Priory House 100th Anniversary

In 1961 three Priory boys started playing guitars together, and, with the addition of another from the Hall who had a Drum Kit, Repton’s first ‘band’, The Sunsets, was born! Graham ’Shifty’ Abbot (P’58) played lead guitar and tutored John Ballinger (rhythm guitar)

On a hot August day, a number of ORs from The Hall who entered the School in the mid-1960s had lunch in Brill, Buckinghamshire, with Barry and Pat Downing, Mariel Toynbee and Shirley French. Barry taught French, German and Russian and was a House Tutor of The Hall before becoming Housemaster of the Priory. He then became Second Master during Graham Jones’ tenure as Headmaster. Barry obviously had a great influence on the boys in The Hall and our and David Hings (P’59) (bass guitar) to a level where most of the instrumental hits of the day from the Shadows could be played to a reasonable standard.

John Ballinger (P’59)

respect and affection for him remain undiminished even after 50 years. Peter Toynbee taught Modern Languages and was Housemaster of the Mitre. Roy French taught English and became Housemaster of New House. Outside the classroom he was in charge of hockey having been a Blue and captained the Cambridge team. After retirement, he was instrumental in setting up Repton Enterprises. I calculated that Barry, Roy and Peter jointly gave over 100 years of service to Repton.

We all had a wonderful time, there were many happy reminiscences of The Hall and the School. Mariel Toynbee brought a School photograph taken in the summer of 1963, and we all had great fun trying to identify members of staff and boys. Everyone was very reluctant to disperse after such a very happy gathering.

Michael Li (H’65)

Now that the Covid restrictions have eased in Singapore, the four of us managed to meet up at an English pub equivalent called the Tavern at the Tanglin Club in Singapore. Please do contact the OR Office if you would like to join the group for the next meet up.

Alfred Cheng (O’75)

As always, I really enjoyed your previous issue, one letter and one article with photographs stood out for me. The letter from Robert Miller (L’76) reported that Michael Wesson (H’40) is still hale and hearty at the age of 94. The Booth family with an only son, my friend Chris (P’53), were good friends and used to holiday with the Wessons. In 1956 they took a cottage on the Roseland Peninsular in Cornwall, and I was invited to join them for their second week. I think Michael and his brother, Tony (H’43), had a pied-à-terre up the road, but nevertheless, it must have been some cottage to accommodate their mother, Phyl, their two lovely sisters, three Booths and me. My memory is of the warm welcome I was given by both families and of great conviviality.

The report of the Priory House Dinner also stood out. I was sorry that more of my contemporaries were not there, John Hings (P’55) being the notable exception. I was pleased to meet up again with the Kukhnin brothers, Andrey (P’97) and Ivan (P’03). It still seems remarkable to me that two Russian brothers would enter the Priory for Sixth Form before going on to Cambridge and Durham respectively. As Ivan is now based in Moscow as a partner at Deloitte, the fact that he would travel from there to Repton for the Dinner was impressive.

There appeared to be some ignorance at the Dinner regarding exactly what centenary we were celebrating. The Priory existed as a Boarding House at least from 1879 in the Old Priory. J H Gurney, a science master, built a boarding house in 1886 down the High Street. On retirement he continued to live in the house, his private property, rattling around with no boys present. My grandfather, Alan Bragg (JHG 1893) said that in his retirement Gurney set himself the task of weighing the world. He died in 1919 and bequeathed his house to the School. Thus it was possible for the boys in the old Priory to move to the new Priory in 1921. This was the centenary we were celebrating thanks to Gurney’s generosity.

Yours Sincerely,

John Bragg (P’53)