A fly-in is being organised to take place later this summer, flying into Bembridge Aerodrome, Isle of Wight. This will throw down new gauntlets when the HAC will meet members of the recently formed Etonian Aviation Club and challenge them to the first-ever Harrow-Eton match to take place in the air.
We are to return to the Fox and Pheasant this next November for the 2023 annual dinner – further details to be announced in due course. As places are limited early booking is essential.
Huge thanks are due to Iain Ruggles-Brise (West Acre 2002³ ) who has been the indefatigable Club Secretary for a number of years and has handed over the mantle to Will Quilter (West Acre 2009³ ). Air-minded Old Harrovians should contact Will if they wish to participate in any of the club events or merely to be kept informed of the club and its ventures.
John Steel (Rendalls 19673)
Fresh from its 150th celebrations last October, the Harrow Wanderers is in good spirits and looking forward to the 2023 season. It gets underway with the annual Speech Day fixture against the School on 27 May. Last year, the Wanderers held out for a draw in a fiercely contested match. This year, with the School buoyant after its recent victory over Eton at Lord’s, another tough challenge awaits.
The Cricketer Cup begins on 11 June with an away fixture against Bradfield. Captain Lalit Bose (The Head Master’s 2008³ ) will be leading the side once again and, having fallen in the second round last year after a blazing victory against Dulwich in the first match, the team is determined to make their presence felt in the later stages of the tournament.
As usual, touring is at the heart of the 2023 fixtures list. The Northern Tour begins on 7 July with a fixture against the Yorkshire Gents at Escrick and is followed by matches against the Hawks and Aysgarth. Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the tour, and the club will be marking the occasion with special events to be announced later in the year. Meanwhile, over the first weekend of September, another Harrow Wanderers squad travels to Conington Park for the Southern Tour, with fixtures against the Howitzers and the Decimals.
Visit the Harrow Wanderers group page on OH Connect to keep up to date with fixtures, results and news through the season.
James Gillions (Elmfield 19873)
2022/23 has proved a difficult season for the OHAFC both on and off the pitch.
The club remains one of the healthiest in the Arthurian League, one of only three to field three teams on a Saturday, but results for all sides proved underwhelming.
The 1st XI, skippered by Dan Firoozan (Rendalls 20093), finished seventh in Division One, their efforts hampered by inconsistent availability in the first half of the season. The 2s, again led by Geoff Taunton-Collins (Bradbys 20013 ), endured a dramatic end to their campaign with relegation from Division Two only confirmed two hours after a final-day victory at home to the Sennockians –Aldenhamians’ surprise win away to the title-chasing Radleians condemned the side to Division Three following a six-year absence. The 3s enjoyed their season (and their Saturday nights) most of all, despite a bizarre fixture allocation that saw the side play 12 of their 16 League fixtures before Christmas. Adam Graham's (Druries 20033) club-high 12 goals helped the team to a comfortable fifth-place finish in Division Four. None of the three sides threatened success in any of the Cups.
Nevertheless, it was pleasing to see so many promising debutants among the 110 players who featured this season and congratulations are due to Will Payne (Newlands 20123 ), who made his Arthurian League Representative Team debut in a 6-0 win over the Amateur Football Combination.
March saw the passing of former Rendalls and Druries Matron Gillian Whitmee, a valued supporter of the OHAFC and a regular face on the Phil pitches over many seasons – a memorial service will be held on the Hill later this year to celebrate Gillian’s life.
More recently, a memorial game was held in Barn Elms in honour of former OHAFC stalwart Dom Danos (Bradbys 19903), who died in January last year whilst playing football for his ‘other’ Veterans team, the West Kensington Kings. Dom’s family was present for the occasion, with wife George presenting a new Cup named in Dom’s honour, the fixture between the sides set to be held on an annual basis going forward.
All OHAFC information is available on the website ohafc.com with a busy 2024 planned, including an Easter Tour and club dinner.
David Lederman (Newlands 19883)On a glorious September afternoon, very different conditions were experienced from the usual muddy deluge for the 70th running of the Alumni Race on Wimbledon Common. The date was moved to early autumn to avoid fixture congestion in December. An enthusiastic and varied field of 150 set off for a tour of this classic and demanding five-mile course. The honours for the many events within the event were widely shared.
The OHXC team finished well, coming fourth of 33 scoring teams, one place ahead of the old foes Eton. The four scorers were George Grassly (The Knoll 20133) (9), William Gasson (The Head Master’s 20123) (21), Quentin Baker (Moretons 19893) (23) and Mark Sankey (The Park 19943) (49).
They were strongly supported by Jonathon Orme, (The Park 19913), Simon Eadon (Druries 19653) and Harry Hathorn (Newland 20143).
It was great to have some new faces this year, so whether you are fitness mad or a Sunday plodder then do consider joining us in the future. The next Alumni run is 16 September so please contact the HA office if you are interested in joining.
George Grassly (The Knoll 20133)
The club had a full set of real tennis fixtures this season. The highlight was winning the Wellesley Cup against the Old Etonians at Lord’s during the Eton v Harrow match in June 2022. Fortunately, we will be able to play for it again in 2023. On the rackets court, Alex Titchener-Barratt (Elmfield 1993³) won the British Open Doubles this year. An amazing feat for a player over the age of 40.
The annual dinner was held at The Queen’s Club on the 3 May to end the season and was attended by Dan Escott (Master-in-Charge), the pros and five 62 rackets players. This gave us the opportunity to celebrate the success of the School winning the Foster Cup, the Renny Cup, the 2nd Pair doubles and the Mark Faber Cup (for the most successful school in the Schools Rackets Championships over the year).
We are keen to encourage new players, so if you would like to give it a go please get in touch. We have links with a number of clubs and would be happy to put you in touch with them or, in some cases, we may be able to get you on court for a quick hit during one of our matches.
Simon Roundell (Newlands 1989³ ) and Harsha Boralessa (Moretons 1983³ )
There were over 30 matches in the fixture list for 2022, capping a successful year for the society. Meetings were well attended: the Spring, Autumn, Welsh, Scottish and Association meetings plus those linked to competitions such as the Halford Hewitt and Bernard Darwin. The Harrow Association meeting, in October, attracted over 40 entries from golfers of all ages and ability. 2022 was a precursor to an important date for OHGS, with the society being formed in the late Autumn of 1923, to enter a team in the Halford Hewitt, one of the largest amateur competitions in the world. The Halford Hewitt will be 100 years old in 1924, the year after our own centenary celebrations.
It is important to attract low-handicap golfers for the Halford Hewitt, and the close relationship with the School enables the Captain of the team, Hamish Morrison (Druries 1999³), to choose golfers from a wider range of candidates. This was evident from the potential of the team at the competition in April 2022. OHGS contributed to the golf simulator, which was installed on the Hill in 2022 and gives boys at the School more opportunities to play, and practice, golf. OHs under 30, receive subsidised green fees and reduced cost of OHGS membership.
I took over from David Blackburn (The Park 1963² ), at the November AGM, as Captain and am taking the lead, on behalf of the OHGS, in putting together a programme of centenary events starting with a match against Royal St George’s (ahead of our Spring meeting) and culminating with a dinner at Brooks
in November. There will also be a one-off publication of a history of the OHGS. More of this in future reports.
A word of thanks to the President Jamie Warman (The Grove 1969³), the OHGS officers, committee members and match managers who make the programme of matches possible. Why not visit ohgs.org.uk and, if you are a member look at the fixture list? If you are not, there is a simple process for signing up. It will be an excellent chance to meet new people and play on some of the best golf courses in the UK.
John Macpherson (The Grove 1980³ ) Captain
The OH Sailing Association met once again in the Solent at the beginning of October for the Arrow Trophy. A great time was had by all, meeting up on the Hamble on Friday morning for a tremendous day out on the water with near perfect conditions. On Friday evening, we all met in West Cowes for dinner. It was good to see crew members who felt that they could at last come back out again following the pandemic, along with some new faces.
Saturday racing was keen with good conditions where the OH boat managed a consistent mid-field result. The regatta dinner on Saturday evening was well supported. Sunday gave some good racing conditions again and there were a few tired-looking faces by the time we got the boat back to Hamble.
We were delighted to be able to make a presence at the OH Societies Dinner in April and very much hope that some of the Harrovians who we talked to will be able to come and join us. This would come on the back of a couple of mailings that we made to spread the word and we are looking forward to sailing with a few new members this year.
We hope that the Belvidere Cup will be held over two days again next year and this will mean that we will be able to enter for a day of J80 racing on Queen Mary Reservoir near Heathrow, which we did a couple of years ago and was great fun.
If you, or anyone you know, would like to come and join in then please do get in touch. We will be meeting again at Cowes in October and I shall be flying the flag for us at Cowes Classic Week in July. I look forward to seeing anyone who can make it.
Just to note that we now have a small fund put aside for the encouragement of younger OHs to join us on the water.
It would be nice to try and find ways to develop a wide scope of events for OH sailors and their families. Some of the things that we intend to explore are a dinner in town ‘out of season’, a range of competitive and social sailing opportunities such as dingy sailing, wind surfing and kite surfing, and a get together of OHs with classic boats. If there is enthusiasm for it, we can look at events for powered craft too. It would be great fun to get the extended families of OHSA members involved. This year is the 30th anniversary of the Arrow Trophy Race Committee, developed from the original gauntlet throw down to Eton back in 1987. A bit more than 30 years since the original race, however, I have approached the Old Etonian Sailing Club and I am waiting to hear if they are up for a rematch. All being well, there will be some fun times ahead!
Please get in touch if you or any of your family would like more information about getting onto the water with the OHSA.
This is the premier public schools' old boys' squash tournament and is one of the oldest tournaments in the squash calendar, dating back to 1934.
First match up in the five-string format saw Harrow’s first string and captain Seigo Masuda (Rendalls 2011³ ) take on his opposite number Ian Cox, a former Norfolk County player. Seigo took the first game to work out his opponent and narrowly lost it 11-7. In the next three games, Seigo exerted his youth and experience to take the match 3-1.
On the adjacent court, Harrow’s fifth string Rob Dale (The Knoll 1992³ ) took on Katie Cox (daughter of Ian Cox) who has a current Ladies PSA tour ranking of 176. This was an extremely well contested match with Rob using powerful cross court drives to create pressure and gain vital court positioning which resulted in a tight 3-1 in Rob’s favour.
Next up was Harrow’s fourth string Davide Bernardi (Newlands 2010³ ) playing against Stuart Cowie, a former world number 41 in the world. Stuart has great hands and the experience of playing at international level, and this was always going to trouble Davide. Davide battled the hardest he has ever had to and retrieved brilliantly, making Stuart work for every point. Stuart prevailed in the end 3-2 but Davide will only get better if he keeps working at his game.
The match was now balanced at 2-1 in Harrow’s favour with a crucial third-string match between Harrow’s Henry Prideaux (Bradbys1992³ ) and Matt Bolt, another Norwich County player who has played at a high level throughout his career. This was another very tightly contested match with great short play touches from both players. Henry’s cool head and calm demeanour carried him through for an excellent 3-1 win and vital unassailable lead to give Harrow the overall win.
Last match on was Harrow’s second string
Alex Titchener-Barrett (Elmfield 1993³ ) taking on Marcus Cowie (brother of Stuart) and former European Under-19 Champion and England player. The opening game was fiercely contested and nicely poised at 7-7 with Alex looking to exert his fitness on Marcus but, again, the former international used his experience and great touch to edge the game. Marcus dominated the second game more comfortably and similarly took a competitively matched third game.
Overall result 3-2 to Harrow.
Harrow have won this prestigious cup in 1939, 1948, 2022 and 2023. Back-to-back victories have never been accomplished in Harrow’s squash history, so to follow up with a successive win was an extra-special achievement.
The Byronics, the LGBTQ+ OH society, will be hosting a joint summer social event on the evening of Thursday 13 July at a central London venue. We will be teaming up with the LGBTQ+ alumni societies from a number of leading public schools including Eton, Radley, Winchester and others. Please save the date in your diary and contact us at harrowbyronics@gmail.com to register to receive final details of the event and further information about the Byronics.
Rory Smith (The Park 2002³ )
There are numerous OH clubs and societies in a variety of social, sporting and professional categories. Contact the club secretaries below if you would like to find out more about any of these OH clubs and societies. You can also visit the Groups section of OH Connect for dedicated OH clubs and society forums.
Harrow Aviation Club JB Steel (Rendalls 1967³ Harrow Football Club LA Kunzig (Druries 1983³ Harrow Wanderers JR Gillions (Elmfield 1987³
Adventurers Club RM Portal (Elmfield 1981²
Association Football Club K Pittalis (Rendalls 2006³
(
Entrepeneurs & Investors Club
Eton Fives Club
Taylor (Elmfield 1993³
Dunbar (Former Harrow Master)
Fencing Club AE Webb (Druries 1989³
Golfing Society WA North (The Knoll 1962²
Horse Racing Club AP Rogers (Elmfield 1984³
Law Society Pierre Ali-Noor (
Lawn Tennis Club
Lodge
Scott (Tennis Coach, 1988-2000
Skeggs (The Head Masters 1997³
1999³
Wallace (Bradbys 2000³
Sessions (Rendalls 1968³
Houslander (
Real Tennis and Rackets Association
Boralessa (Moretons 1983³
Holtby (
Shaftesbury Enterprise Society
Dalton (Newlands 1992³
Masuda (Rendalls 2011³
Hedley (West Acre 2008³
Gray (The Head Master's 1999²
Byronics
Smith (The Park 2002³
Since leaving Harrow, Will Perry has had a front seat calling the game he loves. Two decades, three Olympics and thousands of matches later, he reflects on how sports journalism has changed – from social media to podcasting.
FOR WILL PERRY (The Head Master’s 1997 3), football seemed inevitable. Skipping lessons to play Football Manager, picking a university for its proximity to Manchester City at Maine Road, and a legendary footballing godfather have all led him to decades of success as a broadcast journalist covering the beautiful game.
But long before stints with Sky, BBC and BT Sport, Perry imagined a different career – behind the camera. “When I was 14 or 15, I had an uncle who was a line producer in the film industry,” he remembers. “I worked as a runner on a lot of film sets as a kid and was immersed in that world.”
With his sights set on the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, Perry worked everywhere from Wembley to PyeongChang, but his most memorable set was St Thomas Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, New York City.
“I was obsessed with J.D. Salinger and fell into this Catcher in the Rye life 100 years on,” he said. The Hollywood life came with its share of glamour and mundanity: in the same shoot Sigourney Weaver would introduce Perry to New York’s nightlife.
(“my fake ID I bought at Harrow didn’t cut it” he laughed), and David Frost would lose his patience over a doughnut (“he honestly called me a c-bomb for getting the wrong one!”).
But even with the highs and lows of show business, Perry’s obsession with football ran deeper.
“I was always football mad. You’ve got to think: when I was at prep school, that was around the time the Premier League started,” he said. “So, when I came to Harrow it was only four years old. It was just – you were either into it or you weren’t, and I was just obsessed.”
Harrow’s history with football goes back to Charles Alcock (Druries 18553), who in 1859, on leaving Harrow, founded Forest Football Club with his elder brother and a few Old Harrovian friends. Forest would become Wanderers FC, a dominant but ragtag team playing different matches under different rule sets and always without a home stadium. Alcock himself would go on to found the first ever FA Cup final in 1872, and win it as captain of a predominantly OH Wanderers team, before captaining England on six occasions. The FA unveiled a plaque commemorating Alcock’s contribution to the game at the Sunley last year, the 150th anniversary of his 1872 win.
But Perry doesn’t remember much football fever from his time on the Hill. “Harrow was a very big rugby school; it wasn’t a massive football school,” he said, “so there weren’t many people like me who were just obsessed with the Premier League.” Instead he found his inspiration from a few enthusiastic beaks and connections outside the school. His godfather, Frances Lee, played with the likes of Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee in a legendary 1970s Manchester City team and was Chairman of the club when Perry joined Harrow.
“But when I was at Harrow they were awful. In the 97/98 season, we went down to the third tier of English football and nearly went bust. It was a very different Manchester City from what it is now.
Aged 17, in between driving lessons and AS-levels, Perry wrote a letter to Kelvin MacKenzie – remembered now as The Sun’s Editor in Chief during the Hillsborough crisis, but then at the helm of talkSPORT. Soon he was spending his summer taking the train from Marlow to the station’s broadcast tower in Waterloo.
“I was making tea for everyone, you know, as you always start out,” he said. “But those years for me were so useful.”
Too busy playing Championship Manager (now Football Manager) to do justice to his A-levels, Perry applied to Manchester Metropolitan University. “I wanted to be in Manchester because – it sounds so pathetic – because of City,” he said. “I wanted to be able to go to the games.”
The degree didn’t stick – Perry dropped out after a year – but the city did: “I haven't left Manchester since,” he said. And while Perry sensed a little disappointment from his family, he decided to work instead for KEY103. “Two years of being submerged in that world of broadcasting, actually on the ground floor in the trenches, was far more important and far more valuable than getting a degree,” he knows now.
At the time, Perry took advantage of a feud between Sir Alex Ferguson and the BBC to get an exclusive for his local Manchester Station. Soon he was sitting down with managers from Sam Allardyce to Mark Hughes and, after just over a year, joined BBC Manchester.
“It was an exciting time because you could see a pathway,” he said. “I knew if I committed myself and applied myself in that industry that I could climb up.”
“For me, now (sounding like an old fogey), we live in a cut-corner culture. Particularly with the rise of social media, anyone can claim to be a presenter because they can string some things together on YouTube,” he said, “whereas when I was 17, 18, 19 you had to start at the bottom.”
To begin with, that meant covering away games where his salary didn’t exceed travel expenses, even working for the BBC. “But you’d never turn it down because it was such a big opportunity,” he said. “That’s where you learn and fine tune and hone your craft.”
I was a one-man band with a drum on my back and a xylophone and everything. There [at 5 Live] it’s like, right, everything for you: they’d print out your script, bring you to the studio – it was amazing.”Left to right: With Alan Shearer, with Martin Keown and Micah Richards, with David Elleray, at his beloved Manchester City ground and at the BBC Sports Studios.
Since then, Perry’s career has grown with the BBC and expanded to other sports, from boxing and cricket to rugby league. For him, the years of pre-game research and underpaid match-day travelling came good when he arrived at “the big, bright lights of Television” working for Radio 5 Live.
For a long time, he remembers, “I was a one-man band with a drum on my back and a xylophone and everything. There [at 5 Live] it’s like, right, everything for you: they’d print out your script, bring you to the studio –it was amazing.”
Perry’s time since hasn’t been without disappointments, including being snubbed once to present Saturday night Match of the Day – a privilege which remains one of his greatest career aspirations.
But across sports, continents and stations, Perry’s career as a journalist and broadcaster has, he said, been fuelled by confidence, not arrogance, and hard work. He exercised both at Harrow, but sometimes hard work comes easily when you’re football mad.
"With not many football obsessed friends during my time on the Hill I often shared my enthusiasm for the game with my maths teacher Dr Bill Dalton who I have wonderful memories of. He was a huge Accrington Stanley fan, 'who are they?!' I hated maths but would relish the ten minute debrief where we would dissect our two teams misfortunes from the weekend.”
“One of my big inspirations at Harrow was David Elleray,” then Druries House Master (1991 – 2009) who moonlit as a Premier League referee," said Perry. He can still remember watching Elleray sending Roy Keane off at the infamous 2001 Manchester Derby, and the attention a sports celebrity brought to the Hill. “It's bizarre that you had people from the public coming up knowing where he lived and shouting abuse at his door and all that sort of stuff.”
More than anything, though, Perry remembers the time they spent together, furrowed in match analysis. “I’d get all the papers, go round and knock on his door and, while he was in his office marking, we’d sit there for hours just talking through all yesterday's games,” said Perry. “I had so much respect for him. I don’t know if you can idolise a referee but just that world that he was in.”
For now, Perry is still running between games –and looking forward to his next gig at Sky Sports with whom he made his debut in early June. Then, like back at school, it’s off for the Summer until next season kicks off in August.
It was an exciting time because you could see a pathway,” he said. “I knew if I committed myself and applied myself in that industry that I could climb up.”
Author, philanthropist, investor and one of the youngest entrepreneurs ever to found a bank, 24-year-old Toni Fola-Alade is learning to pace himself as he races to the future.
In 1869, Edward Bok emigrated from Denmark to New York, aged 6. Such was his family’s poverty, he took to washing the windows of a local bakery, walking the streets of Brooklyn collecting errant lumps of coal, and selling ice water. Each pail went for a penny but, Bok learnt, with sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice, he could sell each drink for three pennies. This, apocryphally, was the first Lemonade Stand: ever since a symbol of entrepreneurial spirit.
Toni Fola-Alade (Rendalls 20123) was also six when he started a lemonade stand – his first business.
“My parents are pastors and they’re very involved in church,” he remembers. “I just noticed that people would kind of stay around talking, so six-year-old me was like ‘Ok, I’m going to make lemonade and bake muffins from scratch and sell it to them.’ The product probably wasn’t very good, but I was using my cute factor,” he laughed.
“Then I realised that I could do it for less effort if I went to Costco and bought it wholesale.” Suddenly Fola-Alade was making $20 a week. “It was a ton of money – more money than I knew what to do with!” Around the same time, he started reading Richard Branson’s books.
Since then, Fola-Alade has founded a charity bringing sustainable development to Nigeria, previously served as founder-CEO of a bank, and written a book, Study Cheat Codes, about the secrets to academic success, all while studying for his Human, Social and Political Sciences degree at Cambridge, and interviewing Stormzy, as president of the university’s Afro-Caribbean Society. Now he’s growing the book into a community, running a venture capital firm and flying back and forth to Nigeria for the charity.
Despite that, the first words out of his mouth when we talk are self-effacing. “I still feel like I’ve achieved nothing,” he said, from Gail’s café in Essex.
“When I look back,” he said, “I haven’t really changed from that age,” selling chocolate chip muffins to his parents’ congregation in Stratford. “I don’t think I’ve ever been finding myself; I think I’ve been refining myself.”
There’s no clearer example of Fola-Alade’s clarity of purpose, even from an early age, than his journey to Harrow. Aged 12 and studying at a day school in London, Fola-Alade saw Channel 4's documentary Too Poor For Posh School and was captivated. The Common Entrance had long passed and the deadline to apply for a scholarship was three weeks past. So he started working.
“I went on a five-day binge,” he said, “studying every single thing on [Harrow’s] website.” Without telling his parents Fola-Alade wrote to then Head Master, Barnaby Lennon – not just an email but a printed-out portfolio of ambition. “In business, you have to stand out in your market against your competitors,” the 12-year-old wrote, “and I believe the principle applies here, so I decided to make this.”
One year later, Kristian Emmanuel, depicted in the documentary sitting for Harrow’s scholarship tests, was Fola-Alade’s Rendalls roommate. Eventually, Fola-Alade’s younger brother, Tola, would follow in his footsteps.
In some ways, Harrow wasn’t a natural choice. Both of Fola-Alade's parents had negative experiences with boarding schools in Nigeria and England. As a young, Black man navigating ADHD and dysgraphia, whose favourite word to this day is “contrarian”, Fola-Alade didn’t take instinctively to the strictures and structures of the School. “I’ve always had this kind of maverick personality,” he remembers, “always going against the grain. At an institution like Harrow you can get in a lot of trouble for that, and I think I did at times and other House Masters may have written me off.”
But Fola-Alade left Harrow for Cambridge as Rendalls’ Deputy Head of House, vice-captain of the School judo team and founding president of the Perceval Society, which continues to remember and celebrate African and Carribean history, culture and current affairs at the School. His contrarian’s secret to negotiating Harrow? The friends and beaks who gave him the space to be himself: like Ms Natalya Silcott, who helped found the Perceval Society, and his House Master, Simon Taylor.
“We have to big up Mr Simon Taylor. I think he’s the only House Master who could have dealt with me,” Fola-Alade said. “Being a little bit of a contrarian himself, he realised that I wasn’t trying to be a pain. I was just being myself, and he helped create an environment to be my best self.”
Fola-Alade arrived at Cambridge in 2017 with the same “engine” he’s always had, newfound confidence from his time at Harrow, and his sights set high. He was elected president of the university's African-Caribbean Society in his first year, tripling their sponsorship to £30,000, and serving on the inaugural selection panel for Stormzy’s Cambridge scholarship, after interviewing him at The Union earlier that year.
He became part of a movement that raised the profile of underrepresented students across a university eight centuries old. The year after Fola-Alade led the African-Caribbean Society, Cambridge’s admission rate for Black students rose 50%. Suddenly he was being interviewed in the Financial Times and profiled: one of Future Leaders’ top ten Black students in the country.
Then Fola-Alade began to look beyond university. First, he founded DoGood Africa, a non-profit which, in 2021, received almost $100,000 from the Coca-Cola foundation for its work supporting local charities in Nigeria. It was an idea born from his Nigerian heritage, and a vision for enabling the “fragmented” network of organisations struggling to do good work across his cofounders’ home country without support.
“We’re all young Africans who either live on the continent or are first generation immigrants to the West,” he said.
“It’s not a White Saviour situation for us. We have a huge self-awareness that communities should be empowered to solve their own problems. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel; we're just trying to champion people doing the existing work.”
As DoGood Africa continued to grow in Nigeria, creating over 100 jobs and setting up a new school in Lagos’ largest slum, Fola-Alade entered his second year at Cambridge and turned down a job offer from the Vice President of Nigeria to set out on his next project, Nomad Bank.
Looking back now, Nomad is both Fola-Alade's proudest accomplishment and his lowest moment. On the one hand, securing the investment to found a digital bank for Nigeria’s up-and-coming businesses and start-ups made him one of the youngest and most impactful founderowners around the world. On the other, the pressure of running a round of venture-capital fundraising, then serving as CEO – all while studying for finals at Cambridge – drove him to the edge of burning out.
“As a very confident person naturally, maybe too confident, burnout looks like anxiety attacks, panic attacks, especially at critical moments.” He compared the feeling as a CEO to a kind of stage fright he had to confront.
“Like when you’re in the wings, waiting to go on: that’s when it was worst for me.”
“I
I think what I took away from School was being able to respect, cherish and value institutions, but also be independent and innovative and take a risk to move forward.
couldn't help doing these things, if that makes sense. I didn't really try or plan to do them. These are all just manifestations of a motor or an engine inside me. I haven't quite figured out where it comes from.”
Fola-Alade had been placed on academic probation earlier that year, a situation he admits he deserved for giving too much of his attention to endeavours outside Cambridge.
“I saw university as a means to an end: something I needed to do so I could get out in the real world and do the things that were interesting.”
In 2020, as Fola-Alade's finals neared, COVID shut the real world down and he decided to do everything he could both to make Nomad a reality and finish his degree.
“I was like ‘screw it, let’s put everything on the line.’” Fola-Alade lived alone and spent eight hours a day working on Nomad, plus another eight studying for his finals. “It was COVID: I couldn't go anywhere," he remembers. “I didn't do anything. I literally smashed my phone so that I would have no option to talk to anybody.” He kept an old Nokia to call his parents.
Six months later, when lockdown ended, Nomad had secured enough funding to go live, and Fola-Alade had a first-class degree. “I was maniacally focused. I took myself to a mental place which was not healthy.” One year after launching, Fola-Alade would step down as CEO. Despite all he’d accomplished, it was, he said, “the first time I’ve felt failure.”
After catching his breath for a few months, Fola-Alade is now living out his ambition of becoming a “Branson-esque serial entrepreneur" as the chairman of Culture Capital Group, which has invested launched or invested in five creative businesses in the UK and Africa over the last nine months. Meanwhile, DoGood Africa continues to grow, and the book Fola-Alade wrote about his time at Cambridge, Study Cheat Codes, has become a community-driven education technology platform called Cheat Codes for hundreds of young entrepreneurs with the same kind of unrelenting ambition. He recently has been involved with strategy at the Harrow Club, a network of five youth clubs in West London, where 90% of young people are from an ethnic minority background. He’s passionate about getting more young OHs involved with the charity, which provides a safe space and opportunity for some of London’s most vulnerable young people.
From meetings at the House of Lords or G20 summits, to the disruptive world of start-ups, Fola-Alade thinks Harrow taught him to negotiate tradition and innovation. “I think what I took away from School was being able to respect, cherish and value institutions, but also be independent and innovative and take a risk to move forward.
“I couldn't help doing these things, if that makes sense. I didn't really try or plan to do them. These are all just manifestations of a motor or an engine inside me. I haven't quite figured out where it comes from.”
Hong Kong is home to the greatest concentration of OHs outside London. OHs from around the world frequently visit Hong Kong on business, some fleetingly and others electing to stay for many years.
Three successful OHs based in Hong Kong share their stories and how they have built their careers in this dynamic city.
MY WRITING SKILLS HAD BEEN RECOGNIZED BY WINNING THE CHURCHILL ESSAY PRIZE, BUT A WRONG TURN DOING SCIENCE A-LEVELS HAD RESULTED IN VERY LOW GRADES. I WAS FORTUNATE TO BE ACCEPTED TO READ LAW AT BUCKINGHAM AND I WENT ON TO DO A MASTER’S IN LAW AT KING’S COLLEGE LONDON. The emergence of China’s economy provided new opportunities for the legal profession. Work was exciting, with corporate and private equity deals. In 1995, I was involved in a judicial review appeal to the Privy Council. The opposing silk was Jonathan Sumption QC. My responsibility was to ensure the pleadings were bound in cornflower blue. HA dinners were much smaller then. Regular attendees numbered 12 and black tie was de rigeur.
Hong Kong was under colonial rule. As a Malaysian, my family had been loyal subjects of Empire. A greatgreat-grandfather built a clock tower in Penang to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. My grandfather matriculated at Peterhouse in 1920. Although only two of eight graduates from either of the two universities he found himself under-promoted compared to his British peers. He said I would never know what it is like to live under colonial rule. That was true until I arrived in Hong Kong. Born after Merdeka, colonial rule did not sit well with me.
I decided to embrace the future and moved to Beijing in 1996. Work in Beijing was even more exciting. I advised multinationals investing in Mainland China. Every transaction was a ‘first’ of some sort. Later, I distilled my experience in a book entitled The Law and Practice of Mergers & Acquisitions in the People’s Republic of China published by the Oxford University Press. As my career and livelihood owe much to China, I used the royalties to build a primary school in rural Yunnan Province.
I met my wife, Kristie Lu Stout, in Beijing in 1998. An American and a graduate of Stanford, Kristie is a journalist at CNN. We met at a party at a three-star hotel in Beijing. She was dressed as a cool, hip Californian. I was in typical OH gear: Gucci loafers. Our first date was a walk around the lakes behind the Forbidden City. We returned to Hong Kong in 2000. After some years at Freshfields, I was elected as a partner at White & Case. I began to advise on acquisitions by PRC clients around the world. Our daughter, Arabella, is an Art Scholar at Harrow International School. She already has more Send Ups than I ever had.
Five years ago, I set up my own boutique firm. I advise sophisticated clients in complex cross-border transactions. In 2019, I matriculated at Oxford to read for a Master’s degree in Taxation Law, one of the few parttime degrees offered by the university. Sitting exams in sub fusc in your fifties is challenging, but the course was invigorating and like a mental oil change. The underlying theme of a Tax degree at Oxford is redistributive justice. I became the 17th person in my family to have graduated from Oxford, Cambridge or both.
I recently launched a second career as an Arbitrator. Arbitration in Hong Kong is growing as a means to resolve disputes given Hong Kong’s unique role and location. To improve my understanding of the subject, I am doing a PhD at Maastricht University on the resolution of tax disputes involving one or more sovereign states via arbitration.
We often say Stet Fortuna Domus and hardly ever Donorum Dei Dispensatio Fidelis. I prefer the latter. The faithful exercise of one’s scant skills and paltry talent reflects better the Harrow ethos.
We often say Stet Fortuna Domus and hardly ever Donorum Dei Dispensatio Fidelis. I prefer the latter. The faithful exercise of one’s scant skills and paltry talent reflects better the Harrow ethos.Seung as after-dinner speaker at the Churchill Symposium, Zurich
AFTER LEAVING HARROW, I READ JURISPRUDENCE AT ST HUGH’S COLLEGE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY , before qualifiying as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG London and returning to Hong Kong in 1999 to join HSBC Investment Bank, specialising in corporate finance and M&A advisory. In 2006, capitalising on the benign market conditions in the aftermath of SARS, I decided to open a restaurant called The Press Room, a modern New York-style French brasserie. There was a clear gap in the market for Western food at the time: with hole-in-the-wall eateries at one end of the spectrum and hotel fine dining restaurants at the other end. The Press Room became an instant hit by offering good quality food at reasonable prices, which eventually led to the further opening of multiple outlets under various brands ranging from gastropubs and coffee shops to a Michelin two-star restaurant. Nowadays, the core business focus is Classified, a chain of all-day cafés that serve comfort food in residential neighbourhoods and office locations. Against the backdrop of rising rent and labour costs, this concept is thought to be more sustainable and less susceptible to the vagaries of the market. The experience at Harrow has taught me to be resilient and adaptable, which has stood me in good stead whether through the financial market volatilities during my banking years or the recent pandemic that significantly impacted the restaurant industry.
ANDREW KUK (Bradbys 2000 3) OPHTHALMOLOGIST
ALTHOUGH I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN THE UK MY PARENTS ORIGINATE FROM HONG KONG AND I AM FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO CALL THIS PLACE MY SECOND HOME. At Harrow, I made a very close group of friends who came from Hong Kong, and today, regardless of the struggles during our journeys of parenting, building businesses or acquiring professional qualifications, I nostalgically smile as I recall a simpler time when we played the same Yarder, fountained the same boys and tormented the same Ms Dave's every break possible. From each apparently insignificant memory to the grander moments we had on the Hill, I am thankful and am certain our time at Harrow has shaped us into the men we are today.
It is therefore no surprise that after graduating from Imperial College and practising as a junior doctor in the UK, I was keen to try my luck with the notorious Hong Kong medical licensing exam. I have found that many OHs leave School with certain attributes in common: being presentable, being responsive to decision making in pressured environments and being able to capture an audience’s attention. I certainly had to draw on or at least pretend to have some of these to navigate my way into the Hong Kong medical field.
Within a flash I have been in Hong Kong for nine years now. Perhaps through my unhealthy relationship with video gaming I opted for a microsurgical specialty and decided upon being an eye surgeon. Some may find it hard to believe but there are remarkable similarities. Our most common surgeries include removing cataracts, adjusting eye lid positions and providing injections into the eye for various degenerative diseases. Within ophthalmology, I have sub-specialised in the oculoplastic and orbital field where I focus on helping people with repairs of orbit fractures and removal of tumours within and around the eye. Currently, I work in the public sector where I can assist with complex cases and have the pleasure of teaching trainees. Having mentored a few OHs during medical school and some through the Hong Kong Medical Licentiate Exam, I remain readily available to help any others who may find themselves in similar positions or simply wish to find out more about working in the UK’s NHS or Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority.
“I was recently asked by Arnold Wong to take over his role as the Hong Kong OH Rep as he finishes his 17th year. Firstly, a huge thank you to Arnold who has established an incredible network here. Every year without fail he has gone above and beyond to organise our annual OH dinner, not to mention multiple receptions for staff, parents and alumni. I have very large shoes to fill, but will endeavour to try my best for our community in Hong Kong and see that our Old Harrovian population grows from strength to strength.”
For any OHs, or parents of OHs at university, it is more important than ever to get organised if you want to land one of the sought-after graduate positions with a leading firm. Luckily, we haven’t dropped into the massive recession that many feared, and most organisations are maintaining their levels of recruitment. This, however, does mask a shift that we have seen over the past decade as most sectors now recruit significantly fewer graduates than they did ten years ago. As an example, Law is down 25%, Investment Banking is down 40%, and the Oil and Energy sector is down 62%. Those propping up the graduate vacancies? Public sector, which is up by nearly 200%, technology, which is up by 140% and consultancy, which is up 69%. It’s lucky all three sectors are very popular with graduates today. Why? Because graduates only stay in their first job for an average of twoand-a-half years; recruitment straight from school and via degree apprenticeships is becoming more attractive to the big brands. For example, magic circle law firms are now recruiting A-level students, paying for their law degree, enabling them automatically to join the graduate intake and follow the same career trajectory.
Another huge shift is the move to include more AI in the selection process. This is here to stay I am afraid, so if you haven’t practised video interviews, gamification and online assessment centres, then you need to before you apply to your preferred company. With 98% of graduate applications being rejected, you mustn’t ignore this shift in practice and we at the HA offer one-to-one coaching to help you with applications to all sectors (see support offered by Graduate Recruitment Support later in this article). Nearly all employers have said they are sticking to online assessment centres so please practise before you attend one for real.
The last two trends in graduate recruitment are student engagement and the value of the 2.1 and 1.1 in the eyes of employers. Universities are struggling, post-Covid, to get students to come to campus, for anything! Attendance at lectures is down (as you can watch them all on playback 24/7) and campuses that used to be a buzz of excitement are becoming quiet places where seeing students walking about is a novelty. This means employers are staying away and not coming to campus to entice you towards their brands. We all think this will change slowly, but please, if you are at university, enjoy and embrace every moment and come to campus for lectures, employer activity and engage in societies and Student Union activity; you will gain so much if you do. Finally, due to the fact 84% of students get a 2.1 or a 1.1, for the first time ever, less than 50% of employers now ask for or require a certain grade to apply to them, instead it’s those pesky games and AI-generated and assessed tests. Still work hard, as do remember you will be in the bottom 16% if you don’t get the higher grades!
James Darley (The Park 19843) HA Board Member and CEO and Founder of Transform Society
“...we haven’t dropped into the massive recession that many feared, and most organisations are maintaining their levels of recruitment”
If you are at university or have graduated within the last three years –Andrea Darley, an expert in the field of graduate recruitment and selection, will be offering a series of individual one-hour sessions to discuss your internship/graduate applications or help you clarify your career plans. Andrea's 20+ years of experience includes having assessed for some of the largest and most popular City graduate recruiters.
Find out more at graduaterecruitmentsupport.com
Email Andrea at andrea@graduaterecruitmentsupport.com
including the reference OH Career consultation and she will arrange a call with you.
The HA is unique in that it offers careers and employability support to OHs for life. This is not offered by any other school, and your old boys’ association wants to help you to become the best OH you can be, throughout your career. To make sure we offer the right support at the right time, we have broken the offer down into current and recent graduates and then young professionals and career changers. This way, we can make sure you get the support that is right for your stage of career.
The HA is also looking to offer more support over the coming months as we review what you have told us would be most valuable at different stages of your career. Any feedback is always gratefully received. Each OH gets access to one session per year, so make sure you get in touch and don’t miss out on this valuable opportunity.
For OHs more than three years post-university and at any stage of your career – Alastair Hill (Elmfield 19843), pioneering career and performance coach and founder of Aha! Ltd, will be offering a series of one-hour sessions to discuss your current life and career goals and offer guidance and support.
Email Alastair at alastair@ahaltd.co.uk including the reference OH Career consultation and he will arrange a call with you.
“I worked with Al at a point in my life where I did not consider that I was achieving my full career potential. Al helped me to explore what my career objectives were and how committed I was to achieving them. In particular, Al helped me to have confidence in myself and to set future objectives.
“Andrea was very helpful in helping me secure my training contract. In our very first meeting, she quickly identified my areas of weakness in the application process (which I myself had struggled to pinpoint) and gave constructive advice and ongoing support to address these. In a very competitive graduate recruitment market, Andrea’s insight into what skills and competencies recruiters are specifically looking for has been invaluable. I would highly recommend her to anyone who is struggling to navigate increasingly complex recruitment processes.” OH
As a result of my sessions with Al, I was able to take a leap of faith and start my own law firm. I subsequently went into partnership with friends and am senior and managing partner of a multi-award-winning Jersey law firm. (My favourite accolade is that our law firm was recognised by the Legal 500 in 2020 as being one of the top four law firms in Jersey for client service, out-competing several much larger firms.)
Thank you Al – I have really appreciated your help –it allowed me to take a massive step forward in life!”
James Dickinson (Elmfield 19843)
A re-established Career Talks programme has resulted in a higher level of collaboration between the School and businesses, creating more opportunities for Harrovians to acquire the skills, knowledge and practical experience they need to succeed in the workforce. By working closely with academic departments, employer activities are linked to curriculum learning, helping boys see the connection between what they are learning in the form room and the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in the workplace.
CAREER TALKS
THE PRIVATE EQUITY AND ASSET MANAGEMENT CAREER PATH
Marcus Faure delivered a talk about his career in private equity/asset management. He spoke about the skills and attributes he believes are necessary to succeed in the field, helping boys to make more informed choices when it comes to securing their chosen career and planning their future education.
“I really enjoyed coming back to the Hill to meet some of the Sixth Form boys and share some thoughts on the world of work. I was seriously impressed by how curious and inquisitive the boys were. The School has clearly upped its standards in the decade since I left! The beaks and careers team are obviously very thoughtful about the university and career choices and I’m sure that will help set the boys on a great path.”
CAREERS TRANSITIONS: FROM LAW TO BANKING TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Alexander Trotter delivered a talk to boys in February on the subject of 'Careers Transitions: From Law to Banking to Entrepreneurship'. Alexander is Director of Forecastle Partners and is a Trustee of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Africa's leading supporter of entrepreneurship.
Louis Kunzig (Druries 1983³ ) gave a Careers Business Lunch talk on 'A career in Engineering' in September 2022 and Dr David Taylor (Newlands 1978³ ) delivered a talk in December 2022 as Consultant Respiratory Physician at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
Henry Prideaux (Bradbys 1992³ ) offered Lower Sixth Former Edwin a week’s work experience in his interior design company.
"During my work experience at Henry Prideaux, I had the opportunity to work on a variety of tasks, including site visits, client meetings and fabric viewings. I also had the chance to work on a project making a piece of furniture for a client, which allowed me to develop my problemsolving and project-management skills. The client was happy with the product and gave me a real sense of satisfaction.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Henry Prideaux for offering me the opportunity to gain work experience with his company. This opportunity has undoubtedly helped me enhance my skills and knowledge in my chosen field, and I am excited to learn from the best in the industry.”
Thank you to all the OHs who have offered, and are offering, invaluable work experience to current Harrovians. Through work placements and the current Careers Talk programme, you are helping boys develop the knowledge and practical skills that bridge the gap between classroom learning and the world of work, supporting them in making career decisions, and increasing their employability.
If you would like to offer work experience opportunities or give a talk aligned to curriculum learning, contact careers@harrowschool.org.uk
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With the ending of Covid-19 travel restrictions in the Far East, it was possible to hold a postponed 450th anniversary celebration in Hong Kong in March, and what a celebration it was!
Some 350 guests assembled in the glorious Ballroom of the newly renovated Regent Hotel in Kowloon, among them current and past Harrow parents, many Old Harrovians (both young and older vintages) and members of the wider Harrow School community in Hong Kong.
The audience was entertained by several former Harrovian music scholars, including local actor and songwriter Oscar Tao (Moretons 2012 3), who also served as MC for the evening, a string quintet led by local barrister Sean Li (The Head Master’s 20033)
who performed a startling rendering of Bohemian Rhapsody, and solo contributions by William Yu (The Knoll 20163). Towards the end of the evening, all Old Harrovians gathered on the stage to sing Harrow songs including Forty Years On. A sparkling auction was held, led by Emmanuelle Chan from the Hong Kong branch of Christie’s.
Head Master Alastair Land and CEO of the HDT, Douglas Collins, also gave addresses. A highlight of the evening was the generous amount raised in support of the commission for a bespoke sculpture, to be named Eternal Schoolboy, by the renowned sculptor David Williams-Ellis, in honour of the School’s 450th anniversary year.
The auction and other proceeds from the evening raised an impressive £1.8 million for Harrow’s 450 development priorities.
£1.8M RAISED
HARROW’S COMMITMENT TO TRANSFORM LIVES was boosted in the year 2021/22 with an encouraging £1.9 million raised for bursaries by the HDT. These funds are helping to support the 122 Harrow boys whose families are receiving financial assistance, 49 of whom are on 100% bursaries. The Governors are committed to build on this and have set a goal to double the School’s bursary provision by 2026.
The Old Harrovian Bursary Fund, which supports OH families needing financial help to send their sons to Harrow, is an important part of this initiative. The HA will be working closely with the HDT over the coming years to increase this fund.
£1.9m RAISED
I was very lucky to come to Harrow on a bursary in 1984.
The School provided me with incredible opportunities that I would not have otherwise had. It gave me the confidence to try many new things, some successfully and others less so! But that confidence, and the encouragement that came with it, has stuck with me ever since.
My five years as a Harrovian flew by, and between the work and play I made many great friends. But it has been the 34 years as an Old Harrovian in which those enduring friendships, and the professional Harrow connections established since leaving School, have proved invaluable.
I decided after leaving the School that, should I ever be able to do so, I would try to repay the School for the opportunity I was afforded back in ’84; I wanted others, regardless of financial circumstances, to benefit from what Harrow has to offer.
So, whether it’s through my time helping with OH clubs and societies, or as a member of the 450 Society, I am deeply proud to be ‘playing my part’ in supporting the School’s future.
The launch of the Lyon Memorial Fund as part of the School’s tercentenary appeal in 1871 raised the necessary funds to allow for the building of a new Speech Room to accommodate a growing school. One-hundred-and-fifty years on, it is fitting that we restore this iconic space to its full glory as we celebrate the School's 450th anniversary.
Speech Room has been host to the grandest of occasions. Kings, queens, prime ministers, foreign dignitaries and an array of impressive visiting speakers having graced its platform. Its impressive design is simultaneously functional, beautiful and versatile, used for whole-School assemblies, Songs, Glees and Twelves, Prizes and Speeches, concerts and theatre.
A comprehensive restoration and refit of this Grade II-listed building is underway this summer.
The project includes:
The removal and replacement of the lighting scheme and complete rewiring
Specialist cleaning of the stained glass
Specialist cleaning of the ceiling
The cast iron columns and bases redecorated
The vaults and arches over the proscenium cleaned and redecorated along with all walls and stone work
As part of Harrow 450, the Harrow Development Trust is inviting OH families, parents and friends to ‘sponsor a chair’ for a contribution of £1,000. This continues a long-standing tradition that dates back to 1901 when each boy was invited to present a chair on leaving Harrow.
Many of the existing chairs will be restored and re-upholstered; those beyond repair will be replaced. Funds raised from this appeal will go towards the £2.2m costs of this Harrow 450 heritage project. Each chair will carry a brass plaque with the donor’s name(s).
For more information please contact hdt@harrowschool.org.uk / 020 8872 8500 harrowschool.org.uk/support/heritage-speech-room
NICK SHRYANE BURSAR OF HARROW SCHOOL
My view has always been that if our Governors are given good information, they will make good decisions, so I spend a great deal of time providing them with the best information I can.”
For 26 years, ever since he came to Harrow as Bursar in 1997, Nick Shryane has occupied the same quiet office, with its view of the Shepherd Churchill building and Central London beyond. Ironically, after leaving Oxford, where he read History, Nick knew that “the one thing I didn’t want to do was sit behind a desk”. So, when someone suggested that the Army might provide the active life he was after, he joined the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (which, on amalgamation in 1992, became The Light Dragoons): “I intended to join for three years, but three years somehow turned into 18.”
NICK’S FIRST POSTING WAS TO NORTHERN IRELAND. He hadn’t been there for very long when he was despatched to lead his troop of 12 men at a police station in Omagh which had been partly blown up by the IRA. “That made me think I was rather fortunate,” he reflects. A six-month posting in Cyprus as part of the UN Force followed, then the Falklands War, “which was quite exciting”.
Nick was drafted into 5 Airborne Brigade Headquarters (because he had recently completed a communications course with the aim of becoming the regiment’s Signals Officer) to act not only as a watchkeeper but also to assist with providing advice on the capabilities of the armoured reconnaissance vehicles in the 5 Airborne Brigade group and soon found himself on the QEII. “It was extraordinary. My recollection is that the ship had been provisioned as if it were going on a round-theworld cruise, so we ate really well, and I shared an A deck cabin with two other captains which was really quite smart – one of those that had its own little lifeboat hanging outside; what a way to go to war!”.
It was in the Falklands that, Nick claims, he had his only scrape with anything remotely dangerous and his only operational injury – mild frostbite to his fingers caused by the islands’ extremely inhospitable weather. One of his most vivid memories of that operation was following behind the paratroopers to keep communications lines open after they had taken Goose Green. In the deserted Argentinian trenches, they discovered warm climate paraphernalia - sunhats, sunglasses and flipflops. This seemed bizarre until, after the war, it transpired that the Argentinians were largely conscripts who had probably been persuaded by their top brass that they were going to be fighting their age-old enemy the Chileans in equatorial South America, where the climate is rather different.
Nick’s only other operational experience was when he deployed with his regimental headquarters to Bosnia for six months, tasked with defending the people responsible for rebuilding the infrastructure of the country, at a time when the conflict was coming to an end, and for preventing any resurgence of fighting: “It was a very interesting role, but quite taxing,” he recalls.
Germany was the destination for most of Nick’s other overseas postings, as his regiment was part of the NATO force that would bear the brunt of any, what seemed at the time perfectly likely, Russian attempts to invade the West from East Germany. He didn’t however spend his entire career outside the UK. In a busy job at HQ UK Land Forces (1988-89) he was tasked with producing a new Military Home Defence plan for the UK in the event of an invasion or nuclear strike, which, in the late 1980s, didn’t seem a far-fetched possibility. Completing it took two years and it seems that the generals who commissioned the work were satisfied as, in 1989, Nick was awarded an MBE. And in 1992/93, he counts himself very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to study for an MPhil in International Relations at Cambridge.
His last role, and the one he says led to him becoming a bursar, was at the MOD in Whitehall, where he was part of a small directorate called Army Plans. “It sounds almost arrogant,” he recalls, “but this group of about 16 officers had a disproportionate influence on the Army’s future because, in an organisation like the MOD, information is power and we had to have every bit of information necessary to plan what the Army was going to have to do in the next ten years, and the resources – people, money and equipment – it was going to need to do it. At the same time, we had to make sure that the Army was being as efficient with its resources as possible, so that Treasury officials had little or no excuse to cut our budget on the grounds that we were being inefficient.”
With the “crystal ball” of information he had acquired, Nick could see the cuts, both in resources and numbers, that were coming the Army’s way. Feeling he didn’t want to be part of a contracting organisation, and having moved house 9 times in 13 years of married life, with small children approaching prep-school age, he began considering what else he might do. After “having a moan at a party with an old friend from Oxford”, he received in the post an advert, cut from the Financial Times, for the Bursar of Harrow School, with the note ‘You should apply.’ “It was serendipity,” says Nick.
In his role as Bursar, Nick is primarily responsible for making sure that the School’s resources (including an operating budget of over £40m) are managed properly, and for the leadership and management of the over 600 non-teaching staff. When he arrived at Harrow, he was, he says, “quite surprised that the School didn’t have a comprehensive strategic plan – or at least not the type of all-encompassing and detailed document that I was used to in the Army.” He was also surprised at how financially tight things were. “With an endowment nothing like as substantial as that of Eton or Winchester, we have had to think on our feet and find other sources of income, and so we have put a lot of time and effort into developing Harrow School Enterprises Ltd (HSEL) which is now probably the country’s biggest and most successful school trading company. As an organisation we have also, with evident success, put a lot of effort into developing our international schools venture.”
On a day-to-day basis, one of his principal roles is making sure that the non-teaching departments are delivering high quality services which he does through his management group (the BMG) involving finance, estate management, HR, catering, IT, facilities management, commercial trading and general administration. With such diverse areas of responsibility, each day, he says, “is, to use that old cliché, completely different.” To the extent that he has a routine, it tends to be built around the timetable of various Governors’ meetings: “The majority of the main strategic decisions are made by the Governors, particularly the financial ones… and my view has always been that if our Governors are given good information, they will make good decisions, so I spend a great deal of time providing them with the best information I can.” He “sincerely hopes” that “those who attended my 78 Governors and GPC meetings, including the five Chairmen of Governors and five Head Masters that I have served, might think I did a reasonable job in that respect.”
“In many organisations, lots of people were losing their jobs, but I was determined that no one here would be forced to lose their job through Covid, and we managed to do that.”
Reflecting on all he has done during his years at Harrow, Nick finds it difficult to pick out specific highlights although he counts himself “very fortunate to have served with outstanding colleagues on both the Senior Management Team and his Bursar's Management Group.” He is clearly proud of his role in steering the School’s ambitious estate development plans through several years and many obstacles, including a High Court hearing, to the advanced state of planning and construction that we see today. “It was a great vision –a very large green ‘quadrangle’ at the heart of the School - with one important underlying notion being to allow the boys to traverse the School in a lovely green and safe space.” It was also very clear that the School needed to replace its ageing Sports Centre and overcome the “health and safety risks” posed by its Victorian science buildings. One of his few regrets is that construction will not have been completed by the time he retires but he is nevertheless pleased with the many significant estate developments and acquisitions during his time, including: the creation of excellent outdoor sports facilities (grounds and pavilions), the construction of Lyon’s and the Modern Languages Centre and the acquisition of the Old Etonian and (after a seven-year struggle) St Mary’s Vicarage.
He is also proud of Harrow’s bursary strategy, developing which has been a significant part of his job: “We are fortunate to have, besides a substantially increased endowment, a steadily growing income stream from
the International Schools, and helpful income from the both the Harrow Development Trust and John Lyon’s Charity, so together these provide a significant amount of money for bursaries, and the hope is that this will continue to grow. Along with more full bursaries, the plan is to make more partial bursaries available to support what is sometimes seen as the overlooked ‘squeezed middle’. A fifty percent bursary is about equivalent to the total fees for a day school, so we would like to make it possible for someone who might be able to afford for their child to attend a day school to come to Harrow instead.”
Nick was also extremely pleased with the way the School managed its way through the Covid pandemic. “In many organisations, lots of people were losing their jobs, but I was determined that none of our non-teaching staff would be forced to lose theirs, and thankfully we managed to do that.”
On the financial side, a particular source of satisfaction is the leading role that he and Daniel Emkes (a previous Director of Finance) played in the acquisition of two private placement bonds in 2019 and 2021. These 40-year fixed-interest loans for a total of £90m were secured at a time when interest rates were very low, and “were probably transformational” in that they have made the fulfilment of much of the estates development plan a possibility within a reasonable timeframe.
One of his main regrets, as his departure from Harrow approaches, other than the frustration of not being able to see the Estates Masterplan through to its conclusion, is that pressure of work means he has not been able to spend more time enjoying all those things that Harrow offers. As a “bit of a ‘sportaholic’ it’s a great disappointment to me that I didn’t get the chance to watch many more of the School’s sports matches” and an intention to “pick up his flute” again was another thing that fell victim to the demands of the job.
On doctor’s orders, Nick is not just going to down tools, turn his back on Harrow and do nothing. He will continue, for a time, to provide part-time support to his successor, and he has been involved in setting up, with the Independent Schools Bursars Association, a coaching and mentoring consultancy service for school bursars. As one of their consultants, he hopes, in increasingly difficult times for schools, to be able to provide independent advice to any of the over 1,200 bursars around the country who seek it.
Although he will miss Harrow greatly and “in particular our amazing and deeply committed staff”, he will not, he says, miss the 12-hour working days, and he is looking forward to being able to fulfil “fairly ambitious” travel plans. He has also given a commitment to Perena, his wife, that he will learn to cook: “I’ve hardly cooked a single thing in our 38 years of marriage, so it’s about time I did something for her; I simply couldn’t have done my job without her.”
Shell boys who arrived in the autumn of 2022 were able to enjoy the special exhibition mounted earlier that year for the Harrow 450 anniversary. The Silver Arrow costume with associated long bow and arrows from the 1760s was the star attraction, eliciting many enquiries about how to join the Archery Society! In January, the exhibition was replaced by the superb watercolours bequeathed by Charles John Hegan (The Park 1858). Maritime, Coastal and Riverside Scenes provided a stark contrast to the previous year’s focus on the Hill. A selection of Aldine volumes (the earliest printed books to be published in Italy), bequeathed to the School in 1887 by Lionel Oliver Bigg (Church Hill House 1854), revealed much about the preoccupations of Renaissance scholars and provided fascinating discussion topics for boys from several academic divisions. These were displayed alongside a colourful and intriguing display of ancient Egyptian amulets made from materials as diverse as obsidian, carnelian, glass, faience, hardstone and gold. The prime purpose of the arrangement was to show how objects of this kind are looked after in the museum context. Boys could see how ‘best practice’ conservation techniques are used to prolong the life of these tiny treasures.
One of the most exciting acquisitions of the year was the Highgrove Florilegium. Published in 2009, it is a two-volume set of botanical prints, commissioned by TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall (now HM King Charles III and HM Queen Camilla) to paint ‘all the plants, vegetables, fruit and trees’ growing in the garden of their home in Gloucestershire. The aim was to produce a florilegium in the tradition of botanist Sir Joseph Banks (Harrow 1753). More than 70 leading botanical artists from around the world worked for seven years to produce the watercolours. Scientific texts describe each plant. Richard Shirley Smith (The Knoll 1949 2 ) designed the titles, endpapers and vignettes. The Highgrove Florilegium went on display to mark the royal coronation in May, along with the OSRG’s collection of royal photographs taken by OH royal photographers, Sir Cecil Beaton (Bradbys 1918¹), Patrick Lichfield (Elmfield 1952¹) and Hugo Burnand (Rendalls 1977¹).
FROM THE HILL TO THE HIGH SIERRAS – WITH HORSES: A PHOTOGRAPHIC TRAVELOGUE
The photographs of Rupert Sagar-Musgrave (Moretons 19842) occupy the main gallery vitrines until December. Rupert, a professional photographer, travels the world taking photographs of remote communities and the animals upon which they depend. Locations range from India, the Steppe, Andalusia and – more locally –Appleby in Cumbria. The panoramic works are large, complex montages and deserve close inspection. Most are available for purchase.
Details are available at rupertsagar-musgrave.com
The return of warm weather in May provided the perfect opportunity to mount this cricket-themed exhibition. Books, bats, caps, cartoons, ephemera and historic artworks reveal the passion for the game. The stories of Sir Stanley Jackson (The Head Master's 18843), T B Wilson (High Street 19063), ‘Monkey’ Hornby (Druries 1862¹), Ponsonby (Mr Evans' 1830²) and Grimston (The Grove 1928³) are featured. Harrow Songs are celebrated. To mark the successful outcome of the decision by the MCC to allow the Eton v Harrow fixture to be played at Lord's until at least 2028, a special talk was given in the OSRG by Dale Vargas (Druries 19523) on the history both of Harrow cricket and the Eton v Harrow fixture. Dale was House Master of The Head Master’s and ran the Field House Club for many years. His talk was so entertaining that it has been reprinted (with illustrations) by the OSRG. OH enthusiasts should contact the Curator to order a copy – waltonj@harrowschool.org.uk
JuliaIn October 2022, Jeremy Cooper (The Park 1959) generously presented three of his artworks to the OSRG collection. Comprising montages of ‘cigarette cards’ of famous footballers, film stars and gaiety girls that were collected by children in the 50s, 60s and 70s, Mother’s Boy and Black and White Harrow are a compilation of Jeremy’s own childhood memories, enhanced by photographs of himself in his prep school and Harrow football and cricket teams.
The largest item however – Leavers – is a montage of 169 portrait photographs of the kind traditionally presented by boys departing from Harrow to their friends and beaks. Such photographs, taken in full dress privileges by the School photographer, are mounted on card, signed and dedicated on the front, with contact details and a personal message on the back. Between 1946 and 1960, Cooper’s father, Basil, taught Maths at Harrow, and was known by his initials, BEDC. Seventy-seven of the Leavers’ portraits in this piece have dedications to ‘BEDC’, the other 92 to Jeremy himself.
The two Coopers overlapped as Master and boy for a year, before Basil Cooper took up the post of Headmaster of St Bartholomew’s Grammar School in Newbury, Berkshire, where he stayed until retirement in 1985. Jeremy became a School Monitor and triple blood. He went on to read History of Art at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and eventually became Sotheby’s expert in gothic furniture. His exhibition catalogue, Postcard Narratives (2012), featured all three artworks.
Jeremy and the OSRG team (with invaluable help from Dale Vargas) have managed to identify all but a few of the OHs in the montage. The portraits reproduced here however have still not been identified. If you recognise and can recall the name of any of these boys do please get in touch. The ultimate challenge would be to provide a name for the silhouette at the centre of the piece.
Find more information and a larger version of the picture on OH Connect.
waltonj@harrowschool.org.uk
Walton OSRG CuratorHarrovians on the way back to School from central London or OHs nipping out of Westfield may glimpse a large, redbrick building on the far side of the Westway. Founded in 1883, the Harrow Club is one of London’s oldest youth organisations, and is an early example of the Harrow community’s commitment to philanthropy and outreach, now more broadly championed by Shaftesbury Enterprise. Younger OHs will have contributed to the Club through Long Ducker fundraising. Older OHs may remember attending camps. Last year, Harrow beaks Rima and Mark Tremlett undertook ‘The Longest Ducker’, a bike ride from the most southerly point in Europe to the most northerly, raising over £10,000. At a time when public benefit is very much in focus, the history and continued relevance of the Club is a testament to Sir Winston Churchill's (The Head Master’s 18882) statement that “we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”.
Concern in the late 19th century about social conditions in the large cities of England saw the launch of a series of philanthropic initiatives. Public schools responded by founding boys’ clubs: Eton in Hackney Wick, Marlborough in Tottenham and Winchester by East India Dock.
Harrow’s was launched at a meeting in June 1883, chaired by the Head Master, Dr Butler (1860–85), where Lord Shaftesbury (The Head Master’s 1813) spoke, and which marked the beginning of a now 140year relationship between Harrow, OHs and the area now known as Notting Hill. Long before Hugh Grant and boutiques, the area was called Notting Dale and Latimer Road tube station “Piggery Junction”. Home to “brickmakers, costermongers, casual labourers. Rich inhabitants were none; the moderately poor were scarce.” The objective was, according the first Club leader,
William Law (The Grove 1864³ ) (and member of the School XI four years running), to 'minister to the wants of the poor and the neglected, and so contribute to bringing together classes of our fellow-countrymen, who know far too little of each other'.
Progress was quick with the current buildings, by Norman Shaw, opening in 1888. In the same year, the Club won the first cricket cup of the London Federation of Boys’ Clubs, held at Lord's. The following year, the Club again reached the final, losing to the Eton Club, again at Lord's. In 1914, the Club provided accommodation for Belgian refugees. The Second World War saw premises shared with bombed-out rivals the Rugby Clubs. The Secretary wrote, 'The Club has become a centre of shelter, recreation and feeding for the district', something that remains true today. More recently the Club has worked with both Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.
Like Britain as a whole, the post-war period saw huge social and economic change. Physically, the interior of the Club was transformed, with the creation of the sports hall (subsequently a backdrop to Rick Astley’s Never Gone to Give You Up video). The 1980s saw the funding of an Urban Studies Centre and a Technology Centre, led by Harrow Head of Economics John Rees (1966-80). Both represented a tradition of innovation and willingness to address broader issues, which remains central to the Club today. The Technology Centre was pathfinding, offering training in computing to local unemployed people. In 1980, The Harrovian described a ‘flourishing youth club, with a total membership of 600, boys and girls’.
The Club operates in Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham. With changes in youth support and funding, the Club takes a much more proactive approach to engaging with our community and its issues. Open at times until 2am in the morning, we offer a safe space, while still delivering traditional sporting activities and countryside breaks. Kitty Power, daughter of School Chaplain James Power, assists with the anti-gang programme.
Statistics demonstrate the need for the Club’s work: 65% of members are from single-parent families; 75% are eligible for free school meals; 25% have a learning, behavioural or mental health condition. Ninety percent of members are from ethnic minority backgrounds. The Club played a prominent role in the aftermath of the tragedy of Grenfell Tower, offering space and beds. In 2021, the Club supported over 500 young people, offering over 70 hours of activities each week. Focus is very much on targeted interventions, pioneering programmes addressing school exclusion and gang violence, and offering pathways to opportunity through mentoring and placements. Later this year, a Club member will start at the School, on a bursary.
The Harrow Mission, an independent charity that supports the Club, has funded a video providing insight both into the Club’s history and its impact. OHs are very welcome to visit the Club. As we celebrate 140 years and look to the 150th, we will be running a series of events to engage with the broader Harrow community. The Club is also launching a Friends group, and we offer ways in which OHs can provide support. We are increasingly running programmes that require mentors. The OH Shaftesbury Enterprise and Harrow Club Group has been launched for OH supporters, and more detail can be found on OH Connect. We are working on exciting plans to refurbish and repurpose our building for the next century.
In 2033, the Club will celebrate its 150th anniversary and an extraordinary legacy in serving a community. While much has changed, those Old Harrovian founders in 1883, and those working with the Club today, would recognise a very similar mission and shared values. More information can be found at harrowclub.org.
Alexander Trotter (The Head Master’s 1980² )
In the year in which Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party won a landslide victory at the general election and the USA invaded Grenada, the pages of The Harrovian in 1983 were much more concerned with politics and the world beyond the Hill than was the case in many other years. Two issues feature interviews with prominent politicians from opposite sides of the political spectrum – Chairman of the Greater London Council Ken Livingstone, dubbed Red Ken by his archenemies the tabloid press, on 21 May, and Margaret Thatcher herself, in the issue of 22 October.
THE QUESTIONS POSED TO MARGARET THATCHER , who was also guest of honour at Churchill Songs that year, give the impression that her interviewers were not entirely true-blue believers, despite the prime minister’s ability to bat away difficult questions:
Is it right to use the antics of Scargill and Livingstone to discredit the Left?
‘I don't use the antics of Scargill and Livingstone. I don't use the antics of Scargill and Livingstone ever. I point out as I have done just now, reasonably and honestly, why I think their policies won't work.’
How important was Saatchi and Saatchi to your image in the election campaign?
‘Not important at all. They had nothing to do with my image.’
Really?
‘Nothing whatsoever to do with my image. They are trying to put across a message, not an image at all. We are the image; no-one can alter that.’
Despite the writers’ apparent scepticism, their description of the meeting reveals a rather overawed admiration for her ruthless effectiveness:
‘The sheer force of her opinions prevented her losing a point – to give an inch would be to surrender part of the determination that had carried her so far: within seconds, a raised finger, a frigid stare and a quiet sentence had reduced us to a state of terror, and from then on we realised that we had the choice of either being crushed beneath a rampart of righteousness, or of facing the titan and taking her forcefulness as a compliment.’
The interview with Ken Livingstone, although expressing many reservations, has a warmer feel, describing ‘the conviction and yet the reasonableness of his ideas, the way he throws his legs out as he walks, like a cowboy, all convey ultimate confidence in his
own success and that one is a fool to dismiss him as an eccentric Bolshevik councillor…Mr Livingstone impresses one as intelligent and as someone who is at the beginning, not the end, of a career in the public eye…he makes it obvious that he greatly enjoys his notoriety as Red Ken…but all the same, he has the power to persuade and his abilities should not be ignored.’
This more liberal view than is normal in contributions to The Harrovian was also expressed in ‘The Gadarene Swine’ which appeared in the issue of 3 December. It argues against ‘the subterfuges and the bigotries of the Establishment’ and criticises the treatment by the press of the activist and, at the time, parliamentary candidate Peter Tatchell: ‘a man with a face and a manner that did not altogether project the image of a man, as the Establishment sees it should be. Of his real policies, which mainly involved improving local housing, we heard next to nothing. What we did hear, was a puerile backlash that characterises the inhumanity and narrowness of the great brotherhood: a campaign that was centred around the way Tatchell chooses to use his sexuality.’ The same article also had more warm words for Ken Livingstone, who had controversially met with the leaders of Sinn Fein:
‘Ken Livingstone…has been victimised by this stony wall of imbecility. The point he means to put across by visiting Sinn Fein is that one day, a British Prime Minister will have to speak with the terrorists…Talk with terrorists? Yes, just as we negotiated with the Boers, with Kenyatta, with Begin, with Makarios. However, the Establishment has stepped over Reason and Logic and has used Livingstone's donations to lesbians as a means to
discredit what sense dictates…At least, he is one man who has not been completely humiliated by the Establishment that turns men into grovelling spaniels, espousing ideas not their own.’
Back on the less politically concerned Hill, recorded developments include the establishing of The Guild, described as ‘one of the best ideas to come from the top brass recently’ (21 May), and the introduction of Craft, Design and Technology or CDT – the forerunner of today’s Design Technology & Engineering, although described at the time as having ‘no specific objective in terms of producing engineers or designers. It is merely a practically based course which aims at bringing about learning through experience.’
(28 May)
Also considered worthy of mention is the revival of interest in Long Ducker:
‘This term has seen renewed interest in the Long Ducker run (to Marble Arch and back) and, thanks to the inspiration and enthusiasm of R.C., 51 boys took part in the sponsored Long Ducker…in aid of the Spirewatch appeal. There are currently 19 boys in the School who have completed the full run. An official record will be kept of anyone finishing the run in the future and those round in under three hours will be entitled to wear the Long Ducker tie.’ (21 May)
And in the year that saw the first release of the Microsoft Word processing system, the Head Master relates on Speech Day (11 June) that: ‘I was delighted to watch a boy unload his TV set from the boot of his car, together with his computer, in order to sell his software to the BBC from the privacy of his Harrow study.’ We look forward to welcoming all those who started
‘…a font of information and a source of historical record’ is how today’s Harrovian is described. As one of the longest-standing newspapers in continuous print and one of the most frequent newspapers published by an academic institution, this was not always its principal purpose. Its first incarnation, first published in March 1828, was to allow boys to publish examples of their creative writing, historical and literary criticism, and translations of usually classical texts. It seems that the editors never intended the magazine as a long-term venture, and only six issues were produced, the last in August 1828.
The Portico Public School Magazine first appeared on 2 November 1857. It was not, as its name suggests, intended exclusively for Harrovians and Old Harrovians: its audience and contributors were to be public schools more generally as well as students at Oxford and Cambridge, something that continued long after the magazine ceased publication. Its first “editorial” suggested a list of potential subjects:
‘Old customs or traditions of your particular school – their origin, history, and effects – games, and the various modes of playing them – coming events, great matches, school changes, and the like – school phrases, their meaning, origin, and value – epigrams and other poems, classic, foreign, or vernacular – memoirs of eminent men, our predecessors – school life and college life, their troubles and pleasures, their rewards and punishments, their struggles, defeats, and victories – excellent subjects, all; and much to be desired for our little magazine… Prose or verse – serious or humorous – comical or philosophical – in style concise or style verbose – send us an article with all convenient speed; so shall readers and contributors alike be satisfied’.
The Portico lasted only until 1859, when it became The Triumvirate, presumably with a change of editors. Although it contained a similar range of literary endeavour, The Triumvirate was noticeably more involved with the world beyond the public schools and featured contemporary political satire and commentary.
The Triumvirate was published only in 1860 and 1861. After a year in abeyance, it was revived under a new name, The Tyro. The editors of the new magazine were clear that their interests were political and that:
‘…though there are a very great number in the school who do not care the least for politics, yet we should be clearly falling short of our purpose, were we to omit politics altogether; for there are many in our upper forms who take a very great interest indeed in them, and have strong, though inexperienced, political principles; and it may not be uninteresting to some of our readers to see a few ideas of Harrow boys on so important a subject.’
The Tyro ended its run in 1866, with ‘The last time
The regularity of publication fluctuated over the decades from termly to fortnightly. It finally became a weekly publication in 1936, changing at the same time to its current A4 format. In the intervening decades, The Harrovian had evolved into a rather tedious series of lists of university awards and scholarships, School prizes, OH appointments and obituaries, along with endless sports reports and team lists. In 1937, much of the content was cut to produce a much briefer, four-page publication. At that time, it also lost, very controversially it would seem, its blue cover, although the endlessly obliging School bookshop undertook to provide blue-bound volumes on a monthly or yearly basis to those OHs who couldn’t cope with a weekly delivery of the magazine in its naked form. In 1943, a result of the paper shortages of WWII, its size was briefly cut to two sides of A4, although it swiftly returned to its customary four pages. In 1959, there was a series of ‘utility issues’ – two sides of typewritten A4. Major changes came in 1992, when printing came inhouse, and in 2006, when it was first published online. The only recent gap in publication was during the Covid pandemic in 2020/21, when it went entirely online and appeared on only a termly basis.
Important School events punctuate the yearly pattern of content: Speech Day, Contio, the Lord’s match, Churchill Songs and Founder’s Day. Reports on drama productions and art exhibitions have also always featured prominently, along with club and society reports – at first just The Phil and the Debating Society, then the Musical Society, the Scientific Society and the Rifle Corps, until the myriad societies that exist today. For most of its existence it has recorded the arrival of new beaks and the departure of long-serving Masters. One can also follow the growing importance of music and the development of Harrow songs, as well as the physical growth of the School as land was acquired and new buildings constructed.
The most ink has probably been devoted to sport, much to many readers’ irritation in all decades if the Correspondence section is anything to go by. Through The Harrovian’s pages, one can chart the changing fortunes of different games. Harrow football, cricket and rackets were there almost from the start, and you can see the development of soccer and rugby from the original Harrow game, along with the growing emphasis on organised sports in the second half of the 19th century. Climate warming seems to have put paid to the oncepopular and competitive ice skating, which has now completely disappeared from the magazine’s pages. The sports section for many decades also recorded the winners of the the three-legged race, the sack race and an event called picking up stones at the annual athletics meeting known as School Sports.
Apart from very regular, and rather desperate, exhortations to readers to send in contributions, there are a few perennial topics of discussion and correspondence.
A contribution in the very first edition in 1828 was an essay ‘Scenes at a Public School: First Day at Harrow’, and this is one of the themes that has popped up most frequently over the centuries. Other regular subjects include “types” of Harrovian, fagging, School food,
School dress, the desirability or otherwise of compulsory sport and Rifle Corps, the academic curriculum, and the place of public schools in society.
One of The Harrovian’s more enduring features, and perhaps the most read, is the section that features unintentionally, or sometimes intentionally, funny things boys and beaks have said. In its original incarnation, Master Malaprop’s Trials, the examples were often classics - or history-based mistakes. In The Harrovian of 2 February 1888 were:
Obruet unda rates. – "The water rates will ruin him."
Orangemen. – "A club organised to resist the Salvation Army."
"Cicero was killed by one of his greatest friends, Brutus. He defended himself with a steel pen."
"Dante wrote to the Infernal."
Chief industries of Scotland. – "There is a large Public School just outside Edinburgh."
The action of soap on hard water. – "It turns it into ice."
Now known as Gaffe and Gown, the issue of 5 November 2022 included:
“Sir from the bottom of my heart you are very handsome today!” “Thank you, but I am not going to improve your grades.” “Oh.”
“Sir, the square in question 5 – are the lengths equal?” “It’s a square.” “But sir, is it a regular square?”
The amount of space devoted to events in the world outside Harrow waxes and wanes, presumably depending on the interest of the editors. The progress of wars, particularly those that directly affected many Harrovians – the American Civil War, the Boer War, WWI and WWII – are chronicled, including their melancholy Rolls of Honour. Later conflicts such as the Falklands War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan attract less commentary, and of the bombing of the Twin Towers in 2001 there is barely a mention. More locally, the encroachment of London into the green fields of Harrow is much lamented over the decades, although the arrival of the railway and electric lighting are more enthusiastically received.
It is interesting to follow through the pages of The Harrovian the rise of the cult of Winston Churchill whom the edition of 14 December 1895 reports ‘has joined the Spanish forces in Cuba as a volunteer.’ On 17 March 1900, the reviewer of Churchill’s novel Savrola recalls ‘a boy with views and a singular capacity for making them known.’ As Churchill’s political career progresses, references to him become increasingly reverential until a whole edition, 30 January 1965, is devoted to him on his death.
Always a boy-led endeavour, among The Harrovian’s young editors are some who have later became wellknown at Harrow and beyond, among them Richard Curtis (Rendalls 19702), Simon Sebag-Montefiore (The Knoll 19783), L P Hartley (West Acre 19103), Alain de Botton (The Knoll 19831), Christopher Tyerman (Newlands 19663) and Jeremy Lemmon (The Knoll 19493). Playwright Terence Rattigan (The Park 19252) was certainly a contributor.
Some of these boy editors are later recorded by the magazine as having visited the Hill as distinguished guests, among company such as soldier Lord Montgomery of Alamein; politicians including Hugh Gaitskell, Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Enoch Powell, John Profumo, Edward Heath, Norman Tebbit, Geoffrey Howe, Michael Portillo, Douglas Hurd, Michael Heseltine, Ken Livingstone, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Margaret Thatcher; the poet John Betjeman; novelists C P Snow and Dorothy L Sayers; actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry; archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans; art historian and Russian spy Anthony Blunt (twice); explorer Ernest Shackleton; and naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
Although, throughout the centuries, the content and feel of The Harrovian has adapted to reflect the changing priorities and concerns of the time, as well as the authors’ various enthusiasms, it has always retained the ability to be both serious and trivial, entertaining and informative, and, perhaps most significantly, it has continued to be an important contemporary record of Harrow and Harrovians.
The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an English social phenomenon: how else can one describe a school match attended at its peak by 15,000 spectators on each of its two days?
Eton, founded by King Henry VI in 1440, was endowed with riches from the start. Harrow, founded by a local landowner, who in his wisdom left his not inconsiderable wealth to the maintenance of two roads to London, was always going to be the poor relation. And yet a rivalry developed, which found its expression in a cricket match
THE ORIGIN IS OBSCURE. In the days before organised games, inter-school matches were rare, and few before 1800 were representative in the sense that we know today. However, there is evidence of informal contests being played, probably between teams raised by the initiative of particular individuals, often in the school holidays. These were the days of curved bats, underarm bowling, rough wickets and heavy gambling. Score sheets were rarely kept. If there were records, they were lost in the fire that destroyed the Lord’s pavilion in 1825. Thus, the early history of the match is restricted to casual references in the memoirs of some of the players.
It was in just such a memoir that a record of the 1805 match has survived because Lord Byron (Harrow 1801² ), the poet, was a participant. The match was played on Thomas Lord's first ground, now Dorset Square, next to Marylebone Station. Byron seems an unlikely choice as he had a club foot. A contemporary wrote, 'Lord Byron insisted upon playing and was allowed another person to run for him, his lameness impeding him so much'. Byron himself wrote: 'We have played the Eton and were most confoundedly beat; however, it was some comfort to me that I got 11 notches in the first innings and 7 in the second, which was more than any of our side except Brockman and Ipswich could contrive to hit.' It was no surprise to find that the score sheet, discovered some years later, credited Byron, never one for self-effacement, with scores of 2 and 2.
It is said that the idea of a match taking place in term time was opposed by the two Head Masters because they feared for the behaviour of their spectator pupils. This seems to have been a wise judgement, as Byron’s memoir goes on to describe how 'after the match we dined together and were extremely friendly, not a single discordant note was uttered by either party. To be sure we were most of us rather drunk and went to the Haymarket Theatre, where we kicked up a row as you may suppose, with so many Harrovians and Etonians met at one place. I was one of seven in a single Hackney Coach, four Eton and three Harrow fellows; we all got into the same box, the consequence was that such a devil of a noise arose that none of our neighbours could hear a word of the drama, at which not being highly delighted they began to quarrel with us and we nearly came to a battle royal...'
“ TO BE SURE WE WERE MOST OF US RATHER DRUNK AND WENT TO THE HAYMARKET THEATRE, WHERE WE KICKED UP A ROW AS YOU MAY SUPPOSE, WITH SO MANY HARROVIANS AND ETONIANS MET AT ONE PLACE."
The fear of “boys behaving badly”, especially within the frame of a press photographer, has dogged head masters ever since.
After the match, the victorious Etonians send an epigram to their opponents:
‘Adventurous boys of Harrow School, of cricket you’ve no knowledge, Ye played not cricket but the fool with men of Eton College.’
The reply, attributed to Byron, read:
‘Ye Eton wits to play the fool Is not the boast of Har row School. No wonder then at our defeat: Folly like yours can ne’er be beat.’
The match became a regular fixture from 1818 and, by the second half of the century, it had become a major event with all the national newspapers printing prospects in columns on the day and reports on the next two days. By 1870 a crowd of 10,000 was usual, rising to 15,000 by the early years of the 20th century. Men wore top hats and morning coats, Harrow supporters sporting a cornflower button hole, Eton a white carnation tinted pale blue, and the ladies in summer hats and dresses –often featuring the colours of the school their escort was supporting. The crowd was a mix of those that cared passionately about the outcome and the large majority who had no interest in the cricket at all, let alone which side might win. Many of the spectators would be in parked carriages round the ground: 1200 carriages were counted at the 1896 match. The lunch interval was host to a promenade across the outfield where the ladies
could show off their hats and dresses, and people could see and be seen.Young ladies, known as debutantes, whose parents had social aspirations, would be paraded with the hope of identifying their quarry.
Harrow cricket had been shaped by two passionate Old Harrovians, Robert Grimston (The Grove 1828³ ) and Frederick Ponsonby, Earl of Bessborough (Mr Evans 1830² ), who travelled from London each day of the summer term to coach the boys. Edward Bowen and John Farmer, the two creators of Harrow songs, dedicated Willow the King to them in 1867, five years before they wrote Forty Years On
When Harrow won in 1888, Head Master Weldon (1885-1898 ) gave Bowen three days off school to write another song in celebration of Stanley Jackson's (The Head Master’s 1884³ ) achievements. The result was A Gentleman’s a-Bowling. The following year, Jackson’s XI included Archie Maclaren (Moretons 1886¹ ); both were later to captain England.
Stories abound of triumph and disaster on the field. One that Harrovians choose to forget is that of 1910, known as ‘ Fowler’s match’ , when Eton snatched an extraordinary victory from the jaws of defeat.
Such was the fame of the event that a telegram addressed to ‘ Fowler’s mother, London’ was delivered promptly to her hotel.
After World War II, everything changed: not only were these the ‘austerity years’ but they seemed to have bred an altogether more defensive attitude to cricket. ‘Lord’s’ became too important a match to lose and the supposedly weaker side invariably adopted over-cautious tactics. By the late 1950s, the crowds had begun to disappear, morning coats and top hats became a rare sight, the ‘debs’ were no longer. However, at an evening performance of the musical Free as Air on the first day of the 1957 match, there was still enough awareness for a performer to bowl an orange across the stage to shouts from the audience of Har-ROW! and E-TON!
But, as the non-cricketing Bob Dylan observed in 1964, the times they are a-changin’. Lord’s has now become a stadium holding over 30,000 people; the two-day match was reduced to a single day in 1982 and a 55-over per side format was adopted in 2000.
The sword of Damocles hangs over the “oldest match at Lord’s”. It has been given an extension until 2027.
Top row left to right: Lord's challenge letter 1805; Lord's 1822; Lord's crowd 1937; MD Watson leading the team out in 1938 RAA Holt (second left) scored 111 in the match.
Middle row left to right: Old Lord's Pavilion pre-1889; Lord's 14 July 1928; Lord's 1957 AJ Anderson (Rendalls 19522) batting; Lord's 1957 Wicket keeper AB Cable (The Knoll 19533) and MJH Weadon (Druries 19542).
Below: Sam Northeast (The Head Master's 20033) Lord's 2008
(formerly Harrow School Outfitters)
23 High Street, Harrow On The Hill
Middlesex, HA1 3HT
Our Shared History
Billings & Edmonds have been the Outfitter to Harrow School since before the First World War, when we served parents from our West End store. After the Second World War we acquired a tailors, known as Stevens, located at Harrow on the Hill. This shop would become, Stevens, Billings & Edmonds and since the 1980s, it has been simply known as Billings & Edmonds. We have collaborated with Harrow School over the last century to evolve the uniform and sportswear.
Since 1896 our Company’s founding ethos has been to deliver excellent quality clothing with first class personal service. Today, by offering excellent value for money and maintaining strong relationships with House Masters and Matrons, we continue to deliver Harrow boys excellent service throughout the year. Billings & Edmonds strives to showcase British craftsmanship and where possible, we purchase uniform from British suppliers. Most recently we were recognised by being awarded Best UK Schoolwear Retailer runner up.
We stock a very comprehensive range of Harrow School memorabilia, including House cuff links, Old Harrovian silk ties and socks. In addition, we stock over one hundred society and award ties, as well a Harrow golf society clothing. Our spacious store, which includes a sports shop, is located at the southern end of the Hill opposite the green verge and we have a small customer car park at the rear of the shop that you are very welcome to use.
Solving your problems and championing your ambitions, we work together to make a positive and lasting difference.
Sign up to and keep an eye on OH Connect for developments to our events programme. To receive invitations and news of upcoming events that may be of interest to you please ensure we have your most up-to-date email address. Email oldharrovians@harrowschool.org.uk.
THE BYRONICS SUMMER PARTY
THURSDAY 13 JULY
Together with Eton, Radley and Winchester. Email harrowbyronics@gmail.com for more information
DRURIES HOUSE DINNER
THURSDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2023
7PM
Cavalry and Guards Club, London Book today via OH Connect
OH HONG KONG DINNER
25 SEPTEMBER 2023
FORTY YEARS ON SONGS AND DINNER
THURSDAY 5 OCTOBER 2023, 6.30PM
Speech Room
For OHs who joined the School from 19833 and/or left in 19882
CAREERS NETWORKING EVENING
OCTOBER 2023 & FEBRUARY 2024
HARROW 1969 2 ND XV RUGBY REUNION LUNCH
SATURDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2023
Harrow School
MORETONS HOUSE DINNER
WEDNESDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2023, 7PM
Royal Automobile Club, London Book today via OH Connect
OH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND DINNER 2023
SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2023
6PM
Sydney
Contact Suzanne Benson suzannabenson@gmail.com
RENDALLS HOUSE DINNER
TUESDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2023, 7PM
Cavalry and Guards Club, London Book today via OH Connect
HARROW ASSOCIATION CHRISTMAS CAROLS
MONDAY 4 DECEMBER 2023
7PM
St Stephen Walbrook Church in the City of London
THE HEAD MASTER’S HOUSE DINNER
18 JANUARY 2024
HARROW SCHOOL CAREERS CONVENTION
JANUARY 2024
OHs are invited back to speak to current boys at the annual careers convention.
FOUNDER’S DAY
SAVE THE DATE
SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2024
BRADBYS HOUSE DINNER
22 FEBRUARY 2024
HARROW ASSOCIATION SONGS PRE 1965 3
THURSDAY 29 FEBRUARY 2024
For all OHs who joined the School prior to 19653
THE PARK HOUSE DINNER
21 MARCH 2024
HARROW GIANT TALK
MARCH 2024
THE KNOLL HOUSE DINNER
MAY 2024
INAUGURAL LYON'S HOUSE DINNER
SEPTEMBER 2024
FORTY YEARS ON SONGS AND DINNER
TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2024
Speech Room
For OHs who joined the School from 19843 and/or left in 19892
THE GROVE HOUSE DINNER
OCTOBER 2024
Sign up to ohconnect.org.uk and visit the events section. Email haevents@harrowschool.org.uk
Telephone 020 8872 8186
Write to Harrow Association, 5A High Street, Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex HA1 3HP
The 450 Society recognises those supporting the Harrow 450 campaign
It is our ambition to attract 4,500 members by 2025. There are different tiers of membership: involvement is just as important as value.
All members will receive a special Harrow 450 anniversary commemorative lapel pin and have their name displayed on the virtual LCD in the Science Schools when the new building opens.
To find out more or join today visit harrowschool.org.uk/450-Society
