OPUS • Issue 9 • Winter 2013
The Portsmouth Grammar School • www.pgs.org.uk
Cambridge and joined the Royal Naval Reserve in 1985. He has served as the navigating officer in HMS Itchen and became the Royal Naval Reserve’s lead precise navigation instructor. He has also served on board HMS Alderney, Exeter, Illustrious and Ocean.
OP WEDDINGS Keith Allman (1991-2004) and Andrea Parker (2002-2004) Keith Allman married Andrea Parker on Thursday 8 August 2013 in Cambridge.
Martin TISDALL (1989-1993) In September of this year Martin was appointed Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. After leaving PGS in 1993 he studied Medicine at Cambridge and then obtained an MA in Social and Political Sciences, also at Cambridge. He achieved a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and a Doctor of Medicine (MD), Neurosciences at UCL. He has since worked as the Specialist Registrar in Neurosurgery at North Thames Neurosurgery Rotation, a Paediatric Neurosurgery Fellow at Great Ormond Street and Paediatric Neurosurgery Fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Captain Tony WARDALE (1948-1952) Congratulations to Tony and Sue Wardale who celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary in September with a lunch in HMS Collingwood for friends and family. This was a double celebration as Tony also had his 80th birthday this year. On leaving PGS Tony entered BRNC Dartmouth as a Cadet in the Electrical Branch, he then went up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he read Engineering. After some years in submarines he went into the surface ship part of the Navy, retiring as a Captain in 1988. He finally worked for a submarine rescue company, retiring in 2007. He and Sue enjoy sailing and Tony is off skiing with friends in the New Year. He has many happy memories of his time at PGS and is particularly grateful for the support and guidance from Bill Willis, whom he regarded initially with awe and later as a friend. Laura Willans (1998-2005) Laura works as a Programme Officer in the Humanitarian Department of Save the Children, where she helps manage the entry-level trainee schemes, which are part of a wider push by Save the Children and other organisations to raise the standards of responses to emergencies across the humanitarian sector. In June, she went on a monitoring and evaluation visit to Lebanon where Save the Children had three trainees working in child protection, logistics and education on the charity’s response to Syrian refugees living there. She also joined a team distributing vouchers to the refugees that are then redeemed in local DIY shops for tools and construction materials. In this way, refugees are enabled to choose themselves what they need most. This approach also supports local traders, which can contribute to reducing tensions between the host and refugee communities.
Since leaving PGS, Keith graduated from the University of Southampton with a BA (Hons) in English. He then worked in banking before qualifying as a teacher of English in 2012, first teaching at Upper Shirley High School in Southampton and now at Bottisham Village College in Cambridgeshire. Andrea graduated from Warwick University in 2008 with a first class degree in Ancient History and Classical Archaeology. She then completed a Masters degree in Ancient Visual and Material Culture, also at Warwick, before moving to Cambridge to train as a teacher of Classics, qualifying in 2010. Since then, she has taught Classics in Cheshire, Suffolk and most recently, Cambridge. Andrea has also completed a Masters in Education with Distinction at Cambridge University. Keith and Andrea have been close friends since they met in Sixth Form. Their relationship was the subject of witty remarks from staff and students alike, including some who predicted in their yearbooks that they would one day marry! Guy COCKCROFT (1990 – 2003) Guy married Hayley Saunders in Braunton, North Devon, on 26 May 2013. The wedding took place at The Hunters Inn, a beautiful, traditional inn in the Heddon Valley on Exmoor. This was a very special place for the happy couple as Guy proposed to Hayley on the beach at nearby Heddon’s Mouth. The three ushers were Oliver Richardson, Henry Lewis and William Nicol, all OPs. Guy and Hayley met in 2010 in North Devon District Hospital where they were working as junior doctors. They are both now on the GP training scheme and Guy is in his final year of training. They live in Hayley’s home village of Braunton, North Devon, with their cat ‘M’! Guy still enjoys hockey and now plays for North Devon.
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