Schola Clara Issue 5

SCHOLA CLARA ISSUE 5

WINTER 2020

THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND SUPPORTERS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL OF DUNDEE

The Blank Faces of Lockdown I wanted to create something that would represent not only our key worker heroes, but also everyone within the community. We all have to play our part whether that’s going into school or work, working from home or shielding and following government guidelines. The lack of features on the faces came from the fact that we can no longer see people’s facial expressions clearly, as everywhere you go all you see are masks. Despite how important masks are to keep us safe, they’ve become a barrier between us. We now have to learn to read each other’s faces from behind the masks and through our eyes. The blankness is not only physical, but metaphorical due to the lack of certainty. The rainbow is our symbol of hope and a promise of better times to come.

Artwork by Malachy McCrimmon (then F5)

Anna Kerr (F6), Artist of our front cover painting this year

Pupil Paradigms Project Our teachers in our Art Department didn’t let the virtual teaching environment, brought about by the national lockdown, get in the way of encouraging our pupils to put pen (or pencil) to paper and release their creativity. Taking inspiration from Saul Steinberg’s illustration on the front cover of the New Yorker Magazine, pupils were tasked with creating a piece of artwork showing how they viewed the world featuring three key strips – the foreground, middle ground and background. Pupils focused on intricate details in the foreground of their paintings, highlighting what was of the upmost importance to them. The middle ground and background showed places, people or things that they felt were far away, ranging from countries to family. It was certainly a meaningful project at the time given we were in the midst of lockdown and gave our pupils the chance to reflect on what is important to them and how they personally view the world. You can see further examples from this project throughout our magazine this year.

Image Credits & Permissions Gordon Aitken; Jorge Arrufat; Struan Baptie; Alison Barnett; Chloe Berridge; Liz Blackburn; James Blake; Ron Brand; John Brush; Lewis Byers; Tony Duncan; Ken Gray; Lynne Henderson; Scott Jarron; Anna Kerr; Paul Kerr; Christina Lawrie; Callum Leese; Finlay MacDonald; Bill Macfarlane Smith; Patrick McGregor; Finlay McKillop; Graham McLaren; Mark Mechan; Thomas Miller; Ciara Mitchell; Graeme Mutch; David Paton; Ashley Petrie; Kenny Ross; Steven Roy; Marilyn Spence; Neil Stevenson; Iain J. Stewart; Iain S. Stewart; Catriona Strachan; Yolande Sum; Brian Taylor; Cameron Tisshaw; ABC News; The BBC; The Courier. Copyright The content of this publication in any form may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part, without the permission and written consent of an executive officer of the High School of Dundee.

A Message From Our Editor Welcome to Issue 5 of Schola Clara! This will be my second edition as your Editor and, as always, there are a wide range of fascinating features on offer, as well as a new competition where you could be the lucky winner of one of our FP woollen scarves! You will likely have noticed that there has been one major change since last year, and that is our decision to move our publication to an online edition. There are so many benefits to making this move, the most important of which is making it far easier for our Alumni and Supporters across the world to access and share the magazine with their friends and family members. Our fifth edition is also an interactive magazine, meaning you can simply click on any of the hyperlinks which we have included to view further content (quite literally as simple as the touch of a button!).

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This year has certainly been a different and, at points, difficult year for us all. But we have been heartened by the number of positive stories that have come from our Former Pupils across the globe, some of which you will be able to read more about in our Alumni News section. 2020 has been the year of the ‘new normal’, of finding new ways to remain connected with our loved ones and pulling together as a community to support one another. From those working on the frontlines, to those raising funds for deserving charities or those providing a bit of cheer to lift our spirits, our wider school community have contributed ten-fold and we couldn’t be prouder. It is not only our Former Pupils who have been using the lockdown period in a positive way, our current pupils have also found innovative ways to make the most of this time. From the creation of a pupil wellbeing podcast, foodbank fundraising to the launch of a brand-new pupil-led publication our pupils have not allowed these unprecedented times to diminish their spirit, creativity or resilience. The School Today section is packed to the rafters with amazing and inspiring stories of our young people, which I do hope you enjoy reading. We also have an update to share with you about our Bursary Fund, something which has seen increasing demand due to the financial impact that Covid-19 has brought upon many of our families. You can read more about the importance of this fund from page 72 onwards as well as reading a selection of heart-warming stories from some of our former bursary recipients. We truly hope that you enjoy our fifth edition of Schola Clara and from everyone here in the Development Office, and the wider HSD community, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Miss Chloe Berridge External Relations Co-ordinator The Development Office

Contact the Editor The Development Office, High School of Dundee, Euclid Crescent, Dundee, Scotland, DD1 1HU. Telephone: +44 (0)1382 202 921 E-mail: alumni@highschoolofdundee.org.uk

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The School Today Year In View: Heads & Deputies House Reports The Pupils’ Voice The School Today News Armistice Parade 2020

Alumni News 16 Our Global Community Map 20 Bill Macfarlane Smith 23 Yolande Sum 28 High School Family 42 Alumni Ambassadors Map 44 Brian Taylor 48 Ciara Mitchell 50 Memories of an Old Girl 56 Memories of an aa 57 Dundee Inver-Discs 61 Treasures from the Archive 66 Tributes 70 Merchandise Fundraising Projects 73 Bursaries 74 Your Stories 76 What Legacy Will You Leave 78 Donor Roll

The School Today In this section we bring you up-to-date with life at the School today, featuring news and reports by and about our current pupils.

Our Extraordinary Community 2020 has been a year like no other in so many ways. In January 2020, I was privileged and honoured to become the first woman to be appointed as Rector. Last year in the pages of this publication I wrote about my deeply held belief of the importance of emotional intelligence. Little did I know then what lay ahead. As I write a year later, the Covid-19 pandemic has tested and challenged us all. It is difficult to articulate the extent to which our world has been changed and the level of uncertainty, fear and loss that has become a constant presence in our lives. Although this has not been easy for any of us, the impact has perhaps been most keenly felt by our young people and particularly those on the cusp of the next stage of their lives beyond school. I am sure we all remember those enchanted final few weeks of our school careers. With exams behind us we had the sunshine of the summer ahead and before that, the chance to say farewell to our school days in style. As these plans were snatched away, I was immensely proud of the way the Class of 2020 responded. It highlighted one of the key qualities of HSD pupils - a down to earth, grounded social conscience which can empathise, refocus and work together for the greater good. These young people continue to make plans to ensure that we will find a chance to celebrate their school days together. I know that, as they have continued to face enormous challenges as freshers in universities and colleges across the country, the friendships and resilience that they have built during their time within the Pillars will be the strength that will carry them through. The HSD Family has also come into its own since March 2020. In my first term as Rector, I had the amazing experience of meeting with over 70 members of staff one-to-one. This allowed me an insight into how passionate our staff are about their school, the wonderful opportunities it offers to our pupils and their ideas for making it even better. I believe that it is this ethos and culture which is allowing HSD to continue to thrive through the most difficult of times. 19th March will always be imprinted on my mind. This was the day that I had to announce the closure of the School for the first time in 100 years and with no certainty as to when we might be able to reopen. Recording messages to the entire community, the enormous responsibility of my new role was never more evident. This has stayed with me as we have stepped forward as a community; the need as a Rector to do all that I can every day to look after the community, both individually and collectively, and to work to keep the HSD Family connected. As ‘one door closes another opens’. This was literally the case as we opened a Care Hub at Mayfield for the children of key workers on the first day of lockdown. This was a profound experience for all the staff who volunteered and a lifeline for the children and their parents working on the front line. In ten days over Easter, whilst the school estate was made safe, monitored and secured, we redesigned the curriculum, taking it online from

L1-F6. This was a monumental effort by every single member of staff who had to forgo any holiday and find completely new ways of working. Live lessons were delivered by staff, many of whom were also looking after their own children who were also learning online from home. The announcement that the 2020 SQA Examination Diet was cancelled came in April. Far from celebrating, our senior pupils were devasted not to have the opportunity to demonstrate all they had learnt over years of preparation. Again, this highlighted the intrinsic aspiration, hard work and academic success that remains a hallmark of HSD. Again, our Heads of Departments, Guidance Staff and Teachers were called upon to undertake the enormous task of estimating every individual result in every subject and level. This they did with consummate professionalism and a rigorous and dedicated approach. Alongside our academic work, the co-curriculum and pastoral aspects of the Integrated Curriculum were also kept alive. Across all areas of the School, staff found ways to stay connected with their pupils. The Guidance Team and class teachers devoted themselves to maintaining that crucial contact, all the more important as our young people struggled to adapt to a new way of learning. I was delighted that we were able to mark the end of session in the usual way with our Prize-Giving Ceremony also going online. From the wonderful messages from four prominent FPs to the moving and humbling vote of thanks from the Head Boy and Head Girl, this event demonstrated yet again all that is so special about HSD. The ‘Return to School’ was the result of three months of solid planning. We were determined that we would bring all our community back full time from 11th August whilst ensuring that 2m physical distancing and health and safety protocols and procedures were second to none. Our absolute priority was and remains the safety of the entire HSD Family. On the ‘first day back’ the joyous sound of L1 and L2 playing in the back playground under the large gym is a memory that will also live long in my mind. The simple laughter of children reminded us all of the life of a school; the young people within it. So now we are here, physically distanced, masked at times, in blocks and bubbles and cohorts. Day by day we are ensuring that great classroom teaching, building relationships and treating each other with kindness remains at the core of all that we do. We relish it more, look after each other with more care. As always, our pupils are at the heart of everything. They bring an irreplaceable energy, joy and creativity to the old buildings and to every classroom and shared space. The community has been extraordinary. The support of you, our FPs, has been superb. The countless messages of support, encouragement and congratulations have been a lifeline as we have navigated through these extraordinary times. The pages of this publication highlight that the skills and qualities nurtured ‘behind the Pillars’ set High School Pupils up to become Former Pupils who go out and change the world for the better. The future is clearly in these safe hands. Mrs. Lise Hudson, Rector

The School Today

Year in View: Heads and Deputies During the challenges of lockdown, our pupils have shown immense reliance, maintaining the ability to connect with friends despite the physical distance. Additionally, through lockdown we as pupils were able to reevaluate our learning styles and demonstrate adaptability to alter this towards a more virtual environment. As a result, many improvements have been made to our learning since we have returned to school, such as utilising our iPads more by the use of Microsoft Teams and mainly becoming paperless through scanning our work on our iPads, which we see as a big positive. This unique online learning opportunity was made successful by the whole High School community getting involved in many different departments. Activities such as a virtual Sports Day, Baking Challenges and the introduction of Quarantimes; a pupil led online newspaper with lockdown stories and events. Quarantimes, in turn, fostered creativity and created an opportunity for more pupils to continue to show their talents during lockdown. A new HSD Instagram page also became very successful, bringing parents, teachers, pupils and former pupils together to compete in challenges set by the PE department. Everyone enjoyed watching peers compete in anything from spinning challenges to the limbo. If you want to see what we all got up to, you can visit the page here: bit.ly/34xwSZt. With many of the post-exam programmes cancelled, pupils in the senior years seized the opportunity to get ahead with the next stage of their learning, not letting the lockdown period burden our academic learning. The school community has shown great initiative in this respect and has continued to have a proactive approach to classes since returning to school. Over the summer, the Senior Years’ pupils received the first ever set of results for exams we did not get to sit. As expected, this created a lot of

mixed feelings and definitely emphasised the importance of prelims! The HSD community spirit was essential in helping pupils during the stress of exam results but also in celebrating the many, many successes to come from these results. The return to school created great excitement mixed with nerves. Pupils and teachers were eager to see the HSD family again after a long period of limited interaction with each other. Uncertainty of the unknown of a new school life has been quickly put to rest as everyone got involved in their new curriculum. The school day has been drastically changed with the normal eight periods being split into two four period classes. These longer lessons are very different to all of us, but already teachers have found innovative and exciting ways to keep the longer classes just as engaging and compelling. The Royal Exchange Building has become a temporary addition to the High School with Junior Years and the Music Department using this space, an exciting opportunity to utilise a fresh, new learning area. Co-curricular activities have also had a very welcome return. House Hockey and Rugby taking place on Saturday mornings have helped to bring the school together and make it feel like we are a step closer to normality in these uncertain times. The hope of future performances in the Caird Hall and sporting fixtures are keeping everyone enthusiastic and excited for what’s to come. At first this coming school year did look shaky and unusual but so far everyone has worked extremely hard to keep the school safe. We, as Heads and Deputies of the School, believe the resilience already shown by the HSD community will bode us well for the future, despite its current uncertainties. Heads of School: Laurence Petty & Callum Todd Deputy Heads of School: Christina Kennedy & Angus Neville

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House Reports Airlie

Aystree

We have decided to go with Airlie Avengers as our name and Iron Man as our mascot this year.

Aystree has always been a strong House and have won the House Shield two years running. Obviously, we will continue to have this confidence going into and throughout this year.

We made this decision for a number of reasons. The first being that the Avengers are a symbol of power and intimidation, two factors that Airlie possess. It is these characteristics which will help us win the House Shield and defeat all of the other competing Houses. Airlie consists of pupils who will not only fight for what we believe in but also pupils who bring value and character to the school such as their representing mascot. The coming year will ultimately not be the same as previous years, but we, as Airlie Captains, are confident that we will be able to bring everyone together and make sure that every Airlie pupil is safe and comfortable in the changing school environment. In terms of our chances of winning the Shield, we would be over the moon to win this year and we are all confident that by next summer Airlie will be victorious. Currently, Airlie have competed in the recent House Hockey and Rugby fixtures with a solid win in the F4-6 Girls House Hockey, a 4th in F2-3 Girls House Hockey and joint third in F1 Mixed House Hockey. During our Rugby fixtures, we achieved a joint 2nd in our F1-2 House Rugby and a 3rd in F3-4 House Rugby. Unfortunately, due to the current circumstances that Covid-19 has brought us this year, we are unable to participate in House Events that would normally take place, such as House Choir and the Swimming Gala. However, this will not hinder Airlie from losing our positive team spirit in upcoming House events as we will continue to carry an enthusiastic drive to win each event we partake in. As Senior Prefects, we have been asked to brainstorm a number of Covid friendly House events that could take place this year, including a Bake Off, Photography Competition and Kahoot! We feel confident in all of the Airlie pupils and cannot wait to get involved in the different, yet exciting, House events that await us this coming year. Airlie House Captains: Katie Martin & Finlay Yorke Airlie House Vice-Captains: Fraser Houston & Faheema Gani

We have great strengths in all areas of the School and our fingers are crossed that the Swimming Gala can go ahead as Aystree have been continuously strong with our swim teams. This year we have decided to name ourselves the Aystree Eagles, as we feel that there are many admirable attributes of eagles. These include being brave and bold, making clever and tactical decisions. Eagles are also very nurturing and caring of their young, showing they have a passionate and loving side. We hope we can spread our wings and soar over the competition this session. Aystree House Captains: Melissa Mitchell & Innes Chalmers Aystree House Vice-Captains: Hamish Findlay & Shona Graham

The School Today

Lindores

Wallace

This year, the House Mascot we chose is the Lindores Lion and our slogan is “Do it for the Pride”.

Wallace House has never come into a year with as much confidence as it has now. As the new Wallace House Captains, we have begun our tenures off the back of a landslide victory at last year’s Sports Day, which saw massive levels of participation from Wallace pupils.

In the year ahead, we look forward to trying to include the entire House in activities. With social distancing in place throughout the School, we know it will be difficult to do this. However, we plan on potentially hosting events like House Dodgeball, an art challenge and even a House Bake Off. We want everybody in Lindores to feel involved, no matter if they are not a part of any teams or clubs at school. This is why we have started dropping into pupil PSE classes every so often, to chat about the range of activities the School has to offer. So far, we have had the Senior School House Hockey and the F1-F4 House Rugby, and we are immensely proud of what everyone has achieved so far. We also hosted a Virtual House Assembly after the October holidays, which was certainly different than what we are typically used to. The year ahead may be difficult for us all, but we aim to keep Lindores and the rest of the School thinking positively ahead of another enjoyable year at the High School of Dundee. Lindores House Captains: Malachy Keough & Toluwani Idowu Lindores House Vice-Captains: Malavikha Sudarshan & Archie Gilmour

We have been delighted to see these levels of dedication and commitment continuing into the new term at events such as House Hockey and House Rugby. Wallace pupils have put on spirited performances at these sporting events and have therefore come with very promising finishes. We further harnessed the people of Wallace when it came to the choosing of the mascot for this session. After being given a number of options including Wolves, White Tigers and Where’s Wally’s?, the people of Wallace spoke in favour of becoming the Wallace Wizards, with the hope that we can magically win the House Shield this year. Wallace is fast becoming a very innovative House Group as this year we made the bold decision to take to social media, most notably we made the move to Instagram. This has allowed us to better communicate any upcoming events to Wallace as well as sharing any successes with the rest of the House. We plan to put our Instagram to great use in our organised House event for this year. We are planning to run a virtual relay competition to try and get as many pupils out and moving as much as possible. The idea is to have pupils walk, run or cycle as many miles as they can each day to accumulate points for their House over a week. At the end of the week, the House which covered the most miles will get bonus points. We firmly believe that this is a challenge that Wallace and the School will rise too. Let it be known, Wallace is no longer a House to be laughed at! Wallace House Captains: Lewis McLennan & Anna Kerr Wallace House Vice-Captains: Robyn Landsburgh & Rohan Tauro

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The Pupils’ Voice Here, we hear from 2020/21’s Senior Prefects about their thoughts on returning to school after many months of lockdown, how they will approach the challenges they face in the year ahead and what they are most looking forward to.

“Although the return to the unusual school environment has been challenging for many, I think we can all agree it is great to be back at HSD. Implementations of the new safety measures have been effective and easy to follow, assuring us that safety is the top priority whilst also considering our wellbeing.”

“I am looking forward to getting the whole of the House involved in a range of different activities, such as sport, but also catering for people that are more academic, creative or musical.” Malachy

Finlay

“The pupils and teachers have adapted tremendously well to the new Covid friendly way the school is being run, whether it be from the extended class times or wearing our masks in the corridors. I am looking forward to the year ahead and I am certain that we will come together as a House to overcome any challenges we may face.”

“For us as captains, it’s challenging as we come to terms with not being able to run certain House events, whilst also trying to organise virtual events, which has never been done before. I think it’s important to remember that we have a chance to do something completely new and creative which is very exciting for all of us.” Lewis

Katie

“I see a unified school built on the struggles that 2020 has brought us and I see a year that is both promising and exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing how this new dynamic will change individuals and maybe encourage people to speak out on what’s important to them.” Toluwani

“Although this year is like no other, so far I have enjoyed cheering on my House at the various sporting House matches” Melissa

The School Today

Coronavirus – The School Moves Teaching and Learning Online

At the High School of Dundee, we worked incredibly hard to ensure our pupils had the best school experience throughout lockdown. Just as if the pupils were in the School themselves, a timetable of lessons was in place with most of them delivered live using Microsoft Teams. During the first week of lockdown more than 600 live lessons took place in the Senior Years and around 150 in Junior Years. Our teachers also created pre-recorded lessons and continuously uploaded resources to our Virtual Learning Environment. Our Learning Skills Team continued to provide timetabled support whilst our Junior Years teachers devised activities which ensured pupils stayed engaged with one another and had the chance to work and play alongside their friends virtually. Our Senior Years Guidance Teachers met their groups online every week, continuing to provide one to one pastoral support. We also ran a Care Hub at Mayfield to allow the children of key workers to be looked after. Throughout lockdown, we wanted to be sure that we were also building skills in creativity, resilience and confidence so that our pupils were able to adapt to our ever-changing world and take responsibility for their own learning in the widest sense. We

provided as many co-curricular activities as we could. As well as taking part in Sport and Cookery weekly challenges, our pupils have created wellbeing podcasts, produced their own lockdown newsletter and much much more. PE lessons and music tuition also took place online. Rector Lise Hudson said at the time, “The wellbeing of our pupils is always our number one priority, and is something we have worked hard to protect and safeguard during lockdown; listening to our pupils’ concerns and feedback and responding to their needs. “We are a community that works to support each other, and kindness is at the heart of all that we do. As we move towards a reopening, we have learnt how precious our shared humanity is and the power that we have to change the world for the better through our individual and collective actions.” Around 20% of families receive bursary support. Many of our families have been affected financially by the Covid-19 crisis, but our mission is to ensure that no child leaves the School due to financial reasons. We are working hard to support all our families; we’ve put in place variations to help those who need it and our fees are frozen for the forthcoming year.

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Budding Artist Raising Money For Charity

The creative endeavours of a budding High School of Dundee artist resulted in a bumper donation for a Dundee charity earlier this year. Lauren Chesters, now L3, managed to raise a fantastic £665 for Dundee Bairns back in June by selling t-shirts emblazoned with colourful artwork which she created during lockdown. Dundee Bairns provides meals for vulnerable children and families in Dundee and has dished out more than 100,000 meals in the last two years alone. Lauren’s mum Estelle explained “A virtual lesson with Miss Wallace on Van Gogh tasked Lauren with some homework to paint her

own version of Starry Night. For fun we created a Facebook page for her, and the painting was immediately bought by our friends for a £50 donation to the NHS. “After that we decided to get some t-shirts made up with Lauren’s paintings on the front to raise money for local charities. She has now done many paintings using acrylic on canvas and through the support of friends and family buying the t-shirts we have raised £665 which we are donating to a wonderful local charity ‘Dundee Bairns’”. Lauren’s fundraising success even caught the attention of the Evening Telelgraph! You can read more at: bit.ly/37KCxNH

Pupil Makes Scrub Bags For NHS Staff As part of the volunteering component of the Duke “My mum gives them to her work of Edinburgh’s Silver Award scheme, High School of colleagues. The staff seem to appreciate the bags and find Dundee pupil, Sarah Elliot (now F5), busied herself them useful and I have had making a selection of scrub bags for NHS workers some lovely messages earlier in the summer months. from grateful staff. After finishing their shifts, NHS workers put their scrubs or “I had never used a uniforms into the bags, which they can then put straight into machine or even the washing machine, thereby reducing the risk of cross- sewed much until contamination. earlier this year but I’ve really enjoyed Sarah utilised old pillowcases and duvet covers as material for the learning and bags, which she then sewed together and added a drawstring to. making something The finished bags, once put together, were then washed at a high that is useful for temperature, ironed and placed in clean, clear bags with a note staff working hard of thanks for the staff who received them. for the NHS.” Sarah has said “I’ve been making scrub bags for NHS staff who have been working throughout the covid crisis.

The School Today

The Care Hub At Mayfield The coronavirus pandemic saw the School move to remote learning, with lessons and teaching delivered online. However, Mayfield Sports Centre and the adjacent Nursery were used throughout lockdown to allow the children of key workers to be looked after, enabling their parents to continue their essential work in response to Covid-19. The Care Hub was open from 8am until 6pm Monday to Friday and looked after around 40 pupils from age 3-18 throughout the week. The service was run by school and nursery teachers as well as support staff members, who worked on shifts. This meant that the pupils were surrounded by familiar faces each day to help them adjust to the new arrangements. Children from Nursery to L3 were being cared for in the Nursery building whilst pupils from L4 to F6 were based in the Sports Centre. Social distancing was in place throughout with pupils being split into small groups to maintain this. At the Care Hub, as they would at home, the pupils followed their year group or class remote learning programme. The groups also took it in turns to use the outdoor space at Mayfield, ensuring they had the access to fresh air and exercise, which is vital to wellbeing.

Rector of the High School of Dundee, Lise Hudson, said at the time, “All the children attending have parents on the front line of this pandemic. Our staff are able to provide a remote learning environment away from home whilst their parents work long hours or rest between shifts. The children are all coping remarkably well with this difficult situation. It really has developed into a little community of its own, with everyone supporting one another at this challenging time.” You can hear our staff and pupils talk about their experience of our Care Hub on our YouTube channel here: bit.ly/39Emn9S

VE Day 75th Anniversary: We’ll Meet Again On Friday 8th May 2020, HSD pupils and staff lent their voices to a stirring rendition of Vera Lynn’s famous song – We’ll Meet Again – to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe. The video is still available to watch on the School’s YouTube channel here: youtu.be/_zFISyre7U4. The musical performance followed on from a number of VEthemed events which took place at HSD throughout the course of the day. At 11am, live lessons and school activities stopped for a twominute silence to honour the service and sacrifice of the wartime generation and to reflect on the devastating impact that Covid-19 has had on so many lives across the world. During the day, a special History department takeover of the PE Instagram account saw pupils and staff recreate Churchill’s iconic V-for-victory salute. The photos are still available to view on the PE Instagram page (search HSD Sport).

Meanwhile, the Health & Food Technology department challenged pupils to create dishes using a week’s worth of WWII era rations, while in the Junior Years some children learned more about VE Day with the help of everyone’s favourite bear – Paddington! At 2.55pm Tegan Ellis (now F3) joined Trumpeters and buglers up and down the country to perform a moving tribute to those who lost their lives during the war. Tegan played The Last Post before pausing for a moment of silence and finishing with the Reveille, to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. You can watch the performance on our website by following this link (please scroll to the bottom of the page for Tegan’s performance): bit.ly/3mqWqxt We also collated some interesting material from our archives in honour of those who contributed to the war effort. You can browse this content on our website here: bit.ly/379K3Qp.

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Sporting Achievements Recognised

The efforts and achievements of HSD pupils on the sports field were recognised through a special event on Wednesday 3rd June. Social media platform, Instagram, was abuzz with anticipation as the nominees and winners for the various prizes up for grabs at the School’s annual Sport Awards were revealed and announced via the PE Department’s Instagram page. Tries, goals and points scored, along with a host of other success stories from a range of sports over the previous 12 months, were to the fore as the online event unfolded and the titles – including

the coveted Sports Personality of the Year award – were (virtually) handed out. Pupils tuning in to the event were also treated to some sporting words of wisdom and encouragement from Former Pupils Zander Fagerson (Scottish Rugby Internationalist), Charlie Guest (Winter Olympic Skier), Cameron Golden (Scottish Hockey Internationalist) and Shona Campbell (Scottish Touch Rugby Internationalist), who had all contributed video messages. You can view the full list of award winners here: bit.ly/31MkpPH

School Raises £10k For Charity The High School of Dundee raised a fantastic £10k for a variety of charities throughout the academic year 2019/20. This incredible figure was generated through a variety of fundraising events and initiatives organised by Nursery, Junior and Senior Years’ pupils and staff over the course of the session. Such events ranged from charity bingo nights, cake sales, a staff charities Christmas card, to participation in the Rotary Swimarathon, various non-uniform days and many more. Even as lockdown began, support for good causes continued with pupils, staff and parents donating essential items and money to the Dundee Foodbank. Pupils and staff also raised money for NHS Charities Together with an array of selfie haircuts! Other charities to benefit from the fundraising include: Wheelpower, WWF, MacMillan, UNICEF, Books Abroad, HorseBack, Children in Need, the Maxwell Community Centre, Alzheimer Scotland, Young Carers, Eagles Wings Trust and Home Start. Throughout the school year, a community outreach programme also saw 30 pupils in F5 and F6 spend a total of almost 1,700 hours volunteering at care homes, community centres, Dundee Foodbank, and nurseries.

The School’s Charities and Community Outreach Co-ordinator, teacher Karlene Douglas, recorded a message of thanks to everyone who has been involved in the fundraising and community work, which can be viewed by following this link: youtu.be/zF9XPM-tQzQ.

Artwork by Anna Kerr F6 as part of the Pupil’s Paradigms Project set over lockdown.

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Pupils Launch Wellbeing Podcast A group of Senior Years’ pupils marked Mental Health Awareness Week in May with the launch of a brandnew podcast. Throughout the 2019/20 session, the Form 6 Wellbeing Prefects worked together to create a range of resources to help promote and support an awareness of mental health and wellbeing issues. As part of that, the group decided to produce a series of podcasts, with each episode focusing on helping the listener to understand a particular aspect of our mental health, before going on to examine helpful self-management techniques, and flagging additional support available both in and out of school. Presented by Kirstin Petrie, the first episode looked at Anxiety and was released to the school community via Firefly. Further editions by Kirstin and Emily Baxter (both F6 at the time) focussed on Social Anxiety and Sleep. The podcast series followed on from a number of successful assemblies and the launch of the Purple Club. This co-curricular group – led by Abigail Cousins, Charvi Kanodia and Anya Wilson – aimed to help break down friendship barriers by providing opportunities for chatting, playing board games and taking part in craft activities.

Deputy Rector and Head of Senior Years, Sam Watson, said “I am so proud of all that our Wellbeing Prefects have achieved and want to thank them all for their hard work and commitment throughout the year. They have successfully developed accessible resources that ‘speak to’ their generation and provide the right support for our young people at HSD.” You can tune into the first episode of the Wellbeing Podcast on our website here: www.highschoolofdundee.org.uk/news-andevents/news/pupils-launch-wellbeing-podcast

Piper Claims Third Place In Online World Championships Even in lockdown, you can still take on the world as one of our pupils demonstrated after claiming a podium place finish in the World Online Piping & Drumming Championships in May. During lockdown, Josh Gordon (now F2) was awarded third place in the P/M Alasdair Gillies Memorial Challenge 2/4 March for pipers aged 12 or under. He also placed fourth in the Grade 4 – 2/4 March section D category. Josh, a member of the School’s Pipe Band, found out about the competition, which attracts entrants from across the globe, through social media. He then recorded his performance at home before sending it in to the judging panel. He said “Everything being posted was about cancellations, all the band and solo events. Then news started appearing about the online competition, so I thought I would give it a go. I practise better when I have a goal. “I was really surprised when I found out about the results because I didn’t expect to place. You never know what will happen in a competition – I was pleased, it felt good!” A portion of each entry fee for the Championships was donated to the Centre for Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund.

The School Today

Prize-Giving 2020

With the traditional Caird Hall ceremony cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the School hosted a virtual Prize-Giving in June to mark the end of 2019/20 academic year.

The F6 cohort also heard some inspiring words of wisdom from FPs Andy Nicol, Eilish McColgan, Jonny Petrie and KT Tunstall, who all wished the leavers well as they prepared to wave goodbye to their school days under the most unprecedented of circumstances.

The online awards ceremony gave the school community the chance to congratulate and celebrate its principal prize-winners and to wish our departing F6 year group well as they waved goodbye to the Pillars.

Rector Lise Hudson spoke of the challenges which the coronavirus pandemic had presented, praising the pupils for the way they had responded and thanking the staff for their hard work and dedication.

The virtual ceremony also saw the Head Boy and Head Girl share reflective and emotional speeches, the new Heads of School, Senior Prefects and House Captains welcomed into their new roles and the announcement of the House Shield winner, which this year was Aystree!

Our virtual prize-giving is still available to watch in full on our website here: youtu.be/PKI3mzUm6aw

QuaranTimes, HSD’s Lockdown Newsletter: By Pupils, For Pupils! Budding journalists at the High School of Dundee were busy throughout lockdown creating a brandnew publication. We welcomed QuaranTimes, HSD’s Lockdown Newsletter, which was packed full of features ranging from baking recipes, to tips on staying active and staff interviews. The publication was created by a team of Senior Years’ pupils, led by Malavikha Sudarshan. It ran from April until the end of the school year in June, with a bonus summer blog edition thrown in for good measure. Malavikha said of the project “We wanted to start a student-led publication which we hoped would be useful for pupils whilst in lockdown. Its main aim was to allow our fellow Senior Years pupils to see what we were getting up to during quarantine, and possibly inspire them to take up a new skill, reach out to others and to stay calm."

With our pupils returning to school in August, we were thrilled to also see QuaranTimes returning too. Since the end of September, the publication has been re-named The Term Times. The first edition of the new academic session was released on August 28th and can be viewed here, along with all other editions: bit.ly/34xrtBL

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The School Today

Pupils Fundraise For Parkinson’s UK

Since the beginning of term, facemasks have been available at the school for pupils and staff who forget to bring one. However, in order to raise money for charity, pupils in the School’s Interact team have come up with the idea of asking those wishing to obtain one of the disposable facemasks to make a minimum donation of £1, with the money collected going to Parkinson’s UK.

Karlene Douglas, the School’s Charities and Community Outreach Coordinator, said, “Of course pupils and staff will not be turned away if they do not have money to donate as safety remains the number one priority. “Washable masks remain the way forward if possible for pupils, and also help to reduce single-use plastic waste. “However, we’d like to ask anyone who needs a mask to consider donating to this worthy cause.”

Pipers Help NHS Tayside Mark International Day Of Older Persons Well done to members of the High School of Dundee Pipe Band who helped NHS Tayside celebrate International Day of Older Persons in October by performing outside Ninewells Hospital. Led by the School’s Pipe Major, David Wilton, nine pupils (as well as Deputy Rector Sam Watson) played a series of numbers to entertain patients and staff as the hospital marked the UN event, which seeks to increase awareness about issues affecting older people and celebrate the contribution elderly people make to society. Dr. Christina Beecroft, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, said, “The visit of the pipe band was an amazing success, enjoyed by staff and patients alike. “So many colleagues spoke so highly of the pupils who came to play and many of our patients have commented on how well the pupils played and how much they enjoyed hearing the music.”

The School Today

Armistice 2020

Normally the whole school and guests gather in the playground for the annual Armistice Parade, with parents and the public also invited to watch. However, with the current Covid-19 restrictions in place, this year’s event on Friday 6th November had to be a closed ceremony with only a reduced number of participating pupils and staff in attendance. The Parade saw members of the CCF and a section of the Pipe Band assemble in front of the Pillars to pay tribute to the fallen. Contingent Commander, Lt. Colonel Colin McAdam, led the proceedings and prior to the ceremony the appointment of Anthony Milnes as Head Cadet WO2 (Company Sergeant Major) was announced. A wreath was placed on the School’s War Memorial by Head of School, Callum Todd and Deputy Head of School, Christina Kennedy, assisted by Junior Years’ pupils, sisters Emily and Rosie Patterson. Flowers o’ the Forest was played by Pupil Pipe Major Andrew Lothian before a two-minute silence was observed by the whole school community via a live stream of the Parade into classrooms.

Our Rector, Lise Hudson, gave a reading before, in a particularly poignant moment of the proceedings, Head of School Laurence Petty delivered a tribute to CCF Contingent Lieutenant and much loved and missed Technology Teacher, Mr. David Preston, who very sadly died suddenly in August. To allow the event to take place, strict safety guidelines were observed throughout, with the numbers taking part limited; physical distancing between those assembled; siblings or members of the same family fulfilling a number of the roles and the format of the Parade altered. You can watch a full recording of the parade here: bit.ly/2GSut2r. In a further tribute to the fallen, the Pillars were illuminated red from 5th until 15th November to commemorate the end of the First World War. Thanks must be extended to AML Lighting for kindly providing the lighting. And on the morning of Wednesday 11th November, the School’s Pipe Major David Wilton marked Armistice Day by playing Flowers o’ the Forest from the balcony of the Royal Exchange Building. You can watch a video of David’s poignant tribute here: bit.ly/38y1vQY

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Alumni News

Alumni News Welcome to the section of Schola Clara where we share with you a wide range of exciting and unique interviews, articles and news stories that feature fellow Former Pupils. This is the section that we predominately throw open to you all, for you to talk about your own stories, news, achievements and updates.

Canada 19 (21)

United States of America 36 (42)

England 471 (467) Scotland 2081 (1929) Northern Ireland 4 (13) Ireland 5 (5) Channel Islands 5 (5) Wales 10 (10) Germany 5 (7) France 9 (11) Switzerland 5 (7) Bermuda 2 (2)

In total, there are over 14,000 Alumni and Supporters of the School listed on our database. We are currently in touch with 3,052 of these people worldwide and you can see this distribution on the map above. However, there are still a substantial number of people from the High School of Dundee community for whom we hold incomplete or out-of-date contact details or whom we have lost touch with due to the GDPR, which came into being in May 2018. You can help us reconnect with those who perhaps haven’t heard from us in a while by spreading the word and letting your friends and family members know how to ‘opt-in’ to continue to receive news and updates about the School’s forthcoming events and news stories. Our ‘Keeping in Touch’ form can be completed electronically on our website here: www.highschoolofdundee.org.uk/hsd-family/keep-in-touch/ keeping-in-touch-gdpr-form or sent via post by contacting the Development Office. If you know that you have completed one of our ‘Keeping in Touch’ forms, but maybe haven’t received any e-mails from us lately, we would strongly recommend that you check your spam folders and filters as sometimes higher security settings may result in our communications bypassing your inbox.

Paraguay 1 (1)

Ita

Spain 9 (14)

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Our Global Community

Sweden 1 (1)

Finland 1 (1) Denmark 2 (2) Netherlands 8 (9) Luxembourg 1 (1) Austria 2 (2)

aly 2 (2) Japan 1 (1)

Cyprus 1 (1) Israel 1 (1) Bahrain 1 (1)

United Arab Emirates 1 (1)

Hong Kong 1 (1)

Saudi Arabia 1 (1) Thailand 1 (3)

Kenya 1 (1)

Singapore 1 (2)

Vietnam 1 (1) Malaysia 2 (2)

South Africa 8 (8) Australia 37 (45)

New Zealand 10 (9) Please note, the numbers shown in brackets beside each country indicate the number of people who we were in contact with this time last year. The numbers outwith the brackets show how many people we are currently in contact with today.

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Alumni News

Frontline Former Pupil Discusses Covid-19 Challenges Following the news of a novel, dangerous virus from Wuhan, China in late January 2020, it triggered emergency planning in many hospitals worldwide, including my place of work – Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. As a Consultant Radiologist, our Imaging Department serving the local Infectious Disease Unit, had to plan to deal with the arrival of patients known to have the virus, suspected of having the virus and not known to have the virus. This involved a huge amount of logistical reorganisation and individual change in practice.

Prior to coronavirus Western General Hospital serves as a tertiary referral oncology centre for the Southeast of Scotland. My subspecialist skills at normal times provide uro-oncology cover regarding prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment for the East of Scotland, from Inverness to Berwick. Prior to the pandemic, we had provided by far the largest number of curative prostate brachytherapy implants in Scotland (over 1,200 patients treated). As a Consultant Radiologist specialising in prostate cancer, I provide diagnostic MRI scans, targeted biopsy and subsequent therapeutic radiation therapy. In other areas of oncology work, I provide interventional and diagnostic procedures, both regarding common emergencies but also providing palliative image guided treatment, designed to improve quality of life.

Arrival of coronavirus In March 2020, as we realised this new virus had the potential to overwhelm NHS services, including acute admissions, imaging and intensive care, plans were rapidly drawn up. The hospital, including radiology, was effectively split in two – red and green – red for coronavirus related treatment and green for non-coronavirus medicine. Intensive care capacity was expanded, doubling its normal capability. All areas of the hospital followed similar rules and all medical staff had to follow strict guidelines to protect themselves and anyone close by who could be affected by this virus – known to be spread by close proximity to others via droplets. In Radiology, this meant adopting full personal protection equipment (PPE) for procedures

deemed to be high risk for transmitting the virus (referred to as aerosol generating procedures or AGP). The tendency was very much to regard a procedure as an AGP until proven otherwise, hence initially large parts of a working day in radiology were spent in full PPE. As you can imagine, this is not a comfortable environment to work in, particularly on top of the lead protection coats we wear in Radiology to protect against radiation. We also provided a first line diagnostic service regarding suspected viral cases. Unfortunately, the swab test for coronavirus is not always accurate and many patients would present to Radiology with symptoms thought to be viral related but produced a negative swab test. We realised that there were findings on chest x-rays and CT scans that suggested the presence of the virus, allowing appropriate and early management to change. Regarding presence of work, the hospital never stops, but in order to minimise potential risk for cross contamination, we spilt into pods, working 3 days on and 3 days off. Undoubtedly normal radiology services for oncology at Western General Hospital took a hit, with many standard scans and procedures being significantly delayed or even cancelled. Eventually in early summer, the number of hospital admissions due to the virus began to drop significantly, allowing us to reopen standard imaging for almost all patients.

Post coronavirus Of course, we cannot yet say that we are post coronavirus, but our experiences of dealing with positive viral cases and suspected cases, combined with the need to continue urgent cancer activity, has allowed us to reopen imaging services, while at the same time continuing strict measures to prevent viral transmission. Appointments are spaced out, waiting rooms are re-organised, and procedures are conducted following strict protocol. This is in addition to the regular handwashing and mask wearing that the general public is encouraged to follow. While the last few months have not been easy within the hospital, there are now undoubtedly green shoots of recovery and many lessons have been learnt. For this reason, it should be possible to manage viral admissions but also continue urgent standard care going forwards. John Brush, Class of 1984

Alumni News

FP Creates Humorous ‘Official Map of Lockdown’ Annalisa Morrocco, 58, is the daughter of famous painter Alberto Morrocco. During lockdown, she produced a humorous vision of a ‘Lockdown Island’, gently poking fun at the rigours of everyday life in the face of coronavirus. The Class of 1979 alum left the UK for a life in France approximately 30 years ago with her latest work allowing her to reconnect with her home. Upon moving abroad, Annalisa built a successful reputation as an Illustrator in the publishing and advertising industries. Her father lived and taught in Dundee for much of his life and is seen as one of Scotland’s most important 20th century artists. Her ‘Lockdown Island’ began as an assignment for the college class she teaches in Rennes, the capital of the French region of Brittany where Annalisa now resides. She loved the project so much that she felt she too had to get involved. The finished piece parodies stock piling, daily exercise, quarantine as well as the hunt for a vaccine. In an article with The Courier over the summer, Annalisa mentioned how she wanted to introduce a little bit of humour during such an uncertain time. Painting the map, she says, brought back memories of growing up and attending school in Dundee.

FP Joins Volunteer Community Helping in Aftermath of Australian Bushfires In August 2019, Class of 2016 Former Pupil, Benjamin Braid, decided to take a year out from his Sports Coaching degree to take up a coaching placement with BlueFit, a Leisure Facility Management Company in Sydney, Australia, moving between facilities in the New South Wales capital city and Newcastle. In addition to his coaching commitments, Benjamin also trained as a Swimming Instructor and gained a Lifeguard qualification. When Covid-19 necessitated a lockdown of all sports facilities, the work stopped abruptly. As a result, Benjamin found a voluntary position working with BlazeAid, an organisation coordinating the bushfire recovery program in Australia. Being from a farming background himself, helping communities to rebuild after natural disasters held much appeal for Benjamin. He was fortunate enough to move to a camp in Wingham, NSW, just prior to complete lockdown. Despite enforced Covid-19 restrictions, the BlazeAid Teams were still able to operate on the farm sites in the Bush. The Camp where they stayed however was locked down and they were not able to leave, with supplies instead being brought in. Each day they were driven to the site they were to work on, and in some cases, they could be on these sites for many weeks. The team’s main tasks included cleaning, maintaining and organising all the equipment. Onsite they cleared the ground, debris, and burnt fencing. It was very important to save what they could from the fencing to be reused as all resources were vital. New fencing and strainer posts were put in and strung with barbed wire with any surplus wire rolled up to be used again. Any burnt posts not suitable for re-use were set aside for firewood. The farmers were so very welcoming to the volunteers and made them feel at home. Benjamin was on one site for almost 6 weeks and the owners, Geoff and Marilyn Spence, wrote personally to the parents of each volunteer expressing their thanks and appreciation. Whilst at Wingham, Benjamin was also interviewed for the local newspaper, the Wingham Chronicle, and national radio about his involvement with BlazeAid.

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Up In The Clouds: FP Recalls Conquering the Climb to Everest Base Camp Dr. Bill Macfarlane Smith left the High School of Dundee in 1960. A graduate of the Universities of Aberdeen and Reading, he maintained his links with the School over many years, having a major involvement with the Old Boys’ Club, the Patrons, the Trust Fund Appeal and the Parents’ Association. He was also a member of The School’s Board of Directors for many years, standing down as Vice-Chairman in 2009 to free up time for his position as District Governor of Rotary District 1010, which covers a large area of Scotland. In this article, Bill recalls his adventure of a lifetime – hiking the perilous paths to Everest Base Camp. Almost exactly twenty-five years ago, I sat one evening with the warm early summer sun streaming through the open door, concentrating on my equipment requirements for a trip to a far corner of the world later that year. However, this story has a much earlier beginning, back in 1950. For once, I had completed all the classwork required to the necessary standard. My reward was to be allowed to go to the school library to choose a book which I could read. I was fortunate that one of the first books I picked up, though dusty and clearly little read, contained an account of the early 1920s British expeditions to explore and hopefully scale Mount Everest, already recognised as the highest mountain in the world. One of very few photographs showed a huge mountain, its summit almost totally obscured by cloud and wind-driven plumes of snow. I was fascinated and totally hooked. I could hardly wait to finish the book and move onto the very few other existing books on the same subject. My fascination jumped up several additional notches on the news in 1953, that a British expedition led by John Hunt had put the climbers Ed Hillary and Tensing Norgay on the top. In the years which followed, I read every book I could find on the different ways in which Everest could be climbed. Some were less

successful as others and throughout the death toll was appallingly high. There the matter might have rested but for my attendance many years later at the Dundee Mountain Film Festival. The principle speaker was the world-renowned mountaineer, Sir Chris Bonnington. His talk that evening was about the various expeditions which he had led to Everest and always given up his own personal opportunity to get to the summit to be certain that at least one member of his team would do so. He had finally achieved his own ambition by joining an Austrian expedition. Always a very gregarious person, he spent a lot of time chatting to the audience after his talk. In my own conversation with him, I talked about my own interest in Everest but thought that I was too old to ever go there. He looked me up and down very searchingly, then said, ‘You still look very fit. If you really want to go there, what is stopping you?’ So, after some months of physical training and proving that I was fit enough to go, I found myself in the departure lounge at Edinburgh Airport, en route for Kathmandu via Gatwick, Frankfurt and Dubai. Kathmandu was a different world – the airport was a heady mix of sheer bedlam, noise and, already, evidence of extreme poverty, as individuals vied, often quite violently with

Alumni News

each other, for the privilege of carrying your bags. As some of this contained equipment essential to our trip, we had more than a measure of apprehension. It was a relief to be safely in our hotel for a few days to recover from our journey and the time zone shift, and to see some of the famous sights of the city, such as the Monkey Temple. The plan then was to travel in a rather dilapidated bus along the Friendship Highway, linking Kathmandu to Lhassa in Tibet, via another Nepalese city, Bhaktapur, noted for its Buddhist temples. Some of these were in a very bad state of repair, often leant precariously and must have almost certainly succumbed to the various earthquakes since then which have wreaked havoc in an already impoverished country. The following day we would disembark at the town of Balephi to start the process of acclimatisation in the relatively low Jugal Himal mountains in Nepal, which was essential to cope with the much higher altitudes later on, then travel to Tibet and eventually up the Rongbuk Valley to Everest itself. When the instruction came to ’Get your rucksacks on and start walking’, it was like entering a different world. The initial roads were just dirt tracks and the subsequent paths barely visible through the vegetation. The whole of this steeply sloping countryside was terraced for cropping, and quite often our route was simply along the edge of one of these terraces. We gained height steadily over a number of days, and where it was possible to get a view through the vegetation, it was impressive to see how much height we had gained from our starting point, by now far off down the valley.

In the very first days we came to grips with something no one had warned about – leeches. They are sophisticated enough to land so lightly that you are not aware of them and inject a chemical where they have bitten you to stop your blood from coagulating. We just had to accept them, as there was no repellent which could stop their attacks. We were then into real monsoon conditions, and the volume and intensity of rainfall meant a regular soaking, irrespective of any waterproof clothing. In any event, it was so hot and humid that to put on waterproofs only added to discomfort. We soon preferred, like the native Nepalese who were our porters for the heavy equipment, just to get wet. After several days, it became obvious that the temperatures were falling and the rain easing, though sometimes replaced by snow. By the time we got to our acclimatisation camp at the holy lake of Bhairev Kund at just over 13,000 feet, we were pitching our tents on lying snow. The holy lake is a point of pilgrimage for Buddhists, which they go to often at the worst time of the year weatherwise, when there are no crops to tend at home. They mark their visit by leaving in the water of the lake, small decorated tridents. Our stay there was cut short by even heavier snow and after the ascent of one peak at just over 14,000 feet, we made our way by some very steep descents, often over green, slimy rocks due to the high rainfall, back to the Friendship Highway. Part of this involved a traverse along the Precipice Path, only the width of one foot, a 300 foot drop down a 70 degree plus slope to rocks and the river, and with no rope for security. The fact that I survived this was down to the famous Dundee High School ‘stickability’, in dealing with adverse situations, and the fact that the porters

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Alumni News

had already gone ahead with all our food and equipment! To turn around was next to impossible and even then, would have involved a three-day detour to rejoin the group. After a 7,500-foot descent, we reached Tatopani, the border crossing point between Nepal and Tibet, at a height of 5,000 feet. There were regular halts where we had to by-pass, on foot, major rockfalls which had destroyed the road, but eventually we finished up at Tingri/Shegar, one of the staging points for the 1920s British expeditions, at just under 14,000 feet. By now we were on an upland desert, so different to the tropical forests only a short distance to the south. Two days more and regular stops at Chinese army inspection posts, a crossing of the Pang La at 16,400 feet, and we arrived at Everest Base Camp North at 17,700 feet. For the last part of our journey, we were shut away in the back of a truck with no outward view. Absolutely nothing can prepare you when you get your first view to the south and see the enormous height and bulk of Everest. Even my familiarity with the high mountains of the Alps was no preparation for this. Life at Base Camp was incredibly lazy, both to recover from our journey and to acclimatise further. Another highlight of our trip was to try our fitness by heading further up the mountain, though only two of us were adequately acclimatised to be able to do so. The track started off downhill, squeezed between the east side of the glacier and the east wall of the valley, and was clearly subject to quite regular rockfalls from the hillside above. It then started to slope uphill again. The going was not difficult, but it seemed to take a long time to get anywhere in the thin air. Before long we had reached the point where it was possible to diverge from the main valley into the East Rongbuk valley and glacier. I reached this point with very mixed feelings. It was the limit of the permit granted to us by the Chinese to proceed up Everest. Although tired and blowing quite hard to get this far, I was in no doubt that with further training and acclimatisation, I would have been capable of going quite a few thousand feet higher,

even though at this relatively low stage I did not have the benefit, or need, of the bottled oxygen which climbers use routinely when they get to the final 2,400 feet of the climb. Against that, there was an understanding of the sheer unpredictability of the weather higher up, and the very narrow margin between survival and success, and the one mistake in judgement which would almost certainly be fatal. Back at Base Camp, my one remaining commitment was to walk to the monument to Mallory and Irvine who may well have reached the summit in 1924 but perished in the attempt. It was a privilege to acknowledge the courage and commitment of these two men and their colleagues. With equipment little more protective than what we wear today in a Scottish winter, what they achieved was astonishing. I still treasure a copy of a picture of Edward Norton taken at over 28,000 feet on Everest, where his concession to the weather was puttees to keep the snow out of his boots, a thick woollen jersey, a sports jacket with the collar turned up, a scarf and a felt hat, plus the obligatory leather gloves. Magnificent! Our journey thereafter seemed to fly by, and it was not long before I boarded my flight back to Kathmandu where I had one last spectacular view from the plane of Everest, once again wreathed in clouds with its traditional snow plume blowing out from the summit. The journey back to London, then Edinburgh, was an anticlimax and seemed interminable. The impact of my expedition was only brought home to me when my wife and youngest son failed to recognise me when I came into the terminal building at Edinburgh. This was due in part to the beard I had grown, and a loss of some 35 pounds due to the combination of exertion, inadequate nutrition and the acquisition of hookworm, one of the endemic diseases in Nepal. Would I go back again to try to get higher? Probably not nowadays, but it was the trip of a lifetime and I have always been grateful for the words, and the challenge, laid down by Sir Chris Bonnington. Bill Macfarlane Smith, Class of 1960

Alumni News

Yolande Sum Now based in Hong Kong for the second time in her career, Class of 1991 FP Yolande Sum has made strides in the world of business since leaving the High School of Dundee thirty years ago. She first began her career in the Retail and Consumer Goods industry in Hong Kong after graduating in Marketing from Stirling University, then moved into Management Consulting in London after completing her MBA at Strathclyde Business School. Since joining PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 2008, she has successfully advanced up the ranks to Associate Director in Business Development and her current role as Clients & Insights Programme Leader for PwC China and Hong Kong. What are your favourite memories from school? Did you have any subjects that you enjoyed the most and were there any staff who inspired you and supported you on your journey to where you are today? I benefited from HSD’s all-through school structure and joined HSD in Lower 1 Junior School, leaving in Form 5 Senior School (after achieving the necessary Highers qualifications to enter university). I do remember enjoying subjects like English, French, Geography and Music (especially running up to the top of the Girls’ school for music and flute lessons, choir and wind band practice!). I enjoyed the co-curricular activities/clubs and was very proud of my Librarian and Hostess badges back in the day! I also looked forward to playing tennis during the warm Scottish summers up at Dalnacraig and singing my heart out in the choir in St Paul’s Cathedral at the end of term Christmas service. Have you ever attended any of our alumni events or been back to visit the school since you left? Being a full-time working mother of seven-year-old twins and having to think more often about my children’s education and future, has naturally brought back many memories of my own school life and the desire to reconnect with the School. I subsequently volunteered as an HSD Alumni Ambassador (for China and Hong Kong) to help contribute to the School’s alumni network and enhance international relationships. As my parents and siblings are based in Scotland and because I still affectionately regard Scotland as my ‘home’, we normally fly back twice a year. It was on one of these trips earlier this year that the School kindly arranged a Junior Years’ Individual Tour so that my children could experience first-hand what life at HSD (or ‘mummy’s school’) would be like if we decided to relocate back to Scotland in the near future. Having not set foot in the School since I left Form 5 in 1990, it was amazing to see how the School has evolved and its facilities modernised. You are now based in Hong Kong and have been for quite a while now. How did your career take you overseas? As ‘graduate milk rounds’ were taking place in my final year at Stirling University, I looked at the competition around me and it made me reflect on how I could differentiate from others. Having previously travelled to Hong Kong for family holidays, I remembered there were many multinational companies based out in the Far East and as I was already bilingual in English and Chinese, I targeted my graduate applications at multinationals in Hong Kong. Despite feeling anxious about the uncertainty ahead, I flew out to Hong Kong on a one-way ticket two weeks after Graduation and within that month, I was referred to Boots the Chemist for a role. This was the beginning of my career in Hong Kong, initially in Product Development & Procurement with

Boots followed by Account Management at Nestlé. To remain competitive and relevant, I knew I would need to continue upskilling myself, so I decided to return to my roots in Scotland to study for my MBA at Strathclyde Business School. I then transitioned into management consulting with ACNielsen and Capgemini in London. A few years later, whilst taking a short sabbatical in Hong Kong, I was unexpectedly headhunted for an internal change management position for a newly established Business Development function in PwC. That was twelve years ago! You have been working for PwC for twelve years now and you’ve successfully progressed through the ranks, which is wonderful! I wonder if you could tell us a little more about your role and what your day-to-day responsibilities entail? In my current role as Clients & Insights Programme Leader, I regularly meet Board/Senior Management in client organisations together with senior PwC Partners to discuss how we can bring more value to the relationship and to help them meet their business needs or to overcome market challenges. Today, such conversations cannot be underestimated as many organisations are having to adjust their business strategy and re-prioritise due to the impact of geopolitical and macroeconomic risks (e.g. US-China tensions, UK withdrawing from the EU, interest rate environment, the global Covid-19 outbreak). Once we have these key insights, we make recommendations to leadership and act to deliver a more enhanced service/experience to clients, refine our go-to market and industry strategies, improve our service coverage and relationships at client, industry or broader market levels. What would you say is the best thing about an HSD education and did it help prepare you for your life after school? HSD has always had a proven track record in academic excellence which I believe is fundamental in helping pupils to unlock their potential and strive for their best, regardless of background, ability and where they may find themselves in the future. From my own experience, the School’s traditional core values and strong sense of community/friendship, combined with active learning and problem solving in a high performing environment helped instil important attributes such as diligence, perseverance, discipline, ambition and self-awareness during my school years, and this better prepared me for life’s challenges after leaving school. If you could offer any words of wisdom to your school-age self, what would they be? If I could go back in time, my advice to my school-age self would be - to be more inquisitive and ask more questions; keep an open mind and think more broadly around what is written in textbooks by exchanging ideas with others; be more self-confident and adventurous. Having said that, I have no regrets as I believe that all my life experiences up until now have shaped me into the person I am today!

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Alumni News

Say Hello to The HSD’s Alumni Playlist Rewind to May 2020, when the country, and indeed the world, was still in the midst of lockdown, the School’s Development Office were busying themselves trying to create innovative projects that would lift the spirits of our Former Pupil and wider HSD community during these trying times. Music has an ability to connect us all, hence the idea for our HSD Alumni Playlist was born. Hosted via the music platform, Spotify, we asked our alumni community to e-mail us with songs that brought back happy memories of their school days. The response was astonishing, and we now have over 13 hours’ worth of music, ranging from classics by Vera Lynne, Pink Floyd, Beyoncé and TOTO, to songs by our very own FPs Ricky Ross (vocalist for Deacon Blue) and KT Tunstall. There really is such a wide variety of music to explore – you never know, you might just discover a new favourite artist or track! You can tune into our playlist here: open.spotify.com/playlist/5l8xdcIvkgIdcPbtcmQzS4 (Please note that you may be required to create a free account with Spotify to access the playlist). If you would like to submit your own song choices to add to the playlist, please drop us an e-mail at alumni@highschoolofdundee.org.uk.

Alumni News

An Epic Triathlon Adventure Across Scotland in Aid of the Army Family Having delayed our honeymoon, my wife and I had planned to take some time off work to go trekking in Nepal before heading to western Europe and attempting to climb the highest peak in every country. But Covid-19 burst that balloon. However, we certainly weren’t unique in our loss, and all things considered felt somewhat fortunate. So, as junior doctors, we returned to work. But in lockdown we got itchy feet, wondering what we could do instead. We live in such a wonderful place and, counting our blessings, decided to go and explore it. The details of the adventure were skewed by over-excitement, but after consulting trusty Google we decided on something unique: to run the West Highland Way, cycle the North Coast 500 and then kayak the Great Glen, linking three of the best known ‘routes’ of Scotland together. Then, in June, a friend and colleague in the army detachment which I am a member of unexpectedly and suddenly passed away. The last thing we talked about the day before his death was our upcoming adventure. After deliberation, we decided to use the pre-planned adventure to raise money for The Army Benevolent Fund, The Soldier’s Charity. For over 75 years it has supported army members (both active and retired) and their families whenever they are in need. This support has continued in spite of, and due to, the coronavirus pandemic. We set off as soon as lockdown lifted, leaving Milngavie just north of Glasgow for the first part of the 154km run. The first day started off well, but 45km in we tumbled into the northern shores of Loch Lomond, which were more remote and extremely rugged. With my wife, Kirsty, on a mountain bike due to a hip injury at points it was almost unnavigable. The second day was a breeze in comparison, just over 50km on much better paths and with wonderful views. The highlight was the last 20km from the Bridge of Orchy round the bottom of the Black Mount and onto Rannoch Moor. Quintessentially Scottish! The final day on the feet started with the Devils Staircase (not as bad as it sounds!) over to Kinlochleven. The first 30km went well despite being the hilliest, but with 17km to go I lulled myself into thinking I was almost there… and then lost the mental edge. It was a pretty unforgiving finish! With the running done I was happy to get on the bike; although I wasn’t ready for the pace that Kirst was to set! The first day we cycled from Fort William (the end of the West Highland Way) to Plockton via the ferry over to Skye. The rest on the boat was certainly appreciated.

Day 2 was seriously wet. Views were limited, which was a shame because we cycled the 640m climb up the Bealach na Ba (the longest hill climb in the UK) and then on through Torridon, finishing up in Aultbea. On another day I’m sure it would’ve been the highlight of the trip! After a good dry out that evening we started ramping up the distances as we reached Assynt. The focus shifts from the mountains to the horizon, and its seriously breathtaking, both because of the views and the ascent on the costal roads. For three days in a row we hit almost 3000m of ascent, but this was the worst of them! The fourth day was much of the same as we cruised into Durness by 10am before making our turn east. The day turned out to be a good one, and the cravings to pop down to one of the lovely beaches for a surf was high. But with a hope to get ahead of schedule we beetled along the north coast, and then finished on the East Coast with some fish and chips. The final day was a variant of the NC500 (Mark Beaumont’s route) avoiding the busy A9 by going in land to Lairg. Unfortunately, the first 60km was all into a 30mph head wind, another new gift from the gods of the Scottish weather! With no hesitation we jumped straight into the kayak and breezed an evening kayak on the canal right to the mouth of Loch Ness, only to encounter the same battering wind having time to churn up some waves over a 20-mile run up. It was a battle lasting 90 minutes, but we made our peace and turned in for the night hoping for an improvement in the weather. The second day of kayaking provided little let up, with the first 6 hours into the head wind on what is a fairly uneventful, but wavy, loch! A pizza and coffee in Fort Augustus picked up our spirits and we got on the way again completing a fairly mammoth twelve-hour day, which we knew would be our penultimate! The last day was the best weather-wise – calm and hot! The paddle down Loch Lochy was gorgeous and we made it into the last stretch of the canal leading to Fort William, when Kirst psychologically clocked out too early and almost fell asleep paddling! After some caffeine related sustenance, we finished the final two hours, finishing in time for a late lunch and an early beer! Nine and a half days of gruesome but captivating endurance took us to our finish line. The bruises took a while to settle, but the psychological motivation of raising money for a wonderful cause kept us going. People have said you must be incredibly fit, I deny that. We had a cause we were passionate about which engaged the mind, and an incredible support team who were the real unsung heroes. Maybe we’ll settle to be the support team next time though! Callum Leese, Class of 2011

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Alumni News

Keeping the Music Playing

What do you do as a professional concert musician when the concert halls of the world have shut down due to a ferocious pandemic? That was the question Class of 1992 alumna Christina Lawrie was uneasily asking herself on February 23rd as she was heading home following a solo piano recital for Dollar Music Society, in the lovely surroundings of Dollar Academy. Christina’s violinist husband Marcus Barcham Stevens had been performing chamber music that same day with fellow members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. Concert halls were full at that time and life was still relatively normal. Just four weeks later, the UK was locked down. However, in the hope of bringing some joy and solace to isolated music-lovers, the duo launched their #ConcertFromOurLivingRoom series on Christina’s YouTube channel, the first of which was broadcast on Sunday 22nd March at 4pm. Marcus should have been performing with the SCO in Eden Court Theatre in Inverness that same day. The first concert coincided with Mothering Sunday, and so was a Mothers' Day gift from the couple and their daughter, Mairi-Anna. The fortnightly concerts are free to tune into, but there is also an option to make a donation via PayPal. The repertoire is classical, along with some Scottish traditional music.

Christina says “It has been lovely to recapture the tradition of the Schubertiade in our own home (although Schubert was arrested for the dangerously revolutionary activity of performing in a house concert!) Performing from our living room has given us a reason to keep practising, stay focused and has maintained our identity as concert artists. Many of our listeners e-mail us after every concert and it has been a delight for us to get to know them. I can't wait for the day when I can meet these lovely people in person and perform a live concert for them. In these strange times, I really think music has the power to nourish our souls.” Back in October 2015, Christina returned to the High School of Dundee to perform with the eminent British baritone Stephen Varcoe. The programme included Purcell's haunting Music for a While, the first line of which Christina says came back to her recently; “Music for a while shall all your cares beguile”. To access the concerts, please visit bit.ly/35GEKXZ Alternatively, you can access the concerts via Christina’s Twitter account, where there is also information on how to donate in lieu of a ticket: www.twitter.com/piano_christina The photograph of Christina and Marcus was taken by their young daughter, Mairi-Anna, who has an avid interest in the world of photography!

Alumni News

Journalist FP Uses Voice and Passion for Global Good Class of 2003 Former Pupil, James Blake, currently resides in New York working for the Ambassadorial Council for the International Crisis Group. His career has taken him on many adventures across the globe, something which has been hugely beneficial for his most recent career venture into the field of journalism. James regularly writes for Jane’s Intelligence Review magazine, Foreign Policy Magazine and other publications focused on humanitarian and human rights crises. “Our hope was to make it to Europe. We fled from violence in Syria. But we have run out of money and now hope to stay here in Turkey.” The husband, father of two children, told me of their journey as they fled from violence in Syria, which has experienced a ten-year long civil war. They faced the reality of finding shelter, jobs, education and learning a new language. This conversation took place during the start of the European refugee crisis in 2015; another crisis broke out earlier this year. The unnecessary violence, death and destruction continues. My professional career has taken me from Blairgowrie, Scotland, to New York via the plush offices of the International Monetary Fund, the United Nation’s headquarters in New York, and a visit to the White House in Washington DC, to refugee camps in Turkey, speaking to a young man who was refused asylum in the US after being trafficked and returned – still fearing for his life – to his home in San Salvador, El Salvador. I have also travelled to Syria, Lebanon and Myanmar. But there is nothing I have found more humbling than hearing the hopes, dreams and expectations of a family that have fled violence through no fault of their own, but faced their own uncertain future with hope, a sense of humor and optimism. For me, it all began at Dundee High School. I enjoyed making good friends, I enjoyed the competitive sports and many of my classes. But I don’t think it was until I reached my final year that I found what I was good at. Several teachers helped me beyond the expected: one is now the Rector. Two others, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Rennet, have both since left. But they all instilled in me the need for critical thinking, intellectual curiosity and to follow my own path. I studied International Relations at St Andrews University, something which Mrs. Hudson can certainly take credit for steering me towards. In my second year, I joined the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. In my third year, I was the sole student awarded on an exchange program at a small liberal arts college outside Washington DC. I was pushed from my comfort zone and forced to learn, adapt and “Americanize.” I spent four months at a non-profit, which looked at nuclear threat issues and global pandemics. During this time, I went to the White House and met with then Vice President, Dick Cheney, whom my college professor had worked for. I was unimpressed. Returning to Scotland, I finished my degree and went to study a postgraduate program at the School of Oriental and African Studies in Near and Middle Eastern Studies. I struggled with Arabic, grappled with the Israel-Palestine peace process and ended up in Syria and Lebanon interviewing members of Hezbollah for my dissertation.

The next five years I spent at a political and security risk consultancy in London helping large organisations mitigate the security risks to their staff and businesses. I learned a lot about terrorism and political violence as well as how to write. Then, I moved back over the Atlantic to Washington DC. I worked at the International Monetary Fund and advised them on security issues across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. It was not uncommon for me to be woken in the middle of the night following a terrorist attack in Kabul as my colleagues sought my advice. I moved up to New York and worked at the Humanitarian Agency International Rescue Committee. I was privileged to work on humanitarian emergencies across the world from Syria to the Central African Republic, helping people affected by conflict recover and prosper. A highlight was accompanying David Miliband, former British Foreign Secretary, to the United Nations and writing some of his speeches. Since then, I have entered the fields of journalism, speech writing and analysis. I write for a range of publications (some with a worldwide audience), get to travel across the world and meet and interview amazingly accomplished people. But my biggest satisfaction comes from work that I feel makes a difference to society; an op-ed which inspires collective action to help a country; an investigation that uncovers a human rights or corruption issue. Over the last few months, I won funding from the Carnegie Corp to work on a project to highlight untold stories and document on-the-ground realities in the Middle East and North Africa against the backdrop of Covid-19. To achieve this, I am working with The Soufan Center and Truepic. These stories and videos have been distributed across the media and to policymakers and humanitarian organizations across the world. More recently, I put together a report for the bipartisan Western Hemisphere Drug Commission on improving US policy to Central America. The report was presented to US Congress and the President in November. Additionally, I am also working on a book, along with my co-author Dr. Linda Lopez. The book is structured around how cities can rebuild post Covid-19 to become resilient to future disasters such as climate migration, security issues and help better integrate and protect vulnerable communities. I don’t know where I will be in five years’ time with my career. But I know that my mission is to help give a voice to the voiceless and use my words and writing to fight against injustices. Along with my parents and family, I owe Dundee High School a lot of gratitude.

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Alumni News

High School Family The Old Girls’ Club On the 16th March, the Old Girls held their AGM, right at the start of these strange times. Little did I know as the newly elected President the impact that this virus would have on us and our wider community. Disappointingly, it has meant that many of our plans and ambitions have been put on hold, however this has not prevented us from meeting and moving forward. Since lockdown, the Old Girls have embraced new tech and have conducted their last two Committee Meetings virtually. These allowed us to devise plans for the Thrift Shop. As our main source of fundraising we were keen to find a way to continue operating, whilst also supporting the needs of families to access this service. We are very grateful for the hard work of Elspeth Allison, who liaised closely with the School, and particularly Mrs. Braid, who has successfully delivered a great service on our behalf. We are very much looking forward to returning to update our stock and our process as we currently review digital payment systems. As a Committee we continue to raise funds to support projects put forward by the School for our young people. We are hoping to engage soon to explore what projects the children would benefit from most and seek ways to financially support them.

The Committee is always looking for new members and as a current parent I know there are many mums out there who would be a great addition to our Club. The positions are not onerous, and it would be beneficial to have some current parents to support these fundraising initiatives. We would love to hear from you. Please get in touch via the school or directly at ashleypetrie@ hotmail.co.uk With regards to our other endeavours we wait to hear what will be possible. We would love to think that by next year we can support Sports’ Day and the Leavers BBQ, and maybe even get to grace the Caird Hall stage once again. Time will tell! Ashley Petrie, President

The Old Boys’ Club The Old Boys held a very successful London Dinner in November 2019, kindly organised by Richard Armit. This marked the first year where we visited a different venue – the RAF Club in Piccadilly. A wonderful weekend in London was had by all, with new acquaintances made and old friendships renewed. We headed two weeks later to the Invercarse Hotel for the 89th annual Dundee Dinner. Another great night of fun and fellowship was enjoyed by all. The dinner was most ably organised by our new Dundee Dinner Convenor, Colin Dargie. I was incredibly proud to take over as President of the Old Boys’ Club from Pete Grewar, who had led the Club so well over the previous year. My only position of standing before this had been as a Committee Member of the mighty Glencarse Bowling Club, so to say that I was proud was an understatement! We headed into 2020 full of optimism and vigour for our forthcoming events and social gatherings. The Curling was arranged for the end of March at Forfar Ice Rink, but sadly we were unable to take part due to the outbreak of Covid-19. The remaining events were unfortunately then cancelled for the remainder of the year, but as a Committee we have successfully managed to hold our meetings via Zoom (when the President finally worked out how to allow people to join the meeting!) The Old Boys’ Committee is in strong shape and we are poised and looking forward to heading into 2021 with a full programme of events. Our Curling match is scheduled for the end of March 2021, followed by the Golf in May and the Angling in June.

I have been asked to remain in post as the President of the Old Boys’ Club for 2021, something I am extremely proud to do. As a Committee we are extremely proud of the great work carried out by the School, especially throughout this challenging year, and we look forward to returning to something resembling normality as soon as possible. Struan Baptie, President

Alumni News

Friends of The High School of Dundee “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….it was the oddest of times.” Odd times, certainly, when authorities are offering speed awareness courses on Zoom! Good times, too, however, when spending all this extra time with my wife enables me to find out – in detail – everything I’ve been doing wrong for the last fifty years! Only joking, of course, but these odd times have certainly had far-reaching effects on some of the activities we used to take for granted. Meetings, at first suspended, are now taking place as a matter of course, on Zoom, Teams or other online platforms, becoming the “new normal”. Unfortunately, events scheduled in the Friends’ calendar had to be suspended this year, with the Cabaret Evening in April and the annual Drive for Dough golf tournament in August sadly falling victim to pandemic restrictions. We did manage a very enjoyable and successful Quiz Night in the Fort Hotel in January, but it looks like that’s going to be it for this year. As soon as we can, we’ll be back on track and we are hopeful of a return to normalcy in 2021. The Quiz Night is booked for 20th January 2021 and we aim to follow this with the Cabaret Evening, featuring the fabulous Vintage Girls, in the spring. Drive for Dough is scheduled for August and there is the intention of holding other events throughout the year, so keep an eye out for further announcements, circumstances permitting of course.

There have been obvious financial effects on the Friends this year, but these have extended to other areas of the School’s activity, with large impacts on personal and corporate income. As a consequence, pressure on provision of short-term temporary bursaries has increased and the Friends’ Committee, with the School’s agreement, has decided that funds previously allocated to, and held for, the MAC project, will be redirected towards short-term bursary funding. The Committee of the Friends remains inspired by the great work carried out by the School and we trust the decision regarding funds will be acceptable to those who have generously supported the work of the Friends over the past few years. We look forward to a post-Covid return to something resembling normality, and to your support when opportunities permit. Oh, and we now also have a dedicated e-mail address which you can contact the Friends on directly if you want to get in touch! You can reach us at: friendsofhsd@gmail.com. Ken Andrew, Chairman

The Former Pupils’ Association I think it’s fair to say that the last twelve months have been extraordinary in the sense that it has certainly been unlike any other, but we hope you have found comfort by keeping connected with your old school. This time last year we were preparing for our Mulled Wine & Mince Pie Reception after the annual Carol Service and this year we had booked our London Carol Service too. Just prior to lockdown we were lucky to still be able to host another Dark Dundee tour after our first event last November proved so popular. And at the very start of March, we also travelled to London to meet with a group of Former Pupils for the Churchill War Rooms tour. These small-scale events have provided a wonderful way to reconnect with old school chums and we very much hope to reschedule other events planned for the forthcoming year once it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we want to find other ways to stay connected and re-establish old friendships so please do take the time to fill in our Keeping in Touch Form [www.highschoolofdundee.org.uk/hsd-family/keep-in-touch/ keeping-in-touch-gdpr-form] if you haven’t already done so and we will keep you up to date with all of our news.

Ex-Staff Association As retiring staff, we want you to stay connected and feel part of the HSD community when you leave the School. You will receive a very warm welcome at school events, and it is nice to keep in touch with former colleagues over a coffee once in a while. Please follow this link to complete a short form to join our Ex-Staff Association: bit.ly/3m0oY11.

We’d love to hear from you Please drop us a line at alumni@highschoolofdundee.org.uk with any ideas for events in your local area; photos from your school days or other ways to bring our school community closer together. We’d love to hear from you. Alex McGrory, Head of External Relations and Development

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Alumni News

Change of Direction – from Military to Health and Social Care Strategy Tony Duncan (a Class of 1983 FP) enjoyed his time in the school cadet contingent and went on to join the army in October 1985. In a military career that spanned 33 years, he served in many locations across the world including Hong Kong, Germany, Cyprus, France as well as in the UK. Operational service took him to Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Cyprus (with the United Nations) and routine visits to Afghanistan. Tony retired as a Brigadier and among many highlights, he identifies serving as Commanding Officer of the Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment as his finest achievement. Leaving his regiment in 2008, Tony joined the General Staff and developed his military career further with roles in Headquarters Army and the Army Personnel Centre. Following attendance at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London, he served as the UK 1* senior national representative in the French NATO Rapid Reaction Corps in Lille before starting his final role in the military, as Head of Strategy at the Directorate of Defence Communications based in the Ministry of Defence, London. It was during this time that Tony decided to leave the service early, change career and return home to Scotland. He looked for a role that would allow him to utilise the skills and experience that he had gained from his time in the military. In January 2019, he was appointed Interim Head of Strategic Planning for Edinburgh’s Health and Social Care Partnership and soon afterwards accepted a permanent contract. His first task on joining the Partnership was to assess the Integration Joint Board’s strategic priorities and produce a new strategy working towards the delivery of a sustainable and trusted health and social care system for the City of Edinburgh. Tony designed this new strategy around ENDS, WAYS and MEANS and at the heart of this new strategy is an ambitious and wide-ranging transformation programme, built on three key elements. Defining a new Edinburgh Health and Social Care Offer (The Pact), which seeks to optimise alignment between public expectation and realistic delivery of health and social care services in Edinburgh. It aims to form a modern pact between care providers and people in receipt of care, by working alongside formal health and social care agencies, as well as other partners within communities, to build

genuine collaborations which support people and communities through co-production. The Three Conversations approach is a model that is gaining traction in several local authorities across the UK. It seeks to move away from the conventional approach to care which triages people, requires completion of unwieldy documents, involves hand offs and presumes the need for formal services. This approach provides three clear and precise ways of interacting with people that focus on what matters to them: Conversation 1: Listen and Connect, Conversation 2: Work intensively with people in crisis and Conversation 3: Build a good life. And, Home First Edinburgh, a model which seeks to embrace the national strategy of shifting the balance of care from acute hospital settings to home or a homely setting within the community. Delivered through prevention of admission or early supported discharge from hospital, which includes improved collaboration between social care and hospital staffs. In the first year of implementing the new strategy, Tony and his team have made good progress despite the significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. As lockdown began his team redeployed to support the Covid-19 response. In the early stages Tony recalls that “the pressure was on to increase flow in the system to create space in hospitals and to source appropriate Personal Protection Equipment – it was full on, requiring long hours and commitment from all staff”. He further reflected “reacting to the pandemic and navigating through these unchartered waters has tested everyone. At a time when so much activity was forced to stop in society, within the health and social care sector, activity increased markedly. Those on the new front line deserve our utmost respect – and with this I must include my youngest daughter who is an NHS midwife”. In early April, Tony established a ‘lessons learned’ exercise to capture the thoughts and experiences of staff and managers. Several themes emerged, not least the importance, flexibility and reliability of technology. The exercise concluded in July and Tony provided some initial thoughts in his video blog (bit.ly/34z7DG3) released at that time. Lessons continue to be captured at local and national level and post Covid-19, whenever that comes, things will certainly not all return to where they were. Tony, like so many others, has been working from home since the initial lockdown at the end of March and the signs are this will continue for some time yet. He draws some similarities from previous operational tours in the military in terms of being confined and the importance of setting routine “establishing a work rhythm is essential, particularly when in this case your home becomes your office. The risk is that you are tied to your desk, with minimal downtime, there isn’t the normal time associated with travel to and from the office, movement between meetings and locations and of course interaction with colleagues in passing”. Looking forward, Tony expects that “the use of technology in the provision of health and social care, and in general ways of working, will accelerate and become common place. Managing the effects of Covid-19 will most likely be part of our day to day lives for some time to come and with it, managing the inevitable mid to longer term consequences. It is a unique and challenging time to be involved in the development of health and social care strategy”.

Alumni News

FP Stays Local, Goes Global Elisabeth (Liz) Blackburn (Class of 1982) graduated from the University of Dundee with a Bachelor of Administrative Studies degree (B.Admin) and has worked for a number of blue chip financial services organisations in financial control and risk roles in Dundee and Edinburgh. Liz has been a member of the ACCA – the world’s largest accountancy qualification with 227,000 members and 544,000 future members – since 2000 and was elected by fellow members to the ACCA’s Global Council (their governing body) in November 2017.

FP’s Round the World Challenge From Home to Raise Money for the NHS Mark Beaumont, world renowned cyclist and Class of 2001 Former Pupil, jumped into the saddle of his bike to fundraise for front line staff in the NHS. From 23rd April to 14th May 2020, each Thursday, a group of cyclists and rowers formed a ‘virtual peloton,’ to raise money for NHS Charities Together. The aim was to #donateyourmiles and raise over £18,000 a week – for the 18,000 mile distance for cycling around the world – but they smashed that target with a total of over £230,000. More than 400 people joined Mark for the World In One Day challenge, including Paralympians Steve Bate MBE and Mel Nicholls, as well as female round-the-world record holder Jenny Graham. 150 rowers led by ocean adventurer John “Mad Giraffe” Davidson also joined Mark’s plight, covering a combined 3,000 miles, the same distance as crossing the Atlantic. Mark said the response to the initiative, which raised £167,000 in its first two weeks, was “overwhelming” with participants clocking up 36,000 miles for charity – the equivalent of travelling twice around the world. Before the challenge commenced, Mark encouraged people of all abilities to take part and to nominate friends and other family members. He said “Many of us feel powerless right now. So, let’s show the world the difference we can make and show our appreciation for the tremendous sacrifices our frontline healthcare workers are making.” Congratulations to Mark and all who took part on their fantastic fundraising efforts for the NHS! You can read the article published in The Courier here: bit.ly/35EAgB6 Or visit the World In A Day website here to read more: www.worldinaday.com

Liz serves on the Remuneration Committee and chairs the ACCA’s Accountants for Business Global Forum – a practical forum with 25 CFOs from around the world discussing a wide range of topics, and which informs the ACCA’s Professional Insights research work. Liz is also an ex officio member of the ACCA Scotland Committee. Prior to being elected to Council in 2017, Liz chaired both the ACCA’s UK Financial Services Member Network Panel and the Edinburgh & East of Scotland equivalent. She was awarded ACCA UK Advocate of the Year 2016 in recognition of her 'contribution made to promote the profession and to actively inspire the accountants of tomorrow'. “I love the global perspective that ACCA membership brings,’” said Liz. “I now have close colleagues and friends all over the world as a member of ACCA’s global community. Whilst it’s fantastic on a personal level, it’s also really powerful for the ACCA too. I’ve spoken at a number of events and mentored future members. I’m always keen to talk about the difference that the ACCA qualification can make to someone’s life, just like it did for me. “I’ve seen so many people gain their qualification, and then experience a surge of self-confidence. It transforms lives. That is wonderful to witness.”

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FP Publishes Creative and Colourful Children’s Book I attended HSD between 1982 and 1987, leaving after fifth year to go on to Duncan of Jordanstone. I loved being up in those bright airy art studios in the rafters of the main building. For me, art was always my only career choice. The idea for my book Tumshie formed during walks to school with my youngest son, Elliot. I’d loved Halloween when I was wee, and now as a dad the responsibility fell to me to create costumes for my own kids. While it was easy enough buying a ready-made costume, I wanted to show them that you could have fun making your own using a load of corrugated cardboard, some Scotch tape and a bit of imagination. A robot? The Empire State Building? Even a tornado? Elliot was full of ideas. Elliot asked what Halloween was like when I was a kid in ‘the olden days’ (that’s the 1970s, folks). Things were much simpler, I told him. You made your own costume; you went guising, not trickor-treating; and you earned your Halloween by ‘doing a turn’. Most importantly, you carved a turnip or ‘tumshie’ lantern — not a pumpkin. You couldn’t even find pumpkins in shops back then. We thought that this could make a fun book — showing little folk how sometimes simpler ways are better, and to remind bigger folk of how things used to be. Working in publishing, I had the good fortune of being able to pitch the idea to my own employer, Waverley Books. Fast forward a few years and Tumshie was published, in the teeth of a global pandemic — amidst talk of Halloween being cancelled! Having my drawings appear in the school magazine was probably my first taste of the excitement of being published. The joy of the printed page — so much more evocative than a screen. That excitement of seeing your own creation out in the world is indelible, even after twenty-odd years of designing and illustrating in publishing. Now, with Tumshie, it’s not just a pride of ownership but also, in promotion, a responsibility to ‘do right’ by it. It’s like having yet another child! Mark Mechan, Class of 1988

To see more of what Mark has been up to you can visit his website here: redaxedesign.jimdofree.com You can also visit his publisher’s website here: bit.ly/3kEs0ax

Life in the Metropolitan Police Class of 1967 FP, Gordon Aitken, joined the High School of Dundee in 1958 but relocated to Glasgow in 1963 after his father received a promotion. Leaving Kelvinside Academy, Gordon then joined the team at Clydesdale Bank’s Campbeltown branch where he remained until 1972 when he made the decision to change career paths and joined the Metropolitan Police. Reflecting back on his very early days in the police force Gordon recalls “On my fifth day at training school, in early February 1972, I had to throw myself from a high diving board into a pool below. My fear of heights allied with an always wimpish pool-entry via the steps led to a stalemate. All the eyes of my fellow classmates were firmly fixed on me and so the only solution to save face was to jump! After surviving 16 gruelling weeks at training school I was assigned to my first post in Acton, West London”. No two days were the same for Gordon, who regularly dealt with crimes and accidents including sudden, unexpected deaths and fatal accidents, such as the Ealing Train Disaster of 1973. He regularly appeared in both the Magistrates and Crown Courts. By 1980, Gordon had passed his Promotion Exam and was then assigned to work in West Hendon, Golders Green and Finchley. Gordon recalls many highlights from his time working in the Metropolitan Police saying “you learned to adapt to the different scenarios you were faced with and particularly the darker side of the job. A sense of humour was paramount”. From nearly being killed in his first tour of duty as Sergeant when the van he was a passenger in lost control on a bend to controlling the crowds following Margaret Thatcher’s successful election in 1987, Gordon certainly has many memorable moments in his police career to look back on. The year 1989 led to a momentous change in his career when Gordon was appointed as Youth Liaison Officer where he was responsible for supervising six officers providing talks to senior school pupils. This opened up an opportunity to join Barnet Youth Offending Team whose work primarily focused on deterring youth offending. His final posting saw him working with two Probation Officers and thirty offenders, visiting them in prison, at court or in their homes, travelling up and down the country in order to do so. Following his retirement from the police force in 2011, Gordon became a Magistrate in St Albans. There he met a fellow Magistrate, a fellow HSD Former Pupil from the Class of 1968.

Alumni News

High School Sweethearts Claire Scanlon and Kenny Ross first met at the High School of Dundee, both joining at the same time in 1985, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that they properly reconnected and fell in love. Claire is currently living and working in America at the moment and Kenny is hoping to move there and join her in the New Year once the borders reopen. Kenny had a fiancÊ visa from the US authorities but plans were forced to be put on hold when the USA closed its borders due to the pandemic. The pair got engaged on Christmas Day in 2018 and plan to get married in 2021 and are excited at the prospect of a new life together in the States and what the future holds.

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FP Sinks Competitors and is Awarded the Warden Berry Prize for Reservists Cameron Tisshaw (Class of 2013) was awarded the Warden Berry Prize for Best Essay by a Royal Navy Reservist for 2019. The competition challenges reservists of the Royal Navy to produce a defence writing piece related to current maritime affairs topics, with the winning article published in the Naval Review. The publication is read widely within the UK maritime defence community and provides authors with a platform to discuss key security issues. For his entry, Cameron wrote an essay titled ‘The Future Role of the Royal Navy in Africa,’ which looked at how UK defence can maximise its impact on the African Continent. As the UK approaches the uncertainty of Brexit, establishing new trading partnerships will be important to future success. Arguably one of the most important of these links is Africa given that Britain is investing significant amounts of trade and security assistance to various African states. The recent deployment of British troops to

Mali – Britain’s first significant return to an active war zone since Afghanistan – has highlighted the increasing focus which the UK defence leadership is placing on Africa. In addition to security assistance, Britain has worked to enhance trading opportunities. For example, Prime Minister Boris Johnson invited a delegation of African leaders to London in January 2020. Cameron’s essay argued that the Royal Navy should aim to work alongside private companies to establish a more effective British strategy for Africa. This argument was inspired by his work as the Head Africa and Eastern Europe Security Analyst for the multinational bank Citi. In this role, he advised the bank on major operational threats such as terrorism, kidnapping and civil unrest for these regions. Cameron is currently studying his master’s degree in Russian and East European studies at Tartu University in Estonia after winning a prestigious EU Erasmus scholarship. This two-year degree will also take him to Glasgow University and Kyiv, Ukraine for a further year.

At the Estonia NATO Conference with the British Ambassador to Estonia Theresa Bubbear (left) and the former Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas (right).

Cameron receiving the Warden Berry Prize for Reservists.

Visiting the Estonian Parliament as part of his university masters studies.

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Class of 2020 FP Swaps School Uniform to Work on the Front Lines During Pandemic The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown brought an abrupt end to Class of 2020 FP, Lewis’, school days. From looking forward to his Maths and Physics Advanced Highers (yes, really!), the excitement of the end of term and all the leavers activities for Form 6, many were suddenly in the position of not being able to leave home or meet with friends. Lewis considers himself fortunate to have already been employed at Tesco Riverside. Having hung up his school uniform on Friday 20th March, he swiftly began wearing his Tesco uniform full-time. Lewis held a temporary part-time job at Tesco’s Riverside branch in the run up to Christmas 2019, working on the tills. Lewis was lucky enough to be kept on afterwards and was working a few hours per week. With lockdown that soon changed, and Lewis began working full-time with his role changing to front door duty. Mostly, he was controlling the number of people coming into the store and ensuring that those queuing outside maintained their distance from each other. People were largely tolerant of this and Lewis says he didn’t witness any trouble. However, other members of staff weren’t so fortunate, receiving verbal abuse at times. Due to lockdown restrictions, many people were left isolated and lonely meaning their only contact with the outside world was whilst doing their weekly shop. These people wanted to talk and Lewis was more than happy to oblige, the conversations being many and varied. Some people complained about the panicbuying of toilet rolls while they themselves left with trolleys stacked to the brim. Others shared a wide range of opinions, from conspiracy theorists who thought it was a global government plot, to many who were in complete denial that there was even anything to worry about. Lewis credits his HSD education for helping him to develop his confidence in dealing with people. He thoroughly enjoyed interacting with all the customers and still says hello to many of them when he bumps into them elsewhere. In many ways, it was understandably a difficult time to be working in this kind of role. Being on the front door meant Lewis was exposed to large numbers of the general public, bringing about some concern around the associated risks. However, Lewis says it did bring many amusing moments too. There was a wide range of homemade PPE that kept the staff entertained – one highlight being a recently retired teacher arriving at the store while kitted out in gardening gloves! The various lockdown hair styles

were a point of amusement, including some interesting colour choices from fellow HSD pupils. These would have made for some entertaining prize-giving photographs had the restrictions been lifted in time! Looking back, Lewis says it is a strange feeling to think that in a short space of time he went from solving partial differential equations in Advanced Higher Maths to counting the number of people going in and out of the store. It is clear however, that working during the lockdown phase of the pandemic gave him a regular routine. Working with a great group of colleagues of a similar age was also good for his mental health – everyone was in the same position and the camaraderie kept them all going throughout. Lewis left home for university in September 2020 to study Mechanical Engineering at the University of Glasgow. Whilst he is saddened that his time at HSD has ended and that, as a year group, he and his classmates will always feel a bit cheated that they didn’t finish school in the usual style, Lewis says they are all determined to have their moment together in whatever way they can when it is safe to do so!

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Neil Stevenson 24 years after leaving the School, Neil Stevenson (Class of 1996) still cites Irene McGrath and Tom Durrheim as major influences. Neil recalls how, as debating coaches, they brought him out of his shell, taught him analysis, to read widely, to construct a logical case, and to make it persuasive. They taught him confidence to present and to think on his feet. Now a Chief Executive of one regulator (the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission) and Non-Executive Director of another (the Advertising Standard Authority), Neil leads teams undertaking complex and technical work, but also must represent these organisations to stakeholders, government and the media. Looking back to the 90s, Neil says how his parents weren’t convinced the new ‘media studies’ course, led by Mr. Ilsely, would really be good for his CV. However, Neil credits these skills as being just as useful as his Law degree, which he obtained from Edinburgh, and his Masters in Quality Management, which he studied at Birmingham. In terms of personal interests, Neil claims a passion for ancient history was inspired by Mrs. Collie and Mr. Meehan, an interest in ‘modern’ history stemmed from the teachings of Mr. Wilson and Miss McAslan (now the School’s current Rector, Mrs. Hudson)

and an interest in economics and the regulation of markets by Mr. McCulloch. Neil claims many of his interests link back to great experiences at the High School of Dundee. He admits he didn’t necessarily realise it at the time, but the huge focus on variety and on finding things you were good at, rather than having one definition of ‘good’, was something he believes was truly special about the School’s approach. Attitudes in the 90s were a little different to modern day, but in his sixth year Neil also said he found the school community largely supportive as he came out as gay. Speaking about this, Neil said “I do wish there had been some more role models to look up to, and hope there are now more for LGBTI+ pupils, but I’m glad I didn’t have the negative experiences that many did”. Neil’s interest in equality has led him to chairing a national charity, Changing the Chemistry, which supports senior people from diverse backgrounds to move into non-executive roles in the Boardroom. Neil recalls his best single lesson from school days as being Miss Holloway firmly telling him if he was bored in class it was his fault, not hers. He now has a love for poetry and has also learnt that throwing yourself into things and getting involved, rather than being a passive observer, means you are never bored. Something which he cites as a great life lesson.

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Think Big – Skills For Life My dad’s work brought us to Dundee. As you may guess, that kind of change wasn’t easy for a 14-yearold teen with a low-level understanding of the English language when, as everyone knows, there are a million more important things to do than focusing on the future when you are a young teenage boy! But doing some retrospective work, now I think there was not a better time for what was my “first big step” towards who I am today. The first thing that really has been a game changer in my life has been learning the English language. A fluent level of English, acquired during my time with the High School, has opened lots of doors for me. For most, this likely won’t be an issue, but it is a huge one for non-English speakers around the world. The second most important thing was being outside of my comfort zone; culture-wise, language-wise, customs-wise, weather-wise etc. Things that are completely different in both countries. Even the way the classes were structured – having different classmates in each class for example – differed hugely to Spanish schools, but really close to what University was. Such differences helped me build a challenge-driven mindset, to find and build common bridges for the little things, like for example computers and videogames (that’s where computing began being a part of my everyday life). After school you get to the point where you have to decide what will be the “outer shell” of your future occupation. In my case, it was easy: Information Technology had the most attraction and I was getting better at it. IT was (and still is) a competitive and growing market; I knew there would be a huge demand but also too much competition. So, at 18 I took my first crucial choice, I found a part-time job within IT and I then enrolled at University. I assumed I needed the knowledge and skills, but also experience. To tell you the truth it was almost the other way around if I look back. University taught me lots of skills and general knowledge, and only a small proportion of this was really useful later on, but what University taught me the most was to study hard, to network and forge relationships with fellow classmates, to be creative and, above all, to be responsible. I learnt that no goal is impossible but nor does it come free. On the other hand, it was my job that showed me the technical skills which I would apply later and how corporations worked on the inside. My second most important choice came after university, just in time for an economic crisis in my country with so much competition for getting the “good jobs”. I was deciding where in IT I wanted to work. Here comes some advice: Think Big – You want to work for Microsoft, Apple, Google? Just apply for a job there. Never discard yourself (that is what recruitment departments are for!) But most importantly: you have to focus on where you want to make an impact, where you want to have a purpose. In my case, influenced by principles from people I met or even influences from the likes of Star Wars and the endless fights between good and evil, I found out that Cybersecurity was a field I wanted to explore. My reasoning was we wanted to have information moving from A to B. We wanted that information to travel faster, and now, what we want is to make sure all that data gets there untouched. I felt that was the right thing to do, and that it was a market yet to be developed. Trust your heart. I honestly believe that security is about helping others. By helping companies, you were also helping customers and hence, lots of people.

I found out that Cybersecurity was a far broader field than I first thought. So, I tried learning the most I could from working for different companies and in different roles. What’s important is to put all your efforts into your work, no matter how many hours you have to work – eight, twelve or sixteen hours a day. There is always a reward at the end for your hard work and efforts. This certainly requires commitment and the ability to understand that earning trust comes with a responsibility. It is not your self-desires that matters, you must put the clients before your interests as this will come back to you in maturity and confidence. It’s a two-way contract: the company trusts you, but you also have to trust in the company values. If any of the two bonds break, a change has to be made. All these years, I’ve learned that there are more vulnerable people as more technology is consumed and develops, but also that there are more bad guys who are willing to take advantage of that. It doesn’t matter the damage or pain they can cause, old fashioned moral principles used by bad-intention attackers are no more, what matters to them is how to earn the biggest economic benefits with the least effort (often by using global phishing campaigns, ransomware attacks, etc.) Helping to build secure architectures and designs as well as deploying security processes, integrating solutions, etc. may help customers and their data. This is something that opened my eyes to the responsibility we all have for developing and making the latest technology accessible to everyone. And as I said before, it’s a job that requires your full commitment, one where you can never stop trying your best and always learning and teaching as much as you can. By doing so, you are going to have a direct or indirect impact. This will be your reason for being proud of yourself and your job and keeping your chin up when you arrive home. In the end, that’s what really matters, and is the result of all your efforts since starting school. Jorge Arrufat, Class of 1999

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Survival Guide to Glen Prosen and the Great Scott Memorial The end of June 1949 heralded many events worldwide but, as far as I was concerned, it was my 7th birthday and the beginning of the High School of Dundee’s summer holidays. Where would we go? A guest house in Stonehaven again for a fortnight? Boring; however, be careful what you wish for! Our parents had mentioned a cottage in Glen Prosen where we would live for the full nine weeks. We found this to be a matter of some concern. No cinema? No contact with friends? No No.9 bus to Dundee? What on earth would we do? Worse was to come. Eventually, we came to understand that the nearest habitation was a mile distant, there was no road access, no electricity, no phone, no shops, no water and no loo. How on earth would we survive? Within a week, our doubts began to diminish. Within a month we couldn’t imagine a better place to be! Every day, rain or shine, we would discover something. Either a task to be done, such as providing firewood for the huge fireplace in the main room, or building a dam of rocks across the Prosen River to form the pool in which I would learn to swim – yes, it was freezing! This was always the first task in every year of the 15 summers we were to spend at Craigiemeg cottage. In all cases, it was hard, very rural fun. We wore singlets, gym shorts and gym shoes all day and every day. If it rained, one got wet. When the rain stopped, one quickly became dry. Only on long walks or when fishing did we wear or take along something more substantial. We came to know nature in all its summertime forms. From the curlew to the capercaillie, we learned to recognise bird calls and

the ways and means of survival for the flora and fauna of the glen. We learned the best way to catch and kill rabbits for the pot and dig for ‘bramlin’ worms in the silage heap; these were best for catching brown trout in the two nearby burns, the Cramie and the Logie. We learned to recognise the weather; that it was always windy, that the poem ‘red sky at night,’ had real meaning. The population of the glen ran in single figures, but each figure was an immense personality. Alec MacKenzie at Cramie Farm introduced me to whisky served in a fish paste jar and the farmer at Cormuir, Geordie MacIntosh, very proud of his Black Watch history, would invite me every year to a very large ‘High Tea’ for which I performed on the pipes as taught to me at school by that marvellous and well known teacher, Donald MacLeod. Each ‘first’ event took place during my fourteenth year. And to round off the summer we would have two weeks of grouse-beating, for which we were paid £1 a day for walking up to 25 miles before returning to school, brown and fit, ready for the first game of rugby. Our PE teacher, the late, great Dallas Allardice encouraged us in this pre-season form of training. And Jack Stark, Janitor and cricket coach par excellence, who gave up his Friday evenings supervising the school rifle club, recognised an ability to shoot which I’d acquired on the hunt for the pot and would bring a bit of silver to the school. A grocery van came every Monday evening to the end of the drive at Cramie Farm about a mile distant; fresh milk was provided by the farm on the other side of the glen at Cormuir. The first task of the day was to take a flagon for filling, which involved an exacting round-trip of almost two miles over dry-stane dykes and the Prosen River.

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Father would drive up from Dundee on the Friday evening with a box of groceries. Every item was carried the mile up from the Cramie Farm where he would park the car before returning to his work early the following Monday morning.

A chemical toilet was erected in an outhouse. This was emptied once a week into a large hole dug in the garden where the gooseberry, blackcurrant and redcurrant bushes seemed to take on a new lease of life.

The cottage itself was spartan but sufficient. A large dining-room with a huge open fire was, at first, the main family hub before we developed the ‘sitting-room’ which was small with a wind-up gramophone, books, some old comfortable chairs and a fireplace. If the weather became boringly wet, we would spend time reading.

In short, it was nine weeks of blissful discovery, fun and freedom in every sense, which I shared in later years with school friends who all savoured the harsh but hair-raising experience of wild Scotland – much as I would remember from that first whisky from Alec MacKenzie.

I found solitude for reading, seated on the rafters in the hayshed. Father invested in a wireless on which we heard the Coronation in 1953 and I recall thinking that the weather was appalling for the occasion but splendid for fishing. Three very basic bedrooms completed the accommodation with a large empty space upstairs called the ‘Lambers’ Room’ – available for the additional help during the lambing season. The building habitat had that faint smell, redolent of age – perhaps a hundred years of it. And with no ceilings upstairs, the sounds of the weather – especially in a wind-lashed rainstorm – were a waking reminder of where we were. The larder was huge with large shelves and a ‘meatsafe’-type coldbox. A gas cooker completed the white furniture with gas bottles the only option for fuel while water was hand-pumped from a well located down the field in front of the cottage. Here we would wash in the evening, dancing about in the cold water before sprinting up to the cottage and the warm embrace of big towels.

The demands of ‘growing up’ overtook our summer and Easter idylls. I went to Africa and far beyond for half a century, while my younger brother Martin built a business in Argyll. Scott, the eldest, the toughest and probably the best-known of the three, succumbed to an incurable infection of his kidneys and, at the age of 28, died in the Cairngorm mountains at Aviemore. And so, on what would have been his 81st birthday, 2nd March 2020, Martin and I made a memorial trip back to where we grew up together; and planted a Rowan Tree with a tune on the pipes of the same name in memory of our brother. As one young lady co-worker said of him ‘if you were lucky enough to meet Scott Stewart early in your day, he’d always have a smile and an encouraging word or two for you; and the rest of the day was just that bit brighter.’ A splendid epitaph for a splendid young man. Iain Sinclair Stewart, Class of 1961

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Raising Community Spirits Through the Power of Music As soon as lockdown was announced in March, Class of 2017 Former Pupil Finlay McKillop headed back from London to be with his family in Dundee. Finlay is currently in his final year of his BA (Hons) degree in Musical Theatre. Thankfully, his course was moved online in light of the pandemic consisting of an 8am6pm schedule. For the past five years, Finlay has routinely sung at nursing homes, sharing his musical talents with the residents. Due to coronavirus, residents were no longer able to see their friends or family and as a result many were left feeling isolated. Finlay then came up with the idea of hosting outside, socially distanced, concerts for the residents in order to lift their spirits and to share the power and positivity of music. Finlay describes singing in care homes as “a very rewarding experience – I personally love to see how music can positively affect the residents’ day. I will cherish the memories I have gathered from these concerts for a very long time.” The response online from the Dundee community to one of Finlay’s first concerts at Ferry House in Broughty Ferry was fantastic and opened up lots of opportunities to host more outside concerts. The concert was live streamed via Facebook at the time and can be viewed here: bit.ly/3mEDsUn. From May all the way until September, Finlay was performing several concerts each week. Alongside this, he also visited people across Dundee for a range of occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries or to spread some well-needed cheer. Finlay describes it as his personal mission to put a smile on the faces of those he performs for. As well as his live concerts, he has also produced a CD which he has distributed throughout the care homes so residents are able to listen to his music when they wish, which Finlay hopes will lift their spirits during these trying times.

Using his experience of performing in care homes inspired Finlay’s final year Dissertation, which will study the effect of music on Alzheimer’s. Finlay said “Some of the homes that I visit are Alzheimer’s specific, but I have also met other residents residing at non-specific homes who also suffer from this destructive disease. Currently, it has no cure and it’s saddening to see peoples’ memories and the traits that make them who they are effectively wiped away. Essentially, it can rewrite a person entirely. I have personally seen this happen to a family member, which is another reason why I am so passionate about this. “One of the most wonderful things I witnessed whilst performing for Alzheimer’s residents was one very special lady in Dundee. I spoke to her daughter when I arrived and soon found out that her mother could no longer remember her name. Then, the most amazing thing happened. I started singing Elvis Presley and Tom Jones’ hits and I looked over and she was singing along – she knew every lyric! After the concert I spoke with her daughter again in detail and she thanked me for bringing her mother back, even if just for a split second. “I am planning on returning to Dundee in December (restrictions permitting) and I will try my best to provide the people of Dundee with entertainment in what is due to be a very challenging time yet again. After finishing my degree next year, I will be faced with the daunting world of auditions, agents and casting directors. I plan to use my experience of performing to nursing home residents when I get into the audition room as I strongly believe it has made me a more well-rounded performer.” You can view more of Finlay’s performances by following the links below: bit.ly/2TDIkfO – busking on the streets of Dundee and performing for a local Dundonian pub. bit.ly/2TDjsVK – busking at the start of summer 2019.

Artwork by Anna Kerr F6

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Our Alumni Ambassadors Your global alumni community is a great way to keep in touch with fellow former pupils and continue your relationship with the High School of Dundee. From careers advice and insights, arranging local events in your area, to being the general point of contact for your city, our Ambassadors are on hand to help you out in a number of different ways.

NETHERLANDS Maria Thomas Class of 2005, Amsterdam

USA Tracy McInnes Class of 1986, Hilton Head Island, SC

To contact one of our Alumni Ambassadors, please visit our website bit.ly/364wLEg or contact our Alumni Team at alumni@ highschoolofdundee.org.uk

SPAIN Jorge Arrufat Class of 1999, Madrid BERMUDA John Blackwood Class of 1984, Hamilton

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UK Simon Mills Class of 1987, Aberdeen Walter Jacob Class of 1953, Borehamwood Ian Yule Class of 1966, Chelmsford Malcolm Stewart Class of 1994, Corhampton Bill Dewar Class of 1962, Dundee David Harris Class of 1994, Dundee Peter Menzies Class of 1985, Dundee Callum Rankin Class of 2001, Dundee

Alexei Matveyev Class of 2003, Edinburgh Derek Shepherd Class of 1961, Edinburgh Sean Smith Class of 1988, Edinburgh David Reid Class of 1961, Elgin Darran Reid Class of 1998, London Andrew Bruce Class of 1999, Rotherham Margaret-Anne Hutton Class of 1980, St Andrews

RUSSIA Christopher Dryden Class of 1982, Moscow GERMANY Angus MacGregor-Millar Class of 1986, Heidelberg ITALY Alan Black Class of 1964, Sassari, Sardinia CYPRUS Christopher Dryden Class of 1982, Limassol

PHILIPPINES Brian McGrory Class of 1984, Manila

AUSTRALIA Kirsty Wallace Class of 1997, Melbourne Lauren Chamberlain Class of 2009, Sydney

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Brian Taylor Former Pupil Brian Taylor, a Class of 1972 alum, has led a fascinating career in political journalism since waving goodbye to the Pillars. Having worked for a number of reputable British companies including the Press and Journal in Aberdeen, Thomson Regional Newspapers and, most recently, the BBC, Brian has covered politics in all its forms, from general elections to the Scottish Independence Referendum. Brian joined the ranks of the BBC in 1985 as a Reporter, before becoming Political Correspondent and, most recently, Political Editor. In October this year, Brian officially retired from his position with the BBC and very kindly took the time to catch up with our Development Office in a recent Q&A interview. Thank you for taking the time to catch up with us today Brian, it’s wonderful to have an opportunity to hear all about what you have been up to since leaving the School. When you look back on your school days, what are your favourite memories? Are there any staff that you remember being a positive influence on your school-age self? I had a truly glorious time at the High School, benefiting from enlightened pedagogy as well as fine comradeship. Good doughnuts, too! As to the staff, there are too many to mention. But I look back with mild amusement upon my Latin classes with Sandy Smith and Pop Howat, both shod in tackety boots as I recall. Jock Stevenson taught me French and the lasting importance of sharpening one’s pencils regularly. Bob Fyall instilled in me a lifelong love of the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Tommy Porteous and Bill Hook strove personfully to win me over to music. In history there was G.C. Stewart. From his teaching, I will always recall that 1789 was “a black year for Britain”. Not entirely sure how or why, but apparently it was. The Rectors when I was there, D.W. Erskine and E.M. Stewart, were both natural leaders. There was Dallas Allardice, master of the scrum and the Dashing White Sergeant. Ever adjuring us to enter the dance on tippie-toes. Many, many others; the Ferret, Biffo, Pongo… And of course, the doyenne of the entire school, Ag Gray. A slight but commanding figure. My most enduring memory is of the sociability of our year, notably displayed in our G&S production, Ruddigore. I worked backstage, giving microphone calls to the cast. My first experience of broadcasting.

Did you form any lasting friendships and, if so, are you still in touch with old school friends today? Have you ever been back to the School for our annual Reunion event? One friendship which has rather endured is with Pamela Niven, who was in my year. We will soon celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary. I remain in touch with several good chums and Pam keeps contact through the mysteries of that inter-web thing (which is, to me, about as comprehensible as early Aramaic!) We both attended a wonderful reunion in 1992, aboard the Unicorn. Everyone played to type. The constrained kept their ties on, the rest got tired and emotional. And one of our number, always a zestful chap, fell in the harbour. Ah, happy days! Were you involved in any extra-curricular activities or clubs during your time at HSD? I enjoyed hockey. We had a Maths teacher, Bill Garland, who was also an expert hockey player. He brought out our carefully disguised talents with constant coaching and training. For a prolonged spell, I was keen on chess, encouraged by Nancy Elder and my good pal Doug Tudhope. Bridge too. And, in the Form Six common room, three card brag. From time to time, I indulged myself in debating. Mostly, though, I recall the fellowship of chums. Looking back, how would you describe your school-aged self in three words? Mischievous, eager and affable. You studied English at the University of St Andrews, but what led to you deciding that a career in journalism is what you wished to pursue? Was this something you had considered in your school days or was this something that came to light a little later on? While at university in St Andrews, I committed verse. Despite the imprecations of friends and family, I turned out intense poetry, some of which was published. I was even sufficiently pompous to read out said stanzas at literary events. Thankfully, this youthful output has mostly been suppressed. At the time, however, I was decidedly keen. My then girlfriend Pam, now my wife of several years standing (and sitting), raised the topic with me one fine evening. From the High School, she also attended St Andrews, studying Modern Languages. And, not infrequently, studying me. From this perusal, she concluded that intense verse, while all very well in its way, would not pay the bills when, as planned, we married. “If you yearn to write” she said, “then why not try journalism?”. By coincidence, the student newspaper, Aien, was going through one of its periodic crises at the time. I attended a meeting that very week, joined the staff and, within a short period, engineered a coup to make myself Editor. It was the beginning of my career in journalism. I spent the glorious summer of 1976 working on the St Andrews Citizen. The first two people I interviewed for that fine paper were Milton Friedman and the Crown Prince of Japan. All downhill from there. Your role specifically focuses on political journalism and news, but what fuelled your interest in politics? My interest lies not in partisan politics – although that can be fun – but in what politics can do. The issues at its core, the choices to be made. In newspapers and for the BBC, I have tried to explain to people the significance of topical events. I have tried to signal what these events and pronouncements might mean for them. To work in their interests, in short. Not those of the powerful.

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within her own Cabinet. I even covered the Falklands War, albeit from the safety of Whitehall briefings. Plus, of course, the 1983 election. A remarkable period in politics. Everyone needs some down time from busy work schedules and commitments. Do you have any hobbies or activities that you take part in to relax? Nurturing my family is my first concern, at all times. My early love for literature still persists, as does a passion for theatre; from opera to pantomime. I sometimes display my knowledge of crude, demotic speech on the golf course. And I remain a fanatical supporter of Dundee United Football Club. Most of my family were adherents of another city club. Played in Dark Blue, I believe. Not sure what happened to them. You recently announced your retirement from the BBC. Do you have any exciting plans for your retirement? You have worked with the BBC since the mid-1980s, so you’ve had a very long and successful career! What would you say have been your career highlights and best moments? Mostly, I reflect upon the diversity. I have worked on the telly, on the wireless and, now, online. I have guested on programmes and presented them. I have worked for BBC Scotland and Network. I have worked in news, current affairs, documentaries – and, occasionally, comedies such as ScotSquad. During one particularly dull by-election programme, I even resorted to song to divert the audience. The Road and the Miles to Dundee, naturally. The highlights would probably be those defining moments in politics, elections and referendums. In my early newspaper years, I covered the 1979 Scottish Referendum and the election of Margaret Thatcher that year. Mostly for the BBC, I have covered every election since. I covered umpteen European Summits and two US Presidential elections. Above all, I was absorbed in the Independence Referendum of 2014, when public interest in politics was at its peak. The Brexit Referendum, too, of course. But, before any of that, I covered the creation of the Scottish Parliament – or its reconvening, as Winnie Ewing memorably declared, referring to the pre-Union Independent Parliament. Indeed, the discourse about Scotland’s future has been the theme tune of my entire career. What would you say have been your biggest challenges throughout your career? Journalism is basically simple. Not easy, but simple. You find stuff out and tell folk about it. Either in print or on the air. Finding stuff out can be challenging. Or, more precisely, finding out the whole truth, with all the caveats and consequentials. Getting relevant reaction adds to that challenge. Then, particularly in television, the issue arises of how to tell the story. A recorded package? Live? Do you have enough pictures? Enough interviewees? All the story? Mostly, the challenge is logistics. Getting the photographs and the interviewees. And getting them in time. The best story in the world is useless if you miss your deadline. Before joining the BBC, you worked as a Lobby Correspondent in Westminster, which must have been truly fascinating. What would you say is the most interesting political news that you covered during your time in this role? I was in Westminster for six years, from 1980. So, I covered the first half of Mrs Thatcher’s Premiership. I covered the industrial disputes which attended that – and the economic arguments

Can’t promise excitement. However, I shall either write the great Scottish novel or take up cross-channel swimming. I’ll get back to you. You now live in Glasgow, but what do you miss most about life in Dundee? Could you ever see yourself moving back to The City of Discovery? I return regularly to Dundee – and not solely to the environs of Tannadice. I firmly believe that Dundee is on the up. My earliest memories are of a prosperous city centre, with posh shops. Cairds, G.L. Wilson. I was too afraid to go into Draffens, decidedly overawed. OK, the town went through a bad spell. But I detect a new atmosphere; a collective, palpable determination to do things better, to thrive, to shrug off the recent past. The V&A is the most evident symbol of that, and I heartily applaud its work. However, I believe that there is a new mood abroad in Dundee. Which will, of course, be enhanced when United win the Champions League. Let’s hope we beat Roma in the final! (Not that I’m bitter.) What words of wisdom would you offer to anyone considering pursuing a career within the Journalism sector? Remember it is journalism. Not show business. In an interview, think what you can offer the employer: they already know what they can do for you. And write, write, write. Get published somehow. Online, wherever. Build a portfolio of your work to show to editors. Remember too that journalism is a wee bit different from other trades. Without being too pompous, it’s something of a calling. Don’t say you want to be a journalist – or maybe a steeplejack. When I was interviewed for the P&J, the editor asked the classic trick question: “What will you do if you can’t be a journalist?” Without hesitation, I said: “I’ll be in touch with Dundee Harbour Board.” Cue a puzzled look. I continued: “I’ll jump in the docks!” Got the job on the spot. What would you say are the two best things about the High School of Dundee and what would you say to any families considering enrolling with us? Absolutely not up to me to advise folks what to do. Their call. However, I admire the feeling of friendship and community which the School fosters. Plus, I like the sense of history: William Wallace and all that, (even though I was in Aystree House.) An appreciation of the past added to a determination that things will be better in the future.

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Scott Brothers Supporting Students Self-Isolating in Dundee When Scott Brothers heard that hundreds of students living in halls of residence across the city had been ordered to self-isolate in October, we immediately knew that we wanted to help in any way that we possibly could. Being a locally based, family-run business for over 80 years now, we are deeply rooted in our community and so it was natural that we would act to be supportive to those choosing to live, work and study in the city. We had recently supported Dundee’s Champions Awards, sponsoring the Business Champion category. This particular category aimed to acknowledge local firms that have gone above and beyond to help vulnerable people in our communities, and so we were inspired to react similarly to help the people of the city through this troubled time. It was decided that we would deliver more than 200 food parcels containing freshly prepared microwavable ready meals to halls of residence across the city where students were self-isolating.

We could more than understand the students' frustrations at being cooped up in student accommodation and being unable to have immediate access to locally sourced, fresh and tasty food. To make things a little bit easier for them, we wanted to provide free ready meals that can be heated up in the microwave. Convenience food, but with real quality, great-tasting ingredients. Each meal was individually portioned for easy heating and storage – ideal for student living. Our ready meal range is a popular choice with our customers, both in-store and on our online shop, so we knew that they would go down well with the students too. It has, of course, been an incredibly tough time for many businesses and we have been very thankful for how our new and loyal customers have supported us and our local suppliers through these tough times. It’s important for us that we continue to provide a high level of service to our community, even against the most difficult of backdrops. Scott Jarron, Class of 1985 Owner of Scott Brothers Butchers

Alumni News

FP Makes the Move Down Under Former Pupil Patrick McGregor (Class of 2009) recently moved to Sydney, Australia, where he now works in the same team as another High School FP! After leaving the High School in 2009, Patrick studied Law at the London School of Economics and the College of Law. He then went on to join the magic circle law firm, Linklaters. After ten years in London, Patrick took his love for travelling one step further and in January moved across the ocean to Sydney, Australia. He now works as a Senior Associate in the same team as Lauren Chamberlain (née Pringle), who was in the same class as Patrick at school. What led you into law and to making the move to Sydney? I moved down to London for university immediately after leaving the High School and used to walk through the Inns of Court and the City of London on the way to lectures. I was attracted to the buzz of the world of law and finance and that led me to join a law firm in the City – Linklaters - where I was lucky enough to spend time working in the firm's offices in London and the United Arab Emirates. After completing my two-year training contract, I qualified as a lawyer and joined the corporate group within the firm where I worked on lots of big and exciting transactions covering every part of the globe, including as a secondee at Morgan Stanley, the investment bank. I've always thought that travelling far and often is hugely beneficial in so many ways, and so the opportunity to move from London to a new and exciting city was very appealing. My fiancé is also Australian, so that helped, and we thought that we could do with a wee bit more sun! What does your role with Allens involve? I work in the Mergers, Acquisitions & Capital Markets team at Allens, which is the Australian sister firm of Linklaters. We advise on the big public takeovers of listed companies that make the newspaper headlines, as well as the private ones that typically

don't. We also advise on big infrastructure projects and raising money in the capital markets. We are brought in to solve the legal and commercial problems involved in putting together, negotiating, and closing those transactions. Think Suits, except much less glamour and imagine all the events of one episode stretched out across six months! What has life been like in Australia this year? Setting up a new life in a new country between bushfires and a pandemic hasn't exactly been a typical transition, but the dramatic shift out of office life earlier in the year has allowed me to enjoy some of the amazing outdoor opportunities on offer here in Australia. Surfing (very badly) before work as a corporate lawyer certainly isn't something that I ever imagined might be possible, but it is! The international border is firmly shut but the country has been remarkably lucky and has escaped most of the health crisis. That has meant that we've had the chance to explore some of Australia, which has been great. Next on the list is Tasmania, which I'm told looks remarkably similar to home! What are some of your High School memories? It really doesn't feel like all that long ago that I left. I remember spending a lot of time running between the Margaret Harris Building and Mayfield with all my kit and bags (looking like Dick van Dyke with his drumkit etc. in Mary Poppins) as I attempted to juggle my time between rugby and playing in the school orchestra and bands! I also remember Mr. Wilson's (former head of history) Oscar-worthy pep talks. They were an intended kick up the bum to get us to focus on our upcoming exams, but I think they really stuck with a lot of us. We also used to have a real laugh in Mr. Fyall's classes, although I'm not sure how he coped with us. And I've probably got to blame Mr. McCulloch (former head of economics), at least in part, for pursuing a career in the City (a path that a number of us in the class ended up taking).

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Talented Debater Forms One Half of Top Breaking Team at European Championships This summer, Class of 2016 Former Pupil, Ciara Mitchell, represented the London School of Economics to become the top ranked team (and 4th best individual speaker) at the European Universities Debating Championship. This came after her success at the same Championship in 2018, held in Serbia, in which she finished as runner up in the Grand Final. It also comes after a series of achievements throughout her time at university, including winning multiple competitions across Europe; ranking among the top 32 teams globally at the World Universities Debating Championship in South Africa; and finishing amongst the top 10 speakers at both the Oxford and Cambridge Intervarsity tournaments, which are among the largest and most prestigious in the world. The European Championships are the largest debating tournament in Europe and see around 300 of the top teams from all over the continent face off against each other over twelve rounds of fiercely competitive debate. This year, the Championship was planned to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan (much like Eurovision, the debate community’s definition of Europe is quite expansive!) yet due to Covid-19, was held online. This year was particularly special for HSD, as Ivan Kapelyukh – Class of 2017 – joined Ciara

in the rankings as the 7th best team in Europe whilst representing Imperial College London. Furthermore, Steven Roy – also Class of 2017 – served as Tournament Director and was instrumental to designing the software which facilitated the successful running of the first ever online edition. Ciara says: “My interest in debating was first sparked in 2011, when the World Schools Debating Championship was hosted right here in Dundee by our very own Irene McGrath. I volunteered to help out with the organisation and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to watch some debates in the process. I was awestruck by the clarity and conviction with which the speakers were able to artfully express themselves; fascinated by the challenge of having to defend a random point-of-view on a completely alien topic with limited preparation time; and excited by the idea of getting to debate against teams from different corners of the world. From then I knew that debating was something that I was desperate to pursue! “The skills I was lucky enough to develop from this hobby massively enhanced my time at university. Debating trained me to critically analyse the world around me, and competing internationally opened my eyes to different cultures, politics and values. Most importantly, debating taught me to have confidence in myself and gave me the tools to speak out on important issues.” After leaving school, Ciara completed a degree in International Social and Public Policy and has recently just started working as a Policy Adviser in HM Treasury. Of her further studies, Ciara says: “It was debating that first sparked my love for public policy, and I am very doubtful that I would have developed the same career ambitions had it not been for all of those weekends as a teenager driving all over the country to shout about banning school uniform! Most of all, I am incredibly indebted to HSD and especially Irene McGrath for the support, mentorship and wisdom which she shared with me constantly over six years. She has expertly coached generations of HSD debaters, many of whom have been selected to represent Scotland at World Championships across the globe, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to have been included among them. If anyone at school is considering trying out debating, my advice is don’t hesitate and go for it!” You can watch an interview with Ciara, and her debate partner Hamza Tariq Chaudhry, as they discuss ranking top at the European Championships 2020 here: bit.ly/34yCNxk

Alumni News

Talking All Things Tech Leaving the High School of Dundee in 2017, FP Steven Roy has since studied Computer Science at Durham University and has gone on to forge a very successful career. In this Q&A, Steven discusses the importance of technology in today’s modern world and especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. After leaving HSD, you went on to study Computer Science at Durham University, I wonder if you could tell us a little about where your interest in this field stemmed from? I think I’ve always had an interest in computers and the systems that they support – by building websites and running little services – from a young age. Given how prevalent computers and data are in our everyday lives, taking a look behind the curtain and understanding the way that these normally hidden and subtly complex pieces of infrastructure interact and are constructed grants a whole new perspective on simple everyday activities. Were there any teachers who were inspirational to you, who may have helped you on your path to study Computer Science? And were you part of any extra-curricular activities that aided in your decision to study this field at university? There were a lot of teachers who contributed significantly to me finding my feet and enabling me to achieve at University but two stand out above all – David Smith and Irene McGrath. David was always pushing into extra-curricular exploration of the subject in ways that continue to pay dividends even today by giving me his time after school every Monday to teach a small group of us how to develop mobile apps – something that I’ve since used in internships and throughout my University career. Irene dedicated nearly every weekend of the school year taking us to debating competitions across the country and, in my final year, the world. There’s not an immediately obvious connection between computer science and debating, and computer science is not a field known for its extroverts. However, being a computer scientist comfortable with standing in front of a crowd to explain technical concepts is definitely a rarity in the department and a skill I possess only because of Irene. You have now begun a career within the Computer Science field, so you must have quite a lot of insight into the importance of technology within our modern world – particularly in light of the coronavirus pandemic. How do you see technology influencing the future of the working world going forwards?

Steven Roy, far right

Prior to the pandemic, the world was already making a shift towards flexible working and integrating technology into everyday working life. As has been the case throughout history, in times of intense struggle and crisis we see innovation being rapidly accelerated and integrated throughout society. More generally speaking, I think technology will empower a greater degree of flexible working so that the work-life balance allows for greater prioritisation of life outside of work. How did you personally adapt to working from home during lockdown? For me, the actual working was pretty much identical – a desk with screens and a keyboard – the only lacking aspect was the social interactions with other people. I think I tended towards more isolationist working – if I had an issue, at the start of lockdown I’d spend more time trying to fix it on my own than I would have done in an office but as the months progressed I made a specific effort to focus on trying to generate as much of the social office atmosphere as I can with meetings – calling people over Zoom to debug a problem or discuss possible solutions as if they were in office with me. What do you see future classrooms in a school environment looking like? Do you think there will be any changes in the way that pupils learn? The changes to the classroom environment have already been in the pipeline across the sector for some time – from the introduction of iPads and computers into daily lessons to the paradigmatic shift from information retention to information retrieval and verification. Children have always been fantastically early adopters of technology and given the global increase in technological dependency there will be a greater requirement in schools to prepare children for the applications of modern data-driven technology. For example, teaching children the fundamentals of programming empowers them regardless of their career choices because being able to write Excel/Word macros allows for tenfold increases in productivity. Finally, a more personal question. Now that you have finished university and have your feet on the career ladder, where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time? That’s a difficult one, I think in 10 years I’d like to have fully cradled a start-up and be working on more directly personal projects in quantitative finance – possibly exploring my thesis implementation of how social media data can be mined for sentiment and consequently be used as a stock market indicator.

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Memories of an Old Girl August 1943 – my entry into LIc Girls, which was Miss Inez McNaughton’s class – begins my story of many memories of my early school days.

And what about “up the backstairs” and “down the frontstairs”? The only time we went upstairs was to the gym class in the hall where, in later years, the senior morning assemblies were held between Monday and Thursday. A hymn would be sung, a reading by the Prefects and notifications by the Headmaster. Then, on Friday first thing, we had religious instruction for half an hour by a class teacher.

After a few days of my father delivering me to school, I was then taken to school by a girl not much older than myself who lived nearby. We duly got on the tram at the Co-op in Downfield and paid our 1 pence fare. We had been well warned to give up our seat to an elderly person if the tram were to get busy. Not being able to reach the straps, we balanced as best we could as the tram rattled its way down through the Hilltown or Moncur Crescent. Then, after alighting, we walked along Bell Street to the Girls’ School.

I wonder how many of you could sing Schola Clara and also translate it! From memory it was quite long, and we only sang the first and last verses. I also recall the stained-glass windows in the Girls’ School representing Literature, Arts and Music. The busts of Mr. and Mrs. Harris – the benefactors of the Girls’ School – still sit proudly at the top of the stairs.

How many of you from my era remember Cathy’s domain? Cathy was a maid of all work from what I can remember – she made coffee, sold us jam sandwiches at ½ p (a quarter of a square of bread) then was on hand to attend to the sick and needy, to plaster a cut knee. Indeed, I remember a classmate sitting by the radiator head in hands being carried away by Ike McLaren, the sports master. It transpired that she had a serious illness, meningitis!

One June, around 1955 or 1956, my classmate, Julia and I were asked to white wash the life-size statues from the art room in the Boys’ School in readiness for the yearly art exhibition. Oh my, we knocked the fig leaf off one of them but fortunately it didn’t break as it crashed to the floor. We were well reminded by our art master, Mr. Halliday, that one of those statues was indeed a first casting of an original! Another memory from later in my school career, as a Prefect, and one that comes back quite vividly was of standing at the door of the Girls’ School, black book in hand, jotting down the names of the naughty girls who weren’t wearing their berets! There was also the early lunchroom upstairs in the Boys’ School, opposite Mr. Jack – the janitor’s house – there were long wooden benches and no speaking was allowed, otherwise you were punished. I remember Monday was always pea soup and mince, and Friday we had fish. Whatever pudding there was we also had a choice of dumpling and custard every day, alongside tapioca, semolina, custard and stewed apples or rice pudding and jam etc. – War time fare. Then there were the National Savings Collections on Mondays. I had a small red bag into which my mother put a shilling. When you saved up so many, you got a certificate. I remember saying to my mother “A… always has paper money” (i.e. a 10 shilling note). Ah well, said mother, her Daddy has a shop. I have many more memories of happy times at DHS. However, there was one incident when there was a fracas in the senior school. We had Maths class in adjoining rooms with the boys and on this day, it being a wet rainy interval, we were allowed to stay inside. Suddenly, the window in the door between the two rooms was shattered. As it happens, it was a sibling quarrel. Anyway, there was an inquest as nobody owned up. Mr. More – the boys’ Maths teacher – came through and made us ladies line up. He stood close to us, staring into our eyes each in turn and asked whether we had caused the damage. I was a very quiet, goody goody and looked down at the floor. This was a big mistake! Mr. More took this to be my admission of guilt and I was pulled out of the line and made to stand apart to await my punishment. Fortunately my friend, who is still a friend to this day, came to my rescue and spoke to our teacher – the dear Mrs. McKenzie – stating “Alison was with me and we were sitting quietly in the corner”. Jean was thanked for her honesty and all was well after that. Alison Barnett (née Young), Class of 1956

Alumni News

FP’s Road to Damascus and Beyond Finlay Macdonald attended the High School of Dundee from 1951 until 1963. Early memories include a scolding from Miss Ruby Falconer for managing to lodge his savings bank half-crown in the inkwell of his desk. It was a perfect fit.

In 1996 Finlay became Principal Clerk of the General Assembly, a senior role in the central administration of the Church. In 2001 he was appointed a Chaplain to the Queen and in 2002 elected Moderator of the General Assembly. That same year St Andrews University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Finlay left the School with the intention of becoming a lawyer but a change of direction led him to ministry in the Church of Scotland. At St Andrews he was the last non-sabbatical President of the Students’ Representative Council, also serving as a VicePresident of the Scottish Union of Students. This cost him a re-sit in Hebrew, but it was worth it and he emerged from St Andrews with degrees in Arts and Divinity.

The moderatorial year involves engagements on behalf of the Church at home and overseas and included tours to South-East Asia, the Middle East and Canada. A particular highlight came during a visit to Syria. En route to Damascus, Finlay took a phone call from a Scottish journalist looking for a comment on some issue of the day. The journalist hoped she wasn’t interrupting anything to which, savouring the moment, Finlay replied: “I’m on the road to Damascus”. In fact a Damascene moment awaited as, on arrival, he received a message inviting him to convey a Christian greeting at Friday prayers in the city’s Abu Nour Mosque. This was in February 2003, on the very eve of the Iraq War. The Moderator was welcomed by the Grand Mufti as ‘a cousin in faith’ and introduced as ‘a follower of their uncle Jesus Christ’ – a lovely family image. In his address Finlay expressed concern at the prospect of war and stressed that any conflict should not be seen as between Christians and Muslims. Picking up on the ‘cousin’ relationship he observed that Christians, Muslims and Jews share a common ancestor in Abraham.

Finlay’s first parish was Menstrie in Clackmannanshire from where he moved to Jordanhill in Glasgow. In those early years of ministry he continued to study, focussing on the Kirk’s uneasy relationship with the Westminster Confession of Faith. This largely ignored Calvinist document, adopted by the General Assembly of 1647, remains the Kirk’s official ‘Subordinate Standard’ after Scripture, and Finlay’s critique led to the award of a PhD. His ministry included chaplaincy to Jordanhill College School. He also served as a Governor of Jordanhill College; thereafter as a member of Strathclyde University Court when the College became the University’s Faculty of Education. In 2002, Strathclyde honoured him with a Fellowship of the University.

The Iraq war was a response to the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Following that atrocity Finlay, along with other church leaders, had invited Scotland’s faith communities to a dayconference at Scottish Church’s House in Dunblane. From this emerged the Scottish Interfaith Council (now Interfaith Scotland) of which Finlay served as Vice-Convener for a number of years. Another initiative was a 2008 ‘Interfaith Pilgrimage’ to the Holy Land. Co-led by Finlay, with a Jewish and Muslim colleague, the party also included members of the Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh communities, amongst whom were a number of students. Over ten days the group travelled within Israel and the West Bank, listening and learning across the faith and political spectrums. On the final day an interfaith service was held in the beautiful Scots Church of St Andrew’s Jerusalem, to which each faith group contributed. Since retiring in 2010 Finlay has published books on Scottish Church History, Interfaith Relations and changing church attitudes on human sexuality. He lives in the Borders with his wife, Elma, also a former HSD pupil. They have family locally and also in Australia.

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We’re All in This Together; FP Provides Free Accommodation to NHS Staff

Urban Quarters are four luxury serviced apartments owned by Class of 1981 FP Lynne Sword and her husband, Guy Henderson. They first opened in 2016 after an extensive project to convert the disused, listed building in the heart of Dundee’s cultural quarter into stylish two-bedroomed apartments. Urban Quarters quickly became a popular choice for visiting professionals, contractors, parents visiting students, and, of course, tourists drawn to the city by the V&A Museum of Design and its new status as ‘Britain’s coolest little city’ (GQ, 2015). Until 23rd March 2020 that is, when it all came to an abrupt end as the country was propelled into an indefinite lockdown. Guests immediately checked out to return home and all imminent bookings were cancelled. Deposits and prepayments were refunded leaving a big hole in the budget and an empty apartment block. Whilst shielding at home, watching the news forecast a potential tsunami of Covid-19 cases likely to overwhelm the NHS, Lynne and Guy quickly realised there was an urgent need for alternate accommodation for NHS staff who feared returning home to vulnerable family members at the end of their shift. The duo were delighted to be able to offer the use of all four apartments, free of charge, to NHS Tayside as isolated living spaces from 1st April until 15th July when lockdown was lifted and accommodation businesses were allowed to re-open operating under Covid-19 guidelines.

Claire Pearce, Director of Nursing and Midwifery at NHS Tayside and an executive member of Tayside NHS Board said: “The support of local business for our teams across Tayside both in our hospitals and out in our communities at the onset of the pandemic really kept our spirits up. "The generous offer of accommodation from Urban Quarters to ensure key workers in our teams could continue to respond to the immediate challenges of Covid-19 was very gratefully received. It was amazing gestures like this that helped make a difference in what was one of the most challenging times for the NHS. "We continue to be so appreciative of all the support from the people of Tayside and the local businesses who are at the heart of our communities." Tourism, hospitality, and business travel are amongst the sectors that have been most severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and by the constraints which continue to be imposed. It may be some time before occupancy levels return to pre-Covid days but, in the meantime, Lynne and Guy are working hard to provide safe and secure accommodation at Urban Quarters for guests. In addition to the new deep cleaning protocols, they have invested in a fogging machine which sprays food safe antiviral disinfectant throughout the apartments, enhancing the sanitisation and providing lasting protection against Covid-19. You can visit Urban Quarter’s website to view their accommodation here: www.urbanquarters.co.uk

Alumni News

HSD FP’s Achievements Hit the Headlines

The achievements of John Gardiner, Class of 2020, were featured in the local news back in August. The Courier newspaper shone the spotlight on John's journey to become School Dux and soon-to-be Astrophysics undergraduate!

After learning at a parents’ night that John was underperforming in maths, his parents tried to steer him towards other subjects he was better at, such as art and history. But John was determined, and they hired a tutor, which commercial manager Derek said was a turning point. He also developed a good relationship with his school maths teacher and began testing himself with past papers.

John, who failed his fourth-year maths test, scoring just 13% in one test, left the School this summer with six A-grade Highers and Advanced Highers along with a selection of prizes, which included the Harris Gold Medal for Dux of the School.

Shortly after his National 5s maths prelim, John excelled in the real exam, scoring 96% and earning the prize for most improved student. John credits his maths teachers, Mrs. Craig and Mr. Middleton, and physics teacher, Mr. Darby, for their support.

He has recently started studying Astrophysics at Edinburgh University, which could lead him into a career with the likes of NASA. His performance at school was described as outstanding by former Rector, John Halliday, and stunned his parents Derek and Evelyn.

John also added three band one As in Advanced Higher maths, physics and mathematics of mechanics to his impressive list of qualifications in his final year. Image credit: The Courier You can read the full Courier article here: bit.ly/2G8e6OU

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Career Planning – More Luck Than Judgement – in My Case! There were three virtual certainties at the end of my 13 years of HSD education – I would not be a scientist, a sportsman, or an artist, as my great teachers of the day would have testified. Journalism, following in my late Dad’s footsteps, or ‘something to do with cars’, would have been more accurate predictions. Fortuitously, I won a motor industry scholarship, in support of my degree studies, spending the ensuing ten or so years, in increasingly responsible positions with Jaguar, Citroen, and latterly Land Rover. A couple of logical progressions followed, into FMCG and Utilities companies, and subsequently into a successful career finale, in business consulting around the world, with a range of large highly-respected corporate clients. Thus far then, nothing to indicate what would grab my attention and passion in retirement, when I hung up my well-worn passport, and my array of travel loyalty cards! “Why would you want to do that?”, asked my incredulous wife, as I applied to become a voluntary Community First Responder (CFR) for the Ambulance Service, providing basic life support as ‘first-on-scene’ local resource for my semi-rural area of Yorkshire.

Trained and kitted out with the required equipment, so commenced my retirement volunteer career, requiring me to attend over two hundred 999 calls, including 8-10 cardiac arrests, during 60-80 hours per month of dedicated on-call time. As I write, I am sadly side-lined from the role by Covid-19, which I am not equipped or prepared to handle as a non-clinical and veteran volunteer – I can’t wait to return when I can be protected by reliable vaccination. Meanwhile I reflect happily and proudly on finding a role that gives something back directly to my community, as I support patients, sometimes neighbours and friends, in their most frightening initial moments until an ambulance crew arrives to take over from me. The CFR role exists, in normal times, across the UK – I commend it to anyone who is willing to spend time ‘on-call’, with no real idea of the nature of the next call, and with the ability to follow strictlydefined process, providing calm reassurance and immediate support to people who put their lives in your hands. Who would ever have predicted that my many happy years at HSD and in subsequent business life would have led me here? Iain Stewart, Class of 1974

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Alumni Across the Pond

I still think back to my days at DHS with such fondness. The life-long friendships that I made, and the fact that you are never truly aware you are learning until you need those lessons later in life. Who would have thought that learning Spanish in Scotland in the mideighties would be something that I would incorporate into my everyday life on the other side of the world? I left DHS in 1987 and by 1991, I had ventured my way to the West Coast of America, settling in Santa Barbara CA, where I have lived ever since. I flitted from job to job when I first got here, until I fell into a position leasing out beach homes in Montecito, CA. After a few chance connections, I ended up becoming a Realtor, which would become my lifelong passion. Not only for property, but for the people I have met along the way. I never really knew what I wanted to do when I left school, and luckily for me my job found me. Since getting into Real Estate, my right brain always pined for something a little more creative. About seven years ago, I opened Mate Gallery in Montecito with my partner Matt Albiani, who is a New York-based photographer. Mate Gallery was conceived in Long Island, NY, and is a shared love for coastal living and all things beach related. Matt and I recognized the gap in the market for a

shop selling cool nautical vintage wares, so we jumped on the idea. We like to think of it as a nod to Scotland, Massachusetts and California all in one small nostalgic spot. Our love of all things nautical led us to two little fisherman's cottages that were quietly for sale at the end of Long Island, in Montauk, New York. Being a realtor and specializing in high-end rentals and sales, combined with Matt's keen eye for design, we bought them and aptly named them Sea Roost, which really became like Mate Gallery in real-life. The house has been a fun laboratory to work items from the shop into a home. We wish we could spend more time at the cottages, but they are leased out almost year-round as vacation rentals. Between Sea Roost and Mate Gallery, we have amassed quite a social media following (even Gwyneth likes us), not to mention some great press from the likes of the Wall Street Journal and Country Living Magazine. Having the ability to spend time on both coasts of the US each month is a blessing that came quite unexpectedly but is something that I wouldn’t ever want to change. Getting to this point in my life has really been about talking with people, making connections, and always putting your best foot forward – something that I learned at DHS, and something that I'll always be grateful for. Ron Brand, Class of 1989

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Memories of an Old Boy The year was 1956, I know not the month, but I was a brand new L1 High School boy. It would have been about ten to nine, five minutes before the first morning bell which would have summoned us to Miss Knight’s classroom. Just as usual, we would have been chatting and running about in the playground adjacent to the west gate of the main building, by the huts. But there was nothing usual about the drama that was about to unfold… Witness this. A farmer heading down Euclid Crescent towards town with a single tethered bull – this in itself a source of wonderment. But then chaos! The bull managed to slip its noose, losing its handler. And into the playground through the west gate it careered, just yards in front of us. Can you imagine the consternation and the disbelief amongst the primary boys and girls? We scattered to all corners of the playground, yelling and shouting as we tried to escape the path of the rampaging bull. Thankfully for everyone’s (including the bull’s) welfare the drama was all over just a couple of minutes after it had begun. Whilst we were scattering to all corners, the farmer somehow managed to re-tether the bull with minimum fuss. No rampaging through the playground causing havoc or injury, the bull bound for freedom had cornered itself in the vicinity of the bike shed. Not that I witnessed that, I’d have been halfway down Reform Street! Just about then our teachers would have been making their way over from the Girls’ School to call us to order. They would have witnessed some upheaval but only the conclusion of the bizarre occurrence. We formed our lines excitedly, talking and giggling, still incredulous of what we had just witnessed. Miss Knight must surely have struggled to gain our full attention in the opening lesson. So why on earth in the year 1956 was there a farmer walking a bull down Euclid Crescent past the High School? Here’s the likelihood. It would have been a Tuesday, Dundee’s Market Day, an age-old tradition over many decades and obviously still occurring in the

mid 50s. Large numbers of farmers would make their way to the cattle market in aptly named Market Street, half a mile east from Dock Street. When all the buying and selling was finished the farming folk would make their way back to the City Square where farming news and views would be thoroughly aired before retiring for lunch – Wallace’s Tearooms or the Val d’Or perhaps. So could the cattle market have been the High School bull’s intended destination? It would appear that to facilitate Market Day there was a field on a lower slope of the Law where livestock could be safely and temporarily kept overnight. Coming down Constitution Road, left into Bell Street then right into Euclid Crescent would have been a direct route. I can but surmise but I can also assure everyone that the bizarre episode of the ‘Bull in the Playground’ was indeed witnessed by this Old Boy. Fast forward to 1960 and L5. It was the practice then to let the boys and girls out into the playground for ten minutes midmorning to run about and let off some steam. On one particular break we were playing a game of ‘tig’ and I was ‘it’, the nominated catcher. My L5 classmates in evading my touch were playfully taunting me, one boy calling out, “Graham McLaren’s got hair like a spider’s web!” (I did, I had a mop of curly hair!) Five minutes later we’re back in Mr. Ritchie’s class with much whispering and giggling, boys turning around to me and mouthing ‘Spider’s Web’. So it was on this day that my nickname, very soon to be abbreviated to just ‘Spider’, was born. And for 60 years that’s how everyone has known me, many not even knowing my real name. Even my grandchildren call me ‘Grandpa Spider’. I don’t mind Spider, I’ve certainly got used to it, but sometimes I wish I wasn’t feared by arachnophobes! The L5 classmate who gave me my nickname was Norman Cathcart who went on to become Head Boy and later practised as a lawyer in Glasgow. I managed to catch up with him at a reunion around 20 years ago. I was still talking to him so reminded him of the story! Graham ‘Spider’ McLaren, Class of 1968 President, DHSFP Cricket Club

Alumni News

Dundee Inver-Discs with Catriona Strachan, Class of 2015, a Media Technician based in Southern England. Castaways must select eight records, providing as much detail as they wish about the reasons for their choices. They are provided with a copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and their chosen Bible or philosophical text. They may also select one book (omnibuses are allowed!) and one luxury item. Unfortunately, this cannot be another person, but pianos and a lifetime’s supply of ‘X’ are often popular choices.

When I was about four, I watched The Sound of Music for the first time and I absolutely adored it. Unfortunately, at some point during the film, I fell asleep. When I woke up, the credits were rolling and I completely broke down when told that I couldn’t just rewind the film as it had been on the TV (ah, remember the days before catch-up?!). Soon after this, I received the film on a VHS tape, and ever since it has been one of my all-time favourite films. It’s hard to choose just one song from the wonderful Rogers and Hammerstein soundtrack, but I think the beautiful and simple Eidelweiss would be my choice for my first song for the island. I can safely say I was brought up surrounded by great music. Don’t tell them I told you, but my family have excellent taste. Elton John’s songs have been a staple throughout my life, and I always find myself putting his music on shuffle. While I would love to bring his entire discography to the island, the classic that I would pick is I’m Still Standing. Listening to it always puts me in a good mood. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I remember the soundtrack from Bridget Jones’s Diary being played in the car constantly when I was little. The whole album always reminds me of Dundee and my family. So, from this album, I’m choosing Respect by Aretha Franklin because it is empowering, fun, and is just a genuinely fantastic, upbeat song. At one of the HSD Piano Days I decided to sing while playing piano. With the help of Miss Evans, we made a laid-back arrangement of Mumford and Sons’ Dust Bowl Dance. The song is so powerful, and the build of noise and passion is incomparable to any other song I’ve heard. It sent shivers down my spine when I saw it live in Glasgow. I’d highly recommend watching the recording of them playing it at T in the Park in 2013. I love to listen to orchestral music when I’m working, and I especially enjoy film scores. The Lion King (the original animation) is my favourite movie, and Hans Zimmer’s score is utterly beautiful. The climactic piece, This Land, gives me chills whenever I listen to it, and it is one of my favourite pieces of music. At the start of the year, before lockdown, I went to a Fleetwood Mac themed night out. As hit after hit was played, surrounded by twinkling lights and bohemian décor, I thought, you really can’t get any better than this. Rumours is my go-to road trip album and it is near impossible to pick a favourite track from it. But stick on Go Your Own Way and I guarantee you’ll be singing and dancing along.

I love Glasgow. Its energy, its people, its food and drink and wonderful streets. Once I got used to the weather, spending my university days there was fantastic, and it’s a city that’s now very close to my heart. I was sad to move away from it a few months ago after five years. A song that will forever remind me of my time there is Super Trouper by ABBA; another all-time favourite band of mine. Trust me, play this song in a club or bar in the city and the whole room will erupt, singing “When I called you last night from GLASGOWWW”. It’s an experience I never get tired of. I have loved musical theatre for as long as I can remember. In my final year at university, I was a specialist performer and assistant director for the Cecilian Society’s production of Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden. The show brings back great memories for me, and I made life-long friendships through the society. The finale of the show, In the Beginning means a lot to me; singing it on stage for the final time was very emotional. The song leaves you with the message that your life’s journey is in your own hands: “We cannot know what will occur, just make our journey worth the taking, and pray we’re wiser than we were in the beginning”. Literature is a tough one. My Film and Television degree is joint with English Literature, so it feels like there’s a lot of pressure to pick a good book. I’ve always been drawn to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee since I first read it in F4. Although it’s 60 years old, reading a child’s innocent perception of racism and prejudice makes you wonder how far we have really come, as the story is just as topical and moving now as it would have been in the 1960s. There’s a lot to learn about life and humanity from Atticus Finch. Lastly, my luxury item would have to be my wonderful springer spaniel, Brodie. He is full of energy and love, always makes me laugh, and I could cuddle him forever.

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A Fire Burning Within Damp Kindling. A Prelude to Fire In writing this article, I had an odd recollection that I think is worth sharing here as a fitting introduction to my story. A strange foreshadowing of my life to come encapsulated neatly into the memory of going to the beach as a young child. On my family’s infrequent visits to the beach, (Scottish weather being somewhat prohibitive for such outings) I would stand there in the harsh cold of the grey waters at East Sands and stare down the waves coming at me. A fierce defiance surging through my veins, determined to never be knocked down by the force of the current. With each successive wave I survived I would move further and further into the water fighting indomitable nature in its own domain. I think back to those times now, my bizarre opposition to the immutable forces of gravity and a billion tons of water. What made me want to fight that? Why is it that I was so concerned with competing against something that I could never hope to defeat, when my brothers and friends were further out splashing and playing? 25 years on and the intransigent nature of that angry little seven-year-old still resonates strongly with me. I find that whatever quality that drove me to challenge the biggest thing I possibly could, to put myself into an unwinnable situation, just for the sake of seeing how I would fare, has had a truly profound impact on my life and everything I have done and achieved. Some people call this nature Grit, or Drive, or Determination. Regardless it is the relentless force of will that drives the desire to achieve what you set out for. Driven people are the ones that never stay down, never give up and always bring the full force of themselves to bear. They are the relentless. They can be meek or powerful, shy or boisterous, introverted or extroverted. Anyone can have that fire burning in them and it is important to realise that being driven is not a masculine trait and being driven is not the same as being competitive. Many driven people, like myself, do not try to compete with others, they compete predominantly with themselves. It’s easy to put this down to an innate self-discipline that is bestowed by mother nature, but actually self-discipline is still a challenge for me as it tends to be for most people. Our brains are distractible. They have weaknesses no matter how passionate or driven you are. A key part of being successful in life and in your career is not just playing to your strengths, it is understanding your weaknesses and mitigating the situations that manifest them. My weaknesses are distraction, absent mindedness and an overactive imagination. In school I struggled for every medium grade I got and was devastated by each failure. I struggled to read and write as coherently as everyone else or understand the concepts put forward to me and trying to learn things that I didn’t understand was torture for me. Dyslexia, dyspraxia, visual perception and visual memory problems and a venerated seat on the intangible autism spectrum have stymied my academic exploits for all of my life. I had to work twice as hard for half of the result, but the joke is on life because working hard is what I’m good at! School and university didn’t resonate with me. I found I needed more support than other kids and boy did I suck at asking for that support. (Ok maybe another one of my weaknesses is a bit too much pride). I worked diligently and despite the efforts of some excellent teachers I never quite felt like I was hitting my stride. I had a defiant determination, but the fire was missing some key fuel or catalyst. It wasn’t until a few years later I would find out what I was missing.

Finding Fuel From my very first job, at my very first company, on the lowest possible rung of the lowest possible ladder I knew something was different. Something clicked as a key environmental variable slid into place. At that moment it was like someone stoked my fire with jet fuel. My job at the time was to test video games and write bug reports for them. It was low level work, intensive but with direct metrics. The harder and longer I worked the more bugs I logged. Over the weeks and months, I could see my total bug count go up, and I could see that number relative to every other tester almost like a leader board. In addition to that very clear metric I found the harder I worked the more recognition and opportunities I received. This recognition and reward cycle, along with increases in my pay, meant I had very conspicuous reasons for putting everything I had into my job. There was finally a tangible reward function, something I could see and grasp at the end of every day that gave me direct feedback. There were long term goals, there was recognition from my bosses on a regular basis and for the first time I felt like I knew where I was going. It didn’t take long for me to start scrambling up the aforementioned ladder. After six months I moved to a company nearer where I lived and within three months I was promoted to Lead Tester; another three months after that I made the big move into a development studio. My job there was no longer just to write bugs; it was to manage the migration of code and data to over a hundred developers. I still had to test the game, but I was given the time and opportunity to do whatever else I wanted. I found that the game I was testing didn’t really need me very much. Before long I had automated half of my job away by writing simple programs to do everything for me. This freed up time for me to take on more responsibilities.

Alumni News

I made a habit of taking on work that no one else wanted to do but that needed to be done. This strategy worked really well for me as the number of cool bits of work and areas of responsibility grew and grew as I found ways to be more efficient and faster at performing those roles. However even the best will in the world can’t help you when you bite off more than you can chew. As the project increased in scope, those areas that I had taken ownership of started to inflate and alas the temporal nature of the universe meant that no matter how much I worked I couldn’t do everything. Things started slipping and I started failing.

Fireworks! But in a half-decent company you’ll find that management doesn't actually want you to fail, and they’ll usually work to make sure it doesn’t happen. And so, it wasn’t long into my second major project at Creative Assembly that I had my own department greenlit. I was now the lead of the newly invented Build Engineering Department, and probably the most proud I have ever been in my career (and possibly my life). My team and I were in charge of a huge variety of things, from the distribution of thirdparty software to version control management systems and integrations. But fundamentally my job and the bottom line for the department was to “maintain the stability of the build”. In layman's terms that means to ensure that the game was working correctly and that everyone on the project could work effectively. I updated my Facebook profile to “Archon of Stability at Creative Assembly”. I was still relatively young in my career at this point, only 29 when I received my title. To be a department lead with a team of employees before the age of 30 was a rare feat in the video games industry. I had also begun making a name for myself outside work as well, writing industry talks and mentoring students at a number of colleges. I really started to get involved with outreach programs, particularly with kids from disadvantaged backgrounds or learning disabilities. I hope to teach them that they can thrive despite impairments that are outside of their control. It was that year, in the twilight of 2017, that I was nominated and subsequently won a place in the Develop 30 under 30. It’s a games industry award designed to recognise fifteen women and fifteen men who have had promising starts to their careers and show the potential to go on to have profound impacts on our industry. It’s a big deal in my industry, there are very few awards of recognition that aren’t lifetime achievement awards. Moreover, there are thousands of potential applicants for every year of the 30 under 30. After receiving the award, myself and a young woman I work with, who also won, were summoned without warning to an ominous meeting with the CEO. But he emphatically congratulated us, shaking our hands and telling us he had big expectations for us. Following that he wrote an email to the whole company to say as much, all of which was a little daunting as a closet introvert, but delightful nonetheless. I can only hope that I live up to the award and represent myself favourably compared to everyone else on that list. Since then I have written and presented more industry talks, keynoted conferences, written articles and continued my work mentoring London college students. I am now the Senior Lead Build Engineer at Creative Assembly and my career continues to advance. I am going back to school soon to learn new things and in general I am assessing new directions as I suspect I will end up owning my own company at some point and need experience within business management.

I have learned I am not an easy person to be close to. For that reason, I am both endlessly grateful and apologetic to those who have helped me and put up with my stubbornness over the years; my mother, my learning support teachers, my managers and my best friend. They have been a major force in shaping and directing my drive and taking the edge of a fire that can singe others. Through sheer force of will, a bit of help and no small amount of that obstinate stubbornness I have been able to thrive despite the chains nature and fate have placed on me. There is no divine Providence here, lifting the weight of those shackles have made me stronger over the years and so I wade, unencumbered, deeper into unknown seas. Pushing with the full force of my being against the challenges I have put before myself. I have drive, I have fire and I am only just getting started. Tom Miller, Class of 2005

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Treasures from the Archive The School’s on-site archive facility boasts a great number of wonderful and diverse items, materials and memorabilia, including old school magazines, prospectuses, medals, music & drama programmes, school registers, report cards, prize lists, photographs, uniform and much more. In particular, our archive holds an extensive number of photographs, some dating back to the 1800s right through to present day. You are able to get a glimpse of some of the interesting and unique photographs that we have on-site over the next couple of pages. If you happen to recognise any of our Former Pupils or yourself in the images, then we would love to hear from you. The School 100 Years Ago Travel back in time to 100 years ago, not long after the conclusion of the First World War, by browsing the selection of images on this page. We have two School Magazines from the year 1920, both of which contain a fascinating number of images, stories and written work from current pupils at the time. To view these magazines, and a wider selection through the decades, please visit our online archive: www.archive.highschoolofdundee.org. uk/Authenticated/Browse.aspx.

A selection of updates from some of the extra-curricular clubs on offer at the time.

The 1919-20 Dux of the Boys’ School

The 1919-20 Dux of the Girls’ School

The School’s Tennis Team from 1920

The front cover of our June 1920 School Magazine

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Guess the Decade to be in With the Chance of Winning One of Our FP Scarves! We have many photographs of life at the School throughout the decades which never fail to bring back happy memories for our Alumni Community. This year, we wanted to do something a little different (for a bit of fun!) and offer someone the chance to win one of our grey lambswool FP scarves emblazoned with the High School Crest. You can choose between the full colour School Crest or opt for your House colour and support your old House with pride. You can view photographs of our scarves on page 72. All you have to do to be in with the chance of winning is match the photographs across the next two pages to the correct

decade! Remember, there is only one image per decade. Once you have decided upon your answers please e-mail alumni@ highschoolofdundee.org.uk with your submission, full name and contact details (so we can reach you if you are our chosen winner!) The winner of the competition will be contacted by our Development Office on Friday 29th January 2021. The decades you need to match up are: 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

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Spot The Show The School has put on a whole host of successful and brilliant productions over the years, many of which have become staple classics in the drama show calendar. On this page you can view a selection of programmes as well as images from more modernday productions of the very same plays. Can you match each programme with its more recent production photograph?

Alumni News

Spot The Staff Member This photograph of the HSD Staff from 1948 is one of the oldest full-staff photographs that we have. Do you recognise your old school teachers? If so, please get in touch with us as we would love to be able to put names to faces!

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Tributes

Mr. David A. Shepherd 1930 – 2019 Class of 1947

Dr. Ian J. Lawrenson 1933 – 2020 Class of 1951

David Shepherd was born in Dundee on 28th February 1930, the youngest of Andrew Inglis and Marjorie Shepherd’s four children. Educated at Dundee High School, Mill Hill in London and St Bees in Cumberland (during the war years), David spent his National Service as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in the New Territories in Hong Kong.

Ian was born in Dundee on 13th June 1933 to Marion and Thomas Lawrenson. Thomas was an artist with DC Thomson for his whole working career and also a keen amateur cine-photographer, with Ian being the childhood star in three of his father’s films which won awards around the world, including in the UK, Tokyo and Hollywood.

Graduating with a BSc degree in Estate Management at the University of London in 1952, David then took up a junior partnership in the chartered surveying and factoring practice J&E Shepherd, Dundee.

Enrolling at the School in 1938, in time for its 700th anniversary, Ian excelled academically finishing as Dux and being awarded the School’s Harris Gold Medal, as well as prizes for science and mathematics.

Taking the reins in 1970 from his late partner Fred Henderson, David opened the firm’s first sub-office in Aberdeen in 1973, at the beginning of the North Sea oil boom. By the time of his retirement in 1995, the firm had 13 partners and 40 chartered surveyors and 13 other offices across the country – from Inverness to Dumfries.

He won a Harkness Scholarship to St Andrews University, where he read Natural Philosophy (Physics), graduating with a First Class honours degree in 1955, and securing medals in Physics and Mathematics.

David was also Chairman of the Northern Housing Company until 1996, an independent charity which owned and managed over 400 affordable homes in Dundee and Perth. He also held a seat on the Lands Tribunal of Scotland and sat on the Tayside Building Preservation Trust. As a Former Pupil, David was devoted to Dundee High School, serving on the Board of Governors until 2000, first as Finance Convenor, then as Chairman; a role through which he motivated both staff and pupils to uphold the ethics of the School, an interest he maintained well beyond the period of his official involvement. He was also a Justice of the Peace in Dundee around this time.

In 1958, he was awarded a PhD for a thesis on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Solid Hydrocarbons, supported by a Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship as one of the first researchers in the field. From 1958 to 1960, Ian was employed in the USA as a Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois, working on magnetic resonance, before securing a post in the UK National Chemical Laboratory at Teddington. In 1961, he met Carolyn Webb, from Sydney, Australia, and they were married in 1963 in the chapel of St Andrews University, before settling down in Walton-on-Thames.

David touched many people’s lives with his warm friendship and waspish dry wit; inspiring and giving support to many in business and enterprise. He took a close and often sceptical interest in political events, right up until the end of his days.

A little later in life, Ian moved to the Department of Trade and Industry in London, to act as the Technical Aide to the Chief Government Scientist and Engineer, Dr. Duncan Davies. He also became a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and Chairman of Euromar, a pan-European body concerned with marine technology.

But work and public appointments were just part of his life. A devoted husband and family man, life for David was for living, having fun and even taking the odd risk, for example completing the Cresta Run in St Moritz at age 60!

In 1991, Ian was honoured with an OBE for his services to the UK Government and retired from the DTI in 1993, before taking up the post of Secretary to the Hazards Forum and becoming editor of its journal. He was later elected a life member of the Forum.

An intrepid skier in the early days at Glenshee, a determined hillwalker (with 200 Munros under his boots) he played tennis, built treehouses and hung rope swings, swam daily and water skied. Golf was also a great passion. He and his wife, Irene, played golf in clubs all over the world, travelling widely together in the Bahamas, USA, Australia and Southern Africa.

He and his wife were involved in a number of local activities in Walton, in particular the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre, where he was the first Chairman. In his spare time, Ian gained an Open University BA degree in Arts, and was an enthusiastic maker of model boats.

Diagnosed with terminal cancer in late summer, David passed away peacefully at Cornhill Hospice in Perth on Friday 13th December 2019. He is survived and is sorely missed by Irene, his beloved wife of over 60 years; plus their 5 children and 8 grandchildren, for whom he was always and will remain a beacon of inspiration.

Ian was very supportive of the activities and careers of his son, Andrew, a computer scientist and author of a series of science fiction books, and his daughter, Dr. Jane Hoyle, a geneticist. He was predeceased by his wife in 2018 and is survived by his two children and five grandchildren – Daniel, Christopher, Benjamin, Jasmine and Max.

Alumni News

Mr. Andrew C. Bain 1941 – 2019 Class of 1961

Mr. J. Ross Paton 1948 – 2020 Class of 1967

Andrew Bain, a well-known farmer in the Carse of Gowrie, passed away on 30th August 2019 following a short fight with cancer. He was 77 years old.

Dundee Solicitor Ross Paton, described as the life and soul of any party, has died aged 71.

He took over the running of the Flocklones family farm in the early 1960s. His father, also named Andrew, came to the Carse of Gowrie in 1926, aged 22, to set up the farm. Andrew was born in the now-closed Fernbrae Nursing Home in Dundee, on 7th November 1941 and attended Dundee High School. After that, he studied at Craibstone Agricultural College in Aberdeen. Upon returning to the farm, he produced dairy for a number of years. Following this, he went into pedigree Charolais cattle herding and he was well known for walking the bulls down roads whilst in training for local shows. Years later, Andrew started a new venture in soft fruit. He had a keen eye for detail and supplied to supermarket chains both locally and nationally. He met Anne Grant in 1966 and the couple married in Broughty Ferry shortly after. The couple had two sons, Andrew and Russell. Following his retirement in 2002, Andrew enjoyed many past times. He even designed a new home in the paddock at Flocklones and created an impressive garden. He was an avid reader of history and other subjects. He also had an interest in art and was a fundraiser for charities close to his heart. Andrew is survived by his wife Anne, two sons and four grandchildren — Angus, Fergus, Cosmo and India.

Born James Kinross Paton, but known as Ross, he died suddenly on October 13th at his adopted home of Insh. Raised in the West End before later moving to Broughty Ferry, he was educated at the High School of Dundee. He was a member of the School’s Combined Cadet Force (CCF) and became Pipe Sergeant. He also played rugby at school and for Dundee HSFP as an adult. Mr Paton read law at Dundee University. He qualified as a solicitor at Shiell & Small in Dundee before joining J&J Scrimgeour. In the early 1980’s he joined the Fiscal Service, initially in Perth, before becoming Depute Procurator Fiscal for Dundee. Remaining in his post until 1988, he then joined Shield & Kyd as a Partner, managing the Arbroath office for 25 years until the merger with Lindsays LLP. His career took him to the Dundee office on Bank Street and he retired as a Partner in 2013-14, remaining as a Consultant until December 2017 in their new Seabraes office. His military experience saw him rise to become Acting Major in the 51st Highland Volunteers A Company (Black Watch). He held the role of Session Clerk at Roseangle Ryehill Church (now Dundee West) on Perth Road for 40 years, retiring in December 2019. He was also in the church choir for 55 years, was Vice President of Dundee Choral Union for just under 20 years and a member of the choir for 50 years. He was a past-Chairman of both the Dundee Tayside Round Table and the High School of Dundee Old Boys’ Club, as well as a member of Dundee Rotary Club and former Chairman of the Tayside Solicitors Property Centre. Predeceased by his first wife Glenys (DHS Class of 1969) in 2011, whom he married in 1979, he is survived by children David (Class of 1998) and Susie (Class of 2004), and three grandchildren. His second son, Andrew (Class of 2002), died in 1997 aged 13. Mr Paton leaves behind second wife Kate whom he married in 2018.

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Alumni News

Mr. Douglas M. S. Robbie 1950 – 2020 Class of 1968

Mr. Mark G. Kerr 1954 – 2020 Class of 1972

Douglas Robbie, an HSD Former Pupil from the Class of 1968, passed away peacefully on 27th January 2020 after being diagnosed with lung and liver cancer in November.

Mark Kerr was born on 27 June 1954 in Lochee. He was the eldest son of Grant Kerr DFC FRCS and Agnes ‘Nan’ Kerr and was the first of their four children to attend the High School of Dundee, Mark from 1966 until 1972, Hilary (class of 75), Lynne (class of 78) and Paul (class of 80).

Growing up in Dundee, he attended the High School of Dundee before later moving to Strathallan School. Douglas ran Dunlaw House Hotel on Union Road for 30 years and was a well-known figure across the city. After leaving school, he joined the army before becoming part of the Hong Kong Police Force for four years. A spell in the construction business followed upon his return to Dundee before he bought the Dunlaw House Hotel. After retiring from his role at the guest house, Douglas sought a quiet life away from the city and had only recently moved to his dream home by the sea after he and his wife, Barbara, had bought a new cottage in Montrose. Described as a wild and fun-loving man who was a larger than life character, he will be sadly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him. Since his passing, his family have begun fundraising to continue to aid research into preventing cancer.

A keen hockey player, Mark became 1st X1 Captain. He played while at Aberdeen University, returning to Dundee to play for DHSFP, where he became Club Captain and President. Mark was Dad of ‘Dad’s Army’ team, who played in an annual hockey tournament in Scarborough. He moved north to Inverness and played for Highland HC and subsequently umpired for many years. After graduating from Aberdeen with an MA, Mark started his career in the Personnel Department (now known as Human Resources) with Tayside Health Board at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. He also worked at Dundee Royal Infirmary, Dunfermline and West Fife Hospital, the Royal Northern Infirmary in Inverness and several other hospitals in the Highlands, finishing his career in Dingwall. He retired at the age of 62 after 42 years service with the NHS, of which he was immensely proud. Mark was a lifelong suffering but dedicated fan of Dundee Football Club. He even helped to form ‘The Highland Dark Blues Supporter’s Club’ of which he was Chairman and Secretary. He was very much a family man. He married Catriona in 1981 and together they had a daughter, Rachel, in 1986 and a son, Robert, in 1989. The family moved to Inverness in 1992 when Mark got promotion and they enjoyed all that the Highlands has to offer. Mark had fond memories of his time at Dundee High and attended several school reunions, reminiscing and rekindling old friendships. After retiring, Mark and Catriona enjoyed two wonderful trips to New Zealand where their daughter, Rachel, now lives and works. He continued to keep fit by swimming most days, weekly walks in the highlands, golf – he was a member of Inverness Golf Club – and playing football on a Friday, putting many of the younger ones to shame. Sadly, Mark passed away on 7 February 2020, aged 65 in the caring arms of the Highland Hospice in Inverness after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in September 2019. He is survived by his wife, daughter, son, daughter-in-law Heather, sisters and brother. Taken far too soon, he is greatly missed by his family, his many friends and all who knew him. ‘Never Give Up’

Alumni News

Mrs. Gail Murray (née Jamieson) 1937 – 2019 Staff Member 1971 – 1997

Mr. David F. Preston 1969 – 2020 Staff Member 2007 – 2020

Gail passed away on 25th November 2019, in her 83rd year, at Seaton Grove Care Home in Arbroath after a long illness, bravely borne.

The High School of Dundee was stunned and saddened by the death of teacher Dave Preston, very suddenly at home on 31st July 2020.

Educated at Morgan Academy in Dundee, Gail graduated from Dundee College of Education in 1957. Her first teaching post was in Clepington School where she gained valuable experience in the Upper Primary School. Family commitments took Gail to England, where she taught for a short time before returning to Wormit.

Dave joined the school in 2007, initially teaching Graphic Communication and then Technology, Engineering Science and latterly also Physics.

In 1971, Gail was appointed as a part-time teacher in the Preparatory Department of the Junior School at the High School of Dundee. When a vacancy arose in L2 in 1978, she became a permanent member of our staff until her retirement in June 1997. Throughout her teaching career across L2 and L3 classes, Gail was committed to fully developing the true potential of each and every pupil, thus promoting a feeling of self-worth along with a keen desire to learn. Her love of the English Language was infectious and indeed enhanced the experiences of her pupils and colleagues alike. Gail’s happy disposition and generous nature endeared her to all those who had the pleasure of working alongside her. Gail was a much-loved teacher, with her firm yet fair approach and her genuine caring and compassionate attitude towards all pupils. Alluding to her warm personality, a visitor to her classroom once remarked “Do you call every pupil ‘darling’ Mrs. Murray?”. Throughout her retirement, Gail was able to devote more of her time to what she enjoyed most in life – reading, travelling and of course her family. She often combined all three. Gail relished family holidays, particularly to the USA, and to spending time with her daughters, Carys and Wendy, both Former Pupils of the School, and their families. Carys now lives in Lancashire and Wendy in North Berwick, where Gail was a frequent visitor. Her four grandchildren, Lucy, Jonathan, Charlie and Alfie, loved her kindness, her generosity and her infectious sense of fun. One of her final outings was to her eldest grandchild’s graduation ceremony at Lancaster University in July 2019. As she had always loved helping Lucy with her History and English homework, Gail (despite being in a wheelchair) was thrilled to witness her granddaughter receive her First Class Degree and prize for being an outstanding student. For her family, friends and all who had the pleasure of knowing her, Gail’s absence is like the sky, spread over everything.

He was a hugely dedicated member of the School’s Combined Cadet Force and was a crucial member of staff on numerous camps, exercises, parades and weekly training. Dave brought a calm good sense and pragmatism, combined with a kindness and compassion which ensured excellent pastoral care at all times. Our Rector Lise Hudson has said, “Dave was such a warm-hearted and genuine colleague. His quiet manner belied his deep intellect and passion for teaching and engaging with the young people in his care. He was beloved by his pupils and was a teacher who thought deeply about how to bring out the best in every individual. “Dave always took particular time to check in that all was going well. He frequently popped his head round office and classroom doors or stopped in the corridor to ask how everything was going. We will always remember his kind words of encouragement at difficult times. He was totally committed to HSD and passionate about the opportunities that the School provided for young people.” Our CCF Contingent Commander, Colin McAdam, also paid tribute to Dave saying, “From the outset, he showed himself to be passionately committed to the development of the unit as well as to the enhancement of the cadet experience for all the cadets he interacted with. “I greatly valued his loyalty and diplomacy as well as his selfless commitment and respected the pride he had in wearing the uniform and serving as an officer in the Dundee High School CCF.” Lise Hudson also highlighted, “Most importantly Dave was a devoted father and husband who understood the importance of family life to all that he met professionally and personally. Dave is going to be hugely missed by us all.”

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High School of Dundee Merchandise On the next couple of pages you are able to view our selection of High School of Dundee Merchandise which would all make fantastic Christmas presents! The profit made from all orders will be allocated to our HSD Foundation Account and will benefit our Bursary Fund, Capital Projects and General Fund. Print by Nael Hanna – 1 £500.00

Print by Nael Hanna – 2 £500.00

In 2013, the School commissioned two new, original works to realise in a contemporary interpretation the life of the School today. These unique oil paintings by renowned artist Nael Hanna are available in limited numbers as large, impressive and impactful framed prints.

Professionally produced using the highest quality giclée printing method on international gallery standard acid-free paper. They will be double mounted with bevelling, and will be realised in a heavy French grey frame, hand finished with gold leaf and glazed to provide a truly exquisite finish.

Prints are commissioned, numbered and signed by the artist individually at the time of your order.

On completion, we will arrange for collection at a mutually convenient time from the Development Office.

Ask Bob signed by the author £9.99

Why Me? signed by the author £6.99

Bob Servant £5.99

Friendship in a Time of War £15.00

Mug £15.00

Delete This at Your Peril signed by the author £6.99

Notebook £5.00

Alumni News

Key Ring – Universal £7.50

Cufflinks – Brass Plated £15.00

Cufflinks – Nickel Plated £20.00

Fridge Magnet £3.00

Key Ring – Executive £20.00

Memory Stick – 8GB £12.00

Former Pupil Tie Polyester £15.00 Silk £20.00

Old Boys’ Club Tie £20.00

Pen – Executive £28.00

Dux of the School £5.00

Golf Umbrella £30.00

Whisky – 5cl £12.00

NEW

Golf/Pipe Band Towel £10.00

NEW

Handbag Umbrella £13.00

Postage & Packaging

NEW

Former Pupil Lambswool Scarf £20.00

NEW

Apron £12.00

Order online now at the following web address: www.highschoolofdundee.org.uk/browse

UK Collection Orders under £29.99 Orders over £30

Free £3.99 £4.99

EU Orders under £29.99 Orders over £30

£5.99 £7.99

Rest of the World Orders under £29.99 Orders over £30

£7.99 £9.99

Please note shipping costs for the Golf Umbrella will incur a higher delivery charge than the above to accommodate appropriate P&P.

Alternatively: Telephone: +44 (0)1382 202 921 E-mail: development@highschoolofdundee.org.uk

Enjoy a festive treat on us with 10% off our retail line items throughout December and January using the code XMAS10. Offer available from 01/12/2020 until 15/01/2021. Please note that the School will be closed for the festive period from 18/12/2020 until 06/01/2021. If you place an order during this time, please expect delivery of your item(s) anytime from 11/01/2021 onwards.

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We’ve Got You Covered!

Our new range of Former Pupil Scarves made from Scottishsourced lambswool are just the thing to help you wrap up warm this winter. The scarves feature an embroidered HSD Crest and you can choose between the full colour Crest or choose the colour of your old School House, allowing you to show your support for your old school. The full range can be viewed on our online shop. Only £20 (plus postage and packaging).

Never be stuck in the rain again as this classy HSD navy umbrella fits neatly into your handbag. Only £13.00 (plus postage and packaging).

Whether you are standing on the side-lines cheering on the HSD team or out for a walk on the golf course, support your old school with an HSD Golf Umbrella. Only £30 (plus postage and packaging).

Please visit our website to place your order today: www.highschoolofdundee.org.uk/browse. The School will be closed for the festive period from Friday 18th December until Monday 4th January so please ensure you place your order in good time to allow delivery before Christmas. Delivery typically takes 3-5 working days but due to the implications of Covid-19 please be aware that deliveries could take a little longer.

Fundraising Projects

Fundraising Projects Bursaries

Through the generosity of Former Pupils, Parents, Staff and Supporters of the School, we have been able to financially support generations of young people who would otherwise not have had the opportunity to thrive, benefit from a High School of Dundee education and in turn make their mark on the world.

The Gift of an Education – Supporting the Game Changers of Tomorrow!

Your School Needs Your Help Did you receive a bursary and want to pay it forward? You can support the game changers of tomorrow During this past year we, as a school community, have come together to support one another to ensure that all pupils are able to continue at the School despite their family’s change in financial circumstances due to Covid-19. We have financially supported well in excess of our usual 17% of families, but our bursary fund relies upon donations. The children we are supporting are examples of some of the most hardworking, creative talent within the School. These children are the game changers of tomorrow; the entrepreneurs, the scientists

advancing medical research and the key workers, all with ideas to improve the way we work, live and play in the future. We know that not everyone is in a position to help but if you can give even a small donation to our Bursary Fund it may just make all the difference in securing the future of another young person. Please click below to lend your support and help give the gift of an education. www.highschoolofdundee.org.uk/support/bursaries/how-youcan-help Thank you!

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Your Stories To give you an idea of the difference that your support could make to our young peoples’ lives, please take a few minutes to read through stories we have received from our alumni who have benefitted from financial support during their time at the School.

Cameron, Class of 2013

Sarah, Class of 2005

I benefitted from a substantial bursary during my senior years, which allowed me to continue gaining the high quality of education that the School has to offer whilst my mother went into full-time study to complete a nursing degree and to fulfil other roles within the army, which otherwise would not have been possible.

I received a 75% bursary whilst I was at school and the education that I received has definitely stood me in good stead for the rest of my life.

“I believe that the education that I gained at the High School was definitely life-changing.” After receiving excellent support and education from my teachers, I was able to obtain 4 A’s in my Scottish Highers. From these grades, I was accepted into the University of St Andrews, where I graduated with a 2:1 Honours Degree in International Relations & Modern History in 2017.

What I’ve benefitted from the most is certainly exam experience. I went on to study at the University of Glasgow and found that I was not over-faced by the prospect of exams and therefore felt comfortable preparing for them. Somehow, I’ve ended up working in the financial services sector and the exams I had to sit to become CII accredited were definitely easier as a result of my exam experience in school.

“I feel I should also highlight the excellent teaching staff, particularly Miss Smith and Mr. McCulloch, who were both a really great support to me.”

My involvement with the extracurricular activities during my school days, including Duke of Edinburgh and debating, was hugely beneficial to me when applying for a place at university. Since graduating, I have been employed as a Security Consultant, allowing me to work within major mining, oil and gas multinationals located in East Africa.

Mark, Class of 1972

In addition to this, I am also employed by the Royal Navy, which proudly follows in my mother’s footsteps as she is a British Army Reservist Officer serving as the second in command of the 225 Medical Regiment in Dundee.

All of my siblings followed suit and we have all since continued the family tradition of life-long careers with the NHS.

David, Class of 1962 I was accepted into the High School and received a bursary towards my education. After a wonderful time spent at the School, I left in 1961 and went on to train as an Accountant, played rugby and cricket with fellow FPs and overall thoroughly enjoyed my life in Dundee. After completing my training in accountancy, I fancied a complete break and, through family contacts, worked for a summer at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel where I went on to meet the lady who was destined to be my wife. Overall, my education really did set me up for the future and I’m so grateful to have had all of the opportunities and experiences that I did. I hope many other young people are able to continue to benefit from bursarial support for generations to come.

My family – me, my mum, two sisters and wee brother – had just moved to Dundee and friends had recommended the School to me for my secondary education and so I joined in 1966 after sitting and passing the bursary exam.

“I can definitely say that without the financial support of a bursary, there is no way we could have afforded the excellent education and preparation for later life which me and my siblings received at the High School of Dundee.”

Fundraising Projects

“I am very glad that financial support via means of bursaries still exists as it allows for a greater amount of diversity amongst the School community, something which I think is highly important.” I can say that I definitely benefitted from learning in an environment where Higher Education was seen as the norm.

Matthew, Class of 2017 I do wonder what alternative path I would have taken had I not gained the qualifications that were required for entry to study Medicine at the University of Dundee. I was in a bit of a situation during my final year at school and I genuinely feared that I wasn’t going to achieve my Advanced Highers. As a result, I began to feel very anxious.

Sean, Class of 1988 “The High School of Dundee bursary for my F1 to F6 years was certainly transformative in terms of the education that I was able to experience and in supporting my future career.” My mother had suffered from TB when she was young, spending a lot of her earlier years in hospital, and so she started her earning career much later in life. As a single parent, life could be tough but at the same time the support and opportunity the High School bursary provided me with was invaluable. Through the excellent support from my teachers, I was able to enter Heriot-Watt University to study Building Economics & Quantity Surveying. DHS Economics classes served me well to enter this field of study and I graduated with a 1st Class Honours. My school music teachers and physics teachers were inspiring, and this stimulated a later interest to couple acoustics, vibration and structural dynamics into a future PhD study investigating mathematical models of vibration in buildings. The application of these complex models could then be applied to other structures and I was appointed as a research fellow and funded by the government defence research agency to investigate vibration in helicopters and aircraft. My mother passed away in 1996 and sadly never saw many of the pathways and outcomes for me from the seeds planted by her and the Dundee High School community. I know how much the bursary meant to her as a keystone of support. For me I am eternally grateful in how it positively shaped my education and career and to the great friends I still have from the Class of 1988.

“The High School of Dundee pulled out all of the stops to ensure that I got back on track with my studies and subsequently onto the career path which I had in mind for my future.” From the outset, Dr. Halliday showed a genuine interest in my education when we met whilst I was volunteering at an event. I was taken aback when he expressed a desire to help me, even though we had only just met. I want to express my gratitude to the School for allowing me to complete my school education there, to my peers for welcoming me to their school and giving me a sense of belonging, to the Foundation for the financial assistance it provided to support my attendance, to the teachers for their dedication and hard work; to Mrs. Hudson for her compassion and empathy; and finally and most importantly to Dr. Halliday for taking the time to speak with me at the event where we first met.

Kirsty, Former Parent I cannot thank the High School of Dundee enough for helping us during my son’s final year of school. A bit of a situation occurred and Matthew began expressing his concerns that he was underachieving in the Advanced Highers he was studying. It was during November that Matthew had a chance encounter at an event he was attending. He was conversing with a gentleman there who showed great concern and said how keen he would be to support and assist Matthew to achieve his dream. It was a little later that Matthew realised he was speaking to the Rector of the High School of Dundee! After an informal meeting and a couple of taster days, we decided that Matthew would move to the High School and I am happy to report that Matthew has never looked back.

“Everyone took him under their wings, he received excellent pastoral care and his teachers went above and beyond to ensure Matthew got back on track with his studies.” Matthew achieved the results he needed and was accepted to study Medicine at the University of Dundee. He loves what he is doing and there is no doubt that he has made the right decision with his career choice. We are thankful that he was given the opportunity to attend the School, thus ensuring that he was equipped with the necessary qualifications to follow his chosen path.

Hamish, Class of 1997 With two parents working as full-time nurses, it’s quite unlikely that I could have attended the High School for six years if it weren’t for the financial assistance my parents received. I was very fortunate that the Assisted Places Scheme was still active during my time at the School; it was abolished virtually at the same time that I completed sixth form.

I remain eternally grateful to the School for the support they not only provided to Matthew but also to myself. We received a bursary for Matthew to attend the School and complete his final year. As a single parent this alleviated any additional financial concerns. Without this assistance, I fear that Matthew might not have been able to achieve his desired results and would not now be pursuing the career of his dreams.

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Fundraising Projects

How You Can Support Us

All donations to our fundraising projects are greatly appreciated, no matter how large or small. By making a donation, you will become part of our community of donors who understand and value our school’s capacity to advance the next generation. We are trying to encourage and introduce a culture of engagement with our alumni, supporters and the wider High School community with the hope that this will in turn encourage a culture of philanthropy towards projects and campaigns that will be of benefit to our young people and also the wider Dundee community for years to come. For many people, the first step onto the giving ladder is by making an Individual Gift and it is one of the most popular ways of making a donation to The High School of Dundee Foundation.

As Simple As A Cup Of Coffee Small amounts really do add up. If everyone on our database were to give up the cost of a cup of coffee per day for a year, we would be able to raise an incredible and target-smashing amount. Assuming a cup of coffee costs £2.75, this would equate to £1003.75 per year per person. If you factored in each person on our database, this could generate around £130,487.50 every single year overall! Applying Gift Aid to these donations would further increase the overall total per annum. A cup of coffee with Gift Aid applied would be £3.44 per day. Assuming everyone on our database could claim Gift Aid, this would total £1255.60 per person per year and would generate an overall yearly figure of £163,228.00!!

Understanding Gift Aid

We are able to welcome Individual Gifts in a variety of ways, for example by cheque, cash, credit/debit card or by completing our online/hard copy giving forms.

The Gift Aid Scheme enables the School to claim tax relief on all donations made by UK taxpayers, automatically increasing the value of your gift by 25% and at no additional cost to you!

Our Regular Giving welcomes people into a recurring and repeating philanthropic relationship with the School. Typically, our Regular Donors give monthly, quarterly or annually. This is the area where participation is the key as there is strength in numbers!

On our online and hard copy Giving Forms, there is the option to tick a box to confirm that you wish to include Gift Aid with your donation. By doing so, this allows us to reclaim basic rate tax on the value of any gift. However, please note that if, in any tax year, you pay less Income Tax / Capital Gain Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all of your donations, it will be your responsibility to pay the difference.

Fundraising Projects

What Legacy Will You Leave? Making Your Mark

Every Gift Counts

Through the generosity of Former Pupils, parents, staff and supporters of the School we have been able to support generations of young people who would otherwise not have had the opportunity to thrive, make their mark on the world and in turn make a difference to the lives of others.

Leaving a planned gift is a very personal decision. After considering the needs of your family and loved ones, you might want to leave a gift to the School. Your gift can include a monetary donation, or a part of your estate, property, works of art, a policy or trust.

We truly believe that we can inspire our young people to reach their true potential, to become true game changers and create a positive impact on our society. If you have been touched in some way by HSD – perhaps while you were a pupil, or through your interactions as an alumni, or whilst you were a member of our staff or even as a member of the wider community – we invite you to consider making HSD a beneficiary in your will so that our young people can continue to thrive. Over the years, HSD has evolved and grown to meet the everchanging needs of our young people. We are committed to creating a vibrant hub where pupils have the best facilities to cultivate their education and shape their future.

Why I’m Leaving A Legacy Now could be the perfect time to start thinking about what you would like to leave behind and create your own legacy. A planned gift could support a pupil in need and allow them to achieve their full potential. Likewise, support for our capital projects contributes towards amazing facilities for the benefit of generations to come.

When you leave a planned gift to HSD, you can specify how you would like your funds to be used, or let the School allocate the funds on your behalf. Are you interested in music, art or science? Perhaps you would like to support a certain area or activity. If you are unsure which area to support, you can direct your planned gift to a specific part of the curriculum, co-curriculum, the estate or the School in general (where we will direct your contribution to the area of greatest need). Whether you would like to establish a fund in your name, or in the name of a loved one, or leave your gift anonymously please reach out to the Development Office who will be more than happy to talk through your gift intention so we are able to honour your wishes. By pledging a gift to the School in your Will, you will become a member of our Heritage Society, kindly set up by the HSD Foundation. As a member you will be invited to a selection of school events throughout the year, including our annual Reunion event in June. To become a member of the Heritage Society, please complete one of our Legacy Pledge Forms outlining your gift intentions in your Will: forms.gle/kNYAyHzv6gjota3y6

It’s never too early to start thinking about what you could leave behind. Now could be the perfect time to create your legacy.

“My family and I have all benefitted from a High School education over the years. We had very different abilities and interests but each of us were able to find something that inspired our journey beyond the Pillars. I truly believe that without “I’m really happy to have this influence we would not made a legacy to the High have had the confidence to School of Dundee which I pursue our dreams and be hope will benefit children where we are today. For for generations to come. this reason, I would like to It was easy to set up, tax leave a legacy to make a free and the team in the contribution towards the Development Office were lives of other families at our great, making the whole school.” process smooth and straightforward.” Anonymous Donor

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Donor Roll Here we honour and thank all of our donors who have made a philanthropic gift to the High School of Dundee during the period 01/01/2014 – 01/11/2020. All of these generous donations have been administered through the High School of Dundee Foundation. Over the next few pages you can see our list of Donors who have donated directly to our Bursary Fund and Capital Projects (including the Former Post Office Building).

Donations To Bursaries Class Leaving Class Leaving Name Year Year Name Year Year Anonymous Mr. William M. Hamilton 1961 Anonymous Mr. Derek M. Harwood 1972 Anonymous Dr. David C. B. Holt 1965 1964 Anonymous Prof. James D. Hutchison 1973 Anonymous 1940 Dr. Robert L. D. Jones 1970 Anonymous 1963 1962 Mrs. Fiona M. Kempton (née Lowe) 1979 Anonymous 1965 Mr. Adam J. King 1993 Anonymous 1974 1973 Mr. Alexander H. Macfarlane Smith 1999 Anonymous 1981 1974 Mrs. Alexandrina G. McGrory 1988 Anonymous 1981 Dr. Graeme P. McNeill 1962 Anonymous 1992 Mr. Stuart D. K. Pemble 1988 Friends of the High School of Dundee Prof. Caroline Pringle (née MacEwan) High School of Dundee Trust Appeal Fund Prof. Stuart D. Pringle 1973 Lethendy Charitable Trust Dr. Thomas Pullar Mr. Eric G. Anderson 1958 Mr. David C. Reid 1952 Mr. Douglas J. Barnet 1959 Mrs. Jane Richardson (née Picton) 1979 Dr. Peter M. Barrie 1977 1976 Mr. Michael C. Richardson 1952 Miss Wendy L. Barrie Mr. Mudie Barrie & Mrs. Mr. G. Fraser Ritchie 1960 Louise Barrie (née Gabriel) 1973 1972 Mrs. Ann E. Schmidt (née Grewar) 1994 Mrs. L. D. Pamela Braid (née Gibson) 1949 Mr. Alastair G. Scott 1966 Mr. Kenneth J. Clark 1951 1950 Mr. Charles M. Sharp Mrs. Karen E. Cowan (née Leadbitter) 1986 Mrs. Katrina H. Shearer (née Leadbitter) 1989 Mr. Campbell Davis 1997 Mr. Gordon C. & Mrs. Maureen Stewart Dr. J. Neil de Villiers Dr. Peter & Mrs. Emma-Jane Strachan Mr. Malcolm A. Dougall 1958 Mr. Rodger H. Thom 1959 Sir A. Patrick M. Forrest 1940 Mrs. Margaret T. Thomas Mr. Alexander E. Gardner 1988 1987 Mr. John C. Vannet 1972 Dr. Anne M. Gibson (née Thomson) 1948 Mr. Leslie & Mrs. Gail R. M. Young

Donations to our Capital Projects (including the Former Post Office Building) Class Leaving Class Name Year Year Name Year Anonymous Anonymous 1960 Anonymous Anonymous 1960 Anonymous Anonymous 1960 Anonymouss Anonymous 1961 Anonymous Anonymous 1965 Anonymous Anonymous 1966 Anonymous Anonymous 1968 Anonymous Anonymous 1970 Anonymous Anonymous 1973 Anonymous Anonymous 1976 Anonymous 1940 Anonymous 1981 Anonymous 1942 Anonymous 1991 Anonymous 1947 Adamston (Farms) Ltd Anonymous 1949 1948 Aitken & Niven Anonymous 1952 Amati Global Investors Limited Anonymous 1953 1947 Border Embroideries Anonymous 1953 CLIC Choir Anonymous 1954 Dundee High School Old Boys' Club Anonymous 1956 Dundee HSFP RFC

Leaving Year 1959

1964 1965 1967

1974

Fundraising Projects

Class Leaving Name Year Year Edinburgh FX Ltd Henderson Loggie Chartered Accountants High School of Dundee Foundation High School of Dundee Old Girls' Club High School of Dundee Parents' Association J A Tombazis Charitable Trust James Keiller Estates Ltd Medinrun Limited Mrs A V U Brown's Charitable Trust Struan Baptie Property Management Ltd Sutherland Management Tay Charitable Trust The Insights Group Ltd The T C Charitable Trust Winter & Simpson Dr. Douglas J. A. Adamson 1982 Mrs. Margaret C. Aitken (née Crawford) 1949 1948 Mr. Bruce M. Allan 1977 Mrs. Helen M. Allan (née Ramsay) 1952 Mr. David B. Anderson & Dr. Gillian V. Orange Mrs. Paula A. Arnott (née Speirs) 1986 Mrs. Joyce S. Avery (née Whyte) 1954 Mr. Robert S. Balfour Captain Guy C. Ballantyne 2007 Mrs. Jan Barklem (née Main) 1977 Mrs. Alison V. Barnett (née Young) 1956 Dr. Peter M. Barrie 1977 1976 Mr. Peter B. Baxter 1973 Mr. David M. Bean 2001 Miss Elizabeth S. Bell 1949 Mrs. Moira B. Bell (née Hardy) 1957 Mr. Iain C. R. & Mrs. Margaret Bett 1965 1963 Miss Margaret Bibb 1939 Mrs. Jennifer A. G. Birks (née Laurie) 1974 Dr. John S. G. Blair 1946 Mrs. L. D. Pamela Braid (née Gibson) 1949 Mrs. Elizabeth M. Brown (née Johnston) 1952 Dr. Maris E. Buchanan 1965 Mr. Richard S. Burnett 1980 Mr. Richard R. J. Burns 1964 Mr. Henry F. Campbell Min Anderson 1964 (née Campbell) Miss Morag H. Campbell 1946 1945 Mr. Nicholas G. Carnegie 1980 Mr. Alan D. Clark 1950 Mrs. Katherine Clark Miss Kathleen M. Clark 1953 1952 Mrs. Louise H. Clark Mrs. Sally M. Clark (née Haslock) 1959 1958 Mr. William J. Clark 1968 1967 Prof. Jan E. Clarkson Mr. Dennis F. Collins 1948 1947 Mrs. Elspeth Collins Mr. David A. Comb 1967 Rev. Johnathan H. Copus Mrs. Dorothy M. R. Copus 1962 1955 (née Simpson) Dr. Ruth Cotton Mr. Stuart J. Coull 1998 Miss Gillian Craig 2011 Mrs. Maita Crowe The Rt. Hon. The Lord Cullen of Whitekirk KT 1953 Mr. James & Mrs. Lucy Cuthill Mrs. Janice S. Davidson Mrs. Morag Davie Dr. Jean S. Davis (née Thomson) 1956 Mr. Stephen B. Davis 1977 Dr. John A. & Mrs. Frances J. Dent Mr. William F. Dewar 1962 Dr. W. F. Morrison Dorward 1945 Rev. Elspeth Dougall (née Swinton) 1954 Mr. Malcolm A. Dougall 1958 Mr. R. Michael Duckworth 1963 Miss Patricia M. Duff 1969

Class Name Year Mr. A. Michael Duncan Mr. Angus S. Duncan Mr. Hugh D. Duncan 1955 Miss Jennifer A. Dunlop 1961 Mr. Grant C. Elliot 1961 Mr. Edward G. Findlay Mr. Harvie L. Findlay 1965 Mr. Dougal Fisken Mrs. Ann Forbes (née McGregor) 1958 Mr. Ross D. & Mrs. Emma Forster 1997 Dr. Alison Franks 1980 Mr. & Mrs. S. Fyffe Dr. Esme L. Gates 1996 Mrs. Valerie Gauld Dr. Anne M. Gibson (née Thomson) 1948 Mr. Richard Gillis 1968 Mr. Ronald S. I. & Mrs. Katherine F. Goodfellow 1963 Mr. Donald N. & Mrs. Alison Gordon Mrs. Caroline Gordon Mrs. Jean E. Gray Dr. Brian Gribbin 1956 Mr. Ronald S. Grieve & Mrs. Sheila M. Grieve 1942 Mr. A. Ross Gunn 1950 Mrs. Rebecca Gunn Mrs. Louise M. Hackney (née McLean) 1945 Dr. John D. & Mrs. Anna M. Halliday Mrs. Isabel M. Harvey (née Douglas) 1958 Mr. Derek M. Harwood 1972 Miss Elizabeth K. Henderson Mrs. Janette M. N. Hetherington (née Weatherhead) 1956 Mrs. Wendy E. Hines (née McPherson) 1965 Dr. W. Stuart Hislop 1966 Mr. Ewan E. Hooper 1953 Dr. Rosemary L. Hopford (née Campbell) 1963 Dr. Caroline A. Howitt Mrs. Lise A. M. Hudson Mr. David D. Hume 1955 Mr. James Hunter 1957 Mrs. Julie K. Husband Mr. Christopher W. Ide Mr. Oliver A. & Mrs. Charlotte E. M. Jackson-Hutt Dr. Albert Jacob 1948 Mr. Walter L. Jacob 1953 Dr. Robert L. D. Jones 1970 Miss Pauline R. Kay Butler 1948 Mr. Paul M. Kidd 2015 Mr. Charles Frederick Lawson Mrs. Sheena Leadbitter Mrs. Patricia S. Leishman (née Edger) Mr. Roger T. Leslie 1962 Mr. Gavin A. F. Lickley 1964 Mr. Peter Linquiti Mr. Cedric D. Fraser 1908 Mrs. Edith Linton Mr. George R. Linton 1947 (née Ferguson) Dr. Elizabeth M. Logie-MacIver 1974 Mr. Andrew J. Lothian Mr. Alistair J. Low 1960 Mr. William & Mrs. Sheila Low 1984 Prof. Gordon D. Lowe 1967 Mr. Gordon M. Lyle 1957 Miss Charlotte M. Lythe 1959 Rev. Finlay A. & Mrs. Elizabeth M. MacDonald 1963 Mrs. Marjory M. MacDonald (née Booth) 1968 Ms. Patricia MacDonald 1966 Mrs. Moira A. MacFarlane (née Robertson) 1962 Mr. Alexander H. Macfarlane Smith 1999 Mr. Edward N. MacFarlane Smith 1991 Dr. David & Dr. Isla MacKenzie Dr. Derek Maclean Mrs. Elizabeth MacNee (née Kinnear) 1965 Dr. William R. MacRae 1951 Mrs. Frances Martin (née Tetlow) Mr. John C. Mason 1954

Leaving Year

1949

1964 1952

1952

1963

1965

1950

79

80

Fundraising Projects

Class Leaving Class Leaving Name Year Year Name Year Year Miss Angela V. Mathers 1964 1958 Dr. Ian A. Ramsay 1958 1953 Mr. Christopher G. Matheson-Dear 1981 Mr. Christopher W. W. Rea 1963 Miss Joan C. Matthewson 1967 Miss Deryn A. Rees Mrs. Evelyn Rees 1950 1949 Mrs. Isabel M. McCulloch (née Boyd) 1954 1952 (née Bowman) Mrs. Fenella J. McDonald Dr. Andrew H. Reid Mr. Gus & Mrs. Anne McDonald Mr. J. Douglas Rew 1964 1960 Mrs. Dorothy McGill (née Borrie) 1963 Dr. Nigel Reynolds Mrs. Elizabeth A. McInnes (née Laird) 1946 1941 Mr. Michael C. Richardson 1952 Mrs. Elspeth McIntyre Mr. Dan O. Richterich Mr. Martin McKay Dr. Joan M. Ritchie 1971 1970 Dr. James F. McKellican 1956 Mr. John Robertson Prof. Jeffrey E. McLachlan 1949 1948 Dr. David A. Rorie 1967 Dr. Jane M. McNeill 1972 Prof. Michael Rosen 1945 1944 Miss Louise E. S. McNeill 1994 The Rt. Hon. The Lord (Donald M. Ross) 1944 Mr. Ronald & Mrs. Beth McNicol Miss Ann Rothwell 1963 1962 Mr. George D. McPherson 1935 Mrs. Catherine S. P. Rutherford Mrs. Sally M. Mearns (née Knight) 1948 Mrs. Judith A. Sansom (née Leslie) 1961 1960 Mr. John F. Mee 1968 Mr. Alastair G. Scott 1966 Dr. A. Paul Meredith 1969 Mrs. Vivien F. Scott (née Wood) 1966 1964 Mr. Ian W. Miller 1965 Mrs. Margaret Scott Brown Dr. Peter G. Mills Dr. G. W. Mills 1963 1958 Mrs. Isabel M. Scrimgeour (née Ogilvy) 1953 1952 Mrs. Margaret D. Montgomery (née White) 1951 Prof. Ian. E. Smith 1964 Mr. David Moore & Mrs. Dorothy Moore Mr. Kish Srinivasan Mrs. Kirsten Wallace (née Ison) & Mr. Alexander Mr. Ian S. Stark 1951 1950 Dr. Lionel S. Steuart Fothringham 1991 1981 (Sandy) Moore Mr. A. Dawson Stewart Mrs. Camilla M. Moorjani Mr. Adrian A. Stewart 1960 Mr. Mukesh Moorjani Mrs. Jean Stimson (née Baird) 1964 Dr. Michael J. L. Mort 1962 1961 Mr. Richard J. Stiven 1971 Miss F. Annabel Murday Mr. Raymond D. Strachan 1944 1943 Mr. Alex Murdoch Mrs. Elizabeth Sturrock Mr. David & Mrs. Yunchao Murdoch Mrs. Eleanor J. Sunderland (née Dunbar) Mrs. Ann P. Murray (née Cumming) 1962 Mr. Stephen R. Swinton Mrs. Audrey C. Murray (née Melvin) 1973 1972 Mr. Kazumitsu Takahashi 1976 Dr. Gordon Murray 1954 Mrs. Marjory M. Thom (née Foote) 1962 Mr. Kenneth M. Murray 1977 Mr. Gary Thomson Mrs. M. Ann Murray Mrs. Elizabeth E. Tones (née McCulloch) 1976 1975 Mrs. Frances R. Napier 1966 1964 Mrs. Kirsty H. Turnbull Dr. James R. Nicoll Rev. James & Mrs. Jane Turrent Mr. Robert & Mrs. Hilary Nimmo Sheriff Alfred D. Vannet Mr. William P. Vannet, 1967 Mrs. Joan B. Noble (née Grant) 1969 1963 Mrs. Jean Vannet (née Low) Miss Suzie E. Ogilvie 1993 Mrs. Alison J. Paterson (née Sim) 1973 & Mr. John C. Vannet Mr. Cameron J. Paterson 1979 Mrs. Valerie A. Vannet (née Reid) 1972 Mrs. Pamela J. Paterson (née Rollo) 1963 Mr. Charles E. Walker Mr. Jim Patrick Katrina Patrick & Mr. Derek K. Walmsley 1965 1963 Michael Patrick Mrs. Kathleen M. Watt (née Ross) 1953 Miss Kathleen M. Patrick 1962 1953 Mr. John L. Webster 1953 1952 Mr. James Pearson Mr. A. Michael Wedderburn 1987 Mrs. Maureen Pearson (née Ritchie) 1957 Mr. Alastair J. B. White 1955 Mrs. Rosamunde Pilcher Mr. Ian B. White 1949 Mr. Matthew K. Powrie 2009 Mr. Michael Woischneck Mr. D. Howard Price Mr. J. Harvey R. Wright 1956 1954 Mr. Norman H. Price 1968 1963 Mr. John D. Yeaman 1953 Mr. Ronald W. Pringle Mr. Ronald W. Pringle 1956 1955 Mr. William S. Young Dr. Janice Provan (née Ross) 1980 1979

Olim Cives Where donors are now deceased their name is recognised in italics. Where donations have been made in memoriam, the donor’s name is immediately followed by the name of the deceased, which is in italics.

Charitable Status The High School of Dundee is a charity, registered in Scotland under the following nomenclature: Corporation of The High School of Dundee (SC011522), High School of Dundee Foundation (SC030842), and the High School of Dundee Scholarship Fund (SC011441).

Artwork by Elizabeth Lang F5

the

Gift Education of an

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