Kingswood Association News 2017

Edition 13: June 2017

contEnts INTROdUCTION & WELCOME 1 3 3 4 5 6

Editor’s Introduction Letters to the Editor Forthcoming Events President’s Welcome Chairman’s Review Executive Committee

ACAdEMIC AChIEVEMENT 10 12 14

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An Academic School?

Leavers’ Destinations, 2016 Gary Best Travel Scholarship - Lizzie Suddaby - George Logut

gLOBAL FOOTPRINT 20 25 28

30

37

Alumni Around the World What Are You Doing Now? Visitors to Kingswood

PROFESSIONAL dEVELOPMENT 33 34 35 36

A New Approach to Mentoring Fireside Chats Visa Europe IT and Technology Higher Apprenticeship Careers Seminars

SPORT & SOCIAL

51 FEATURES 18 30 37 51

Bath & Hull - An Unlikely Bond?

History Uncovered Dormitory Antics Remembering the Somme

40 42 46 48

Association Day Social Events Class of ‘96 Reunion Sports Results

BIRThS, dEAThS & MARRIAgES 52 53 61

Lives Remembered Obituaries Marriages & Births

FRONT COVER The watercolour has been reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Finola Duchars.

Her husband Keith was a keen and talented artist who painted this picture as a wedding present to a member of Kingswood staff. The new logo is the result of the school rebranding exercise.

Introduction & Welcome

Editor’s Introduction I am delighted to be given the opportunity to edit the Association magazine and I feel privileged to follow in the footsteps of previous editors who have delivered a first class magazine that is newsworthy, interesting and informative.

I endeavour to maintain these high standards in this year’s publication which not only looks back on a busy year of considerable change, but more importantly looks forward to ways of fostering an improved relationship between the alumni and the school. But first let me provide you with a little bit of background to put into context why I am responsible for editing this magazine especially as I am not an alumnus of this distinguished establishment.

Simon Brand

and deliver a range of activities and events to achieve the Association’s objectives, and ensure that they are professionally managed and costeffectively delivered. Based in the school a few days a week, I act as the focal point for the development of a strong relationship between the alumni and the school and vice versa. My principal aim is to build a relationship with the alumni and encourage them to engage with the school in whatever way they feel able; this is definitely not about

My principal aim is to build a relationship with the alumni and encourage them to engage with the school in whatever way they feel able.

In February 2016 I answered a job advert for an Alumni Relations Officer to work part time at Kingswood School whose key responsibilities are to act as the secretary and manage the day to day affairs of the Association, plan

financial support but rather investing their time and expertise in the activities at the school to educate the student cohort and enhance the Kingswood community. It is also about increasing alumni awareness of the role and relevance

of the Association in their lives after school such that they are able to benefit from a network of likeminded individuals who share the same values and ethos and can readily support each other.

So the challenge in my first year has been to devise a broad programme of events that encourage alumni to network with each other and engage with the student cohort. This is not to say that previous activities have not been useful or worthwhile; far from it as there have been many events which have stood the test of time and remain as popular today as they have always been, but rather to build on this foundation and introduce new events which appeal to a wider range of alumni, especially those who have left the school within the last 5 years.

My hope is that as you read through the magazine and note the variety and breadth of activities that have taken place already you may be inspired to think of other alternative activities or perhaps volunteer to take part in a few of them. Whether it be acting as a mentor to support the students in preparing themselves for university and their professional lives beyond,

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Introduction & Welcome attending a reunion or other social event, representing the alumni in the Past v Present sports fixtures or offering to give a talk about a contemporary subject of interest to students, staff and parents, there are many avenues where you could help. And this is not a one way street as I trust you will be surprised and enlightened by the energy, inquisitiveness and professionalism of today’s generation of students who represent the future.

I absolutely welcome feedback and encourage you all to let me know your thoughts as the Association is only as strong as its members and we continually need to adapt to maintain relevance.

I absolutely welcome feedback and encourage you all to let me know your thoughts as the Association is only as strong as its members.

I am struck by the number of emails I receive from alumni reminiscing about certain individuals at school and their antics, and providing old photos to support their points. Sadly most of these occur when a death is announced but ZoĂŤ the archivist and I would be delighted to receive your anecdotes and stories at any time. Too often memories are lost before they have been properly documented so my plea is for all of you to correspond with us regularly and let us know your thoughts.

You would be surprised at the joy alumni have in seeing their faces on old school photos when they

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visit to take part in professional or social events, but without the generosity of those who provide the pictures and stories this would all be lost for future generations.

On the subject of staying in touch and providing feedback, I appreciate there are limitations with the current IT system which does not make it easy to correspond with each other and for me to inform you of the exciting events taking place for which I need your support. Rest assured I am looking at different ways to see how this may be improved through the upgrade of the website and the introduction of a closed Facebook page but in the meantime, I would be grateful if you could verify your email / home address by dropping me a line or filling in the Association Form on the website. It is noticeable how many emails and hard copy documents are undeliverable due to the address being incorrect, therefore I encourage you all to get in touch and let me know how you wish to be informed of forthcoming events. Whilst you are updating this information perhaps you would kindly let me know if you would be willing to offer up your time / expertise to support the current student cohort and in which field you have expertise.

My aim is to build up a database of alumni with expertise across a wide range of professions from whom I could request support in the future. To meet a short term goal I am interested in those of you who have expertise and experience in social media, coaching and mentoring, leadership training, the environment and the UN. On the subject of getting in touch, I would be grateful if you could let me know your view on whether you support adverts appearing in this magazine in the future. Clearly there are financial advantages to including advertisements and they may be of benefit to some of the readership, but there are also disadvantages

which need to be factored into the final decision. The Executive Committee has discussed this issue but thought it appropriate that your views be sought as this represents a fundamental change to the magazine.

Michele greene

Finally, I would like to thank my colleague Michele Greene for her wisdom, advice and patience in supporting me during this last year.

Her extensive experience honed after 25 years as a parent of Rhona (KS 1999-2006), Kelly (KS 20012006) and Amy (KS 1997-2012), a member of the Friends Committee and an employee makes her an invaluable source of information and knowledge, and has made my job significantly easier as a result.

I trust you enjoy reading this edition and look forward to hearing your views and stories.

Simon Brand

Introduction & Welcome

lEttErs to tHE Editor i value receiving news and feedback from Association members, so please do get in touch. you can email me at smb@kingswood.bath.sch.uk Dear Editor, You might mention in the next magazine that I have had another Plotinus book published entitled, ‘Ennead IV.7 On the Immortality of the Soul: translation and commentary’, published by the Parmenides Press based (rather implausibly) in Las Vegas.

Barrie Fleet (1951-1957) Dear Editor, I owed Michael Bishop a special debt of gratitude. I came to Westwood from Prior’s Court academically a year behind.

I was described as a late developer. I am still waiting. I was put in 3rd Sedge: a class for naughty boys and the intellectually challenged. Mr Sedgeley understood that sort of boy. After a term with him I was top of the class for the first and last time throughout my schooling. I was promoted to the 4th Form and decided on classics. Mr Bishop had to teach me Latin and Greek from scratch. This he did with one to one tutorials, nothing too much trouble, for no payment.

40 years later I remember to thank him.

Best wishes, Peter Monahan (1951-1958) Dear Editor, I enjoyed reading Geoff Barraclough’s letter in Edition 12 with its reminiscences of Rupert Davies as school chaplain in the 1940s. One thing he didn’t mention is the liberal perspective on the Christian faith which was shown to us by Rupert, and

by A B Sackett as headmaster, and which is still so much needed today. For example, even in RE lessons in the lower forms, we were given a view of how the Bible came to be written which made us aware that it should not be treated as infallible, since its authors were very human and didn’t always agree! Seventy years later I remain very grateful to Kingswood for these insights, without which I don’t think I could have remained within the Church.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS Please note the following events that are planned for the remainder of 2017.

Please visit our website (www.kingswood.bath.sch.uk) for further details or follow us on Facebook at Kingswood school Alumni.

PROFESSIONAL dEVELOPMENT 9 November

Fireside Chat

November dtbc

Careers Seminar

SOCIAL 13 October

Lunch at the Exeter Golf & Country Club

18 November

23-33 Event at the Café du Marche, London

November dtbc

Undergraduate Event, Cardiff University

SPORT 15 july

Avon 7s, Avon RFC, Batheaston

28 August

Cronk Cunis U21 Rugby Event, London

2 September

Rugby v Prior Park, Kingswood

2 September

Past v Present Girls Hockey, Kingswood

September dtbc

Old Girls Hockey Tournament, Coventry

October dtbc

Old Girls Hockey Tournament, Cheltenham

Best wishes Ian Leck (1941-1949)

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Introduction & Welcome

President’s Welcome

For me, the end is in sight. After four years as your President it’s time to step down at the next AGM. Thank you for having me; it’s been an honour to serve and an unexpectedly satisfying way of reconnecting with the School after all these years.

What, if anything, did we achieve?

When Jeremy Wimpress effectively press-ganged me into the position (thank you Jeremy) the Association was in rude good health, mainly due to the time and energy the then President, Chairman and Executive Committee were expending, in partnership with the School Development Office. But if there was a criticism, it was that most of the activity of the Association was serving older Alumni; we weren’t engaging enough with younger leavers. In addition, most of the events were enjoyably social. Nothing wrong with that – except it seemed to some of us that there was more the Association could and should do.

So with the expert help of the Governor’s representative on the Association Executive Committee, the wise and experienced Robert Sandry, and some of the Exec members, we set about planning an Association that provided more ‘products and services’ for more

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Old Kingswoodians, of all ages.

And one which worked more closely with the School, in order to ensure that the activities of the Association were indeed in line with the School’s needs and requirements.

To do this successfully, we judged, we needed to find someone who could run the Association professionally, albeit on a three-daya-week basis; someone who would facilitate the activities of the Exec, help plan and run the programs, liaise with the School, in particular the Head and Deputy Head and (always the most important relationship of all) the fabulous Kingswood Catering Department; and generally provide the resource to make more good things happen.

Generously the School agreed to fund this post. Happily we found the massively over-qualified (he can fly a helicopter and drive a warship), and recently retired Captain Simon Brand RN, to fill the post. Simon has been an absolute godsend to the Association and much of what has been achieved in the last year has been due to him.

There’s still a lot to do and a way

to go. More mentoring and support groups, more University events, more fireside chats, more social events, more sports teams, more regional and international gatherings of Old Kingswoodians, better and more interactive digital platforms, better and more services for those about to leave the School and embark on further education or careers in the real world. All this can and will be done.

One more thing. I’m pleased and proud that we had the foresight to ask Chester Lewis to be your Chairman. Chester is a great guy, a much admired and respected former Head boy. But he won’t mind me saying he’s young to be an alumni organisation chairperson. Most of his predecessors – and indeed most of his colleagues on the Exec – are older gentlemen and ladies. Chester’s role has been to mobilise his age cohort and attract some younger people (and more women) on to the Committee. And while this is also still a work in progress, we are already seeing some beneficial and positive effects. And he’s proved to be an adept chair of our termly meetings.

Finally some thanks. Simon and Chester have been great colleagues and the future health of the Association is now in their hands.

Simon Morris has been an indefatigable supporter, always happy to travel to our events and update OKs on the School. He’s quite a draw actually.

Robert Sandry works tirelessly on behalf of the Association and the School – he must know every inch of the M5 between Taunton and Bristol like the back of his hand. Without Robert we would not have got as far as we have and it would have been considerably less fun too.

And many thanks to Michele Green – parent of OKs, and a constant, energetic and cheerful supporter of all that the Association does.

Lindsay out.

Introduction & Welcome

CHAIRMAN’s REVIEW I have thought a lot about what my first words of welcome to you all should be in the first edition of KAN since being appointed Chairman.

The rest of this magazine will give you a taster of some of the fantastic events and happenings over the past year in the Association, however, I hope to give you an insight into where we are heading and the motivation behind it.

The question I often get asked, usually with a slight degree of caution, is why on earth would a 23-year old Masters student want to spend his time as Chairman of an alumni organisation? This is indeed a good question. However, it is one with a very simple answer that seems to resonate with many of the people that have heard my response.

had the unfortunate experience of hearing me waffle at an event you will know that we have big ambitions for the future; ambitions that we are starting to turn into reality.

In order to create something for everyone it’s important for the Executive Committee to be as diverse in its representation as possible. I am happy to say that we have made great strides over the last months and it was with great pleasure that we welcomed Claire Flint, Rhys Redman, Rosie Wakefield, Kirsty Hall and Gordon Opie to the Executive Committee.

They are already contributing

I want the Association to be something that Old Kingswoodians are proud to be part of.

Kingswood School has left its special mark upon all of us otherwise why would you be reading this long passage of text? I only attended Kingswood for the Sixth Form, but those two years were full on fun, laughter, long-lasting friendships and some success along the way.

I want the Association to be the centre of the community off all those that have left the school.

I want it to be something that Old Kingswoodians are proud to be part of and are excited to attend the next in the series of their favourite event.

We all have our school friends, whom some of us will be in contact with more than others. However, the task I see in front of us is to offer something for everybody as an Association. If any of you who have

hugely and taking on a lot of behind the scenes work.

I believe that a successful Association is underpinned by a strong relationship with the school itself. It is the common denominator that we all share and there are undoubted benefits for both alumni and current students. I want to thank the Headmaster, Simon Morris, for his continued support in the Association’s goals. I believe one of the principal roles of the Association is to try and support recent leavers and the current student body as much as possible, to enable them to succeed in their ambitions and completely fulfil their potential. Our Kingswood community extends far and wide and there is so much that we all have to offer to those currently

studying or starting their careers.

At this point, I want to thank all of those who have worked so hard over the last year. I would like to thank every member of the Executive Committee, past and present, for supporting and leading the Association to where it is today. Especially to Tim Lindsay, who will be stepping down as President after four years of continued dedication. Along with Robert Sandry, they have both used their astonishing talents, worked tirelessly and gone above and beyond to help mastermind an even brighter future for the Kingswood Association. Captain Simon Brand, has been a truly astounding addition to the Association team, working alongside the fantastic Michele Greene to facilitate what has already been an exciting new Association schedule.

Thank you, I couldn’t do anything without your continued support.

With all this in mind, I’m excited for the prospects of the year ahead.

We want to make an organisation that works for you, so please do contact us if you have any ideas or suggestions. Enjoy the following pages and I look forward to seeing you at an event soon!

Chester Lewis

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Executive Committee

Executive Committee Officers President Tim Lindsay (KS 1969-1974) Born in Lincolnshire and brought up in East Africa, Tim was educated at St. Andrew’s School Turi, Kingswood School Bath, Magdalene College Cambridge and Harvard Business School (AMP 155). He has spent 36 years in advertising as, successively, joint managing director of BBH; managing director of Y&R London; CEO, then European President, then Worldwide President of Lowe Howard-Spink / Lowe Lintas / Lowe Worldwide; Chairman of Publicis UK and President of TBWA\UK and Ireland. He has worked with a wide range of clients including LEGO, Levi’s, Stella Artois, Tesco, Smirnoff, Olympus, SAAB, Sony, Electrolux, Heineken, the Independent and Army Recruitment. Tim became CEO of D&AD, the advertising and design awards show and education charity, in September 2011 and is also non-executive chairman of advertising agency network the Gate Worldwide.

In real life he is married to Caroline and has four children; Ben, Georgia, Ella and Jessie. He likes books, art, cooking, skiing, cycling, dogs and Chelsea FC.

Chairman Chester Lewis (KS 2010-2012) Chester finished Kingswood in 2012. After leaving Bath, he headed to the University of Birmingham, where he graduated in 2015 with a BSc in Physics.

Since then, he travelled to Cambodia, supporting a marine conservation project that facilitated the implementation of Cambodia’s first Marine Protected Area (MPA). This experience confirmed his interest in the environmental fields.

He has now returned to education at Imperial College London, studying for a MSc in Environmental Technology - specialising in energy policy. As a strong believer in energy access relieving poverty in developing countries, he aims to complete his MSc thesis on the environmental and social benefits associated with the application of mini-grid electricity systems in rural communities of developing countries. Alongside chairing the Executive Committee and his Masters studies, Chester also contributes to Ocean Optimism: an online global movement to share positive stories and solutions in marine conservation.

HEADMASTER Simon Morris As many of our readers know Simon well, it seemed unnecessary to highlight his career to date. However, his involvement in the committee is paramount to ensuring that the relationship between the Association and the school is developed to mutual benefit and that the objectives of both institutions are aligned where possible.

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Executive Committee

Members Robert Sandry (KS 1956-1965) Having first experienced Kingswood life at Priors Court in 1956 Robert finally left the Senior School in 1965. As a chartered accountant by qualification but latterly as a business development consultant he retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2005. On relocating from Kent to Somerset in 2006 he started to attend Association events and served as Association President from 2008 to 2011. Whilst remaining on the Association Executive he became a member of the School Governing Board where he is currently serving as Chair of the Finance and Estates Committee as well as Governor Representative on the Association Executive.

Fiona Morris (KS 1980-1982) Fiona is the HR Director for Cargill Meats Europe, a business unit for Cargill based in Hereford but with multiple locations in the UK and across Europe.

She joined Cargill in December 2012 after spending 20 years at Kraft. For the last 10 years Fiona spent at Kraft she worked in HR, initially as a Business Partner for Finance and IS before working in a similar role with the Sales and Marketing functions. During this time she was involved in various restructures and outsourcing projects. She took on responsibility for Compensation and Benefits for the UK business and led one of the work streams for Europe for the Global HR Transformation within Kraft. She was also was part of the Integration Leadership Team for the Kraft acquisition of Cadbury leading the HR integration and transformation for the 2 businesses and was Business Change Manager for the entire UK integration. Prior to working in HR, Fiona was in Finance and is a qualified accountant (ACMA). She held a number of roles within Finance working across the entire spectrum of the function including involvement with a number of acquisitions and divestitures. She was a member of the Financial Leadership Team for Kraft for most of her tenure.

Fiona started her Accounting qualifications whilst working as a graduate trainee for Motorola in Swindon. She attended UCL and has a BA Hons in History and a post graduate qualification in Institutional Management from Queen Margaret College in Edinburgh.

Robin Lewis (KS Staff 1973-1986) Robin was appointed to KS staff in 1973 to teach PE and biology, along with 7 others which represented quite a change in the long-established staff brought about by the relatively new Headmaster L.J. Campbell. The group included Marjorie Cross, the first lady ever appointed to teach full-time.

Concurrently (because everyone had to) he spent 3 years as an Assistant Housemaster in Westwood which was the junior boys’ house. Girls had arrived in 1972 but only in the sixth form at that time. He moved to School House as an assistant under Bob ‘Jungle-Jim’ Clark, and took over the house 3 years later. After 13 very happy years he found himself appointed to a prep school headship whilst Kingswood’s Headmaster, Gary Best, rearranged boarding so that School House was converted from a boys’ to a girls’ residence.

He spent 9 years as the head before resigning to support his wife during a serious illness and recovery period. Upon returning to Bath, he became an educational consultant and school inspector, being strong-armed onto the Association Exec by John Allison.

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Executive Committee

Kirsty Allen (KS 1980-1987) Having been one of the first group of girls at Priors Court in 1980 Kirsty progressed on to Kingswood leaving in 1987 to pursue a career in the music industry working at Real World Studios in Box. She is still very much connected to the school with both her daughters attending. She recently joined the committee and is keen to encourage past pupils to continue their relationship with the school.

Stephen Maling (KS 1974-1979) Stephen started his life at Kingswood as an 11 year old border in Westwood and then entered the Upper House 2 years later. The transition to the main school was an upheaval; however the strong community spirit of the house based system helped prepare him for later life. It became apparent that the school aimed to bring out the best in anyone, whether this be in academic studies, at which he was reasonable, sport, in which he was a good runner or art, music and drama, where at least he could sing!

At the time, the school was in transition under the leadership of Laurie Campbell with the progressive introduction of girls and the abolition of dormitory based accommodation. Despite not doing his “A” levels at Kingswood, he was very sad to leave as he truly valued the friends made during his time in the school. Today, he still has these friends and it is always good to see them on his frequent visits to school association events.

Stephen is married to Rachel with 8 year old twins, Annabel and Thomas and lives in Bedfordshire, where he works in the IT industry.

Claire Flint (KS 1980-1982) In her executive career, Claire was Group Human Resources and Brand Director for Oxford Instruments plc, a leading international, nanotechnology tools provider. She served on their Management Board for more than 10 years during a period of significant organic and acquisitive growth and strategic change. Previously, Claire worked for Diageo, Bass Brewing and the National Westminster Bank in a variety of international HR roles.

She now pursues a plural career comprising leadership consulting and Non-Executive Directorships. Recently, she became a Trustee for Scope.

From 2014 to 2016, she joined the Board of the UK National Nuclear Laboratory as part of the Government’s Women on Board scheme. For 2012 to 2016, she sat on the Institute of Physics Campaign Board raising funds to promote the advancement of physics as an engine for education and economic growth.

Claire has a BA in history from London University and a post graduate diploma in labour studies.

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Executive Committee

Rhys Redman (KS 2010-2012) Rhys left Kingswood in 2012 after enjoying 2 unforgettable years in the Sixth Form. After leaving school he started working in Sports Hospitality at the Bath-based VU Limited, employing his wide-sporting knowledge but specialising in events around rugby. After a short-spell in London, Rhys has now returned to Bath to begin a career in construction, whilst running his own smaller sports hospitality business on the side. Rhys was the driving force behind establishing Old Kingswoodians rugby and is now looking to expand the sporting teams and events offered by the Association to more Old Kingswoodians.

Rosie Wakefield (KS 2008-2015) During her time at Kingswood, Rosie was Head Girl in her final year before proceeding to the University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol where she is currently in her second year of a Paediatric Nursing degree. Rosie has enjoyed various hospital and community nursing placements around the South West and has also travelled to Croatia for an overseas nursing placement. This placement allowed her to follow her interest in working with children with additional and complex needs, learning disabilities and autism.

Rosie is passionate about paediatric nursing and has taken over the role of President of the Children’s Nursing Society this year; the society supports all paediatric nursing students at UWE, puts on academic talks and raises money for local charities such as Children’s Hospice South West and Off The Record. In addition to her nursing degree, Rosie works as a Support Worker for adults with learning disabilities and autism.

Gordon Opie (KS 1976-1981 & Senior Deputy Head 2009-Present) Once again, as Gordon is known to many of our readers it seemed unnecessary for him to write a biography, however we are delighted that he has volunteered to join the committee as his knowledge and experience will be of great benefit especially in considering those events which involve alumni and students.

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Academic Achievement

An academic school?

I am not sure the parents always know what they want to, or expect to, hear, though I am quite sure it is on a list of the questions parents are advised to ask heads!

If the question is one of public examination results, then these are clearly in the public domain, and comparisons with other schools based on raw results are easily made. If it is not about examination results, but the place of academic rigour within the school, then it is, of course, an entirely different question. If it is about the place of intellectual curiosity or creativity, then it is a different question still… and a decidedly more interesting one, I suspect.

matter, though it would of course be a manifestly poor school which sought to have its academic success judged purely on these. We were delighted to be placed in the Top 10 of all co-educational boarding and boarding / day schools based on our students’ 2016 A Level results (61% of all grades at A*/A), and equally so to be one of the very few schools in the South West or West to be placed well within the Top 100 of all independent schools.

Kingswood is, of course, a selective school, though deliberately not at all narrowly so; results at this level are achieved through supporting interested – and interesting – students with absolutely first-rate

We want to provide an environment in which students are naturally curious and instilled with a spirit of enquiry, where learning is joyful and even life-changing, Kingswood is, most certainly, an academic school. It is a school where academic pursuits sit right at the centre of every student’s experience. It is certainly not all that matters – we are absolutely wedded to all-round education, where performing arts and creative arts and sport and outdoor pursuits have both status and value, and we believe outstanding pastoral care underpinned by our Christian ethos matters greatly, for this creates the caring and supportive environment in which everything else can flourish – but we are entirely happy, and expect, to be judged by the quality of the academic experience we offer our students.

Public examination results do

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teaching and tutoring. The most pertinent statistic available is the one which measures raw results against the innate ability of each student – what we refer to as ‘value added’ – as this seeks to reflect what actually happens in the school and the academic progress the students make because of the environment in which they are educated. In the Government’s performance tables, Kingswood consistently ranks in the Top 100 schools (of over 4000 state and independent schools which offer post-16 education) for ‘value added’. This certainly reflects the culture of academic aspiration and ambition for every student which is very much a defining characteristic of the school.

We delight in these terrific results and the opportunities they open up for our students beyond school.

For most Kingswood students, the Russell Group universities are a sought after destination; these high level results ensure this pathway is open to them. Yet we hope very sincerely that our academic success will never be measured simply by examination results or university destinations.

We want to provide an environment in which students are naturally curious and instilled with a spirit of enquiry, where learning is joyful and even life-changing, where scholarship is valued for its own sake and where students engaging in the lively debate of interesting ideas is very much part of their everyday experience. Kingswood has always been a school which has sought to prepare its students to make a real difference; one of the most important aspects of this is the encouragement of an open-minded approach to learning which enthusiastically embraces alternative viewpoints and is not limited by the constraints sometimes applied to traditional subject disciplines.

So we are most definitely an academic school, but one whose academic profile has both depth and breadth and which should never be narrowly defined. We are a school whose liberal academic traditions are alive and well – and whose students happen also to achieve exceptional examination results. We are also fortunate indeed to benefit from the independence that allows us to be the way we are, something we, naturally, are most keen to preserve as we aim to provide that outstanding all-round experience for which Kingswood has always been renowned.

Academic Achievement

i am often asked, not least by prospective parents, how academic a school Kingswood is. i am never quite sure what this question really means, or indeed why parents ask that particular question.

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Academic Achievement

LEAVERS’ DESTINATIONS, 2016 NAME

COURSE

Aaron, Peter Aiken, Miles Akiwumi, Oliver Alcott, Ella Alcott, Megan (Meg) Archer-Brown, Esther Barnes, Daniel (Freddie) Bates, Benjamin (Ben) Birch, Hayden Bolotova, Anna Bools, Olivia Brain, Charlie Brock, Jack Brownbridge, Anna Bruce, Dylan Brunt, Wilfred (Wilf) Calvert, Isabel Cameron, Alexander (Alex) Carrion-Sierra, Catalina Charley, Esmée Clague, Charles Clark, Harriet Crowe, Benjamin (Ben) Davies, Charlotte Downie-Ngini, Alexandra (Alexa) Edwards, Peter Feaver, Owen Fong, Wai Chi (Edith) Fraser, Charles (Charlie) Gauntlett, Livia (Livi) Gill, Lillia-Sara (Lillia) Goodwin, Grace Greenway, William (Billy) Gurung, Ashes Gurung, Prapti Haller, Alexander (Alex) Halls, Rupert Hancock, Maxim (Max) Hannon, Christopher Hardman, Jeremy Hart, Olivia Hawkins, Molly Haysom, Harriet Hodgson, Isobel (Izzy) Hughes, Flavia Hurring, Emma Ip, Hon Lam (Gordon) Jackson, Rebekah (Becky) James, Samuel Jeffery, Abigail Keith, Montague (Monty) Kelly, Christopher (Chris) Kerrison, Katya Kremneva, Anna Le Monnier, Anya Liu, Jun Ming (Samuel) Lo, Yu Sum (Kristy) Logut, Kathini MacKenzie, William (Will) McGrath, Jessica Meaden, Yasmine

Gap Year Gap Year; Psychology Geography and Urban & Regional Planning Psychology English and Sociology English & Film Studies with Study Abroad Physics Gap Year; Medicine Gap Year; Business and Marketing Management Architecture Gap Year; Medicine Gap Year Engineering with Integrated Foundation Year English and German Art Foundation Gap Year; History English Literature Mechanical Engineering Gap Year; Business Management Modern Languages & Cultures Gap Year; Philosophy and Politics Criminology and Sociology Business Business Management / Psychology Government Mathematics History English Gap Year Philosophy English Biomedical Sciences General Engineering Information Tech. Management for Business Medicine Gap Year Gap Year; Geography Gap Year Gap Year Mechanical Engineering Geography Gap Year Natural Sciences Fashion Marketing Biology Gap Year; Int. Management (inc. Year Abroad) Aerospace Technology with Pilot Studies Sport (Sports Performance) Architectural Engineering International Relations and Economics Gap Year International Management (inc. Year Abroad) Gap Year; American Studies and English Medicine Sport (Sports Performance) Engineering Architecture Gap Year Gap Year Vocational Training Acting

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INSTITUTION University of Bristol University of Birmingham Cardiff University University of Leeds University of Exeter Durham University University of Birmingham Oxford Brookes University University of the Arts, London University of Southampton University of Manchester University of Leeds University of Warwick University of Leeds University of Warwick King’s College, Univ. of London Durham University University of Edinburgh University of Nottingham University of Exeter Oxford Brookes University London Sch. of Economics, Univ. of London University of St Andrews Royal Holloway, Univ. of London King’s College, Univ. of London Harvard University, USA University of Exeter Durham University Durham University University of Hertfordshire Queen’s University, Belfast Royal Holloway, Univ. of London

University of Nottingham UCL, Univ. of London University of Cambridge University of the Arts, London University of York University of Warwick University of Hertfordshire University of Bath Plymouth University University of Reading University of Warwick University of Sussex Keele University University of Bath Oxford University University of the Arts, London

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Academic Achievement

NAME

COURSE

Metcalf, Edward Millner, Oliver (Ollie) Mok, Kam Yu (Kate) Montgomery, Calum Motchalnik, Maria (Masha) Musominari, Kwesi Narbett, Emma Odo, Kenechukwu (Ken) Oliphant, Frederick (Freddy) O’Mahony, Olivia Osborne, Rhiannon O’Sullivan, Niamh Padkin, James (Jamie) Parker, Olivia Parsons, Thomas Paxton, George Penney, Charlotte Plant, Laurence Pope, Olivia Postlethwaite, George Price, Jodie Reeman, Lucas Saunders, Sarah Sawyerr, Kofi Sawyerr, Tokes Scruton, Alexander (Alex) Stansfield, Esme Street, Isabel Thompson, Anna Thornton, Isabelle Trunova, Olga Tyrrell, William (Will) Walker, Cameron Wallis, Claudia Watts, Charles (Charlie) Whitehead, Alexander (Alex) Williams, Matthew Wylie, Calum

Gap Year Gap Year Accounting and Finance Gap Year; Architectural Engineering Art Foundation Games Technology English Economics Gap Year Gap Year Medicine Art Foundation Gap Year Art Foundation International Relations Gap Year Medical Engineering English Psychology Geography Gap Year Sports and Materials Science Sport and Exercise Psychology Fine Art Medicine Gap Year; Building Surveying Gap Year; Psychology Gap Year Gap Year; History Medicine Economics & Business with E. European Studies Psychology Gap Year Gap Year; Chiropractic Industrial Design and Technology Industrial Design and Technology Civil Engineering with Foundation Year Gap Year; Biology with Biotechnology

INSTITUTION

University of Bath University of Leeds Bristol, University of the West of England University of York University of Leeds

University of Cambridge

Royal Holloway, Univ. of London University of Leeds King’s College, Univ. of London University of Birmingham Loughborough University University of Birmingham University of Portsmouth Oxford Brookes University Cardiff University University of Reading University of Warwick University of York University of Cambridge UCL, Univ. of London University of Warwick Anglo-European College of Chiropractic Loughborough University Loughborough University Plymouth University Bangor University

POST A LEVEL APPLICANTS Aiken, Jonathon Beere, Oliver Chilcott, Ethan Chilver Vaughan, Esther Crane, Daniel Dellow, Harvey Devlin-Cook, Oisin Dumpleton, Madeleine Dyer-Pallister, Brandon Ganapathy, Alisha Gardner, Oliver Hatherell, Catherine Hurring, Jack Jones, Genevieve (Evie) Lines, Olivia Mackenzie, Dominic Plumbly, Isabella Pugsley, Max Thompson, Miles Turek, James Zheng, YangFan (Amelia)

Geography with Study Abroad Business and Management Studies Business Economics with International Study Chinese Studies (with Year Abroad) Economics Business Management (Int. Business) Management Business Management (Year in Industry) Business Management Anthropology Drama English and Comparative Literature Biology International Hospitality Management Law Sport Management Psychology Business Management Sport Management Mathematics with a Year Abroad Mathematics with Statistics

University of Exeter Cardiff Metropolitan University University of Exeter Durham University University of Leeds Cardiff University University of Leeds University of Birmingham University of Southampton Durham University University of Exeter University of Leeds University of Washington, Seattle, USA Oxford Brookes University University of Birmingham Cardiff Metropolitan University University of Exeter Cardiff University Cardiff Metropolitan University Cardiff University University of Bristol

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Academic Achievement

last summer i had the incredible opportunity to spend 5 weeks in belize city, working alongside four of my medical student colleagues and doctors at the belize Family life Association (“bFlA�) to provide medical care and education to the local population.

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Academic Achievement

Gary Best Travel Scholarship LIZZIE SUDDABY I was based in one of BFLA’s clinics on the outskirts of a deprived ghetto in Belize city and, though the clinic itself was small, it provided care for around 12,000 patients so I was kept very busy!

From day one, under the supervision of the local doctors, I was able to run general medical clinics and over the course of my time there I saw a real range of things; from routine rashes and coughs to a heart attack in the waiting room and a young lady going into labour!

I was able to spend many hours with the Belizean patients and it gave such an insight into their wonderful culture, their way of thinking and their sometimes bizarre health beliefs (a personal favourite was that adding sugar to your mayonnaise is good for your heart!)

As well as running general medical clinics, a large part of my work involved educating patients about contraception and safe sex.

Belize currently has the highest HIV prevalence in central America and until fairly recently, AIDS was the fourth leading cause of death in Belize; alongside this, teenage pregnancy is incredibly prevalent and from my experience at the clinic, it was not unusual for a girl of 20 to have mothered up to three children.

My medical student colleagues and I therefore created resources and a presentation and were able to work with local youth groups to target at risk young adults. We were really happy with the reception we received and (apart from a few interesting questions!) the sessions were a great success; we were

really happy to see many of the girls from the talks later coming into the clinic for contraception.

As my time at the clinic progressed another problem just kept coming up again and again; perhaps unsurprisingly with the (frankly delicious) traditional Belizean barbeque, obesity and diabetes were huge problems for the population. Once again, we developed education programmes and spent valuable time with patients teaching them small changes they could make to their lifestyles as well as forming an “exercise and support” group which we had a rather hilarious few aerobics sessions with (one thing to say about the Belizeans is that they can dance!)

Now it wasn’t all work! I was also so lucky to have some incredible experiences including snorkelling with sting rays, swimming with manatees, a fair amount of karaoke with the doctors and surviving hurricane Earl which swept through Belize city! I met some wonderful people who were so generous and happily opened their homes to us, many of the times insisting that they needed to “fatten us up!” It was an amazing whirlwind of an adventure and I am so grateful that the Gary Best scholarship helped me to have this experience. I feel confident that we have put some really good education programmes in place that will have a lasting benefit on BFLA’s patient population and I’m proud of what I was able to achieve.

I am now back to reality and completing my final year of medical

school in Leeds but I will always remember my Belizean summer!

Thank you so much to Kingswood school for your support getting me into medical school and your continued support from there.

If there are any budding medics or anyone thinking of doing a similar type of experience, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have! You can contact me on e.suddaby92@gmail.com or via Kingswood school.

I am so grateful that the Gary Best scholarship helped me to have this experience.

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Gary Best Travel Scholarship GEORGE LOGUT I was very fortunate to win the Gary Best scholarship which paid towards going on an expedition with Raleigh International to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

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My 10 weeks there was split into 3 Phases:

Phase 1: Trek The first phase was a 300km trek across Costa Rica, which was probably the most physically and mentally demanding element of the expedition. Personally the hardest part for me was coping with the intense heat and humidity. The orienteering skills I learned at Kingswood really helped me contribute to the group. I quickly learned that good teamwork, such as helping the less able members of the group carry their kit, helped us attain our goal. When we at last reached the ocean, the sense of achievement for the whole group was immense.

Phase 2: Community project For the second phase my group travelled to northern Nicaragua and lived with a remote community in Los Encuentros to work on a water and sanitation project. For me this was the most rewarding of the three phases. I lived with a large family which included the pastor of the village church. It was good to see how they lived with a similar Christian ethos as we have at Kingswood. The family was very poor, but I was amazed

Academic Achievement at their generosity, despite having so little. Our aim was to build a gravity fed water system as the village wells dry up every dry season and the water from the nearest river is simply too dirty to drink. The women of the village would have to spend most of their time travelling great distances to collect water.

A source of clean water had been located about half an hour’s walk from the village. For the water system to be put in place the spring had to be dug out to allow better water flow, a water tank had to be constructed and trenches had to be dug to all the houses in the village.

This was no small task. The work was very tough as the heat was simply intolerable past 11 o’clock.

We needed pick axes to dig the trench as the ground was so hard.

For the water tank to be built, construction materials needed to be taken up into the hills. These mostly had to be carried by people and, if we were lucky, the occasional horse.

The villagers worked alongside us so they could understand the system we were putting in place and maintain it independently in the future (part of Raleigh’s ethos of being a sustainable charity).

Apart from working on the water system we also held action days with the community covering such topics as personal hygiene and women’s roles. We set up a women’s focus group to encourage the women to have more of a voice in the community and we arranged large-scale litter picks. We also undertook surveys and created a comprehensive map of the area.

I was so proud that we were able to connect Los Encuentros to safe, clean running water for the very first time.

PhASE 3: ENVIRONMENTAL My final phase was helping out the park rangers of Piedras Blancas.

Found in the Puntarenas Province of southern Costa Rica, Piedras Blancas provides the perfect habitat for an immense range of species – all types of monkeys and big cats. It also plays an important environmental role to the human communities that live in this region by maintaining a stable ground to prevent landslides and acting as a reserve of water for human consumption and agricultural use.

The park protects around 35,000 acres of evergreen primary forest and the newly emerging ecotourism

industry is crying out to be developed and could provide an alternative income to local communities.

Due to the heavy rainfall in the area the park’s paths had fallen into disrepair. Alongside the park rangers, our group was tasked with repairing a trail to gain access through the park to a beautiful beach. We spent 19 days constructing a new trail through the dense forest. We worked hard clearing thick vegetation, digging out roots and building water runoff trenches and steps. It was anticipated that we would not complete the project ourselves and that it would be left to a future group of volunteers to reach the beach. But we were determined to succeed and managed to complete the project ourselves in record time.

The ten weeks went by all too quickly, but I have come back to the UK having made strong friendships with fellow volunteers from around the world. I have gained a more real perspective of the challenges faced by our planet. I am now studying mechanical engineering and I hope I can use those skills to contribute towards ending poverty in some way in the future.

Raleigh is a charity that focuses on working through, for and with young people to inspire and make positive change in impoverished parts of the world.

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Feature

bAtH And Hull An unliKEly bond?

Before I proceed let me first of all thank Reverend Michael Franklin (upper 1943-1951) for providing me with the catalyst for considering this question.

Thomas Ferens

Without his letter and newspaper article bringing my attention to the opening of a refurbished art gallery in Hull in preparation for that city’s new role as the UK City of Culture 2017 I would never have thought any link between these great cities existed. On the face of it these 2 cities have very little in common; one was founded late in the twelfth century, has a population of over 250,000 and became a major industrial metropolis whilst the other was founded in AD60, has a population of 88,000 and is a World Heritage Site. But dig a little deeper and one finds that both cities share a rich heritage and culture formed over many centuries which manifests itself in the large number of art galleries, museums and other sites of historical interest that can be found in them.

Whilst Bath is renowned for its Roman built baths, the abbey and the Royal Crescent which attract millions of visitors each year, much less is known about the attractions that Hull has to offer although no doubt it will become clearer during the year as the UK City of Culture 2017 unfolds. But there remains one very important link that has shaped both cities over the last century and which continues to benefit its citizens as a result of the legacy borne from this philanthropist’s generosity. It is no coincidence that one of the main thoroughfares in Hull known as the Ferensway shares the same name as the art gallery that plays host to the Turner prize in 2017 and the teaching block in Kingswood.

Thomas Robinson Ferens was a politician, an industrialist and a philanthropist.

The Ferens teaching block

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Feature

University of hull

Ferens Art gallery

The Ferens from Westwood

One of the main thoroughfares in Hull known as the Ferensway shares the same name as the art gallery that plays host to the Turner prize in 2017 and the teaching block in Kingswood.

Thomas Robinson Ferens (4 May 1847 – 9 May 1930) was a politician, an industrialist and philanthropist who made numerous charitable donations throughout his life. He acquired his wealth through the company Reckitt & Sons which produced household wares such as starch, washing blue and black lead by rising up the managerial ranks and eventually becoming chairman.

Under his guidance the company flourished becoming one of the most successful in Hull. A devout Wesleyan Methodist, he made many donations to charity. From the time he started earning a salary, he allocated 10% of his income to charity and by 1920 he was distributing £47,000 out of his annual income of £50,000.

In his native city of Hull, he gave generously and was responsible for building the Ferens Art Gallery and providing sufficient funds in the form of Reckitt shares to fund the purchase of world class art to add to his own collection in perpetuity.

His greatest single donation was to establish a university college in the city (now University of Hull) on land which he had previously donated.

Educational establishments were often the beneficiaries of Ferens’ munificence and in 1924 he donated £30,000 to extend Kingswood School. Shortly after the end of the Great War, the newly appointed headmaster Hubert Wootton determined that the school needed new classrooms and science labs in order to provide the appropriate education to the new generation of pupils which he estimated would cost £15,000. Fortunately the school’s last resident Governor brought this requirement to the attention of Ferens who at that time was a Privy Councillor and High Steward of Hull and convinced him that this was a cause worthy of investment. Ferens agreed to donate £15,000 and when he subsequently learnt that the true cost was double that figure he promptly increased his donation accordingly. Ferens himself laid the foundation stone on 17 October 1924 and the building was formally opened by the Prince of Wales on 10 November 1926.

Ferens remained a modest man throughout his life and saw giving as a moral duty although he preferred

to view it as paying back. A quote

by Ferens referring to this generous donation printed in the Association magazine dated 1930 encapsulates his approach perfectly.

‘You owe me no thanks, I am only repaying something of the debt my firm owes to Kingswood. Boys educated at Kingswood have played a great part in building this great business. Slack and Cleminson are amongst its directors – as a matter of fact, I am still in debt to you.’

Ferens remains Kingswood’s greatest benefactor and his legacy endures. Many alumni are probably unaware of his significance in the development of the school and perhaps the same is true of those residents and students in Hull who benefit from his generosity.

And although Ferens did not seek plaudits and publicity or his work, no doubt he would be very proud of his immense contribution in making Hull the UK City of Culture 2017.

Editor

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Global Footprint

Alumni Around tHE World We are very fortunate to have alumni living and working in many parts of the world who are willing to act as points of contact and offer advice to anyone visiting or considering staying longer in their countries.

Their experience and knowledge is second to none and their advice is up to date, relevant and impartial. For this edition, each point of contact was invited to provide a short resume covering what they do for a living, what motivated them to take up residence in their country and what they can offer

AUSTRALIA Mark McConnell (middle 1985-1989)

I have a very special relationship with Kingswood. I literally grewup at Kingswood, having lived at ‘Penmore’ on Hamilton Road with my younger sister Celia McConnell 20

an alumni visiting or considering working in their country.

The results are shown below and all alumni are encouraged to touch base with them either before arrival or during their stay to take advantage of this free resource. Also, should any alumni currently working or living

abroad wish to act as the point of contact for their country in the future then please do get in touch.

from the age of 3 until 21 when working life in London started and our family home was no longer needed (believe it has been re-developed since). I knew most of the teachers families, and my closest friend (and fellow student) being Matthew Austin, son of Roger Austin (Physics Teacher), both sadly no longer with us.

We all met on the grass outside the Dixon when they lived in the lower apartment level. So many happy memories playing and exploring around Kingswood during the holidays when the entire place was all ours! Laurie Campbell was the headmaster back then, and he always allowed us to roam the grounds, and would always stop to have a chat when we were on our bikes, asking us what mischief we had been up to. A lovely man that many remember fondly.

The groundsmen knew us well too! Kingswood was as much our home as it was our school. The late John Alison was also instrumental in encouraging my love of design which would become my career of choice, and help me see and experience parts of the world I never expected.

But life forever moves onwards, and having spent a few years designing for some major brands in London I had a chance to live in Hong Kong to design petrol stations throughout Asia. Following the handover to China, I moved to Sydney to utilise my Australian passport (my mother is Australian) and join Celia here who had already made the move. It was 1998 and the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics ensured a lot of design work for me to get involved with.

It’s an amazing place to live, and I

Global Footprint still pinch myself every time I drive over the Harbour Bridge. There’s a few school friends of ours out here too. I’m now married with two children and run my own design business with projects implemented nationwide with some of the largest retailers in Australia.

If you fancy a move to here, do so before you’re 30. Working holiday visas seem a popular option, but this tends to find less specialised work, and it’s for a limited period only. Working visas are quite specific and you will need to review what skills Australia is looking for, whilst company sponsorship is another option to consider. I have no idea how salaries relate, but living costs are high which many may not expect, and property prices are also pretty frightening, so do your sums.

Explore work opportunities before you get here, and do your homework with regards to working visas.

Moving countries is never straight forward, but you are all quite capable and it’s definitely worth the experience. Britain will always be there to return to in one form or another, so challenge yourself and explore. You have one life, Kingswood has prepared you for the world outside, now make the most of it!

jobs in hotels, farming and industry I felt the call to the Christian Ministry.

I applied for entrance at Queens University in Kingston Ontario and was accepted as a mature student. I joined the Navy which helped finance my first years and graduated in1955 with a BA and in 1958 with a MDiv. I was awarded a travelling scholarship which took my wife and I (we married in 1954) to St Andrew’s University in Scotland for a year. We currently have 4 children, 8 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

We served the church in a variety of pastoral charges including marine mission, rural and inner city as well as participating in national, provincial and local committees in areas such as Evangelism, Social Service, Church and industry and World Outreach. I was elected chairman of Presbytery, President of Manitou Conference.

At this stage of my life I can offer a warm welcome to any grad and an introduction to one of the most beautiful islands. My one regret is that I didn’t keep in touch with Mr Sackett to let him know that his suggestion had served me very well.

Hong Kong Anna Lam (School 1994-1999)

I left Kingswood after 5 years in 1999 and studied marketing at the University of Hong Kong. I am currently a senior wealth planner with FWD insurance. I am married with 2 young daughters and my interests are timepieces, flowers, music and art. I would be delighted to welcome any alumni to this great city and support you in your goals.

Email: anna@flm.com.hk Tel: +852 9844 9405 Mobile: (852) 9844 9405

Email: mark@mima.com.au Address: 9 Raleigh Crescent, St Ives, NSW, 2075 Australia

Canada

Italy

John Romeril

Mary Campbell-Bianchini

(Middle 1945-1949)

(Lower 1975-1977)

I came to Canada in 1950 via the Bahamas at the suggestion of Mr Sackett the school principal after failing the French exam for the Oxford and Cambridge School Certificate for the second time thereby making me ineligible for both university and college in England. After working in a variety of

I have been working as a teacher of English as well as a translator and interpreter here in Italy and in Monteforte specifically for the last 26 years. We live in an area that produces fine Soave wine (Anselmi, Gini, Ca Rugate, & Pra) to name but a few. The village is on the edge of the Po valley

Email: romeriljma@shaw.ca

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Global Footprint nestled in the very first foothills of the Dolomites and only 25kms from Verona, 90 kms from Venice and 40 kms from Lake Garda. It’s about a 2 - 3 hour drive to the ski slopes from here. Monteforte itself is famous for its annual fun run Ian Falconer KS 1972-78 ran here this year - Carnival parade, wine festival in May and grape festival in September Apart from good food and wine in Italy and the obvious attraction of all the cultural heritage sites we do have pretty good weather although in the north the winters are cold and sunny and in the Po valley summers are very hot and humid (and mosquitoes are plentiful too).

Air pollution in this area is quite high. Our summer weather is fine if you are on holiday but not so good if you have to work.

Bureaucracy in Italy is always “interesting”, the style of driving and queuing is very Italian, but you will get a warm welcome from locals and if you make an effort to join in then you will soon feel at home.

Although many people speak English I would advise learning enough Italian to get by.

Email: maryhamcam3@gmail.com Tel: 0039 0457611591 Address: Via Zoppega 22, 37032, Monteforte D’Alpone, VR, Italy

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Japan Chris Dixon (Lower / Upper 1975-1984)

How can I help alumni traveling to Japan? Well, if you’re coming to the Olympics, book your hotel right now! Otherwise, I’m sure any information you want is available online. But if you should need emergency interpretation, I could definitely help out with that. Having been here for 28 years now, I do, now, at last, speak a few words of Japanese…

Email: dixonyan@gol.com Address: 2-13-3 Matsugaoka, Tokorozawa-shi, Saitama-ken, 359-1132 Japan

Kenya Louise (Lulu) Keeble (Fonthill 1999-2001) I came to Japan in October 1988, just after graduating from university.

Somewhat institutionalised by nine years in boarding school, I realised that overcoming this was primarily a question of deliberately putting myself in challenging environments, and so began to make all my life choices with this in mind. I engaged in a round-the-world trip, but soon realized that even this had its own rhythms, and wasn’t the final frontier I thought it would be.

So, after arriving in Japan, living here for a while seemed truly the ultimate challenge I sought. So, no special reason for choosing Japan, other than it being a place I knew nothing about and of whose language I spoke not a word.

I have, over the years, acted professionally, sung professionally, taught guitar, worked as a translator, and made subtitles for TV programs and DVDs. Currently, I teach English writing and grammar in a public high school, and work as a wedding celebrant in a local hotel. And did I mention the album I am recording with my band Edward’s Operation (“like” us on Facebook!)? So not exactly a conventional career path…

My husband and I have our own outside catering & mobile bar company based in Nairobi which we run on a daily basis. We were both born and brought up in Nairobi and after school, university and working overseas we decided to move back to Nairobi where we met again, fell in love, started a company and got married in 2016.

Email: kenyachef@gmail.com Tel: +254 722393158 Address: PO Box 24296, Karen, Nairobi, Kenya

Global Footprint

Pakistan Tony Hurt (1971-1979)

as well as the capital, Islamabad.

Realistically we don’t expect that Pakistan will become a location for Kingswood Association events, but we welcome alumni who would like to visit.

Email: jpahurt@gmail.com

Slovakia John Baron MBE (Upper 1959-1962)

In a sense I have lived and worked overseas ever since I graduated from Durham University in 1982.

I taught high school history and geography for many years in the American public school system, in both Missouri and Colorado.

In 2010 after our youngest son finished high school, my wife, Shanna and I decided to teach internationally (she is also a high school teacher).

We taught at Seoul International School in Seoul, South Korea for four years and, for the last three years we have been teaching at Karachi American School in Karachi, Pakistan. Teaching overseas has given us the opportunity to travel, experience, and appreciate other cultures in a very unique way.

Traveling with students, especially UNICEF and Habitat for Humanity projects in China and Cambodia, has been the most rewarding.

Living and working in Pakistan has been challenging, particularly with regard to security constraints.

However it is also a beautiful and diverse country, rich in history. We have travelled to the mountains of the north, the historic city of Lahore,

After nearly 25 years with NatWest Bank and an international banking training company in London. I was made a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Following redundancy in 1990, and the collapse of the USSR, I found myself taking short term, self-employed assignments working in CEE assisting banks and financial institutions introduce and harmonise their systems with those of the West. Working in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania made me realise that even though life was tough the people were far happier in their way of life. Since 1992 I have worked in the banking sector but having decided I really liked it

here I became a Director of Deloitte and Touche travelling extensively throughout 17 countries stretching from the Baltic States to the Balkans and Black Sea. Challenging but great fun!

Slovakia is home now. I have a wonderful Slovak wife, and, even though I am now retired friends tell me that I am working just as hard as ever as an adviser. Bratislava is 50 minutes from Vienna, alongside the Danube. The Old Town is truly historic and the culture is amazing with concerts here regularly sold out to the Austrians. The economy is booming with Bratislava the centre for the administrations of many household names. VW, Porsche, Peugeot, Citroen, Hyundai and Kia are all built here and Slovakia is one of the largest producers of cars in the World per head of population.

Add to this, Jaguar Land Rover are building a new plant which, when at capacity will make 300,000 cars a year!!

Add to this the beauty of the Tatra Mountains and the fresh air of the countryside and you will soon see why I live here!

Email: johnbaron@nextra.sk Tel: +421 2 555 66741 Mob: +421 905 986758 Address: Krizna 26, 811 07 Bratislava, Republic of Slovakia

Uganda Patrick Adengo (Middle 1992-1994) Two passions have remained pervasive in my professional and personal life; a passion to contribute to technology and a passion to explore transformative solutions for development impact. As a Director at Stalworth Consulting Group LLC, a leading management and strategy consulting firm focused on technology project management, digital strategy and inclusive financial

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Global Footprint services, I drive and support clients in the public sector, social and private sector, among others, helping them turn emerging technology ideas, processes and systems into reality.

My work includes market entry and growth strategies, business building, turnarounds and developing new products for key clients across subSaharan Africa by leveraging on due diligence, digital finance, strategy and planning. I advise key clients on productivity, competitiveness and growth, for all phases of the project’s lifecycle. I also support the Technology Advisory Services line of business at Deloitte & Touche working on technical and financial evaluations for clients in sub-Saharan Africa as Associate Consultant.

Originally from Uganda, I started my professional career as a management accountant with Airtel scaling new products and developing new technologies alongside global financial and data clearing houses, then joined Uganda Telecom to help expand the firm’s research and strategy function. I joined LM Ericsson International to lead the regional network expansion and then moved to a managed services function at Huawei Technologies to drive the network operation and maintenance. I’ve had the privilege of working with people at the market level to improve the policy and regulatory capacity on digital financial services at the Central Bank of Ghana in fulfilling Africa’s cashless vision. A project that will hopefully have a big impact on interoperability and financial inclusion in Ghana - and ultimately lead to applying the best practices for Uganda. Based in Uganda with on-the-ground experience spanning Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Japan, Denmark, United Kingdom and USA, I provide the global perspective and the local content across sectors.

I’d like to assist Kingswood

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School alumni looking to visit and work in Uganda by acting as the liaison and contact on-the-ground to help explore opportunities and travel in the region.

systems; corporations; and member organisations. Parallel to this, I seem to have become something of a TV and video producer mostly with an educational slant. I have acquired 6 fabulous children, three from me and three from Ann via former marriages and a joint passion for cooking and fine wine.

Currently, Ann and I have homes in both the DC area and Boston.

We are pretty well-connected around the country and happy to help KS visitors in any way we can, including emergencies.

On a lighter note (no pun intended), I played lead guitar in Kingswood’s very first rock n’ roll band, which included (on drums) Jonathon Lynn, of Yes Minister TV fame, and enabled me to keep sane playing in rock bands for the next 25 years. I attribute a colourful life largely to KS!

Email: padengo@scg.ug Tel: +256 312 531678

USA Colin Mably (School 1954-1960) I have spent most of my professional life in education in one form or another, starting out as a schoolteacher. Within the higher education sector, I was able to develop joint research programs with universities in the USA. Recruited by corporate industry (Thorn EMI) to develop new video communication technology for use in education, led me to spend more time in the USA, the principal market for our productions. This involved working in university and school systems all over the USA. From this I met my USA wife Ann, a gifted educationalist. Together we formed an educational consulting company offering services to: government / state agencies; school

Email: cmably@aol.com Tel: 301 934 2374 Mob: 301 404 8718 Address: 10369 Andrea Lane, La Plata, Maryland 20646, USA

KEEP IN TOUCH It is sincerely hoped that this inspires Alumni based abroad to get in touch at smb@kingswood.bath.sch.uk

Global Footprint

What are you doing now?

Len Dickens (1969-1972)

Charlotte Hathaway

I trained in medicine at the London Hospital, London University, qualifying in 1979 and went on to do my general practice training in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. After 3 years and itchy feet I then left with my wife Nicky and a toddler to work in Papua New Guinea for a year which was an interesting and grounding year! On returning to England, I joined a practice in Leigh-on-Sea, where I stayed until retirement in 2013.

I greatly enjoyed my career but now watch the evolving distress of the NHS with great sadness and just hope that good things will emerge in the end.

Now with 3 grown up offspring, I retired 3 years ago, still live locally and am enjoying having time for sailing, gardening, and achieving a lifetime ambition of learning the double bass with which I dabbled initially inexpertly at KS. In this respect I have been unsuccessfully been trying to trace Mark Gilbert (School House, 1968-73) and would be very pleased to hear from Mark or anyone who knows where he is.

(1997-2004) Normally I work freelance in traditional music and the general cultural sector in Scotland. I work both with professional musicians and running youth activities, as well as on my own artistic projects (last year with my record label I produced a collaboration between myself and a composer that was a cross between a radio play and a music album - we joined up with some animators and other performers and toured Scotland with a multimedia show). I’ve begun to develop international projects (currently with organisations in Norway) so at the moment I’m taking part in the British Council programme to put language assistants in schools abroad to get my French up to a fluency level (I haven’t studied French since AS level at Kingswood more than 12 years ago!). At the moment, then, I’m in Martinique in the French Caribbean where I live on a boat and work part time as a teaching assistant in local lycées and part time as a fiction ghostwriter for clients abroad.

Michael Ensor (1959-1966) Appointed the Chairman of East Sussex County Council.

Anthony Thwaite (1944-1949) Your letter asking me what I am doing now finds me sorting through boxes from our attic! The amount of material is evidence of an extremely busy life and is to be collected by archivists from the Brotherton Library at Leeds University in March where it will join the rest of the Thwaite collection housed there. At 86, my wife is encouraging me to rest on my laurels having written my latest book of poems which was published in 2015.

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Global Footprint

Peter Gibbins (1963-1968)

Dr Stephen Bold MBE (1960-1969) I was Head of Hall House under Keith Duchars at the time I left KS in 1969 and was made an MBE in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours for services to engineering, education and charity. I enjoyed my time at KS enormously and all credit must go to Mr Ede who inspired me to study physics at Southampton university.

After leaving Southampton I gained a DPhil in materials science from Oxford and joined the Research team of BP. During my long and varied career, I have been privileged to lead research teams at BP, Rolls-Royce and Sharp Electronics. My projects have taken me to many parts of the US, China and Japan and have covered subjects as diverse as improving Arctic drilling to developing the first camera phones. I was honoured to be elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2003 and as a trustee of the Engineering Development Trust I have worked to encourage young people to study engineering which for me has been the most exciting career imaginable. I sincerely hope that others are encouraged to consider engineering as a career.

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I recall arriving at Westwood House to be greeted by Mr Arnold and Mr Margretts at the age of 13 and getting used to detachable collars and studs which was a completely new experience for me. On the day that JFK was killed, Mr Arnold informed us of this event in the evening over cocoa and buns.

Moving onto Upper House, I remember the dormitory divided by the bathroom in the middle and the prefects’ room at the end which always smelt of toast or crumpets. I recall having to write letters home every Sunday afternoon followed by a compulsory walk and of learning about homework!

Entering the sixth form with its own common room which incidentally was a permanent mess, I recall wearing corduroy or Harris Tweed jackets which were all the rage of the day. We swum in our own swimming pool, basic though it was and ran to the upper as there were no minibuses in those days. I remember the elation of being selected for the first XV coached

by Bob Clark and Gordon Margretts who went onto captain Bath RFC at fly half. Speech days in a giant marquee attended by many parents, soap box races down Fonthill Road (long before Red Bull was invented) and the ever inspiring Rev Creed remain vivid. These were indeed salad days!

The photo is of me completing Route 66 from Chicago to LA last year to celebrate my 66th birthday.

Martyn Perkins (1968-1974) You may be interested to know that I have now retired from my Aerospace Company and taken a different direction.

I successfully campaigned in the Isle of Man general election in September 2016 so I am now a politician an MHK (Member of the House of Keys).

The Isle of Man’s system of government is an unusual tricameral or three chambered system, made up of the House of Keys, the Legislative Council and, sitting together, they constitute Tynwald.

In the year 979 the Vikings invaded the Western Isles of Scotland and continued down the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man and eventually to Dublin. They brought with them their distinct method of governance, Tynwald, which it is still very much in existence today. As a result, the Isle of Man proudly claims to have the oldest continuous democratic parliament in the world.

Global Footprint

Mark Vernon (1968-1972) I returned to Kingswood in September with my wife and children (aged 16 & 12) which was the first time I had been back in the country for 17 years. Seeing the dining hall, buildings and classrooms brought back many fond memories and it was great to see that many things had not changed that much, since I left. I recognize Kingswood had a major impact in shaping my thinking and independence during those formative years before I returned to the US for my final years of my education. Since leaving school many things have happened in my life which are summarized below: We (my wife of 37 years, Jan) moved to Ponte Vedra, Florida from Clearwater, Florida (where we lived for 23 years) 3 years ago to be near our daughter (now 33), son-in-law and their two children (boy of 23 months and daughter of 6 months). Our son (now 29) also

lives in the Jacksonville area.

I retired one year ago to enjoy more time with our daughter and her family (we live 1.5 miles apart).

My last position was as the Branch Manager of the Tampa Office of an IT Consulting & Staffing Company (Princeton Information), and Director of

Offshore Software Development Services in India. My employment history was predominantly in the IT arena over the years in sales, sales management and senior management with an early career in teaching and then supplemental teaching and volunteering in later years for enjoyment.

Robert Jubb (1969-1976) Whatever happened to all those years? I still clearly remember that warm July day in 1976 when I left KS and stood there on Lansdown hill wondering what the future would bring. Where would I be in 1980 and here we all are 41 years later?

I am still in regular contact with old friends from Kingswood including Paul Burraston, Nigol Vanian and Mark Turner.

Nick Lockhart (1971-1977 & Staff 1985-1988) Married with 2 boys, I am currently working as the Cricket Professional at Felsted School. I still find time to play some cricket and am involved in hockey where I qualified as an FIH Umpire Manager after 13 years as an international hockey umpire which took me all round the world to various tournaments. I am involved in coaching and assessing players in the English National League and also umpire some games in the East Premier A league.

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Global Footprint

helen Padbury

Bill yap

Colin dickinson

Martin horne

Visitors to

Martyn Perkins

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Louis Lee

Global Footprint

William holroyd

Rupert Cremer-Evans

KinGsWood Tim jones & john hugman

Stephen & Susan Moore

Timm Toennissen & jon gardner

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Prefects 1892

john Wesley Bust kingswood house Model

The Meek Medal

hardy Falconer Parsons V.C. Chapel Memorial

History uncoVErEd the Archive department collects and preserves records relating to Kingswood school and makes them available for research and display.

All spheres of school life are represented and the records take many forms: account books, day books, letters, magazines, minutes, photographs, prints, programmes, registers, etc. There are also various artefacts including clothing, medals and plates etc. and an increasing number of electronic records.

Last year, I answered 180 enquiries, received from a range of people including, Old Kingswoodians, family historians, academics to teaching staff, seeking resources to support their lessons. I am currently in the process of reorganising and refiling these archive records in preparation for formally cataloguing them electronically and rehousing some of them into our new rolling racking system in the Posnett Gallery - thanks to a generous donation by the Kingswood Association.

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Rolling rack

Feature

HErE is A littlE GlimPsE oF somE oF tHE ArcHiVE’s oldEst itEms. but First, Just A littlE History…

kingswood School, Bristol

John Wesley laid the foundation stone for the School in 1746 and officially opened Kingswood School in 1748. He opened it with a sermon based on the text “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

The original foundation stone (pictured right) is mounted outside the J.O. Heap Library, here at Kingswood.

This account precisely details the “curriculum” for each of the eight classes.

The school had six masters in all, one for teaching French, two for reading and writing and three for the ancient languages. Today, the Senior School at Kingswood has over 90 members of full and part time teaching staff teaching a multitude of subjects.

John Wesley is so meticulous he even details the students’ diet for each day of the week; on Tuesdays, for example, they would eat boiled mutton!

On Saturdays, it was bacon and greens and apple dumplings. The students were to drink water at meals and nothing between meals. A far cry from the delicious school meals the students are offered today!

john Wesley’s Vision for kingswood School

In 1749, John Wesley himself produced a document entitled, “A Short Account of the School in Kingswood, Near Bristol,” describing his vision for Kingswood School.

In it he stated: “Our design is, with God’s assistance to train up children, in every branch of useful learning.”

Menu, 1748, as devised by john Wesley

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Feature In the archive, we have a number of original John Wesley letters.

In this letter, to Joseph Benson, (the Headmaster of Kingswood between 1768 and 1770), Wesley talks about the purchase of books for the school library. He ends by saying those now familiar words: “An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.”

Additionally, the archive holds the old School Accounts book dating between 1764 and 1770 providing information on pupil accounts – for example: The account of Robert Cheesment who was at Kingswood between 1765 and 1768 included 0” 3” 3 for shoe mending and 0” 0” 6 for alterations to a coat and 0” 0” 6 for a haircut!

The Account of Robert Cheesment, Kingswood School 1765-1768

Letter from John Wesley to Joseph Benson, (Headmaster of Kingswood 1768-1770)

Other material from John Wesley’s day includes more than a hundred books bought by him for the original school library, some of which are annotated in his own hand.

The ‘Primitive Physik’ by John Wesley, first published in 1747

This is just a little taster of the wealth of history contained within the school archives. If you have, or are aware of, any documents or artefacts relating to Kingswood School or former pupils or staff I would love to hear from you. Also, if you would like to know more about the archives or have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact me via email: archivist@kingswood.bath.sch.co.uk

THANK YOU...

Books from the original school library

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Finally, I would like to thank all of the Old Kingswoodians who have contacted me in response to my request for their Uppingham (the school where Kingswood was evacuated to when the Admiralty took over the school’s buildings during WW2) memories. I loved coming into school on a Monday morning to find letters and emails

from Old Boys recounting their time at Uppingham. What cherished memories and wonderful anecdotes for future generations to enjoy. The latest version of the short film about Uppingham entitled, ‘Fortunate Exile’ is available online through the website or alternatively you can request your own copy by contacting the editor.

Zoë Parsons - Archivist

Professional Development

A New Approach to Mentoring One of my objectives as the Alumni Relations Officer is to consider how the younger generation of alumni could support the current student cohort in ways that are simple, effective and do not involve unnecessary travelling.

As the majority of students go to university after gaining their A levels, I thought that providing them with information about courses, the universities themselves and how to prepare for life at university would prove useful and not be too onerous for the alumni. Every undergraduate who is listed on the school database was contacted and asked if they would be interested in joining the scheme whereby they provided me with details of their course and university with a view to being contacted by students interested in talking to them about their choices and experiences to date.

I maintain a database of the alumni and release their contact details to the students once the latter have expressly asked to be put in contact with the undergraduate.

them with knowledge based on the alumni’s own personal experiences.

Most of the exchanges take place by email and through social media thereby negating the requirement to travel although it is also possible to meet up and be shown around the university by mutual consent.

As this is a pilot scheme there are inevitably gaps in the database.

Currently, if a student asks about a university or course for which there is no alumni on the database, I write to specific individuals and ask for their support. As this initiative gains traction, it would be really useful to expand the list of alumni willing to help such that the majority of universities and courses are covered. To that end, if you are an undergraduate or have left university within the last 3 years, I would be delighted to hear

The feedback from the students has been very positive.

The lower and upper sixth students are briefed on the opportunities provided by this scheme and the result in this initial year has been very positive. The students like the idea of talking with someone of similar age who has been through the process and is able to provide factual information about their experience whilst the alumni gain satisfaction in supporting Kingswood students. This complements the excellent public information available to students on websites and promotional literature by providing

from you. Likewise, if you chose not to go to university but entered the workplace straight after school on an undergraduate scheme or an apprenticeship please do get in touch as there are many students who are unsure whether university represents good value for money and would like to discuss the other options open to them. The feedback from the students has been very positive to date and I look forward to expanding this initiative over the years to give students advice on their next steps at this important stage of their lives.

THE NEXT STAGE The next stage of the mentoring programme is to support those who are about to enter the workplace after university or apprenticeships.

It is envisaged that the ARO holds information about alumni in areas of expertise such as accountancy, law, commerce, civil service etc. and who are willing for their details to be passed onto other alumni with an interest in these fields. This initiative requires experienced alumni to provide their details to the ARO and for alumni looking for advice in the workplace to contact the ARO to register their interest and requirement.

If you think you can help or would like to benefit from this opportunity, please contact the ARO.

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Professional Development

FirEsidE cHAts to most of you reading this title no doubt you are thinking of a warm and cosy sitting room with a log fire putting your feet up with a stiff drink and a newspaper.

Well this image could not be further from the truth as this is a new initiative designed to challenge and broaden the minds of the students through eminent alumni delivering talks on contemporary issues which are thought provoking and deliberately controversial. Perhaps the only links to the title are the fiery nature of the subject and the considerable chat with the guest speaker and other members of the invited audience over a fork supper.

The term is borrowed (or more accurately plagiarised) from my experience at the Joint Services Command and Staff College whereby senior officers are invited in the evening to address an invited audience in an informal setting about a subject of interest followed by a short Q & A and a light supper.

This provided the officers with an excellent opportunity to hear from an experienced superior and to ask difficult and probing questions under Chatham House rules.

The aim is not only to enlighten but also to encourage analysis and engagement on a subject that is new to the audience.

The inaugural Fireside Chat was delivered by Professor Paul Brown

Professor Paul Brown

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Professor Brown’s talk, ‘Are brains redundant?’ explored our ability to adapt in a world that is changing more quickly than ever before.

(Hall 1952-1958) a clinical and organisational psychologist with more than 50 years of experience in the field. His talk entitled, ‘Are brains redundant?’ sought to explain our understanding of the brain and the importance of emotions and relationships in determining its development and behaviour. He explored our ability to adapt in a world that is changing more quickly than ever before and considered our relationship with artificial intelligence in the future. All of this was covered in 30 minutes (a time constraint stipulated) followed by a further 30 minutes of lively Q & A

where these issues were discussed in greater detail. Thereafter, the audience of 40 comprising of students, staff, invited guests and parents continued their discussions over a buffet supper in the pavilion.

This initiative proved very popular and the next one is scheduled for November. Once again, I am always looking for eminent alumni with experience and expertise to volunteer to talk to the students on a contemporary issue of their choice.

Should you wish to be considered for this role, then please do get in touch so that we can discuss this concept further.

Professional Development

VisA EuroPE it And tEcHnoloGy HiGHEr APPrEnticEsHiP In the summer term of 2013, I selected my first and reserve offer for university. i had only ever thought about university as my future after Kingswood. 3 years of enjoying myself, whilst working very hard to gain a degree and ideally playing as much sport as possible.

I was very lucky that I had family friends who worked at an apprenticeship recruitment and education company as this gave me the exposure I needed to learn more about the benefits and options apprenticeships had to offer. Whilst they opened my eyes to an alternative to university and encouraged me to apply for both concurrently, it took the process of application and the steps towards being offered an apprenticeship which really made my mind up.

Application for university and an apprenticeship both begin with a personal statement designed to sell yourself and make sure you are noticed. For me, this was the only similarity. One of biggest positives for me to take up the apprenticeship was that throughout the application process they were selling themselves to me rather than the other way round. The companies were going out of their way to make me want to work for them; after all, companies offering apprenticeships invest a small fortune in these apprentices and they only want the individuals most suited to them.

I cannot overshadow the thought of earning an income whilst learning and the impact this had on me. In today’s age with university debts in the tens of thousands of pounds the relief in knowing that I would be getting further education for free, coupled with on the job experience and a competitive salary really

closed the deal for me. It was as if over the space of a week, weighing up the pros and cons, my immediate desire of my path after school had changed. I was only a few stages through the process but I had already come to realise the value which Visa saw in us. There we no exams to sit, or tests we had to pass. The recruiters looked for soft skills such as the ability to learn and how I interacted with others in specific situations. I was offered a position within Visa Europe and immediately accepted it.

Going against the grain and accepting an apprenticeship (the only one of my peers to do so) was a risk and it has never been without its difficulties. It is far from an easy option but an incredibly rewarding

Toby Briggs

one at that. I have learnt skills and values which I would not have done so at university. Whilst I may have missed out on many things at university I have been made to feel incredibly valued and consider I have made a difference. This is what has made the sacrifices all the more worthwhile and I cannot complain about the work Christmas party either. University is not the only option to leavers and may not be to everyone’s choice. If you are thinking of going to university for the lifestyle, you can do 90% of it outside of actually going. There is nothing stopping you doing anything you like, however it is important not to waste the time you have.

Toby Briggs - Payment Fraud disruption Executive, Visa Europe

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cArEErs sEminArs the school ran its successful second programme of careers talks by old Kingswoodians and ex-parents to the lower sixth year group over a 4 week period commencing Friday 18 november 2016.

The purpose of these seminars is to inform students of employment opportunities in many different fields thereby enabling them to make more considered decisions about their futures. Rather than speaking and discussing the issue for one hour to a specific group as was the case in 2015, the format was changed such that each guest speaker delivered two halfhour sessions, thus enabling the students more choice in attending the sessions. During each of the 4 weekly periods, different alumni delivered talks on Fine Art (Chris Lethbridge), Apprenticeships (Toby Briggs), Film and TV (Jane Tranter), Marketing (Luis Lalor) and my specialist subject, advertising.

From experience, this subject is 36

usually of some interest as I think some veneer of glamour still clings to the profession, even though the madmen days are long gone (sadly). It’s also easy to get the students’ attention - everyone likes a good ad. I played some commercials that I’d been involved in from the 80’s and 90’s - Lego, Levi’s, Stella Artois - and then some work that embodies the concept of ‘doing well by doing good’; very much a modern marketing preoccupation and a development that is increasing the satisfaction levels of young people coming into the industry, giving them, as it does some purpose in their professional lives. The audiences asked some good questions and kindly declared that their interest in the profession

had increased. This is a great initiative by the School and one that the Association is proud to support.

Tim Lindsay

If you would like to support this initiative, please contact Eugenie Pascoe (head of Careers) or ARO who will pass on your interest.

Feature

Dormitory Antics

by Robert Hamilton (School 1953-1957) At the start of that first term we seemed to have more freedom in the dormitory.

We had a good prefect to look after us; his name was Lane and he had the bed nearest the bathroom.

After lights out the duty prefect would usually leave us to settle ourselves. We usually knew if the coast was clear but to be sure of it we would post a volunteer to keep lookout at the top of the stairs in the landing outside. If he saw someone coming up the stairs he would hurry back with the urgent whisper ‘KAVI’, and leap into his own bed.

This gave us about 20 seconds to get back to our beds and assume sleeping postures.

However, our housemaster whom we called ‘Grid’ had his study in a room immediately below our dormitory and the sounds of running feet could clearly be heard there.

We knew there were some nights when he had other duties and wouldn’t be in his study so on those nights we usually got up to something or other. I remember Hunter next to me jumping from the edge of his cubicle and landing on his bed, bottom first. There was a loud retort and a flash of sparks and the bottom end of his bed sheared right off, bringing both the bed and him crashing to the floor with a very considerable noise. He slipped out to the bathroom and collected two water cans to hold his bed end up

School House Dormitory c.1958

Playful pillow fights were common. Pillows were used as a formidable weapon, swung with two arms or released as projectiles. for the rest of that night. Later the prefects came searching for the cans in order to carry hot water for their face wash but fortunately they didn’t find them. The next day he somehow smuggled the broken end out to the carpentry shop and managed to make a repair using wood.

Playful pillow fights were common. Pillows were used as a formidable weapon, swung with two arms or released as projectiles.

When swung at someone’s head it could be enough to nearly knock him out. Accurately thrown they had force enough to wind or even

knock over an opponent. If we were caught by a prefect our usual punishment was to report to his bed at the first bell in the morning when he would then give you ‘chivies’.

The usual chivy was to be told to change your clothes at high speed many times. He would say, “games clothes” and we would have to tear off to the changing rooms which were quite some distance away and get out of our pyjamas and into our games shorts and shirt.

We would then tear back to report.

He might then say, “day clothes” which entailed running back to

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Feature

1930s dormitory

our bed and changing into day clothes. This continued until the breakfast bell sounded. Often when we reported back to the prefect in games clothes he would then send us on a run around the block. The route was along Fonthill Road, down Hamilton Road and back up Lansdown Road. Sometimes we were let off with half of it and cut up through the vegetable gardens from Hamilton Road and at other times we tried this if we thought the prefect could not see us. The prefect sometimes asked how many panes of glass there were in the Ferens building or the number of bars in the gate to the ‘Westerns’ or some other detail that he had previously noted.

Once Fenn (the late Sir Nicholas Fenn) practically caught the whole of our dormitory pillow fighting and made us all do an afternoon run to the Monument and back which was quite a formidable punishment.

He cycled out there to check our names off as we arrived. P. de B. was an expert on roller skates and concealed a pair in a towel as he set off up Lansdown Hill. From the Admiralty to the Monument the road is level and he enjoyed his long skate staying amongst the leaders with ease until he had to hide them in the grass when he saw Fenn’s 38

bicycle approaching from behind.

If Grid caught us the usual punishment was six or eight of the best with his slipper along in his bedroom at the dormitory end. I recall that P. de B. got more than his share of those slappings and often donned two pairs of underwear under his pyjamas in anticipation of that punishment.

This house master had a big round face and longish nose and had a pompous demeanour. He also wore round rimmed glasses so we nicknamed him ‘the pompous owl’. Our assistant housemaster was new to the school that term and he was considerably younger and had bright golden hair. We nicknamed him 69. There is some special significance to this number but I won’t go into it here. 69 taught French and Grid taught Greek and also looked after the Dramatic Society, which usually produced a Shakespeare or other famous play at the end of term in December.

About midway through the term, more serious fights started to develop between our dormitory and the Bridge dormitory just through the door from us. This was the most senior dormitory, being three years ahead and had more muscle than us. With no prior warning a gang of about 10 of them would come

charging through those doors and run the full length of the dormitory prior to retreating equally fast whilst grabbing as many handfuls of sheets and blankets from the beds and dumping them in the central aisle or tossing them back over the cubicle walls. Of course we would all rise up and let fly at them as hard as our little arms could wield those pillows but it was all over in less than 30 seconds as the last of them disappeared back through those swinging doors and we would throw the last pillow as they made their retreat.

There had been a very considerable noise of feet and crashing pillows whilst the fight was on and that dormitory wasn’t particularly concerned whether Grid was in his room below or not.

Less than 20 seconds after the last had retreated through those doors the landing door would open with the brilliant beam of Grid’s torch shining up that blanket festooned aisle. All the boys who no longer had beds in which to pretend innocence were called to line up in the aisle and marched off through that now very quietly sleeping Bridge dormitory to the Upper Fifth dormitory. They were told to wait their turn outside his door listening to the loud impact of the slipper on unprotected bottoms.

Feature After the second raid from our neighbouring Bridge dormitory Grid ordered that a prefect should be on continuous sentry duty in the dormitories. This was a considerable blow to even the senior dormitories but affected us the most because we were in the dormitory half an hour ahead of the others, and that half hour had until then been the best part of the day for us. But it did stop these raids. However, there was still one night when we knew the coast was going to be clear because Grid held a prefects’ meeting down in the Prefects Room that evening. We also knew that Bridge dormitory knew the coast was clear that night too. We were all alert and ready for them. I was seething with annoyance at this raiding gang and had determined I was not just going to let my bed go to them this time.

P. de B. had taught me a tactic in fighting even though I don’t quite know now why I got into those fights with him. They started as semi playful but ended in earnest.

He was much smaller than me but exceedingly wiry and his head and body were so small that he seemed to be able to wriggle his way out of any grip I tried to apply on him. Then he would leap for my head, get an arm around my neck and connect it with his other arm and squeeze with all his wiry strength. This had the rather horrific effect of causing me to blackout completely as the blood ceased circulating into my head. I felt a helpless panic come through me as I desperately tried to tell him to loosen up and admit that I was defeated. Well, I soon got to jumping in and getting this hold onto him first, but somehow his neck wasn’t as long as mine or he would twist an unexpected way and slip himself clear but I too would now be watching that he would not get a chance for this grip on me. And so we came back to be pretty evenly matched and stopped tackling one another.

When this raiding party burst through that door and stormed up

the aisle I rose up with the rest of them but rather than grabbing a pillow as my weapon, I crouched as a cat or a tiger waiting to pounce.

I knew that whoever might come for my bed would come right in to grab the top end where the sheet was folded over. As the rest raced on down the aisle, the toughest and roughest boy from Bridge dormitory named Bullock came to my bed.

I was so seething and determined that night that I was past caring who my attacker was and I just sprung for his throat. My arm circled around that neck and closed with the other and I tightened on to that neck and squeezed with every ounce of strength I could muster, knowing that if I ever let this one out of that grip, I would be pounded to so much pulp before he would leave me. He let go of the blankets he had just started to pull and we collapsed together on to the wooden planking floor.

Meanwhile the raiding party was completing their work and amidst thrashing pillows they beat their retreat not apparently realising one of their numbers was down on the floor between the beds. Our pillow gang chased the raiders to the swinging doors and only then did they realize that one of them was still with us. Soon pillows were thudding down in rapid succession

and I knew at last I could loosen my grip without fear. There were just too many attackers for him to be able to retaliate now. He struggled to his feet against blows raining down from many directions as he tried to make his escape.

I guessed there was bound to be a retaliation at some stage for my rash defence of my bed sheets and sure enough it occurred shortly afterwards. The very next morning we had to take our dirty clothes and throw them in a big soiled clothes wicker basket that was placed in a central location. This was through those swing doors in the Bridge dormitory. I guessed Bullock might well take his chance then but I didn’t want to show any fear of him so I proceeded as normal.

Discretion would certainly have been better than valour as Bullock was waiting behind those doors and as I appeared was seized in powerful hands. I don’t think I tried to defend myself as I knew it would be futile. I just went limp and left him to hammer out his rage on me; moments later I was a bruised mangled wreck on the floor with a group of other boys standing round telling him to lay off. Somehow I managed to get up and stagger back to my bed with my head held high in the belief that defending my bed sheets had all been worthwhile.

I crouched as a cat or a tiger waiting to pounce.

School house dormitory

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ASSOCIATION DAY On a warm and more importantly a dry September Saturday the guests assembled for this year’s Association Day which began with the president Tim Lindsay and the Headmaster Simon Morris welcoming the alumni and giving their view of the past year.

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Both were upbeat about the role the Association plays in supporting the students and were encouraged by the new initiatives in place designed to develop this relationship. Tim highlighted the positive changes in the make-up of the executive committee which has seen more diversity of age and gender but he was at pains to thank those that had supported the committee in the past as they had laid the strong foundation upon which to build. He believed these changes reflected a new direction for the committee which would see greater involvement of alumni in student development thereby strengthening the bond between the school and the Association. Simon said he was excited by these changes too as they would broaden the education that the students received thereby equipping them better for life after school.

With everyone enthused and in a positive frame of mind, the guests were introduced to 3 Year 13 pupils who escorted the alumni around the school. The tours included the newly refurbished Middle and Hall boarding houses with their en-suite facilities and state of the art technology; for some this was a real eye opener as to how the school has

Throughout the day you could sense the enjoyment and interest of everyone who attended this event.

Sport & Social developed to meet the expectations of modern day boarders and despite the occasional, ‘wouldn’t have happened in my day’ and ‘all these comforts will make them soft’, the alumni agreed that the facilities were very good indeed and marked a step improvement from their time at school. The tours complete, the guests attended a service in the chapel (which has not changed much since it was built in 1922) led by Reverend David Hull before attending the Association AGM and lunch in the dining hall.

force of tackles and speed of play it was hard to say this was friendly at all! The girls on the other hand, played against the current school team and although the score was 4-1 in the Old Girls’ favour, they had not had a match earlier in the day to tire them out. This was the first time that a hockey match had been included in the programme but clearly will not be the last as it provoked much amusement and reminiscing about the last time they had played together and how their fitness and skills levels had

The committee looks forward to welcoming you back to the school for this special day.

This brought back many good memories judging by the banter and laughter emanating from the tables such that even the boarders who were having lunch at the same time seemed somewhat surprised by the noise levels!

After lunch it was off to the upper to watch the first XV play rugby against Taunton (which Kingswood won easily) however the highlight of the day was the alumni Old Boys’ rugby match and the Old Girls’ hockey match which took place after the school matches. The Old Boys played against each other in a ‘friendly’ although judging by the

dropped since leaving. The day was rounded off by a few drinks in the bar and a BBQ. Throughout the day you could sense the enjoyment and interest of everyone who attended this event.

It was an excellent opportunity to rekindle existing friendships, forge new ones and develop the bond between the school and the alumni, and it is hoped that the next ones planned for June 2017 and 2018 will be even better. The committee looks forward to welcoming you back to the school for this special day and would be delighted to receive your feedback.

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Sport & Social

Social Events This has been another busy year socially and it was great to see so many old and young alumni attend the various events both at the school and other venues.

It is clear that these events remain popular and are crucial to keeping alumni informed about what is going on at the school as well as providing an opportunity to network and reminisce about the past. In addition to the traditional social events such as the annual President’s Event, the quarterly MJSD dinners and the Exeter and Oxford Lunches, the focus this year has been on encouraging younger alumni to participate in events specifically designed with their needs in mind as they are critical to the future of the Association.

The 23-33 Event hosted by the headmaster in November at the Café du Marche proved popular as did the inaugural undergraduate event held at the Old Firehouse in Exeter in January. More of these latter events are planned as they provide the headmaster and other members of staff the opportunity to talk informally with those undergraduate alumni who have left recently about their aspirations and to receive relevant and contemporary feedback on their time at Kingswood. Numbers were good perhaps encouraged by the offer of free beer and pizzas but nevertheless these alumni are impressive individuals who hold the Kingswood values dear and look back on their education with fondness and a recognition that they are well equipped to deal with the challenges ahead. It is planned that the social calendar for the forthcoming year is as varied and enticing as the previous year’s and it is hoped that many alumni are encouraged to attend the events.

23-33 Event, Café du Marche

President’s Reception Tim Lindsay hosted a superb evening at the new D&AD Offices in East London on Thursday 23 March for many alumni across a wide range of ages and experience.

The venue was impressive, which coupled with excellent food and engaging company made for a highly successful and memorable occasion. During the reception Tim spent a few minutes explaining the role of D&AD and highlighting the importance of the relationship between the alumni and the school, a point endorsed by Simon Morris who was also in attendance. Simon took the opportunity to update the alumni on some of the key achievements of the last year and improvements in infrastructure.

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Sport & Social

Exeter Lunch (Report courtesy of Tony Deyes 1954-1963)

As Colin Lomax (1956-1963) reminded us in his warm words of welcome this was the ninth “Informal Lunch” of the Association in Exeter, and as in former years it took place on Friday 7 October in the splendid and relaxed surroundings of the Exeter Golf and Country Club. It was in my memory the first of these lunches that has not enjoyed brilliant sunshine for the photograph but this did not deter Michele Greene from taking photographs between the showers and inside it was, as always good cheer and bright conversation.

Even the sad news of Brian Ashley’s death (1919-2016) was offset by the fact that he had reached the remarkable age of 96, while Dick Trafford’s (19361944) letter of apology especially regretted that he could not be with us on this occasion as it marked the 80th anniversary of his entry into Kingswood. Apologies were also received, at the last moment, from Peter Thomson (1948-1956), who was indisposed for the day but was

well represented by his daughter, Annie Chave.

We welcomed Captain Simon Brand as the new Alumni Relations Officer, who clearly brings enthusiasm and a background of military orderliness to the job – we very much look forward to seeing Simon at future events in the region, and to hearing more about the growth of the Development Department following Angela Dudley-Warde’s sad departure last year. In addition to Simon and Michele there was a good representation of all sections of the Association from members to “officers” including Tim Lindsay (1969-1974) President, Robert Sandry ((1956-1965) Governor and member of the Executive Committee) - as well as a former member of staff, David Barker (staff 1958-1974) accompanied by his musically talented wife, Jantina. As Head of Music at Kingswood David oversaw many changes but being an ex-member of Hall House I enjoyed exchanging memories with him too

about his days as a Housemaster “lodged”, as Housemasters were at the time (early 1960s), at the end of the dormitory; the new Hall House complex which opened last year shows how much times have changed!

Lunch as always was delightful following grace said by Rev. Mark Davies (1958-1963). Colin indicated that he was prepared to organise one further lunch to make 10, but was not sure about his involvement beyond that. In an attempt at gentle persuasion for him to continue, the President presented Colin with an immaculate pair of KSA cuff links and we all joined Tim in hoping Colin will go on hosting this event for many years to come, assisted of course by the excellent support of Simon and Michele. For the immediate future, however, the next lunch will be held at the Club on 13 October 2017 when all in the region are welcome. We particularly hope to attract, on that occasion, some of the good number of alumni who are studying at Exeter University.

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Sport & Social

MJSD Dinners As usual, these were held quarterly at the school and proved popular not only amongst the alumni but also members of the wider Kingswood community including staff, parents, ex parents, governors and other invited guests.

In June, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of these dinners with a champagne reception followed by an excellent dinner and an opportunity to sample 3 wines courtesy of Great Western Wines. Over 70 guests attended the dinner hosted by the new chairman who marked the significance of the evening with a short welcome speech honouring Mr Allison for his foresight and desire to further alumni relations. His wife Joyce attended the event along with the headmaster, the deputy headmaster and several other members of staff.

The September dinner welcomed over 60 guests to another evening of fine food and excellent company. The guests included 8 alumni from the Class of ’86 who were attending a reunion event over the Association Day weekend organised by Mark Humphries (1979-1986) and Sarah Beresford-Smith (1979-1986 and head girl). Other notable attendees were Year 9 parents and staff from the prep school many of whom were attending for the first time.

The atmosphere was extremely friendly and the feedback from the guests very positive indeed. In December the guests were treated to pre-dinner entertainment in the form of carols sung by members of the sixth form and the music department and so as not to feel left out and to enter into the Christmas spirit, the guests joined the choir for a few popular carols to work up an appetite. The seasonal fare was once again truly delicious and the mini Christmas puddings proved exceedingly popular.

The last event in this reporting year took place on 10 March and although the number of attendees was lower than in previous events, the atmosphere and noise level was as good as any other!

Oxford Lunch This year’s Oxford Lunch took place at St Hugh’s College, Oxford on 20 May. Due to the publishing deadline, this lunch is to be reported in the next edition of the magazine.

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Sport & Social

Class of ’67 Reunion 10 ‘Ageing trendies’ (KS leavers 66/67) met overnight at a hotel in Cheltenham during the last weekend of February; for some this was the first time in 50 years that they had met their peers which was an amazing, emotional and ‘fun’ evening! I went to bed somewhat the worse for wear with an aching stomach from non-stop laughing but also with a tinge of sadness that I had left it 50 years to meet up with my best friends.... we don’t make friends like we did at school (some of us were at Priors’ Court) and therefore had been together from the ages of 7 to 17 (or 18 if, like me, you retook your ‘A’ levels!).

It was a great night during which time we found out the following about each other: Iltyd ‘Was’ Griffiths - a retired dentist, world class fly fisherman and teacher living in West Wales.

David ‘Blockie’ Jackson CBE - a retired CEO of Bradford Area Health Authority living in Ilkley, Yorkshire. John ‘Hardy’ Hardaker - a shortly to retire GP in Margate (well someone has to...!) and Christian medical traveller. Peter ‘BK’ Bennett-King - a life time

teacher, now retired with son BK jnr. following in his footsteps. Frederick ‘Fret’ Wu - a very distinguished medical career in Endocrinology and a government advisor. Peter ‘Wimpey’ Pao - a highly successful career in family medicine in Toronto who flew over for the occasion!

His Honour Judge Peter Wright, ‘Your Lordship’, now a Senior Circuit Judge and hoping to retire next year. Anthony ‘Piggy’ Race - Worldwide teacher and ex Head of Education for Singapore, living in Padstow and accompanied by his lovely wife, Linda (not allowed to attend proceedings on account of ‘Rule 9’!) Graham ‘Bird’ Walker - a highly successful dental career in UK and Australia who hopes to retire sometime and living in Bath.

And me, David ‘Mitch’ Mitchell - now retired after 40 very happy years as a GP in Cirencester We raised glasses to toast ‘Willi’ Cumber who was desperate to join us but very sadly died this summer after a long and brave fight against cancer. We met at the hotel having squeezed in the England rugby international and started on the beers; within minutes we were

L to R: Mitch, BK, Wimpey, Bird, Hardy, Was, Piggy, Fret, Blockie, Pete

crying with laughter as we recalled endless memories and teasing.... just as if we were still at school.

Dinner followed and the laughter continued.... and behaviour disintegrated somewhat...!

It was such a shame to have left it so long but all of us determined to meet again soon. We are very keen to make contact with other 66/67 leavers including Anthony ‘Vyv’ Allen, Hugh Cross, Paul Baddeley and David Joynson to name but a few so please do get in touch through the Association office as most of us will be 70 next year and this was thought to be a good excuse to arrange the next meeting. Time is precious and so are memories.

David Mitchell

Calling all 1970/71-ers!

Messrs Mitchell, Batty, Collins and Herlinger are planning to hold a reunion for these leavers on Association Day in June 2018 (date tbc).

After some 47 years, we thought we had better act and it would be great if others could join us. If you are interested in getting back together please contact Andrew Mitchell on andrewmitchell52@hotmail. com and 07989 839927.

PS. Brown shoes allowed!

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Class of ’96 Reunion Where did 20 years go? This was the question we were all asking ourselves when 30 alumni plus partners and children met up at the school on a beautiful summer’s day in July.

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Kingswood looked spectacular. It was now easy to appreciate what a beautiful place we had spent our formative years which at the time we possibly took for granted.

People had travelled far and wide to attend; Inyang from America, Jane from Thailand, Brian from Melksham and it was so wonderful to see them all again.

One of the legacies of Kingswood has to be the strong friendships that were formed. Of the group at least half of us keep in regular contact and some have gone to the extreme of living in the same town just to maintain the Kingswood ties (Styles, Coxy, Fitchett, BaBa and Verity you know you have!)

One of the legacies of Kingswood has to be the strong friendships that were formed.

Sport & Social For me the most exciting thing was to see the people who I had not seen since that sunny day in June 1996 and find out about their lives; jobs, kids, pets and homes which would have been hard to imagine 20 years ago.

We enjoyed a buffet in the theatre foyer looking at photos relevant to our year followed by a tour of the school by the ARO. Obviously some things look new and spruced and shiny but I think we were all happy to see the place that holds so many fond memories was pretty much the same. One of the highlights was bumping into Miss Paver walking her dog; she looks exactly the same!

The party carried on at the Hare and Hounds, followed by the Boater and finally for the hardcore a nameless nightclub. We danced like it was 1996 and had a brilliant time. Thank you Kingswood for helping to mould a bunch of brilliant people. Class of ‘96 let’s not leave it another 20 years before we meet again please.

Thank you Kingswood for helping to mould a bunch of brilliant people.

Victoria Britton

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Sport & Social

Sports Results This year has witnessed an increase in both the number and range of sports fixtures in which alumni have participated, particularly with the re-introduction of past versus present matches in hockey, netball and tennis.

Hockey & Netball The inaugural Past v Present sports fixtures took place at the school on Saturday 7 January with the girls competing at netball and the boys at hockey. These matches formed part of the pre-season preparations for the school teams and provided them the opportunity to develop teamwork as well as honing their skills whilst it gave the alumni the opportunity to demonstrate their superior sporting prowess and experience‌.well that was the theory! But like most plans, these did not come to fruition once the whistle was blown and despite some fierce competition and dogged enthusiasm the old boys were outclassed by the school team and succumbed to a 6-1 defeat. Fortunately the old girls produced a more polished performance and tied the honours with a 22-22 draw.

Afterwards the customary post mortem took place in the pavilion over well-deserved refreshments with all teams espousing their strategy and tactics and endeavouring to do better next time. Thanks go to all those alumni who played but in particular to Rhys Redman and Orla O’Sullivan who captained the respective sides on the day and were instrumental in generating enthusiasm for these fixtures prior to the event.

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In addition to these events, alumni have participated in golf, cross country and rugby 7s; these are the sports that are known to the Association but there may be others that take place. If you wish to advertise an event or provide a report after it has taken place please send your contribution with pictures to the editor.

Tennis A Past v Present Tennis Tournament planned for Sunday 23 April was cancelled due to a lack of support.

It is hoped that this event will be more successful in April 2018 as it provides an excellent opportunity to provide preseason training to the school teams as well as networking with fellow alumni.

Sport & Social

Golf On Friday 17 June 2016, Simon Morris hosted the annual Kingswood Golf Day in the beautiful grounds of Cumberwell Park in Bradfordon-Avon. Over 70 people from the Kingswood community gathered together in anticipation of a good day of golf and the opportunity to win many prizes, including the Simmonds Cup, which was donated by the winners of the 2014 Golf Day, Bruce Finnamore and Dave Patterson.

The day started off in glorious sunshine and parents, teachers, governors and alumni headed off to the course in high spirits after enjoying a sociable lunch. Meanwhile, a group of keen beginners had an excellent coaching session with Cumberwell’s professional golfer and ex-Kingswood parent, John Jacobs. Unfortunately, just as some of those who were first to tee off were approaching the end of the course, the clouds that had started to gather during the afternoon finally burst amidst a very dramatic thunder storm. Play had to be suspended and all golfers made their way back in torrential rain to the clubhouse. Happily, the weather did not dampen the atmosphere of the event and only added to the bonhomie of the evening, when everybody tucked into a delicious meal and applauded the winners of the day.

Cross Country

The Golf Day is an excellent opportunity for members of the Kingswood community to get together. If you wish to be kept informed of future Golf Days, please contact the Headmaster’s PA, Juliet Coles (jac@kingswood.bath.sch.uk).

Martyn Wade represented Kingswood in the annual alumni Hare and Hounds Race run on Wimbledon Common on Saturday 17 December. Many schools were well represented (Sherborne, for instance, fielded more than 20 runners) but the Kingswood contingent was a little disappointing with Martyn being the sole representative! The challenging course is just under five miles and is run during the second or third week of December.

It is hoped that the Kingswood entry will be larger next year and thereby improve on this year’s place of second to last. Martyn has kindly offered to coordinate the KS entries so anyone interested in supporting this event is invited to contact Martyn at martynwade@btinternet.com

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Sport & Social

Avon 7s Rugby The Old Kingswoodians Rugby 7s Squad made its second appearance at the annual Avon 7s Tournament at Avon RFC in Batheaston on Saturday 16th July 2016. The day started with professionalism: Rhys ‘Coach’ Redman taking the team through a warm up and a series of handling drills before gathering the team for one of his infamous team talks prior the first group match. The squad was packed full of some of most talented of Kingswood’s rugby past, including the likes of recent school leavers Dom Mackensie, Owen Waters, Ollie Milner, Sam Enderby, Miles Thompson and Olly Beere. They were complemented by some older heads like Alex Clarke, Henry Darch, Alex Wilcox and Nicholas Sheppard, leading from the front and confirming that old dogs don’t need to learn new tricks. The 2011 1st XV front-row pairing of Harry Cheetham and Tom Drew was also on show presenting themselves to be even more dynamic than their former school-boy glory. In the absence of the cool-head and experience of Club Captain James Kellock, Jay Williams captained the team on the pitch, unleashing his extraordinary physicality in the contact area and leading in his unique and astounding style. Toby Briggs also turned up for a couple of one-minute spells before collapsing on the side-lines. However, he still took home a handful of tries owing to his electric pace and ability to ‘create something out of nothing’.

The OKs won their group commandingly beating some well-established and extremely successful 7s teams including the nationally recognised team Reko Turtles by 24-15 in the first game of the day. As a result, the OKs found themselves in a good position for the quarter finals (QF). The cup competition was fitting for the OKs young and very talented team and the QF was closely contested ending with a draw at full-time. The whistle blew to start the ‘Golden Score’ extra-time and the tension on and around the pitch was rife. Phases of attacking play were nervously exchanged by both sides and were met with ferocious defence. However, a sustained attack from the opposition created a hole in the OK line allowing them to cross the whitewash to clinch the match in the last seconds of extra time.

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A disappointing end to some glorious rugby. However, the team did not let it keep them down for long.

The side-lines were soon lined with the OK squad to watch the final matches of the tournament, starting the team’s celebrations of their achievements that continued long into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Thank you for all those that came to watch and support. All are always welcome and greatly appreciated.

Chester Lewis

We will be returning to Avon 7s on Saturday 15 July 2017.

Please come down and support (bring family, friends, pets) - it is a great day with music, drinks, BBQ and rugby.

Feature

Remembering the Somme ‘Here lies a father’s hope, a mother’s pride, and a wife’s dependence’ (Epitaph of Private John Prentice, died 23 August 1916, aged 27). ‘Well played, Lad!’ (Epitaph of Rifleman Samuel Gunn, died 27 July 1916, aged 20).

On Friday, 11 November 2016, the whole Senior School community gathered outside the Chapel for the School’s annual Service of Remembrance, led by the Chaplain, the Rev. David A. Hull. As silence fell and the daily life of the school paused

introducing this article are taken.

Many of the Somme’s dead have no grave and therefore no epitaph.

Of those who do have a grave, less than forty per cent are thought to carry an inscription. For some families, the cost was too great,

Representatives of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces joined the pupils and staff of today at the Service of Remembrance. to remember Kingswoodians who have died in active service, there was an added poignancy in the air, for this was the year of the one hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. Having begun on 1 July 1916 and still raging a hundred years ago as the school gathered, it would prove to be the bloodiest battle of the country’s history, with almost four hundred thousand lives lost across the nations which fought, including twenty-five former pupils of Kingswood School, three of whom died on the first day of the Battle.

To mark the hundredth anniversary year, the Head Boy and Head Girl read extracts during the service from the book, ‘Epitaphs of the Great War: the Somme’ by Sarah Wearne, from which the words

or they could not be contacted, or did not reply to the invitation to choose one, but those which were chosen were published to honour the anniversary.

In a new development, representatives of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces drawn from amongst the parent and alumni bodies joined the pupils and staff of today at the Service of Remembrance, having been welcomed to the school by the Headmaster at a guest reception hosted by the Alumni Relations Officer. Lieutenant Alexander Field (KS 2001-2008) led the Call to Worship and the Lesson was read by Lieutenant Jessica Simpson (KS 2001-2008).

As the Roll of Honour was read by the Headmaster and the President of the Kingswood Association, each person named

was remembered by the planting of a Cross of Remembrance by a member of the Sixth Form. The service concluded as wreaths were laid by the Head Boy and Head Girl on behalf of the Kingswood community, by Second Lieutenant Harry Russell (KS 2004-09) on behalf of the Queen’s Dragoon Guards, in memory of Lieutenant David Boyce (KS 1998-2005); killed in action 17 November 2011, Afghanistan), and

by Colonel Ewen Murchison DSO (current KS parent), on behalf of the British Armed Forces.

As the school returned to its normal business of teaching and learning, the Remembrance Crosses remained standing in the grass, symbols not only of remembrance which looked to the past, but also of hope which looked to a brighter future.

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Births, Deaths & Marriages

Lives Remembered Hugh Bazley (Lower 1944-1952) Richard (Dick) Burton (Prior’s Court Second Master 1959-1989) William Cumber (Lower 1958-1966) Colin day (Middle 1949-1953) Gordon Elliott (Middle 1952-1960) Peter English OBE (Middle 1950-1958) Sir Nicholas Fenn (School 1949-1954) Peter Fletcher (Middle 1946-1954) Charles geach (Hall 1933-1939) Professor Francis higman (School 1945-1954) Brian kingston (Middle 1944-1952) Hugh knock (KS 1941-1949) Arthur Mildon (Upper 1935-1940) William Bernard Mountford (Upper 1938-1946, Headmaster Prior’s Court 1965-1985) Roland Owen (Upper 1939-1947) William Morys Roberts (Prior’s Court / School 1944-1953) David Rose (KS 1937-1941) Reverend Peter Russell (School 1939-1947) Dr Edwina Sherrington (aka Calvert) (Staff 1987-2005) John Singleton (Lower 1934-1939) David Smith (Middle 1955-1961) Dr Cecil William Llewelyn (Bill) Williams (Hall 1939-1947) Reverend Dr Kenneth Wilson OBE (Middle 1950-1956 & Staff 1966-1973) David Woodford (Middle 1936-1945)

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obituAriEs gORdON ANThONy ELLIOTT (middle 1952-1960) Tony died peacefully at home on 21 February 2017. He had bravely fought ill health and disability since his first brain tumour in 2001 left him partially paralysed in his right leg. He always looked back on his time at Kingswood with a great deal of affection. He followed his father, Patrick (AGP) Elliott and his two uncles, Davis Cameron and Robert who all attended Kingswood. He often talked of his time in school and in both the Scouts and the Air Training Corps where he gained his pilot’s licence aged 17 before his driving licence.

After school he joined the Parachute Regiment then transferred to the SAS. During his time in the Regiment he was awarded the Military Cross. After 4 years of active service, he continued on a part time basis until aged 40 before retiring in the rank of lieutenant colonel. Following the regular army he completed a degree in engineering at Imperial College London before joining Pilkington Glass as a Training Officer in 1968. He spent the rest of his career training and lecturing ending up at Northampton University.

In 1968 he married his first wife, Wendy. They had two daughters and lived happily in the North West until sadly Wendy died in 1980. After a few years he married again and he, Jo and the girls moved to a small village in Northamptonshire. He lived there until his death which was the longest time he had lived anywhere, enjoying a mostly tranquil and peaceful lifestyle.

In his 30s he loved active hobbies, jumping out of planes and his motorbikes. All his life he was an avid reader, sometimes reading old favourites of many years standing. He also enjoyed the theatre, being in the countryside but most of all his family. He loved spending time with Jo, his daughters and his adored grandchildren.

PETER ENgLISh obE (middle 1950-1958) Peter English OBE died on 15 December 2016. He was a very popular and engaging individual who generously supported the school throughout his life. The picture entitled, ’Superman Flies Again’ won Alan Tongue the 3rd prize in a photo competition at the school and shows Peter at his energetic best.

As a tribute to his achievements, on page 62 we have republished his article on the Millennium Dome which printed in the 2000 edition of the KAN.

jo Elliott

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Births, Deaths & Marriages

By kind permission of The Times we are publishing the obituary that ran on Wednesday 28 September 2016 p58-59 in memory of Sir Nicholas Fenn. (School 1949 - 1954)

sir nicHolAs FEnn diplomat who challenged margaret thatcher over Anglo-irish relations.

Nicholas Fenn was a distinguished and popular diplomat who presided over three foreign embassies and was once savagely rebuked

by Margaret Thatcher for suggesting that London should try to show more understanding of Dublin’s concerns in Anglo-Irish relations.

Sir Nicholas Fenn It was typical of the man that he should be so frank in his advice during difficult times between London and Dublin in 1988, for Fenn believed absolutely that ambassadors must do the exact opposite to that recommended by the 17thcentury diplomat Sir Henry Wooton,who famously said: “An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for his country.”

Fenn, who was ambassador in Rangoon, then Dublin and high commissioner in New Delhi, believed that a modern ambassador must “tell it as it is”. He believed that unwelcome messages must be delivered without fear or gloss and that envoys must never mislead their governments into thinking things are better than they are. On the contrary, they must be told the truth.

In early 1988 Anglo-Irish relations were falling into another downward spiral amid rows over extradition and celebrated cases like the Birmingham Six. On top of all that was Thatcher’s dislike for her Irish counterpart, Charles Haughey. Watching matters deteriorate in those key years after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Fenn put his thoughts down in a dispatch that he called “Litany of Horror”, listing each of the elements bedevilling relations. He knew this would be received with a certain ambivalence in London but he did not expect to be called to Downing Street.

“I was summoned to No 10, and had an unpleasant hour with the prime minister who regarded Haughey with utter contempt,” he said. “And because I defended him, she regarded me with contempt. She didn’t use those words, but she was very angry. And I tried to make the case: what’s an ambassador for? Don’t I have to ensure you understand how things look to the Irish?”

Fenn made little progress, describing Thatcher as 54

“icily civil” throughout the encounter. She told him to tell Mr Haughey exactly what she thought of him—using the language she had used—which he subsequently did, leaving the Tao is each visibly shocked in the process.

“And then she got up and the interview was clearly at an end, and she hissed in my ear as I left the room: ‘Go back to Ireland where you belong’.”

Fenn assumed he would be sacked for his impertinence but reported that, contrary to his expectations, Mrs Thatcher was always kind to him from then on and that, six weeks later, he was surprised to be offered a knighthood.

Fenn’s was a long and varied career pursued in later years despite a debilitating eye condition that left him with heavily impaired sight when wakening. Among many key moments was his critical role in the presentation of the Lancaster House talks in 1979 on the future of Rhodesia in his capacity as head of the news department at the Foreign Office. His own recollection of that historic event was heavily coloured by his scepticism about prospects for success, which proved wide of the mark. According to Fenn, this was largely down to the negotiating skills of Peter Carrington, the foreign secretary. “It worked like a dream,” he recalled. “The fairytale was written and we all adjourned to Harare.”

Fenn’s last big challenge came in 1991 when he took up his post as high commissioner in India, arriving in Delhi with Douglas Hurd’s command ringing in his ears that it was his job to “understand India”. Fenn had family connections with the subcontinent and a profound respect for Indian life and culture. He had a sharp eye also for what India meant for Britain, and for British business interests in a long-established and potentially vast market.

He spent more than four years in the country—and made the most of it. He travelled widely and was proud of the fact that he made public speeches in every one of India’s then 25 states.

The later stages of his posting, however, were overshadowed by the murder of four western hostages by a Kashmiri Islamist militant organisation. The wives of the four—two Britons, one American and a German— stayed in the compound of the High Commission in Delhi for nine months during the stand-off. The tragic denouement affected Fenn deeply. “I was the last person to talk to the insurgent leader on the telephone

Births, Deaths & Marriages and, having fenced with him for days, I eventually had to say no, we weren’t going to pay, and they were killed.

That’s on my conscience. I couldn’t have said anything else, but it was, I have to believe, what precipitated their murder.”

Nicholas Maxted Fenn was born in London in February 1936, the eldest of two boys, to Eric and Kathleen Fenn. The younger brother, Barnaby, to whom Fenn was close, died in his twenties. Fenn’s father was the Presbyterian theologian Eric Fenn who, at one stage, was deputy head of religious broadcasting at the BBC. After being bombed out of their homes by the Luftwaffe three times, first in London then in Bristol and finally in Exeter, the family moved to a cottage on the northern edge of Dartmoor from where Fenn was educated at Kingswood School, Bath.

On leaving school he was called up in 1954 and selected by the RAF for pilot training, a rare distinction for a National Service officer and particularly surprising in the light of his later medical history. Released from the RAF in 1956, Fenn went up to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took a double first in medieval history. While there he chaired the university United Nations Association, CND and the Committee for Racial Understanding.

In 1959 Fenn married the biochemist Susan Russell, who survives him. They had first met when they were babies; she became an indispensable support throughout his career. Susan was the daughter of a medical missionary and had been born in China from where her family had been driven out by the Japanese. They had been taken

in by the Fenns when they arrived in England without a penny. The pair met again through the Student Christian Movement. They went on to have two sons and a daughter.

Robert was until recently high commissioner in Brunei and is currently the head of the FCO’s human rights and democracy department; Charlie is an IT and management consultant and Julia is a physicist.

Just 10 days after marrying, Fenn joined the Foreign Service, and at the age of 23 was posted to Rangoon.

Burma’s civilian government had been overthrown in the previous year by the first of its many military rulers, but it was far from the unbending dictatorship of Myanmarin the 1970s and1980s. The Fenns fell in love with the place and spent four years there exploring every corner of the country.

He was in Algeria, and later in Peking for two years, then head of news in London before Fenn stunned his superiors, including Carrington, by expressing interest in returning to Burma. “Lord Carrington sent for me before the Falklands and said: ‘Nick, it says here that you actually want to go back to Burma. Can that be true?’ And I said: ‘Yes, secretary of state. It is.”

Fenn and his wife went off blithely to return to Rangoon—this time as ambassador—from where he enthusiastically tried to promote that country, which was still in the grip of its long military dictatorship, to a largely unimpressed Whitehall. They stayed for four years, coping with a regime more malevolent by far than the one they had known in their youth.

After Dublin and New Delhi, the Fenns settled back in England in the village of Marden in Kent. He became chief executive and then chairman of Marie Curie Cancer Care. He also gave himself to Anglo-Irish and Anglo-Indian good causes, and became a trustee of Sightsavers International.

In later life Fenn and his wife devoted themselves to a double-headed memoir, Of Shreds and Patches, each bringing insights of their own to a joint recollection of their lives together.

Sir Nicholas Fenn, GCMG, diplomat, was born on February 19, 1936. He died on September 18, 2016, aged 80.

Nicholas Fenn and his wife Susan in Nepal in 1985 while he was ambassador in Rangoon.

In later life the couple wrote a memoir about their lives together.

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Births, Deaths & Marriages

William Bernard Mountford (Upper 1938-1946, Headmaster Prior’s Court 1965-1985) William Bernard Mountford (always known as Bill) was born in Gorleston, Norfolk on 25 March 1937 to the Rev John William Mountford and his wife Elsie – he was the youngest of a family of 6 children. In 1938 at the age of 11, he was sent to board at Kingswood School, Bath a year before war broke out. The following year, the senior school was evacuated from Bath to share with Uppingham School for the next 5 years while the prep school found accommodation at a large country house and estate near Newbury – Prior’s Court which was to become of huge significance in Bill’s life. He moved onto Uppingham and only returned to Kingswood for his final year.

In 1945, aged 18 Bill was called up for National Service but was rejected by all 3 services on medical grounds however it did not stop him playing all the sports which he enjoyed so much. Because universities were giving preference to ex-servicemen he was unable to gain a place anywhere and so the headmaster at the time, A.B. Sackett sent him back to Prior’s Court (PC) as a junior master to teach mathematics. He offered considerable sports coaching as well, particularly in cricket and hockey. He also took the opportunity to study and qualify as a Methodist local preacher. At last in 1950, he gained a place at Bristol University to read History and went on to take a Certificate of Education.

As an impecunious older student with no grant, he took on various jobs in the vacations one of which was working on the docks carrying enormous sacks up ladders which he said helped to develop his upper body strength.

In 1951 Bill married Marjory Fardon Robson whom he had met when she went to PC as Headmaster’s secretary. She then

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moved to Bristol to take up a post in a university office where she met Jean Bisset who was to became a lifelong friend to them both. In 1954 Bill accepted a post at Hazelgrove, the King’s Bruton prep school in Somerset where again Marjorie became the Headmaster’s secretary.

Bill’s abilities were soon recognised and in 1958 he was offered and accepted a post at Queen’s Taunton, where his brief was to expand Cotlake (Junior) House into a separate junior school. This was a tall order but was achieved which budgetary autonomy or a real monetary allowance.

To encourage the senior school bursar to make improvements in Cotlake House, Bill and Marjorie bought one of the bursar’s boxer puppies, the first of a succession of boxers. While in Taunton, to their great joy their daughter Elizabeth (PC 1970-71 and KS 1977-79) was born. Elizabeth joined the RAF in 1983 enjoying a very successful career before retiring in 2010.

In 2007 she was awarded an MBE for her work in the Gulf and Afghanistan while appointed to MOD Corsham; her investiture at Buckingham Palace was a very proud occasion for Bill.

Bill’s ability as an innovator came to the fore again after the move to PC to become Headmaster in 1965. He developed extra facilities for science as a main academic subject, arts & crafts, and sport and he also realized the value of drama productions, which involved so many aspects including lighting, stage design and of course, acting!

In policy matters he pressed the Governors to allow him to accept day pupils in 1968 and girls in 1978.

In 1979 he oversaw the construction of a new wing for girls and in 1984 the new sports hall was opened.

None of the building development was allowed to interfere with the academic work or ethos of the school that Bill knew so well – after all it was his third return to PC. As well as heading a very experienced teaching staff, he taught religious education, Latin and History which was his first love.

He also recognised the importance of the ancillary staff to the happiness and well-being of the school and paid personal interest in the welfare of his non-teaching staff.

In 1980 Bill married Jean Bisset after the prolonged illness and sad death of Marjorie, who had contributed so much to the school.

Both Bill and Laurie Campbell were due to retire in the same year, but it was agreed that both heads leaving at the same time would not be in the best interests of the school so Bill happily agreed to take a slightly early retirement at Easter 1985 after being headmaster for 20 years. He was given a term’s sabbatical leave which he used partly by taking the caravan to Austria and Italy. Quite early in his time at PC he realised the importance of being able to get away during the holidays from the place where he lived and worked

Births, Deaths & Marriages and so had acquired a caravan.

In retirement caravan holidays became a great joy travelling from the north of Scotland to the tip of Cornwall and also to France, the Italian lakes, Switzerland and Belgium.

After retiring from teaching and moving to Bath to be nearer his remaining family, Kingswood found a new use for Bill’s services and he took over from Freddie Field as General Secretary of the Association which he agreed to do for 5 years, after which Jean took over for a further 4 years. Later Bill served as President of the Association for a year.

In Bath both Bill and Jean were heavily involved in St Stephen’s Church on Lansdown Hill where he became a Methodist churchwarden in an Anglican church. Later he and David Howard, whom he had first met as a parent at PC, masterminded the work of converting St Stephen’s crypt into what is now a thriving community centre. Bill never lost his love of sport and at last was able to take up golf more seriously; he joined Lansdown Golf Club where he played for the seniors and made many friends. He and Jean also played badminton and became keen supporters of Bath rugby.

Bill was a man who always put others ahead of himself and throughout his long life upheld the Methodist values instilled in him. He gave exemplary service to Kingswood where his dedication, professionalism and wisdom earned him the highest respect from his colleagues and those in his charge. Measured, patient, tolerant and with an unfailing sense of honour, Bill touched the lives of everyone who knew him. He was an excellent ambassador for the school and the local community.

Jean & Elizabeth Mountford

William Morys Roberts (Prior’s Court / School 1944-1953) A 70 year friendship is something to be proud of and the feeling of loss at the end of it is a considerable blow. Bill Roberts and I first met at Prior’s Court in the autumn of 1945 and probably the initial friendship was based on a love of history and historical matters which we retained all our lives.

Having got into Cambridge (Gonville and Caius) he then did National Service during which he studied on the Russian Course for part of the time but never left the UK! In the autumn of 1958 we both started work in the City of London. A Merchant Bank agreed to pay for his training as a Chartered Accountant and employ him when he was qualified.

I owe a great deal to Bill; he suggested that I shared a flat with him and a couple of his Cambridge friends. We had a very enjoyable, social time and many weekends were spent going to historic houses and churches within reach of London. Of his professional life I can say very little other than that he was very successful finishing his career as a Senior Partner in Ernst and Young specialising in Insolvencies.

His marriage to Patricia in 1967 brought them both much joy and a wonderful, busy family life with three children and now many grandchildren.

They lived near Saffron Walden and in retirement moved to a lovely house and garden in Long Melford. While at Cambridge Bill was confirmed into the Church of England largely due to the influence of Mervyn Stockwood and Hugh Montefiore. He was a devoted Anglican serving as Churchwarden and at a Diocese level with his financial knowledge. He distinguished himself by writing a book on the Lost Country Houses of Suffolk which was very well received.

Bill died peacefully at home on 8 April after many years on dialysis and suffering from cancer. He was remembered at a moving Thanksgiving Service in the beautiful Church of Long Melford.

Bill’s niece and nephew (Anna and Giles Brenard) also went to Kingswood.

William Sanders (Hall 1945-1953)

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Births, Deaths & Marriages

David Rose (1937-1941) David Rose who died in January at the age of 92 enjoyed a very successful career in television both as a producer and as a director, but perhaps his greatest achievement was being regarded as the founding figure of what is now known as Film4.

Following national service flying Lancaster bombers in the RAF, David trained as an actor at the Guildhall School of Drama before joining the BBC as an assistant floor manager. He quickly worked his way up through the ranks at the BBC and by the end of the 1950s he was running the BBC’s English regional drama department in Birmingham, a post he held for many years (1958-80).

During this time he nurtured new creative talent and playwrights including David Hare and Mike Leigh and was responsible for a number of famous Play for Todays, including Nuts in May, Penda’s Fen and Licking Hitler. However, it is as a producer and production executive that he rose to prominence producing the successful police series Z Cars (1962–65) which ran for 803 episodes and its successor Softly, Softly (1966–69) which ran for 120 episodes.

In 1981, Rose was hired as head of fiction at Channel 4 where he particularly identified with the Film on Four strand, which later went on to become Film4, the public funding organisation which has backed development of films such as 12 Years a Slave and Slumdog Millionaire. During his time at Channel 4 he approved the making of 136 films and invested in a third of the feature films made in the UK during 1984. By 1987, this figure had risen to 50% so no wonder Rose is credited as being a significant figure in the regeneration of British cinema.

Rose retired in 1990 after 8 years at the helm of one of the UK’s most prominent funding bodies, helping bring projects such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Mona Lisa and Letter to Brezhnev to the big screen.

He was awarded a special prize for services to cinema at Cannes 1987 and in April 2010 he received a BFI Fellowship for his contribution to film and television culture.

Editor

David Gourdein Smith (Middle 1955-1961) David Smith was destined to come to Kingswood when in 1953, his father, a GP in Slough, read in the Times that Kingswood School had won more open scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge than any other school in the whole country.

David came to Westwood in 1955 from Caldicott Farnham Royal, a prep school which to his eternal chagrin he shared with one Nick Clegg. In 1956 he was put into Middle House with a number of us who had come from Prior’s Court the previous year, Eric Craven, Michael Male and Peter Davies to name but a few. David immediately became one of us. He was likeable, clubbable and an engaging raconteur who seemed to be able to see the funny side of anything. He was to nurture and refine these skills throughout his life.

David wasn’t much interested in playing school sports but he developed a spectator’s interest in rugby and in particular the Bath Rugby club and its iconic ground known as ‘The Rec’.

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He left Kingswood in 1961 to go to The Sorbonne in Paris and so developed his lifelong interest in the language, food, wine and all things French. Leaving Paris David joined Smith and Nephew in Hull as a trainee manager and began what was to become a lifelong association with the firm, the city of Hull and the town of Beverley where he lived with Christine and their two sons Philip and Matthew.

David enjoyed a lifelong association with Kingswood and was instrumental some fifteen years ago in organising an informal Middle House reunion for the leavers of 1961. These meetings, with our wives, have continued every two or three years. David was greatly missed at our last lunch in October 2016.

David led an active life in the community of Beverley, attending French conversation classes and other local activities. After retirement from Smith and Nephew he became the organiser of the Old Boys

Association of Pocklington School where Philip and Matthew had been educated. His interest in Bath Rugby continued and he always enjoyed his visits to Twickenham to see England play. His place in the community of Beverley was clearly illustrated by the congregation of several hundred people who attended his Memorial Service in St Mary’s Church, Beverley.

David’s particular interest was in the daily cut and thrust of politics.

He was an avid Private Eye reader and whenever a political scandal broke I could rely on a call from David to discuss latest developments.

During the Brexit Referendum and the subsequent political upheaval I often reflected on how David would have enjoyed it all.

He was a good friend for almost 60 years and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

David died suddenly on 6 March 2014. He leaves his wife Christine and sons Philip and Matthew and their families.

Andrew Teare (Middle 1952-1961)

Births, Deaths & Marriages

Dr Cecil William Llewelyn (Bill) Williams (Hall 1939-1947) My father vividly remembered travelling with his father on 12th September 1939, as the world was preparing itself for war, up to Paddington Station to meet the School train that would take him to Priors Court and a lifelong regard for ‘his’ school.

As the only child of a Methodist Naval Chaplain he often lacked for company of his own age.

Settling quickly into Priors Court, he recalled, “Here I was among siblings, albeit surrogate, that I had at times longed for.”

His enjoyment and love of his time at Priors Court was only interrupted on the 7th November 1940 when the headmaster Hugh Clutton Brock had the unenviable task of informing my father of the loss of his father.

September 1941 saw my father join 600 others at Kingswood in Uppingham where the war was followed with maps and listening to news on the radio. As my father remarked, even the 10:45 School Break was extended to allow the students to listen to the 11:00 news bulletins about the Russia Campaign and the Western Front.

The realities of war, however did make themselves known at Sunday Chapel when the chaplain read out the names of fallen alumni, some of whom were known by my father.

Apart from the death of his father, he felt he had selfishly enjoyed the war. There were problems, shortages and rationing, “which probably did them more good than harm “ he would say, with the radio news always having stimulating happenings to talk about. All in all, he wrote, “I cannot remember having one moment of unhappiness at Kingswood.”

In Gibraltar 1919 my father’s father, who himself had lost an eye at Jutland, became friends with a chap convalescing there from losing a leg in France, during the

Great War. This young chap, whose own father was a Methodist Minister in Gibraltar, was none other than A.B. Sackett; who was to become Headmaster of Kingswood 19271959. My father had the greatest regard for ‘Sackett’, and whom he believed, although A.B. Sackett never made it too obvious, took a special interest in my father, resultant of his friendship with my father’s father. A.B. Sackett was instrumental in helping my father realise his dream. In the Upper Fifth, at the beginning of the era of the use of antibiotics, and the hope of eliminating infections such as that that had killed my father’s father, my father set his mind on being a doctor. Being the son of a Methodist Minister’s widow, this, it would seem, would be a dream beyond his resources.

A.B. Sackett encouraged and enabled my father to enter the Navy in June 1947 as a conscript under the State of Emergency Act, just 2 months before conscription ended. Thus my father qualified for the Further Education and Training Scheme without which medicine would have remained just a dream.

Even in the Navy, Kingswood continued to exert its influence on his life , when a Naval Chaplin and a Surgeon Commander, both old boys, helped my father transfer from being a radar technician to a sick berth attendant which was the first step on his long and successful medical career which spanned 36 years in general, psychiatric, geriatric and obstetric practice, amassing a personal list in excess of 4000 patients across 5 surgeries. He also gained a Tutorship for the Welsh National School of Medicine amongst other achievements.

My father wrote: “I loved medicine. I always felt it was an enormous privilege to be asked by people to help them. To

look after a woman throughout her pregnancy, be present at or deliver her baby, seeing that baby grow; or in some circumstances such as a miscarriage, stillbirth, or congenital abnormality of the child, helping those parents… supporting and caring for patients with terminal illness… witnessing amazing bravery in some cases…

Yes, it was an enormous privilege.”

He was a well respected and popular doctor who believed in treating people, not diseases; fear first, symptoms second. Years after he had retired and moved away from his practice, patients who can only have known him when they were children, would recognise him, greet him and pass the time of day.

All his life my father never forgot, or ceased praising Kingswood to us. I once asked him why he had sent my brothers, Bruce (1967-1979) Simon (1971-1980) and myself Iain (1973-1981) to Kingswood. I recall him replying along the lines of: “My time at Priors Court and Kingswood, both in Uppingham and later in Bath, were amongst others, some of the happiest days of my life. Having lost my father, having nowhere to really call home, Kingswood and Priors Court were places of stability, a surrogate home, the foundation for what I became. It gave me the best, and that’s what I want for you all.”

My father is survived not only by his wife Judith, my brothers, sister and I, eleven grandchildren one of whom, Emma, also went to Kingswood (2009-2012); but also many friends and hundreds of children whom he helped bring into the world, returned to health during childhood, and cared for as adults in illness or as they became parents themselves.

He is much loved.

Iain Williams (Hall 1973-1981)

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Births, Deaths & Marriages

An English Dome?

All over the world people united to celebrate the start of the New Millennium.

At Midnight (GMT) on the 31st December 1999 the eyes of the world turned to the Dome at Greenwich. Those there joined together for an exciting and joyful moment. Myself, two colleagues and our wives were happily caught up in those celebrations but suddenly all three of us shared the same emotional experience; similar to losing an old friend; the Dome was not ours anymore.

Lifetime Thrill That moment was the climax of39 months of hard work, excitement, exhilaration and dedication to the most important construction project of the nineties. At least as far as the press appear to be concerned.

Without doubt, for me it was the most thrilling and fascinating in 40 years in the construction business.

I had been (and still am) NMECis Dome & Site Development Manager since Sept. 1996 and saw from the inside, the project develop from an idea to a reality; watched it stumble through two major political crises without realising, until very recently just how serious the political infighting had been.

The construction of the Millennium Exhibition / Experience was always going to be a real challenge; that it was to be carried out in the full glare of the media was at times disconcerting, but nevertheless fun.

The Dome itself, of course, was a brilliant concept which allowed construction to proceed in advance of the design of the exhibits. That idea, without doubt, made the whole Millennium Experience possible.

A Bath Conception You may not realise it but the Dome was largely designed in Bath by our engineers Buro Happold. This was for me, both delightful and strange. I found myself spending more time in Bath than I had at any time since !left KS in 1958. In many a meeting I could see the square shaped tower of Kingswood over looking our deliberations.

Every time I visited I drove past the school going to and from. It brought back many a nostalgic memory.

Regrettably as the project picked up speed the need to visit Bath decreased; Buro Happold came to see us at Greenwich instead.

My Millennium Experience, which is still continuing, has lasted for over three years. It has been the most thrilling experience of my life. The building of the Dome was, of course, a team effort and we were lucky to have assembled a very good team indeed.

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On Time and To Budget It was clear to me from the beginning that building the Dome on time was going to be a major challenge.

We had agreed early on with our colleagues designing the exhibits that they could have access to a weather tight Dome from September 1998.

To achieve this we would have to place the order for the steel masts, cable network and roof fabric early in 1997. Erection of the steelwork could then start in October 1997 and the cable network must he complete

by March 1998 so that the roof could commence and finish by June 1998. This would only work if we had access to the site itself in June 1997.

This programme, which we set in November 96, we stuck to in spite of the political background. Indeed the Prime Minister knew that he must make up his mind to continue with the Millennium Experience or not

by Monday June 23rd 1997 or we were going to start anyway with the resultant political embarrassment. He actually announced his decision on Thursday 19th June (nail biting days). We achieved that programme and I like to think that the ‘momentum’ we got up in 1997 & 1998 drove the rest of the project wto complete on time.

June 22nd 1998 was one of our proudest days when the Prime Minister returned to see the Dome structure complete 12 months after he had given the go ahead.

The remainder of the period between June 1998 and today has been equally as exciting but then the complete story of the Dome is a really fascinating one; one I should be happy to relate should anyone be interested.

I don’t know whether anyone else from KS has been involved in the project or not, I should be interested to hear from them if they have.

Peter English (1950-1958)

Births, Deaths & Marriages

mArriAGEs & birtHs the following alumni celebrated their wedding during the last year.

We wish them every success and happiness in their future lives together.

• Steph Corfield (KS 1998-2003) married Marcus Wardill on 18 June 2016 in Portugal. Tim Martin (KS 2001-2005) flew out to be our photographer. (Image left) • John Paines (KS 1999-2006) married Emily Catchpool on 19 August 2016 in the Kingswood Chapel, followed by a Reception at Summerhill Mansion. (Images below) • Mark Raisbeck (KS 1994-2001) married Laura hayes on 29 October 2016 in Byron Bay, Australia.

the following births were recorded during the past year. many congratulations to the proud parents and we wish the families all the very best of health and happiness.

• Luca Nithin Nayak, born 20 June 2016 in Dubai, UAE to Melissa and Amit Nayak. A brother for Sofia.

Evelyn Lord

• Lukas Felix Benjamin Edmund born 5 September 2016 to Anna (née Bergmann) and james Edmund. A brother for Sam, Max and Joseph.

• Archer (Archie) John Burkert born 6 October 2016 to Sarah (née Wallbank) and Frank Burkert.

• Evelyn Lord born on 10 October 2016 to Faye (née Tavenor) and Mark Lord weighing 8lbs 3oz.

• Harriet Ruby Day, born 20 December 2016 to Rachel (née Nicklin) and Chris day. A sister for Freddie and Charlie.

• Freddie Arthur Jack Curtis born 20 January 2017 in London to katie (née Taylor) and david Curtis.

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