NOTES
EDITOR’S NOTES .................................................
Interesting to catch up with KIM ROWE (79). Kim is currently head of Bishophalt School in Hillingdon, Uxbridge, he was appointed four years ago, as school was assuming Academy status. The main building, an imposing Victorian red-brick affair was formerly Uxbridge County School and since 2013 has been used as a location for the BBC sitcom Big School. The school changed from a grammar to a comprehensive in the 1970s and a has a total roll of around 1300 pupils. A contemporary of Kim’s, CHARLIE GABBITASS (79), is also still enjoying his role in the teaching profession. Charlie has been teaching sport at Blundell’s for some years now and achieving a fair measure of success. Another OPM in the profession is PETER GARLAND (05), Peter is teaching Latin, Ancient Greek, and Ancient Civilisations at King’s School, Worcester. He likes to get to back Plymouth for part of the summer, and to fit in the odd game of cricket. Now here’s an interesting bit of trivia: one of the classrooms in the Classics Department at King’s is evidently the oldest classroom in England. MAX STRELLING (79), and his wife Kate, bought a letting business (Barton Wykes - in Plymouth and based in Stoke), a few years ago, after a long time in the hotel industry (about which he has plenty of tales to tell that make Fawlty Towers look positively innocuous). Currently the Strellings are just about to move into a house in Heybrook Bay that they’ve been working on for some time. JACK STYCHE (07) is working in London as an assessor for a shipping company and sneaks back when he can at weekends, and
OPM 72
is always up for a game of cricket. KEITH WATERS (79), past pupil and now current Plymouth College parent, is enjoying seeing the school and the staff through fresh eyes. All reports so far very encouraging. Keith himself has recently retired from teaching at Holbeton, and keeps busy looking after buildings and occasionally turning out for Ermington CC. Good to meet up with JOHN MARTIN (72) in the revamped Hyde Park Hotel at the end of Mutley Plain either side of an Argyle game earlier this season. After working for many years in the music business, as a musician, promoter and manager – he worked with Richard Thompson for a long time and turned down the offer to manage Van Morrison ... ‘I’d heard that he wasn’t just difficult he was almost impossible!’ – John is currently working with much older people in London.
With him on the day were SIMON McDERMOTT BROWN (73), KINGSLEY BISHOP (72) (pictured) and CHRIS WOOD (72). Another pub encounter saw ANTHONY LAMBERT (79) relaxing in the Dolphin after his role as guest speaker at the School Senior Awards evening just before Christmas. He’s pictured in full rig with Beryl Cook’s favourite pub landlord, Billy Holmes. Still on the Barbican and some months
later at the 60th birthday party of legendary Plymouth rock DJ, Andy Howard, bumped into fellow deckmeister MARK WILLIAMS (82) who’s still packing out local dance floors. Across the water, at Queen Anne Battery, it was good to catch up with IAN PENROSE (72) and BILL JOCE (72) as they swapped notes on boats and prepared to watch night two of the splendid National Firework Competition held every year in Plymouth in August.
OPM 73