House Magazine - Issue 14 - Spring 2021

HOUSE

ISSUE 14 SPRING 2021

T H E W I N C H E S T E R H O U S E A S S O C I AT I O N A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E

Welcome

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CONTENTS WELCOME FROM THE HEAD

1

WHS AND THE CHALLENGES OF COVID-19

2

WHS' RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC

8

HOUSE ON THE HILL

13

THE GREAT DISCONNECTOR

14

from the Head

HOUSIAN SECTION JAMES RUDKIN (2002–2007)

18

PHILIP HARRISON OSWALD (1941–1946)

22

BEYOND THE SCHOOL GATES

27

GENERAL NEWS

32

FORAGED, FRESH AND FABULOUS

38

HOUSE COVER ARTIST: LOU DUNIPACE

39

HOUSIAN ANNOUNCEMENTS

40

COMMUNITY LIFE

48

SCHOOL NEWS

53

OBITUARY: CHRIS LEACH

80

STAFF NEWS

81

STAFF FOCUS: TIM RILEY

84

STAFF FOCUS: LESLEY ROSE

86

STAFF BEHIND MASKS

87

Front Cover: A portrait of Sister Wendy Bull painted by artist and parent Lou Dunipace to celebrate frontline heroes as part of International Nurses Day. See article on page 39 for further information.

KEEP IN TOUCH www.winchester-house.org/ Winchester-House-Association-welcome www.facebook.com/WinchesterHouseAssociation @WHSPrepAlumni winchesterhouseschool headinheels

I ended my virtual address at Prize Giving in July 2020, quoting from British author and artist Charlie Mackesy’s book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. “What’s the best thing you’ve learned about storms?” asked the horse. “That they make us kinder,” said the boy “and that they end.” An apt way to sign off, after a term of unprecedented demands imposed on all community members by the pandemic.

Children and staff have now completed almost two terms of home-schooling, amounting to 450 live online lessons every week. Our staff body has demonstrated incredible energy, adaptability, patience and perseverance throughout, and the children embraced home schooling and the online offering ‘House at Home’ with their usual vigour, enthusiasm and questioning. It certainly ‘rained’ on occasions in the early days as we grappled with technology and the ‘new norm’ from the comfort of our homes.

It ‘poured’ for some members of the Winchester House community who tragically lost loved ones to the disease and nursed others back to health. Our thoughts and prayers remain with them.

Last November, we announced the news that School, together with Stowe and Swanbourne House School, were creating The Stowe Group effective from 1st January 2021. The formation of this strong group enables us to thrive, build on existing strengths and provide the best education for the children. The Stowe Group member schools will benefit from shared strategic leadership and expertise, access to more resources for professional development and the sharing of ideas, as well as delivering cost efficiencies.

Importantly, it will also enable pupils to benefit from Group facilities, leadership opportunities and

A word from the Editor The creation of the COVID-19 vaccines is no mean feat, giving the world an exit strategy out of the pandemic tunnel. But while this may seem like an overnight success story, the speed and effectiveness of the new vaccines can be in part attributed to the decades of research, shining a light on the importance of continued investment in science and technology.

With this in mind, the next issue of House in Spring 2022, will look at the roles played by Winchester House community members in science and technology. The

enhanced teaching and learning environments. Three of Winchester House’s Governors​,​Richard Greaves, Patrick Bradshaw and Rupert Fordham​,​have been appointed to The Group governing body.

At the end of the Summer term, I will be leaving Winchester House after seven enormously enjoyable years serving as Head, to take on the role of Head of The Dragon School, Oxford. I always encourage the children to challenge themselves and I always try to follow my own advice. My association with Winchester House stretches back a long time, having chosen it for my own children, I was appointed a Governor and later became Head. The Governing Body has begun the recruitment process for my successor and, until this process has been completed, I will be leaving Winchester House in the extremely capable hands of Katy Dallimore and the Leadership Team.

With the roll out of the vaccine programme, I hope the storm is nearing its end and have no doubt that exciting times lie ahead for Winchester House. We value our alumni body hugely, have missed social interaction over the past year and look forward to welcoming you back to School when restrictions allow. H With best wishes,

Emma Goldsmith, Head

children sitting in the science and DT classes of today are the scientists and technologists of tomorrow.

Please help to inspire them by getting in touch and sharing your knowledge and experiences.

Thank you for your support over the past year. Here’s to a speedy return to the ‘new normal’, and the resumption of alumni events. H Emma McGowan, Editor Alumni and Community Relations Manager emma.mcgowan@winchester-house.org 01280 846496 | 07979 651003 HOUSE . ISSUE 13 . 1

WELCOME

The sun began to shine physically and metaphorically as last spring blossomed, and we reconnected with nature, embraced life at home with our families, bought ourselves time and developed new skill sets.

Tremendous acts of kindness within the School and wider community came to denote our daily lives, warming the hearts of many and re-emphasising the importance of our motto ‘Non Nobis Solum’. Our community spirit and endeavour during the pandemic has recently been recognised by Northamptonshire County Council with a Rose of Northamptonshire Award. Emma McGowan and I were delighted to be presented the award at a virtual ceremony hosted by former parent and High Sheriff of Northamptonshire Paul Parsons, who emphasised the importance of community support continuing into the future.

WHS AND THE

CHALLENGES

OF COVID-19

By Martin Roberts By a strange coincidence, the last task I performed before leaving the school site for the lockdown in March 2020 was to take delivery of a pallet of some 500 copies of “The House on the Hill”, the history of Winchester House. As I drove home, I reflected on how little the school archives had contained about the human details of world-changing events and their effects on school life. Wartime WHS, for example, still lived in the memories of those who had been pupils at the time, but no-one had written a contemporary account of either World War from the point of view of how the school had changed.

Similarly, the great Spanish Flu pandemic of the immediate post World War One years is scarcely mentioned. So, for the benefit of future generations, here is an attempt to relate how Covid-19 came upon us in the spring of 2020.

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In more modern times, the spread of so-called “Asian Flu” in the late 1950s and “Hong Kong Flu” a decade later left WHS relatively unmolested and the possibility of a serious health issue arising was, if not discounted, at least not particularly anticipated. In 2004, as Director of Studies, Margaret Marsh incorporated planning for the possibility of an outbreak of SARS into a pre-term training day. Staff were encouraged to consider how lessons would be given in the event and emphasis was placed on preparation using laptops. Departments drew up plans but providentially SARS went away (permanently, one hopes) and our world continued to turn.

Left: Orla (Year 5).

One of the lockdown topics challenged the children to create optical illusion photographs within nature or using objects.

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Winchester House School has, over the years, been no stranger to outbreaks of infectious illness, which were often much more serious in the days before antibiotics were developed. Molly, the daughter of Headmaster Leachman, had nearly died in one such outbreak and the school had been closed on other occasions and the pupils sent home to try to halt the spread of infection. This had usually worked well, but the evidence of letters of condolence written to parents by Headmaster Hayman shows that childhood mortality was far from defeated.

So the sporadic news in early 2020 of a strange virus circulating in the live markets of Wuhan and spreading into the community caused concern but did not seem to call for emergency measures. However, the effects of globalisation quickly provided a conduit for the virus to spread rapidly and the equally globalised media published accounts of the drastic measures being taken by the Chinese government to suppress it. A few cases were reported in the UK, worryingly, but it was not until half-term in February that the hotspot in Northern Italy became the source of a major European infection. There was obviously concern for pupils whose families lived in affected countries and for those who had travelled on winter sports holidays, some of whom had had narrow escapes from dangerous areas.

Furthermore, wide coverage was given in the press to outbreaks of so-called coronavirus. A local health centre was temporarily closed for deep cleaning by workers in white hazmat suits; local surgeries displayed warnings not to enter to those with certain symptoms; care homes began to batten down their hatches.

The rising tide of infection, the unavailability of either vaccine or effective treatment and the uncertainty of the future trajectory of the disease led those with responsibility Freya (Year 6), (below); Angus (Year 5) with Bert (below right).

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for the welfare of Winchester House to take counsel. The particular expertise of individual governors was a great asset, as was the calm professionalism of those who worked at the school in all capacities. A huge amount of planning, training and general preparation preceded the closure of the school site a week before the end of Lent Term 2020. Initially, it was hoped that this lockdown would be short-lived, but the imposition of a national lockdown meant that no children would attend school physically until almost the second half of Summer Term.

For the children, the changes in daily routine were remarkable. All learning was done from home with subjects separated into core and enrichment. The core subjects were mainly taught in the morning, following registration, and Google Classroom was the means of delivery, following an intense period of transition overseen by the tireless efforts of Chris Leach, Head of IT, and Simon Robinson, Computer Technician.

The enrichment subjects were dealt with by the specialist staff and were designed to provide for those educational needs beyond the core subjects, ranging from Classical Greek to Art and Design. Sadly, many games were not possible in the traditional sense under the strict lockdown conditions.

Above: Amelia B (Year 1).

Below: Recycled fruit and veg man by Toby (Year 5).

Below right: McGowan family bubble production line.

of Departments found liaison with parents gave an insight into the daily life of twenty-first century children as never before. That all this worked was ultimately shown in the excellent Common Entrance results; all passed into their chosen schools.

A glance at the WHS Instagram account (winchesterhouseschool) will show just how many imaginative feats were achieved by individuals selfisolating or locked-down. The Year 8 cohort responded to the shortage of lavatory paper caused by panic buying by producing a video in which each individual in sequence caught a roll thrown from off-screen, did something amusing with it and then threw it off-screen to the next participant, all to the strains of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from “The Life of Brian”. Nothing raised the spirits of this author more at the time. Social media record fascinating snippets of family history on the centenary of the ending of the Second World War. Some remarkably selfless and caring actions should be recorded. Emma McGowan and her four daughters spent much of the Easter Holidays with Head of Design and Technology, Martin Scouse, in the DT room, manufacturing Personal Protective Equipment in the form of face shields on a laser cutter lent by Oakham

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Some very impressive and imaginative work was produced, especially in the creative arts, with a very successful repurposing project which took redundant everyday objects and gave them new identities. There was a lot of parental support and much attention was devoted to the well-being of those who found this new way of living stressful. Tutors and Heads

School and then distributing them to care homes, health centres, hospitals and charitable organisations far and wide. School Sister Wendy Bull spent her time on furlough volunteering to nurse the critically ill on the Covid wards of the John Radcliffe Hospital. Words fail to match the admiration she deserves for that and, along with her assistants, for keeping us safe and wellbriefed for the last year. And, needless to say, the buck stops with Emma Goldsmith, who has been a caring and determined leader throughout. This is the kind of crisis which underlines the importance of mutual support for each other’s wellbeing.

This was an intensely stressful period for many staff.

The majority of the teaching staff taught remotely, with daily briefings from Emma Goldsmith as Head, on shared calls. We grew used to seeing the interiors of each other’s kitchens and studies and, as summer came on, garden furniture and gazebos! Some, however, owing to the nature of their roles, were obliged to join the Government furlough scheme, which offered a generous proportion of regular salary in exchange for abstinence from turning up for work.

Generous though this was, it occasionally led to a feeling of isolation in those on furlough, who were not allowed by the regulations even to join in morning briefings. It was the responsibility of individuals to support them on a personal basis. The same consideration was given to all those with secretarial, maintenance, clerical and domestic roles. No-one was cast adrift.

Eventually, the lockdown lasted far longer than many had feared and has changed the culture of the nation in ways as yet incalculable. Everyone became familiar with new terms such as “lockdown”, “R-number”, “flattening the curve” and most of all the new universal “Covid-19”, a well-chosen non-accusatory name for a disease which would prove entirely diverse in its pandemic coverage.

Unavoidably, school exams were cancelled, though Common Entrance was undertaken under parental supervision in the homes of individual candidates.

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So many of the delights of the Summer Term were victims: Sports Day, dramatic performances, concerts, iconic cricket and netball fixtures, the Classic Car Show (it was a beautifully warm day, too). A few children were allowed back by easing of the regulations so that the end of term was celebrated in a reduced, socially-distanced and virtual way with prizegiving and commemorative speeches. The memorial service for the life of former Headmaster Richard Speight has been postponed as has the formal launch event for “The House on the Hill”.

This horribly elusive virus at the time only touched WHS briefly with a few suspected cases reported and some periods of self-isolation for individuals, but its potential remains undiminished and indeed resurgent as this account is written. We all returned in person for the start of the new school year under strict cleaning and distancing regimes, but the rapid emergence of the dreaded second wave had to be faced. This account paused on the eve of the second

Eventually, the lockdown lasted far longer than many had feared and has changed the culture of the nation in ways as yet incalculable.

Little did we know how comparatively lightly the virus had affected us when the Christmas season approached. Once again, so many communal activities from fireworks to carols, were cancelled; face masks and visors were much more in evidence; tiers and heatmaps became the new vocabulary. On the other hand, hope was rekindled by the approval and rollingout of the Pfizer and Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccines.

Flora (Year 7).

Amelia (Year 1).

On Monday January 4th, we were ready to start face-to-face teaching under the same conditions as last term. This time we felt better equipped, with the staff either tested, or booked to be tested, the next morning.

No-one, however, can have been too surprised when, after calls from all sides, the Government put the nation into Lockdown number three, this time closing schools to all but nursery-age children and the children of key workers. In Greek mythology, the name Prometheus means “one who thinks ahead” and the WHS response was typically Promethean. By the time term started for the children on Wednesday 6th January, the teaching was organised on a remote basis on Google Classroom, the timetable was reorganised, the Nursery was ready to receive children and the School site was providing education for the children of key workers.

As we embark on another term of online learning, where children will now have been home educated for two of our three terms, a few adjustments were made: it was felt that the experience of learning would be more authentic if it were now the rule that school uniform be worn during online lessons and that the same rules of staying at one’s place during lessons applied. We are all on a steep learning curve.

Emma Goldsmith put it very aptly when she said at the pre-term remote staff meeting that Winchester House is learning not to fear the storm but to “dance in the rain” – to weather hard times without losing sight of the positive values which the School embodies. And so we all travel down this long tunnel towards the light which we are promised, and which is surely coming. H HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 7

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national lockdown, which lasted for one month; every endeavour was made to keep schools open and healthy. Thanks and respect are due to the perseverance and courage of all who are making this happen, from governors, leadership teams and staff of all positions to parents, carers and, not least, to the children themselves.

FACING UP As the shortage of PPE became apparent during the early weeks of the first lock down, Head of Design and Technology Martin Scouse had the inspired idea of creating face shields using the laser cutter lent to School by Oakham School. With the help of the nimble fingered McGowan family, the team set to work isolating separately in the adjacent DT and Art rooms. In total, 735 face shields were made and delivered to grateful recipients at Milton Keynes Accident & Emergency and intensive care, Caroline Cares for You in Brackley, A2 Dominion Housing Group in Oxford, Katharine House Hospice in Adderbury, Deddington Pharmacy, Juniper House Care Home, Brackley Fields Country House Care Home, Springfield Surgery, Washington House Surgery and Health Centre all in Brackley, Chacombe Park

Left: Freddie (Year 8) hard at work.

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Martin Scouse (above left), Shelley and Craig Irvine (above), Suzanne Gray (below) and her son Daniel (below right).

Care Home, Southerndown Nursing Home in Chipping Norton, the Bridge House Medical Centre in Stratford, three surgeries in Aylesbury, the John Radcliffe Hospital, Helen & Douglas House in Oxford, Wardington House, The Brook Health Centre in Towcester, Silson Surgery in Silverstone, the Oxon County temporary mortuary at Heyford Air Base, the Brodie Centre at the Horton Hospital in Banbury, the Cropredy Surgery and the Green Pastures Christian Care Home in Banbury.

Distribution was secured with the help of Suzanne Gray (whose son Dan is an A&E nurse at Milton Keynes Hospital), Craig Irvine and Warren Silman. Messages of thank you came from many of the recipients with photos showing the WHS face shields being worn.

Alumna Freddie Palmer (2020) continued the campaign, making laundry bags for NHS staffs’ scrubs and uniforms.

CORONA PANDEMIC

SISTER WENDY RETURNED TO THE COVID WARDS As seen on the front cover of House, artist and parent Lou Dunipace painted Sister Wendy Bull as part of an international pledge by artists to paint frontline heroes.

Sister Wendy worked at the John Radcliffe Hospital during the first lockdown on 10 different wards all of which had covid patients. Her days were long, tiring and often upsetting but we know that Sister Wendy's care, expertise and smiling face would have helped many.

Sister Wendy completed her nursing degree in Bristol, in 1989 and then worked in a variety of hospitals as a staff nurse including trauma at the Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, general medicine and haematology at Basingstoke Hospital and general surgery at Gloucester Park Hospital. After marrying in 1994, she did research and clinical trials for two years, and then worked as a Practice Nurse at Langford Medical Practice in Bicester for 14 years.

For the last couple of years as a Practice Nurse, Sister Wendy worked part time at her local Primary School in Charlbury as a Teaching Assistant. She loved it so much that she decided to combine her two loves and start working as a School Nurse. In 2011, she became a staff nurse with the school nurse team in Oxford,

Sister Wendy holding the Lou Dunipace painting.

covering some of the city’s most deprived areas. She completed her specialist school nurse qualification in 2012 at Oxford Brooke’s University, followed by a one year Post Graduate Diploma in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (School Nursing). After graduating, she worked in South Oxfordshire covering Thame and the Chipping Norton School. Sister Wendy started her role at Winchester House in February 2017 and has played an integral role in the continued safety of the School community during the pandemic. We are very lucky to have her as our School Nurse.

AYRTON & ELIOT’S 12 HOUR ROW FOR 'YOUNG MINDS' During Mental Health Week in May 2020, alumni and brothers, Ayrton (2013) and Eliot (2015) Patel, completed a 12 hour row on rowing machines for the mental health charity Young Minds, and raised over £2,250.

Although they experienced cramps, fatigue and hunger, they both said they felt an enormous sense of achievement knowing that the money would help young people struggling with their mental health. The event was live streamed throughout, which enabled the WHS community to chart their progress.

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CONNECTFORCE During the first lock down, alumna Claudia Wace (2010) co-founded the charitable social initiative Connectforce which reconnected the UK’s older generation with their families by donating video-calling technology to the most in-need of the UK’s 2,750 care homes.

Fellow alumna, Alicia Fellowes (2010) volunteered and, together with a network of UK wide volunteers in London, Newport, Greater Manchester and the Midlands, Connectforce distributed 316 video-calling devices to the most in need care homes. This enabled over 8,000 residents to make digital connections.

The team piloted Connectforce Companions in October as the charity’s virtual befriending initiative.

The scheme connects care home residents with a ‘virtual’ volunteer companion who has been personally matched to the individual and has a background in the performing arts. In February, the second phase of the initiative began where Connectforce hoped to pair 50 residents with companions. Claudia Wace comments,

Left: Alicia Fellowes sending out the ConnectForce message.

“This crisis has shone a real light on the reality of loneliness and social isolation in our society.

Technology to facilitate communication has been a life saver for many, but sadly many have no one to connect to even if they do have access. On the other side of this, the arts sector has not been adequately recognised or supported in its role in its community. ‘Companions’ is a push to merge two problems to allow for both to help each other. We want to call actors, performers and musicians to arms, to support our elderly population over the most difficult of months with our virtual 8 week befriending scheme.”

CORONA ACTS OF KINDNESS When Housian Geoff Clayton (1943) (pictured below, far left) emailed Emma McGowan on 25th March 2020 to ask if there was a Housian living near him in Shaftesbury that could help him with shopping during the pandemic, the WHS bush telegraph set to work. Housian Philip Ashby (1968) contacted his PA Gina Dent who lived two miles away and was only too pleased to help.

FOOD4HEROES During summer half term 2020, alumnus Jonah Watkins (2020) (above) volunteered at Althorpe House for the charity Food4Heroes, helping prepare food for the NHS staff at Northampton General Hospital. Jonah spent 4.5 hours in the kitchens working alongside Danny the Chef, creating some tasty dishes.

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FORGE COFFEE IN LOCKDOWN

By Housian Rupert Rowling (2000) The sudden imposition of lockdown back in March 2020 immediately left us fearing how Forge Coffee would ride out this period of uncertainty, and the pulling of the drawbridge on our revenue stream. As a nascent business, with our Culworth site opening in August 2018 and Evenley a year later, we were still overcoming teething issues and growing our customer base. For Evenley, the timing was particularly unfortunate as our efforts to reinstate the Post Office had only just borne fruit with the reopening of this vital community service just a fortnight earlier.

We quickly pivoted to transform our coffee shops to offer a weekly food collection service from our local

Top: Forge Coffee in Evenley.

Above and top left: Forge Coffee in Culworth.

Bottom left: One of the Forge food boxes packed and ready.

suppliers. We’re proud of the role both Forge Coffee sites play as the hub of their respective communities and this offering seemed a natural way in which we could help, at a time when vulnerable people were being told to isolate, and there were queues around the block at supermarkets.

Nonetheless, we were still overwhelmed with the popularity of the service. My initial intention of noting people’s orders down on a Word document proved woefully inadequate with over 100 people sending in their requests. After the first week, an upgrade to a slightly more professional Excel spreadsheet helped manage the orders flooding in for sourdough, cinnamon swirls, eggs, cheese, milk, yoghurts and fruit and veg boxes. Such was the demand, I named my contact list to keep people informed about the weekly tweaks to the service as “Forge Ocado” as the range of options grew to include flowers, asparagus and boxes of brownies.

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Inevitably, there was the odd mistake or forgotten order along the way, but people were so grateful to have the service that any hiccup was always dealt with cheerily.

The one-hour weekly collection slot, combined with social distancing measures, resulted in queues down the street in Culworth and across the village green in Evenley, but again, the fine weather we enjoyed during the first lockdown (plus the lack of anything else to do) meant people patiently waited their turn.

Indeed, some people looked forward to the weekly collection as it was their only physical human interaction and a pleasant escape from Zoom.

that proved a lifeline back in the spring. But the fact that Forge Coffee was able to ride out and indeed grow during such a difficult time gives us the confidence to know we’ll be there to serve the region’s best coffee to our loyal following as soon as circumstances allow.

Below: Socially distanced cyclists enjoying a mid-ride coffee during the 2020 summer when lockdown restrictions were eased.

Thankfully, both Forge Coffees were able to reopen in early July and the positive sentiment we had built up by adapting to help our community thankfully translated into a bumper summer with people, and particularly cyclists, coming from miles around to get their daily or weekly caffeine fix. Even after we were fully open, the food collection service continued throughout the summer, albeit on lower volumes, as the habits formed during the lockdown proved enduring.

As I write this we are back in lockdown again, number 3. The situation feels different this time, with less demand for the food collection service

PANDEMICS ARE NOT ALL BAD NEWS Housian Richard Venables (1960) contacted Emma McGowan during the first lockdown to inform her that WHS was closed in 1957 during the Asian flu outbreak. It coincided with the playing of the 12th Ryder Cup near his parents’ home at Lindrick, near Worksop, on 4-5 October.

Richard had his picture taken getting golfer Christy O’Connor’s autograph. The GB team, led by Captain Dai Rees, beat the US team by a score of 7.5 to 4.5 points and won the Ryder Cup for the first time since 1933. He was hooked, and has played golf 12 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

ever since – a life changing moment! Richard still has the article from the Sheffield Telegraph featuring the above photo! H

Matt Phillips Music Teacher (2004-2014)

THE HOUSE ON THE HILL

ORDER FORM

Title:......................................................................

First Name:

Winchester House is a much travelled School which found its home in Brackley just

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over a century ago. The House on the Hill is a new history by Martin

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Roberts which details the life and times of this thriving country

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prep school and the way in which it has adapted to the demands

Address:

of the changing world. It’s a sure page turner for anyone who has a connection with the School whether you’re a former pupil, member of staff, parent or friend of WHS. This hard back is retailing at £30.00 plus UK postage and packaging at £3.00, postage costs vary outside the UK. To order your copy, please

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detach and complete both sides of the Order Form.

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For further information, please email Emma McGowan, Alumni Relations Manager at: emma.mcgowan@winchester-house.org or call 01280 702483.

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Postcode: ...............................................................................

✁

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I received a copy of your new book The House on the Hill for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to get in touch to say that I have not been able to put it down since – it has been the perfect companion during the lockdown. I’ve always been fascinated by the history of WHS but have to say that there were so many anecdotes from across the years which were fascinating; you should be hugely proud of the way the book is written too.

The

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Great

Disconnector: Social media marketing in a pandemic

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Number of books required: .........................

To pay by cheque, please send a cheque for £33.00 (for UK postage) made payable to ‘Winchester House School Trust’ and addressed to Emma McGowan, Winchester House School, High Street, Brackley, Northamptonshire, NN13 7AZ. An electronic payment of £33.00 (per book) should be made to Winchester House School Trust Ltd, Lloyds Bank; sort: 30 11 08; account: 07035451. Please

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use your first and last name as reference.

WINCHESTER HOUSE’S DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS AND ADMISSIONS, CHRIS HIGGINS, OFFERS TEN TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS IN A COVID WORLD.

Users are flocking to social platforms for video calls, up to the second news, and simply to pass the time, and they’re spending more time on social than ever before. The way people use social media has changed dramatically in 12 months, yet it remains vital for marketing businesses and building brands. So how can businesses leverage their social channels to generate leads and convert them into sales in this unchartered territory?

Like all businesses, Winchester House has had to adapt to the fastchanging nature of social media during a pandemic. Today our feeds are more than a way to show off the wonderful things that happen every day at the school, they’re a vital channel in maintaining and deepening the connection with our families, the local community and potential parents.

ten u re t yo a re ge He s to d... tip arte st

1. STAY CONNECTED It’s never been more important to keep your audience informed.

People need to know if you’re open for business and how they can buy your product. If you’re shut down, let them know when you’ll be open again, give them plenty of notice and start drumming up interest.

Posting regularly will maintain your brand awareness with potential customers too.

2. CREATE CONTENT Content is king in social media land, and these days it’s easy to make.

Simply snap a photo of your latest product, find a motivational quote, or film a short behind-the-scenes video of your company. You don’t need fancy lighting or a million dollar budget – just a smartphone and a spare five minutes.

You don’t need Netflix levels of content, either; a little can go a long way. Start with a few ideas that you can repackage into multiple posts, highlight old news stories about your brand, and post service updates.

3. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE Who are your potential customers? How old are they and where are they? What are their worries, and what do they want?

Most importantly for social media marketing, which social channels do they use and when?

This information is vital in shaping your messaging so it resonates and influences purchasing decisions.

You might already know some of it, but if not, there are plenty of blogs and articles that can help.

4. KEEP YOUR BRAND AND MESSAGE CONSISTENT Whether your brand is humorous or highbrow, stick to it. Shifting your tone of voice or wildly changing the content you post mid-pandemic will confuse people.

Nike may have altered its ad messaging, but the Nike brand and tone is the same. Your brand personality and story is more important than ever, your brand’s uniqueness has got you this far, so stick with it.

Remember that no-one is exempt from Covid worries, so now isn’t the time for a hard sell. Offering a sense of hope, togetherness and positivity in difficult times will have a long term impact on people and build brand loyalty.

5. SHOW SUPPORT AND BUILD COMMUNITY With village WhatsApp groups helping people with shopping and medication, and regular doorstep HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 15

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In the year before Covid took over the world, it was all about the digital detox: spending less time on social media for the sake of productivity and mental wellbeing. Today, the virus is the nightmare scenario for human contact – the Great Disconnector – and social media has picked up where normal social contact has been disabled.

tributes to NHS heroes, the human response to Covid has been about collective problem solving and local support.

Being rooted in your community and supporting other local businesses will go a long way to building respect for your brand.

You can take this onto your social media pages by sharing messages from those who need help, showing support for NHS workers by offering a discount, and promoting other local independent businesses.

6. ENGAGE PEOPLE Social media marketing works when it engages people. When people react to your posts, various social network algorithms start to work in your favour, and it builds a genuine relationship with your audience, which is vital in converting leads into customers.

Try to encourage engagement by starting conversations with potential customers and respond to messages quickly and fully. You could run polls or quizzes, or sit down for an Instagram live Q&A on your business area.

7. OPTIMISE Content may be king, but you need to give it the best chance of being seen.

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Optimising posts for Search Engine Optimization and using hashtags are a great place to start, and you can use Hootsuite or Buffer to plan your posts in advance. Remember, that great images and strong headlines will grab the reader’s attention.

Post at the right time, too. There are general ‘rules’ for which times work best but don’t rely on them.

There’s no substitute for doing your own research to find out when your audience is online and what content they like. Getting to grips with the built in analytics on your social media platforms is a good first step.

8. SHOW KNOWLEDGE John D Rockefeller said that ‘next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you’re doing the right thing’.

From changes to opening hours and delivery times, to endless risk assessments, as a business owner, you’ve taken steps to make products or services safer. Telling people what you’ve done, and why, not only helps them find and buy your products; it helps build trust in your brand.

There are other ways to show that you know what you’re talking about too. Consider writing an article for an industry publication about how you overcame Covid challenges – it’ll be great extra content for your social channels!

9. BE ADAPTABLE AND CREATIVE Being adaptable could be the difference between being profitable and going bust.

Think of the personal trainer who now runs weekly video lockdown motivation sessions, or the hotel chains hiring out hotel rooms as offices for people working from home.

With your normal avenues closed, how else can you offer what you offer? Can you offer something else entirely? Social media can facilitate these types of activities, in addition to being a tool to market them.

10.

STRATEGISE AND INVEST Social media has changed the marketing game beyond all recognition. It’s an unparalleled opportunity to target, reach and convert potential customers, and if it’s properly planned and done right it will have a massive positive impact on your business.

Wherever you are on your brand’s social media journey, investing time, resources and budget in building your social media now will help you be clear about what you want to achieve and enable your brand to cut through the noise in the new social media normal.

CORONA PANDEMIC

MAINTAINING A SENSE OF WINCHESTER HOUSE COMMUNITY THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA With social media becoming a genuine substitute for many traditional ways of communicating and sharing in the Covid world, Winchester House has adapted its social media content to be about more than just marketing the school.

The chats on the drive at drop off and pick up have moved online.

Words of encouragement on the sports field have been replaced with wonderful comments, likes and shares of children’s work shared online. Chapel services and music competitions are now live streamed across the country to pupils in their homes, maintaining a sense of community, entertainment and at least some kind of normality.

Fundraising challenges like the 2.6 challenge for Operation Smile, that would normally be completed in school, have been undertaken at home, complete with photos showcasing not just dedication to the cause, but beautiful towns and countryside near and far. Social media even enabled us to share

our stories as we came together to run, walk and cycle a virtual 5,000km from Winchester House to the East Coast of America to raise awareness of Beads of Courage.

We’ve been able to properly thank NHS heroes, and although we haven’t been able to gather for the Brackley Community DementiaFriendly Choir, the pupils have lived up to the school’s motto of Non Nobis Solum (Not for ourselves alone) by virtually entertaining residents in local care homes – maintaining a sense of togetherness with some of the most vulnerable in society. Similarly, seeing pupils paying tribute to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice on VE Day brought the Winchester House community closer still. This sense of community has extended beyond Winchester House’s gates too, as the school used its social voice to promote other local businesses that might be struggling in lockdown with our Shop Local campaign.

Over the last twelve months, our aim has been to do more than

simply use social media as a marketing tool and sell the school.

We’ve tried to immerse current and prospective parents in the school day, and bring people together in uncertain times. Winchester House’s social media has shown the best of our pupils and staff, taking the Winchester House spirit and energy out into the community, and if we’ve managed to put a smile on one person’s face throughout all of this, we’ve succeeded.

Winchester House’s social media pages are a true insight into the fascinating world of the school and its community in the Covid world.

If you don’t already, please like and follow the school’s pages to see just what a wonderful community Winchester House is. H www.facebook.com/ WinchesterHouseAssociation @WHSPrepAlumni winchesterhouseschool headinheels HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 17

HOUSIAN FEATURE

James Rudkin (2002–2007)

James at the Olympic Trials in 2019 at the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Centre

Covid Consequences and my Olympic dream on ice

The Olympics had always seemed like some untouchable goal to me, a dream that only legends and titans of the sporting world could hope to achieve.

I never thought that I would maybe one day have the opportunity to compete on the greatest stage of all.

Throughout my time at Winchester House, and then onwards to Stowe School, I had been average at most sports and terrible at the rest! Despite being tall, I was skinny and gangly so had no future as a rugby player. I couldn’t throw or catch, so it was a no from cricket and the less said about tennis the better. I was a half decent hurdler, but too slow to properly compete, my 200m and 400m running was decent but my many horrific experiences of the house cross country sapped any desire to try my hand at anything much longer. In summary, 18 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

had you told me as a 12 year old, that one day I’d be on the verge of being selected for the Olympic Games, I would have politely told you to get your facts straight.

It is often said that people try rowing because they can’t do anything else; however, this belies the true nature of the sport. I tried it because it didn’t depend purely on born talent or natural attributes. Sure it helps to be big and strong, but when I first started out I was big but certainly not strong. My teachers at School always remarked ‘James could do with filling out’, they clearly realized that I had a lot of work to do. Rowing rewards those who put in that work. You can manage with natural physical talent or technical skill, but to succeed at the very top level, you need a good amount of both.

I left Winchester House in 2007, and headed off to Stowe School where my rowing training began to pick up steam.

I had first got in a boat when I was seven, introduced to the sport by my Dad. I was starting earlier than most, but I didn’t take it more seriously until 14 or 15. It was at University where I would really begin to take the sport seriously. Studying History and Politics, and then reading a Masters in History at Newcastle University, I was able to balance academics and sport to the extent that I joined the Senior Olympic Squad after the Rio Olympics in 2016.

For the last four years I have built my life around one day in 2020, the Olympic Final. Beginning the Olympic year, I had been in a good position ; I had won two Bronze medals in the 2018 and 2019 seasons in the Men’s 8+ and myself and my pairs partner had put ourselves in a good position through the trials process that year. I had beaten all my personal bests on the rowing machine and felt in the shape of my life. In the background to all this however, dark clouds were gathering on the horizon.

The Covid crisis took everyone by surprise, but as athletes, we existed in a bubble, unable to focus on anything beyond the next trial or assessment. Rather than worrying about catching the virus or any other consequences, we ploughed on, not even daring to think that the event we had spent the last four years of our lives preparing for wouldn’t go ahead. As the country slid into lockdown in mid-March, we still existed in this dream state with racing and testing going up until the last moment. We envisaged a couple of weeks of confinement to barracks, followed by a glorious re-emergence and reset, still planning on packing our bags for Tokyo 2020 and Olympic Glory.

conferences, it became clear that this crisis was bigger than us. Our disappointment at the prospect of a postponed games, paled in significance in the wake of the huge crisis the country was living through. There was nothing for it but to strap in for the long haul, and hope against hope, that we would get our chance in another year’s time. The decision to keep going was a very straightforward one for me, I couldn’t come this close to achieving this dream and back out now. All of us struggled at one point or another for motivation, but we all knew what we’d signed up for and we had to see it out to the end. My family were, as they have

...had you told me as a 12 year old, that one day I’d be on the verge of being selected for the Olympic Games, I would have politely told you to get your facts straight.

James at World Cup 1 in Belgrade, Serbia, 2017.

As the days went on, however, it became increasingly clear that this was no passing phase. As the death toll mounted and our eyes were all glued to the daily press HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 19

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This is what drew me in, I could learn the skills of moving the boat, and I could learn to push my body to its physical limits, perfecting both these elements was, however, still a long way off at school.

As a group of guys on the team we stuck together, supporting each other every day over WhatsApp or video call, sending in photos of our scores from our homes all over the country. We stayed connected, united in joint uncertainty of the future, but, in joint certainty of how to approach the here and now always been, incredibly supportive. The next 16 weeks spent in my parent’s garage on the rowing machine would be my greatest challenge yet.

While some other sports teams took time off or furloughed players, we simply switched all our training onto dry land. I’d been going out in a boat on average twice a day for the last eight years, I had now not touched the water for six months. It was a surreal experience, but I had to get on with it. Like everybody else in lock down, we were dealing with new challenges every day, learning how to use Zoom, endless quizzes, long phone calls with aged relatives you had no prospect of seeing for months, teaching family members how to use Skype or fixing the Wifi connection. All this went on, but for me the ergo sat in the garage greedily demanding my time and effort.

I covered close to 1000k on the machine from midmarch to July. Endless hours of staring at the screen, legs burning, sweating buckets on to the concrete floor, and all this to the backdrop of the future unknown.

As a group of guys on the team we stuck together, 20 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

supporting each other every day over WhatsApp or video call, sending in photos of our scores from our homes all over the country. We stayed connected, united in joint uncertainty of the future, but, in joint certainty of how to approach the here and now.

HOUSIAN NEWS

This training block took its toll on us, but as we approached mid-July and our end point of the season, we knew we’d been part of something special. We began to realize that in fact we had been lucky, we had kept our jobs, we had all remained healthy and the goalposts were still within sight even though Covid had moved them slightly further away.

From the beginning of September after a few weeks off, we returned to a very different training centre in Caversham, Reading. I had barely left my tiny Northamptonshire village for five months, so the world of ‘Covid Secure’ regulations, one ways, sanitizing stations and facemasks was all unfamiliar. However, we know now, as we begin this delayed 2021 Olympic season that we must improvise, adapt and overcome. In these uncertain times the team that deals with Covid the best will be the team that succeeds. Of course, hanging over all of us is the spectre of a second cancellation. Like before, all we can do is work in the here and now, train as hard as we can and stay safe. Whatever happens, whether I make the Olympics or not, I know that my experience of Covid’s consequences could have been far worse, I realize that I have been given a second chance to fulfil my Olympic dream, an opportunity I must not squander.

Far left: Mens 8+ winning World Cup 3 at Rotterdam in 2019.

Above: James at World Cup 2 in Poznan, 2017, Lake Malta.

Bottom: Remote training in his parent's garage and cycling the scenic route.

JAMES' LATEST UPDATE: At the moment we're all training remotely at home. We're hoping to get back on the water soon but don't know when yet.

The training is tough and mentally demanding, but as a group of athletes we're in daily communication with oneanother; comparing scores and pushing each other on. I'm very lucky to be able to use my parents garage for ergos and weights and the beautiful local countryside is great for cycling and running, so I've been able to keep training varied for almost 10 weeks now. H Twitter: @TheRud_Dog Insta: @james_rudkin HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 21

HOUSIAN FEATURE

Philip Harrison Oswald (1941-1946) recalls his time at WHS during WW2 I was duly packed off to Winchester House at the beginning of the summer term of 1941. I started in Form 1 in the Lower School with Miss Kingston, a blonde Froebel-trained teacher who I thought was lovely. I remember the labels around her classroom naming things in French – especially ‘le plafond’ pinned above our heads! I evidently did well, as my father recorded in a letter to his mother on 16 July 1941: “We heard from Philip yesterday. He has been doing exams. He was first in Arithmetic, Geography [which surprises me because later on I was mocked for not knowing county towns and the rivers that they are on or the capitals of South American countries] and Nature [no surprise there!], second in French, third in Scripture, & fifth in spelling.”

I believe Form 2 was taught by Miss Taylor, whom I remember as being dark-haired, but I was never in her form because I was promoted straight to Form 3.

(I think she later eloped with one of the masters, but I cannot recall who he was.) The Head of the Lower School was Miss Blackburn, who taught Form 3; she was a mature lady, I should say fairly typical of competent spinster school mistresses of the period. I think I received a very sound grounding in the Lower School.

It has to be admitted that W.H.S. in my day was a ‘crammer’; the senior Headmaster, Charles Henry Telford Hayman (CHTH), prided himself on the number of scholarships that his boys gained at 22 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

Philip is pictured on 5th July 2013 in Arthur’s Meadow, a Wildlife Trust nature reserve in old Huntingdonshire named in honour of his uncle Arthur Stanley Oswald, who was his father’s younger brother and elder brother to Muriel, née Oswald, later Hayman. The photo was taken by the late Bridget Smith.

Winchester, Eton, Rugby and other leading public schools, and those of us who were judged able to win one were subjected to a pretty tough regime and some physical battering. We had a week of intensive coaching, based at the Upper Lodge, at the end of the Easter holidays before the exams in the summer term.

(See images right.) Although I was very rarely truly happy at W.H.S, this all proved worthwhile because it enabled me to go to Eton College as a King’s Scholar, educated as one of King Henry VI’s 70 “poor scholars”, in my

Clearly the Second World War presented serious problems for the staffing of any school and W.H.S. was no exception. Here are some of my recollections about the motley crew of teaching staff during my time there, though there were also the two other Headmasters besides CHTH – Stuart Meikle (who taught French) and the Revd Ronald Davis (who taught Maths and was a

gentler man than the other two) – as well as established figures such as ‘Lew’ Llewellyn, Dick Vernon and ‘Basher’ Bates, who returned from the war before I left the school.

Wartime led to the appointment of two women to teach in the Upper School. Mrs King was Miss Blackburn’s sister and she was divorced, which in those days was regarded as somewhat scandalous, and it was said that she was a brilliant mathematician who before the war had been assistant to a man who made his living by skilful betting on horses! Apart from this, she appeared a conventional woman. She may well have taught me Maths, but she certainly started my dislike of History; I recall that Mrs King’s lessons consisted almost wholly of copying notes that she wrote on the blackboard.

Left: An extract from Muriel Hayman’s visitors’ book for the nights of 23 April to 2 May 1946 with the names and addresses of eight of the nine 1946 scholarship boys (excluding George Hamber, who is recorded on the previous page).

Left: CHTH and Mrs Isobel Cowley, helper and mother of Martin, from one of Muriel Hayman’s albums, supplied by Judy Martin-Jenkins, with seven of the nine members of the 1946 coaching party. Philip is on the extreme left.

Above: Extract from a similar photo including a boy who is missing from the first photo, with CHTH and a further boy, who is also present in the photo to the left.

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HOUSIAN NEWS

case entirely free because my father was a poorly paid Anglican parson.

HOUSIAN FEATURE The other scholarly woman was Miss Gull, who had been a missionary in South America with the South American Missionary Society. She was a good classicist and gave me a sound grounding in Greek before I went on to be taught by Telford Hayman (CHTH). Typing his initials reminds me that they can be rendered in Greek by the two letters chi (Χ, χ) and theta (Θ, θ). These occur together in the aorist passive of certain verbs (e.g. ἐπράχθην [eprachtheen] from πράσσω [prasso], I do) and, when we rehearsed the principal parts of these verbs, we were required to add “Hurray!” – an ingenious way of getting these irregular verbs into our heads. I once gained some credit from CHTH by adding “Hurray!” after the Greek word for “yesterday” – χθές [chthes] – which of course is not an aorist passive.

To return to Miss Gull, she was severe and therefore unpopular. As we had to behave ourselves in her classes we resorted to inventing lines that we could chant about her out of class. The first one was ‘Ssim Llug si a tew. Mop! Mop!’ (If you reverse the words, you will realise that they are not very imaginative.) At least some of the teaching staff were required to do dormitory duty. During the war the previous functions of many of the rooms were altered so that, as far as possible, dormitories were not on higher floors; as a result the Chapel became Dorm 20 with a large number of beds.

When she was on duty Miss Gull required us all to kneel by our beds to say our prayers before lights out. One boy, John Moseley, bravely challenged her, saying that it was pointless for him to say prayers because his words would just go on travelling through space; one day in the future it might even be possible to overtake them in a space craft, but they would never reach God! John Moseley also figures in another story. Mr Grey was awaiting call-up into the Royal Air Force and came to teach at W.H.S. for a term or two meanwhile. He too had to do dormitory duty and on one occasion, when at least some of us had done something naughty, he slippered us all using one of our own slippers for each of us. The rest of us had soft slippers (and I remember 24 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

that it was de rigueur to tread down their backs), but John had only hard indoor shoes, so his beating was more painful than ours. I was incensed about this injustice and I remember writing to my parents about it. Anyway, John got his revenge. Some time later, probably before catching the train at the beginning of the following term after Grey had left W.H.S., he was with his elder sister in the café at Marylebone when he saw Grey in his smart new R.A.F. uniform at a nearby table with a girlfriend. So, in a loud voice, John said to his sister, “Have I ever told you about the horrible sadistic young man who we had at school last term called Grey?” and so on while he watched him cringe.

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, I suppose!

Two other masters whom I recall were Mr Palmer and Mr Legatt, who I suppose were unfit for war service.

In both cases we enjoyed the literary associations of their names – “silly palmer” (which until recently I thought came from Chaucer but seems to be from The Minstrel of the North) and the legati whom Julius Caesar seemed to be constantly sending (e.g. “Caesar ad Gallos legatos misit.”). I remember Mr Palmer as gentle but rather ineffectual. Mr Legatt was – if I have got the right person! – a gullible man whom we convinced, when he was charged with taking us on a school walk for the first time, that we often walked along the railway viaduct. Having safely reached the end of the viaduct and hearing a train approach, we put all our illegally held pennies and halfpennies on the lines, and I can still vividly remember the engine driver shaking his fist at us as we scrambled down the embankment and pennies and halfpennies flew in all directions as the wheels crushed them out of shape. I have often wondered what CHTH said to Mr Legatt on our return to W.H.S., but is it remotely possible that he never learned what had happened?

A truly charismatic young master was ‘Offy’ Clarke, who I think must have been invalided out of the war.

‘Offy’ was short for ‘Officer’. Apparently his father, who was a tea-planter or something of the sort, gave

My principal memory of ‘Sister’ McElroy is that she suffered from chilblains on her feet and, when there was snow on the ground, she would go out and run around the garden barefooted in the belief that this helped to relieve them! A diversion at this point relates to my recollections of the garden at other times. There was a large mulberry tree and I have memories of gorging on the luscious red fruits. Along the far border of the garden was a tall wall, on the far side of which was the garden of a Miss Barnes, known as ‘Barnie’. I think my Aunt Muriel (later Mrs Hayman) used to stay with her when she visited W.H.S.; she probably knew her from the time that she taught there in the 1930s. Certainly my mother stayed there on one or two occasions. In the corner of the garden was a tunnel leading down to the street next to Barnie’s front gate. This was out of bounds, but I believe I occasionally used it illicitly, especially since Barnie grew delicious raspberries.

‘Sister’ was quite fierce and unmistakably Scottish; she had two sovereign remedies – quinine for internal, and iodine for external, maladies. Every morning we had to respond to her inquisition about whether we had “been”, but I’m not sure that every boy even knew what this referred to! If necessary, California Syrup of Figs was administered. If our parents thought it a good idea, we were permitted to have our own jar of malt (Virol was much favoured, I think) from which ‘Sister’ dispensed a spoonful each day after breakfast.

I also recall rose-hip syrup, which I suppose was administered at the same time. I believe we even once took part in a scheme to collect rose-hips for it from the local hedges.

Another small privilege, this time at meals, was to have one’s own bottle of soft drink concentrate. I find that few people now remember that during the war, as a means of saving fuel on transport, soft drinks were ‘zoned’ and their commercial names replaced

by SDI (Soft Drinks Industry) plus a number. I lived in Norwich, so we were fortunate because our SDI was Robinson’s Lemon Barley Water. My dear mother wrote “OSWALD” on my bottle, but unfortunately immediately above the printed instruction “SHAKE WELL”. Some horrid boy inserted a caret mark, and much sport was had by everyone except the unfortunate Oswald himself! Breakfast cereals were also ‘zoned’, but they retained their names; in this instance we were unlucky because our local Norfolk wheat flakes, ‘Farmer’s Glory’, were like flakes of cardboard! Something else that I have remembered about wartime teatimes, was that we always had a plate of plain bread and butter on the table as well as the bread and jam and that we were required to eat a slice of the former before having any jam. We understood that this was something that CHTH insisted upon, as that was how things were done in his own childhood.

Both butter and margarine were rationed, but the butter allocation was smaller; sensibly this was used for the plate without jam, while the taste of the marge could be masked by the jam.

On one occasion, when Aunt Muriel was going to take me out to tea (I think on a Wednesday, by special dispensation), ‘Sister’ inspected my face, neck and hands to make sure that they were clean and that she would not receive a complaint from Miss Oswald! She found red ink stains behind one of my ears and I was subjected to a thorough scrub before I was allowed to go and meet my aunt. What ‘Sister’ did not realise – and in those days one never told tales – was that I had been set upon by a group of boys who resented my being allowed out to tea on a weekday, so snatched my red school cap and poured red ink into it.

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HOUSIAN NEWS

him this third name because he wanted to make it quite clear to which echelons of the Services he was to belong. I remember that he convinced us that he possessed a tame black jaguar! We were surprised when he left to become an Anglican Franciscan friar at Cerne Abbas in Dorset, and he was greatly missed. I later learned that he died in a mountaineering accident in Australia in 1970.

HOUSIAN FEATURE We had a visiting piano teacher from Beaconsfield, who was a Jewish refugee from Vienna. Despite her nationality she was always known as “Madam Wiener” (I think, but perhaps “Madam Weiner”), much to the amusement later at Eton College of my oldest friend and best man at my wedding, Nicholas Temperley, a brilliant musician who lived in Seer Green and whom she also taught. I was useless at the piano and excelled only in the theoretical aspects of music. Nevertheless I was very fond of her and I think she was of me. When we heard about the D-day landings, my first thought was that she must know about them, so I ran down the school drive to her music room in the lodge to the right of the main gate to tell her the good news. She always used a lot of powder and once told me that this was just as effective as washing one’s face. Unwisely I mentioned this to ‘Sister’, who was unbridled in her condemnation of this disgusting foreign habit!

The only other person that I can think of to mention is ‘Magger’ Makepeace, who was the groundsman but also – very importantly in those cold wartime winters – maintained the boiler that gave us hot water and provided a weak heat to the ancient cast iron radiators under the windows. We used to cluster around these to get our hands warm, despite warnings from ‘Sister’ that this was a recipe for getting chilblains! Mr Makepeace’s nickname ‘Magger’ was a survival of a kind of slang current in public schools and at Oxford and Cambridge and going back to the late 19th century, at least at Harrow and Stonyhurst. (‘The Martyrs’ Memorial on St Giles in Oxford was nicknamed the ‘Magger’ Memoggers.) Mr Davis was known as ‘Dagger’ Davis and we used to call a waste paper basket a wagger pagger bagger.

One of my rather few really happy memories of W.H.S. is of a fine Sunday evening, presumably at the beginning of an autumn term, when ‘Dagger’ Davis took the choir to sing in his local rural parish church at Halse (pronounced “Halls”) for their Harvest Festival, followed by a hearty harvest supper laid on by the

26 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

ladies of the parish. Another is of a picnic in some local woods, when I was able to demonstrate my knowledge of wildflowers.

My penultimate reminiscence concerns an attack of acute appendicitis in 1945, between my two attempts at the Eton scholarship exam. I woke one morning in intense pain and told a sceptical ‘Sister’. She ordered me to stay in bed while the other boys went to breakfast. Shortly afterwards my breakfast was brought on a tray; I couldn’t face a morsel but, when the other boys returned to make their beds, it was swiftly consumed. Then I was left alone with no sign of ‘Sister’ returning, so eventually I dared to go to find her and said that I thought I had appendicitis; she reprimanded me, but she must have become somewhat concerned because she summoned the school doctor, ‘Quack’ Stathers, who quickly diagnosed acute appendicitis.

‘Sister’ defended herself for not calling him sooner by claiming that I had eaten a hearty breakfast. (I decided that it was wisest not to deny this or to say that I had already diagnosed appendicitis. I believe that subsequently 'Sister' told people that she had made this diagnosis herself!). I was taken off to a nursing home in Oxford opposite the John Radcliffe Hospital and operated on the same day. Stuart Meikle was simply marvellous in visiting me and posting to me daily hand-drawn and painted cartoon figures such as Walt Disney’s Goofy and Pluto. I still had all of these until we ‘downsized’ five years ago and I was obliged to cut down on what I kept.

Lastly, a memory of the said school doctor. We had an epidemic of verrucas and ‘Quack’ Stathers had an impressive X-ray machine at his surgery which he used freely to treat them, I’m sure without any of the stringent precautions that would be required today.

Indeed, I remember his allowing us to operate the machine ourselves, but, as far as I know, there have been no premature deaths among W.H.S. old boys from radiation! H

GEOFF CLAYTON (1938-43) The Nineteenth of November 1956. St Mary’s Church, Wollaton Park, Nottingham. The marriage of Geoff Clayton with Shirley Ward. Geoff had just completed two house jobs at the Middlesex Hospital and Shirley had been a Staff Nurse there. They had first spotted each other over the ward steriliser when they were students at The Middlesex, and introduced later by David Findlay. Yes, you have guessed it a fellow student.

Here we are in 2021 about to celebrate our 65th wedding anniversary. Helping us will be three children, five grandchildren, two greats and four in-laws. That is achievement enough. The rest is a humdrum account of the life and struggles of a young doctor and his nurse wife making their way.

Geoff and his twin brother Ian joined their elder brother Derek at WHS in 1938. It was an austere place when compared with descriptions in House magazine today. They were austere times. Thankfully times change but people don’t seem to. Eastbourne College followed as it was near home in Sussex, beside the

sea and close to the South Downs. The School was evacuated to Radley when the Navy commandeered the place for a torpedo training school ‘HMS Marlborough’.

We were far from the sea so the Thames had to do. Next National Service for two years based in Chichester, Catterick, Aldershot (RSM Brittain) and Lisburn with the Royal Signals. The demob suit had served me well since 1949 and has only recently been recycled!

After several years at The Middlesex Hospital as a student and junior doctor, Geoff and Shirley set up home in a small semi-detached house in Kew from where they set out on numerous jobs. Geoff as an SHO at St Anthony’s Hospital in Cheam and then a turn as a pathologist at Kingston Hospital. Later he did a number of locums in the neighbourhood where he acquired a taste for General Practice and landed up as a Trainee in Putney. Shirley had several private nursing jobs, a time in the teashop in Kew Gardens and a turn at the Tao Clinic “two doors past Harrods madam”.

A year or so passed in this way and then William appeared at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital. Another year or so, and it was Richard’s turn at home in Kew. It was

The Clayton boys on their 90th birthday on 28 August 2019, from left Shirley, Derek, Ian and Geoff.

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BEYOND THE SCHOOL GATES

BEYOND THE SCHOOL GATES time to cast around for a proper GP job, but offers of partnerships in those days were like hens’ teeth. The best one could hope for was an “assistant with a view”; this meant underpaid dogs’ body while the senior partner enjoyed the golf course. The “view” rarely turned up. Dr Noel Sherrard in Beccles, however, took me on for a year and then retired to Eastbourne leaving the whole shebang to me. The authorities agreed.

We were on our own with two babies – soon to become three when Alice arrived, 1,500 patients, a telephone, a bedside speaking tube and an overdraft. It was tough – 24/7 and cradle to grave – but we managed and the practice grew, so soon we were able to take on help.

Provincial town life with little cultural or professional activity began to pall, and we took ourselves off to Norwich where we had found another single-handed retiree. This time, however, we took our new partner, Sheila, with us and Mrs Kerridge from the Coop Pharmacy joined us as receptionist.

In Norwich the practice grew, the children grew.

Shirley began The Clothes Horse with a couple of friends. We took on another partner, Keith. It was a very happy practice. There was time off. By the time we retired in 1989 there were four partners. The children had fledged. We lived in a lovely Queen Anne Rectory, the Clothes Horse flourished and we enjoyed a flat in Puerto Pollensa. We helped colleagues and enhanced our pension with locum work. And there was Takeheart. We had our own practice computer system in 1970, primitive but successful and useful. Takeheart grew from this. It was a method for predicting the chances of a heart attack and providing a five or six page written report in real time. It proved popular and a nice little earner both from home and elsewhere.

There was Marcus the donkey and Harry the Schnauzer. We joined a group of reenactors which proved to be a great move. Good company, rather mad, centred on a Home Guard platoon in the War. We took ourselves all over the place and had a high old time.

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In the sixties we had acquired a 1939 ex-Norfolk fire engine for use as a camper van. We refurbished it as a WVS mobile canteen, called her Mavis and enrolled her into the Civil Defenders as our lot called themselves.

More fun. Happy times with our home, trips abroad, Murvi our new camper van, CDs, family and friends.

But there came a time when we had to think about dismantling. Clearing out the Old Rectory, downsizing.

Stressful times. We have ended up in a West Country cottage close to family who spoil us rotten and who have taken in Mavis as well. We have had our share of major health problems but are still around and still have each other, our marbles and a lovely extended family as we enter our tenth decade and recall the Nineteenth of November 1956.”

CHARLES CRAWFURD (1956–1962) I retain happy memories of my six years at WHS, though rather less fond ones of Radley where I went afterwards. I always felt there was something of ‘Tom Brown’s School days’ about the place! Having been a proud graduate of WHS’ ‘Mutton House College’ (the Remove) it is fair to say in my early days I did not achieve great things scholastically!

Having not gained A levels good enough to gain a place at university to read History, and really not having a clue what else I wanted to do next, I went to Technical College in Ealing (now part of Thames Valley University) to take a four year National Diploma in Hotel Management. It was there that I finally discovered what I wanted to do as a career – to work in the wine trade. I recall being fascinated by a talk and tasting on Champagne we were given by Patrick Forbes, a very upright former Guards Officer, but then MD of

On finishing college, I felt the need to do something else first, and so I applied to VSO and was accepted to go to Tanzania to a newly built YMCA hostel in Dar-es-Salaam.

I was there to train local staff and recruit someone to take over from me. An interesting time, not least because relations were very strained between Britain and Tanzania over Rhodesia, which required great diplomacy in one’s behaviour.

It was while on VSO my first bit of luck was to meet my future wife, Penny, who was nursing in Kenya. We married in 1976 and are still happily married 44 years later.

After my return from VSO, I needed to get a job and so returned to my ambition to get into the wine trade for which neither then, or now, is there any standard route.

It relies on perseverance and luck. I do remember being told I would never be rich but I would have a wonderful life and meet lots of lovely people. Looking back I can confirm that was definitely so, but the pay was OK too!

as they could manage with the money (the princely sum of £700). With the generous support of my employer, I was able to make that money last over 3 months. The trip began memorably with Moet & Chandon luxuriating in a bath at Château de Saran with a glass of Champagne in my hand and surrounded by Dior toiletries! Sadly, not every experience was of a similar level, but I managed to eke the money out for so long by using a tent where I was not getting free or very inexpensive accommodation. I recall the strange looks I got on campsites from fellow campers in shorts and flip-flops when I emerged from my tent in suit and tie. During that trip I visited many classic areas of France, Germany, Spain and Portugal.

On my return to the UK, I moved into the Buying Department under the tutelage of Sir Guy Fison and Hugh Cochrane, both masters of wine, and that was another stroke of luck because with their guidance I too became an MW in 1977.

Thereafter, my career remained firmly on the purchasing side, sourcing wines from all over the world.

In the early days this was little beyond Europe, but I was lucky enough to be involved when countries such as Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and, after 1994, South Africa were first starting to emerge on the

As with many jobs like this you go in at the bottom and hope to progress by endeavour and luck and the latter certainly came my way. Having joined a company in Park Royal, Charles Kinloch (later Saccone and Speed), I embarked on formal wine training courses with the recently established Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and progressed through the different levels, culminating in winning the Wine Trade Cup for top student of the year in 1975. Scholastically, I was definitely a late developer!

Prior to that, perhaps, my next significant bit of luck was to win the Vintners Scholarship, an award given annually by the City Livery Company, to enable a young person to travel in Europe visiting as many wine regions

Charles on a Master of Wine trip to South Africa in 1995 at Bouchard Finlayson, Hermanus, with the aim of re-launching South African wines to the UK market which they did.

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Moët & Chandon. I knew instantly I wanted to know more about this fascinating (and enjoyable) product even though at that time I could most definitely not afford to buy the stuff!

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Dorking, Guildford and finally Bristol. I am lucky to have such a tolerant wife!

At a Chilean winery Errazuriz in 1988 on a Master of Wine trip with the aim of exploring the potential of the country to produce wine for the UK market which they imported before anyone.

world stage. Over the years I have visited all of these wonderful countries, saw some amazing sights, met loads of lovely people and tasted a lot of delicious (and some not so) wine. Before you ask, 1814 Vintage Port is the oldest!

During my working life I moved frequently, especially in the early years. London was followed by Liverpool,

I retired in 2009 and decided it was time to put right that niggle of having put my two children through university by embarking on a History degree with the Open University. I completed that in 2013 and gained a First, of which I am very proud, and put me on a par with them!

Since then I have become a volunteer guide at Wells Cathedral. It has been a joy to work at the cathedral, share with visitors its beauty and history and make many new like-minded friends. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world in Somerset, something we came to especially appreciate during ‘lockdown’. We have our health and a lovely and growing family. Yes I have been lucky!

JULIAN BERKELEY, HEAD OF SCIENCE AT WHS FROM 1981–1985

Standing next to a giant cactus in Cafayate, Argentina, near vineyards that are the highest in the world at over 1700m and producing some of the best wines in the country.

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After four years as Head of Science at WHS, Julian took up the post of Head of Science at Woodcote House School in Surrey. It was a small, family-run, school when he arrived with his wife Jan and their 18 month old son Daniel. They spent 24 very happy years at the school, over-seeing the development of a new science centre (a considerable improvement on the shed Julian started out with), the new shooting range and a myriad of other changes. Julian and Jan became house-parents in the outlying dormitory (a lovely house in its own grounds) which they ran for 14 years.

Their family grew in time, with Daniel followed by Sam and James. Woodcote was and remains a very happy place, with a close bond between school and parents, which encouraged Julian and Jan to remain there for

When the Berkeleys left in 2009, by which time Daniel was a married junior doctor in Carlisle, Sam was studying for a career in journalism and James had left home to study music in Brighton, they moved to Jan's beloved Lake District where they live now. Jan does online and 1-to-1 teaching. Julian ran a Christians

Above: Julian with his wife Jan at their leaving party in 2009.

Below: Julian underneath his three sons (left to right) James, Daniel and Sam.

Against Poverty debt-counselling service for his church for five years and, having handed that on, is now creating content for online educators EdPlace. Whilst the focus of Julian and Jan’s attention is on their four grandchildren aged 18 months to 10 years, as well as the beautiful Lakeland fells amongst which they live, Julian’s interests are eclectic. Music has gained a higher place in Julian’s life in the past year and he is a keen fan of many progressive rock bands, attends concerts and gigs all over the country and spends a lot of time listening to and collecting music. He is involved with the local conservation volunteers ‘Wild Ennerdale’, sings in the Whitehaven Male Voice Choir, is passionate about wildlife, the natural world and climate change and loves constructing and painting models.

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMASTERS As a scout in the Christ's Hospital troop, Julian would play wide games whilst on camp in Wales and 'wide' would be the order of the day as it would take up much of the valley they were camping in.

There are two teams with one trying to get a flag, for example, planted in the opposition's area. At WHS, Julian’s favourite took place one snowy afternoon in February. Tim Anderson was in charge of the scouts but got the entire school involved in a wide game he called "The Abominable Snowmasters". Each member of staff was given a woolly hat and three 2 litre bottles of coloured water and told to disappear off into the grounds and beyond. Each member of staff had a different coloured water in their bottles, the school were divided into teams and had a particular Snowmaster to follow according to the colour of the trail. In typical schoolboy fashion, the Abominable Snowmasters were all ‘incontinent’ and had to stop at regular intervals to 'relieve' themselves with their coloured water. Once discovered the Snowmaster would be "scalped" (divested of their woolly hat)! Everyone loved this game, staff and pupils alike, as it took in all the grounds and some of the surrounding Brackley countryside. H HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 31

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so long. On Sundays, Julian would run wide games, which the boys loved, and they would make camp fires to cook chips on. In the summer, the boys would build dens called "huts" in the woods.

GENERAL NEWS BURNET BELL TENTS Housians Harry (2015) and Archie (2017) Burnet set up Burnet Bell Tents. Their mother, Bridget Burnet, bought three bell tents sleeping up to 8 people for Harry’s 18th birthday party. Rather than sell the tents on, the brothers decided to rent the tents out, fully furnished, during the summer of 2020. The brothers received an incredible amount of interest, putting up 30 tents during July and August alone and donating £10 per tent hired to the NHS charities.

The business is based in Towcester, Northamptonshire, and covers a radius of 20 miles, although Harry and Archie are happy to travel further afield. For more information, visit www.burnetbelltents.com

BEN DUCKETT’S T20 BLAST VICTORY Ben Duckett’s (2008) half-century (53 not out in 38 balls) led Notts County Cricket to a second T20 Blast victory as they beat Surrey to haul in a winning target of 128 with

Photo sourced from PA Wire.

CULWORTH FUN RUN 2020 A total of 30 runners took part in the Culworth Fun Run on Sunday 13th September 2020, the highest number yet to take on Housian Rupert Rowling’s (2000) ‘undulating’ course. Sponsored for the second year by Winchester House, the sun was once again shining as Head Emma Goldsmith started the race to loud cheers.

Flora McGowan (Year 8) was the first child to cross the finishing line of the 2.5 mile lap of the village, with parents Simon Martin and Harry & Emma McGowan completing two laps. Huge thanks 32 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

six wickets and 16 balls to spare.

The Class of 2020 joined Ben for a virtual Q&A session as part of their leavers programme. Ben gave invaluable advice on achieving your goals in life.

to runners, marshalls, friends and relatives for supporting this fantastic community event.

Competitors Harry and Flora McGowan.

area via the website and be certain that they are doing their bit to help save our wonderful butterflies from extinction.

I have found that being an active member of Butterfly Conservation has many rewards, particularly helping to improve butterfly habitat, sending in observations of species results via a butterfly app, championing a 10k tetrad local to your area and joining in walks to find rarer species. This is without attending area meetings and even national meetings.

With all the charities out there these days, all vying for funding, Butterfly Conservation often is overlooked and is so vitally important. I really believe this is an excellent pastime for children to become involved in, and would rather champion this than all the work I have done over the years.

Duke of Burgundy butterfly.

This is a pastime that anyone can be involved in, no matter how small the part and just taking time to add sightings to the app, goes a long way to understanding migration and preference for habitat and it is fun. Furthermore, anyone can join Butterfly Conservation in their

www.butterfly-conservation.org

JAMES SMITH STARS IN STOWE’S ‘CORAM BOY’ Drama Scholar James Smith (2020), performed as part of the Stowe Senior Congreve ‘Coram Boy’, an historical fiction based on ‘Coram’ the UK’s first dedicated children’s charity. The charity was established

by Thomas Coram as the Foundling Hospital, London’s first home for babies whose mothers were unable to care for them. Unscrupulous men, known as ‘Coram men’, took advantage of the situation by promising desperate mothers to take their unwanted children to the hospital for a fee, and sadly the babies did not always make their way there. James played Toby, an orphan saved from an African slave ship who managed to achieve freedom from one of the ‘Coram men’. The production was cleverly

combined as a hybrid of a live stage performance, with the inclusion of extracts of film in December 2020. A number of Housians were cast members and included Oliver Acors (Drama Scholarship), Eleanor Butler, Grace Reilly (Drama Scholar), Jack Robbins (Drama Exhibition), Jemima Pearson-Gee and Jet West.

Right: Housian Will Berner (2006) of Ablinq oversaw photography and filming.

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JOHN CHAPMAN (19541960) HIGHLIGHTS BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION

GENERAL NEWS MUSICAL REVUE Bloxham School’s December 2020 ‘Musical Revue’ production, featured a wide range of songs from awardwinning musicals, and starred many Housians. Henry White (2017 and with a Sixth Form Drama Scholarship) sang ‘Get Down’ from Six, ‘You’ll be back’ from Hamilton and ‘Agony’ from Into the Woods.

Christina White (2016) performed ‘Sincerely Me’ from Dear Evan Hanson, Morgan Tinkler (2016) performed ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ from Jamie and Jack Phillips (2016) oversaw all the tech on the night. What a fantastic production for our Housians to be so heavily involved in.

BEST SHORT FILM Actor and Housian Tom Greaves (1994) starred in the film ‘Shuttlecock’ that was voted Best Short Film at the British Film Institute’s London Film Festival in October 2020. WHS promoted the film’s nomination on its social media feeds, and Tom contacted School after the awards to thank everyone for voting online. Tom hopes to come to School after lock down to give a drama workshop.

Image courtesy of www.ukfilmreview.co.uk

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WHS HEAD TRICK AT STOWE Housians Mimi Pearson-Gee and Barnaby Peppiatt (2016) are Head Boy and Head Girl for the academic year 2020-2021 at Stowe School.

Mimi and Barnaby are pictured here at the Leavers’ Ball at WHS in 2016.

HOUSIAN NEWS

MONGOL RALLY REVISITED Year 5 children joined Housians Louis de Gale, Rory Cronin and Angus Donald (2015) for a virtual ‘Ignition’ talk on Friday 5th June 2020. The Housians enthused about their rescheduled July 2021 10,000 mile ‘Mongol Rally’ road trip from the gates of Winchester House School, one third of the way around the earth to Ulan-Ude in Siberia in aid of the charities Young Minds and Cool Earth. The children were fascinated by the pictures of the boys’ 1000cc, 15 year old, five

FINDERS RETURNERS We were delighted, and amused, to receive a parcel from an anonymous Housian. He wrote, ‘In the 1960’s, when I left WHS, there was a vogue for taking a souvenir; a vogue to which I succumbed, and for which I am sorry.

seat, £700 Smart car which they had adapted in the DT Department at Oundle School, and tales of the places they plan to visit on route, including the Horse Games Festival in the Mongolian Steppes. As Rory

said, ‘We will be challenged in a way we have never been challenged before’. We look forward to waving you off from the front gates of Winchester House!

‘The enclosed, to the best of my memory, came from the wrought ironwork of the Reading Room door.’

Thank you, Sender, for returning the pretty iron roses and bolt which have now been restored to their original home.

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GENERAL NEWS ‘DORMITORY EVENING’ Housian Lt Commander Colin Harris (1940-45) and former School Secretary Barbara Harris (1976-79) joined boarders on Friday 28th February 2020 for a ‘Fun Friday’ in boarding, in the form of a WW2 ‘Dormitory Evening’. The evening kicked off with a wartime tea with Barbara and Colin in the Drawing Room, with the children tucking into Spam, corned beef, boiled cabbage and mashed potatoes beautifully researched and prepared by our Catering Team. The main course was given a ‘thumbs up’, with a pudding of baked apples (with rationed sugar), purposefully VERY lumpy custard and mugs of Ovaltine being

equally popular. All present then ‘retired’ to the Reading Room and it’s roaring fire to ask Colin and Barbara questions about the war from the comfort of bean bags.

Barbara told the children about growing up in British Honduras (Belize) during the war, as her Father was posted there. As the evening settled in, everyone then enjoyed playing tiddly winks, pick up sticks, jacks, card games, dominoes and started on a 1,000 piece wartime jigsaw! Everyone had a fantastic evening and Colin and Barbara agreed to come back in future years.

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Former Master Peter Barr (19901995), who lives in Perthshire, appeared in a Heartland Radio pantomime which was broadcast over the festive period. Peter was Ivan the Incredible, the villain who came to a sticky end! Most of the virtual action was based in and around Pitlochry and it was recorded with all actors in self isolation. A recording can be heard at https:// www.heartland.scot/on-demand/ podcasts/aladdin-a-panto-for-radio/

has covered 18,635 miles and raised £10,916.00. On emailing ‘House’ in February, he wrote “The roads

meanwhile every 20 miles walked are added to the total distance. I normally make a donation of £250

round here are too icy for cycling just now, so I'm walking most days until it’s safe again for two wheels;

for every additional 400 miles. In the very near future the total raised will pass £11,000.00.” H

albums. It was evidently taken during the coaching week for boys being put in for scholarships in 1949, i.e. in April 1949. Sara (standing) was three and Judy (seated) was one year old. This was the last coaching week that CHTH held as he died on 21 May 1950 after a period of illness.

ERRATUM

Peter also continues his ‘Cycle For Maria’ campaign for Maggie’s Cancer Care, Dundee, in memory of his late wife Maria. To date, he

ERRATUM It is with our sincere apologies that the caption of this picture of the Hayman family with the scholars of 1949 was printed incorrectly in House, Issue 11, Spring 2018. The photo was supplied by Judy MartinJenkins from one of her mother’s

This photo was captioned incorrectly in Issue 11. The caption should read: Mrs Marjorie Meikle (née Hoskings, hence her nickname Hosky) with her daughter, Jean Meikle, sitting on a pony. H

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PETER BARR

FORAGED, FRESH AND FABULOUS

By Amber Darbishire (née Tilleard), 1994-2003 I absolutely love this time of year, the blossom blooms, the bumblebees reappear and everywhere you look, you see hundreds of shades of green as summer seems to be around the corner. One particular wonder of this time of year is wild garlic. It can be found in abundance in hedgerows and woodlands, with the tender leaves appearing from March and the flowers emerging from April, through to June. If you are unfamiliar with this little treasure, go and have a forage for it, your nose may find it before your eyes – it has quite a punch! Also, with the past year being filled with a somewhat lingering virus, wild garlic is known for its antibacterial, antibiotic and possibly antiviral properties, so go and grab a good dose of it!

lovely fresh vegetables. They pair beautifully with eggs too, so why not give your omelette a little face lift! If you’d like to savour this glorious leafy green, then simply wash and dry the leaves and freeze them for another day.

Here is a recipe for wild garlic pesto. It will keep in the fridge for a week, or it freezes incredibly well – how about freezing little ice cubes of it to throw into a quick pasta or a dressing.

WILD GARLIC PESTO Ingredients: 200g wild garlic leaves (washed and dried) 150g walnuts (lightly toasted and cooled) 80g parmesan (finely grated) 2 lemons, zest and juice 2 pinches of sea salt A few cracks of black pepper 200ml light olive oil

The young wild garlic leaves are delicious when thrown into salads and risottos and the flowers make for a pretty garnish. The leaves can be used in endless recipes, such as soups, dips, tarts, breads or simply stirred through

Method: Blend all of the ingredients in a food processor, gradually adding the olive oil until you have an even consistency. Be careful not to over blend. Enjoy! H

Wild garlic in full bloom.

Serving suggestion: Asparagus and poached egg starter.

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Lou Dunipace loudunipace.com loudunipace_art Artist and parent, Lou Dunipace, painted a portrait of Sister Wendy Bull to celebrate International Nurses Day as part of ‘Portraits for NHS Heroes’ when she returned to frontline nursing during Lockdown 1. Lou completed her Fine Art degree in the mid 90’s, with a Bristol degree show, showcasing collagraph print works influenced by her Erasmus year spent in Barcelona.

Lou turned down a post graduate degree to apprentice with specialist painters Bernard Bates and Eric Rawlins; “I was so fortunate to learn from these two master craftsman. Watching Bernard paint a mahogany feather with his thumb and a rag was pure old school genius.” For the next 15 years, Lou had a specialist painting business in London working with interior designers and private clients. During the last 15 years living in Oxfordshire, Lou has built up a broad artistic portfolio working in Oil; from En plein air works in the Highlands, Cornwall, Marrakesh and beyond, to big abstracted works in her studio. H Work in progress in Lou's studio.

Detail of Rainy Sottish Glen by Lou Dunipace.

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HOUSE COVER ARTIST

HOUSIAN ANNOUNCEMENTS ENGAGEMENTS HATTY COMYN (2005-2008) became engaged in Autumn 2019, postponed her wedding planned for July 2020 due to covid restrictions, and is getting married to fiance Sam Gummer on 24th July 2021.

Christopher Attanasio, son of JEMIMA ATTANASIO (née CHEATLE) and Tom, was born on 25

JULIAN CRAWFURD (1951-57) 9 March 2020

February 2020, weighing 7lbs 4oz. A brother for Matthew (7) and Jack (9).

ROBIN GRANT CHAVASSE (193843) passed away peacefully.

31 March 2020 MICHAEL LLOYD (1953-57) 2 April 2020. See obituary by wife Merryn Wilson on page 46.

DONALD SIMPSON, former Assistant Head and Mathematics Teacher at WHS from 1962 to 1995.

10 May 2020. See obituary on page 41.

DEATHS BIRTHS Rory Darbishire, son of AMBER (née TILLEARD, 1994-2003) and Ed, was born on 27th March 2020 weighing 8lbs 10. He was christened on 20th September and Housian Annabel Richmond-Watson, Amber’s best friend from WHS, is a godmother.

DAVID BAIRD (1944-49) HUGH BUCKLE (1949-54) 6 May 2018 MARK BARRACLOUGH (1943-48) September 2019 MICHAEL SPRAGG (1941-46) 1st January 2020 Below: Peter Warner and his family.

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PETER WARNER, husband of Sally, and father of Housians Sam, Toby, Catherine and Isobel, after a brief and intense fight against illness. He was a kind, generous, intelligent and funny man.

22 June 2020 REV JOHN HORACE BRAZEL COTTON (1940-42) 3 January 2021, aged 92 His wife Margaret wrote, “I have very happy memories of the times we visited our sons at W.H.S.”

Donald Simpson Assistant Head & School Bursar (1962-1995)

music. He played the horn and taught himself all other instruments so that the children could access their instrument of choice. He ran the Chapel Choir, conducted the School Orchestra and put on numerous Gilbert and Sullivan productions as well as other plays.

He was heavily involved in the Cubs and Scouts and led both canal boat and camping expeditions.

Arriving at WHS at a similar time to David Jones (1955), Richard Speight (1961) and Richard Murdin (1965), Martin Roberts writes in his book ‘The House on the Hill’, ‘These men provided fresh legs on the games field and in their different ways were to work tirelessly on all those activities which make a preparatory school much more than a means of passing Common Entrance’.

Eulogy for Donald Alan Simpson written by Donald’s nephews Peter and Michael for his funeral, with additional input by their brother Neil Part A by Peter Abraham

It was with sadness that we announced the death of Donald Simpson on 10th May 2020. Donald joined WHS in 1962 as a Maths teacher from Queensland, Australia, where he had attended Townsville High School and graduated from Queensland Teachers’ College and already been a Headmaster. Donald was appointed Assistant Head with Richard Speight in 1972, when Michael Llewellyn was preparing to step down as Headmaster, and latterly became School Bursar. He retired from WHS in 1995, returning to Magnetic Island off Townsville.

During his time at WHS, Donald spearheaded the introduction of ‘The New Mathematics’, bringing teaching of Maths more in line with what was perceived to be the expectations of industry and the wider world, was an early adopter of computers setting up the Computer Room and had a love of

My uncle, Donald Alan Simpson, the only sibling of our mother Shirley, was born in Townsville on the 17th September 1929 at a “Queenslander-style” home, built by his father. The house was at 66 Ross River Road, opposite the Mundingburra State Primary School which Don later attended. In recent years his birthplace home was briefly a yoga studio and coffee shop, and Don was happy to tell the operators that he was born in the actual room that we were served coffee. Imagine their surprise! Don’s father, our Pa, Gordon, was a cabinet-maker and had earlier been a trainee Presbyterian Minister in Hughenden where he met Don’s mother Jessie, a trainee nurse.

When Don was 9, he was already displaying superior mathematical skills, something he later went on to teach, and then he discovered music when he joined a fife and drum band after a new music teacher arrived at Mundingburra school. The fife was followed by the tuba in the school’s brass band, starting a lifelong love of brass instruments. He later found that he could play HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 41

ANNOUNCMENTS

OBITUARY

OBITUARY almost any of the brass, one time offering to teach a student French horn, even though he had to buy a book and learn how to play it himself first! This love of music was to continue throughout his whole life, with Don participating in many orchestras, as well as later conducting orchestras as part of his extra-curricular school activities.

Don, formerly a Presbyterian, joined and was confirmed in the Anglican Church after being impressed with the “beauty” of the Anglican Church, the colourful dress standards of priests, the pomp and ceremony, and their style of worship.

It was an appealing change from the strict Scottish Presbyterianism of his youth.

WW2 interrupted Don’s schooling and in 1942 Gordon, Jessie, Don and our mum, Shirley, evacuated to Inglewood, west of Brisbane. Don then went to Warwick to stay with his grandmother for a period, while his mum and sister returned to Townsville when it was safe to do so. When Don returned to Townsville in 1943, he passed his scholarship exam which enabled him to attend the state high school in Wills Street, the City. He was awarded a much-needed bursary to be a Teacher Trainee, allowing his family to keep him at school for his senior years.

Upon the completion of his teaching studies, Don was offered and accepted a teaching role at Ascot State School, and in January 1950 Don was allocated a class of 73 Prep 3 children. Not enough classrooms were available and he was made to teach this huge class of children underneath a building between a toilet block and swimming pool. The noise from the pool made it impossible to teach and when a transfer was offered to a one teacher school at Jarail Creek near Kingaroy, he jumped at the opportunity.

At the age of 17, Don left Townsville and travelled to Brisbane to start his studies to be a qualified teacher with the Education Department. This was to be the career to which he devoted his life. He was in Brisbane when the Atomic Bomb brought an end to WW2 in 1945.

By this time, Don had discovered that his talent for music also extended to singing, so he joined a Brisbane Choir that performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He was then encouraged to be a bass singer with St John’s Anglican Cathedral and with a Roman Catholic choir both of which delivered a small wage. Don produced plays and acted for the Amateur Dramatic Society which he established, and joined the college Debating Society which held debates at Brisbane Parliament House.

After a time in the army reserve, Don said that the highlight of his brief military career was when he was on Picket Duty and arrested the unpopular company Sergeant Major, who had taken an Army Jeep and returned, in Don’s words, “drunk as a lord”.

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The Anglican Bush Brotherhood visited that area regularly, and they offered Don the opportunity to teach Junior Physics and other subjects at All Soul’s boarding school in Charters Towers. He quickly became involved in running a large Scout Troop, with about 80 boys, with assistance from another teacher.

After a year of deliberating, Don joined the Bush Brotherhood, but sadly without the support of his Presbyterian parents.

A dairy farm at Ravenshoe had been donated to the Bush Brotherhood, so Don and two others travelled there to see what use the 125-acre farm could be to them. A plan was made to build St Barnabas’ School on the site and Don and another 23 year old teacher were sent there to ‘found’ the school, with the help of an ex-student of All-Souls school who was also a qualified builder. This school is closed now and sadly all the records of this time are lost, perhaps discarded down a tin mine.

It was here that Don added even more diverse achievements to his career – this time it was farming!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The school farm flourished in Don’s hands and the farm became a regular contributor to the Ravenswood and Tablelands community. A huge number of animals were added to the farm over time, as well as tractors and other vehicles. Don learnt farrier skills and rode horses at the local show. By necessity, he learned Veterinary skills when faced with a number of different issues surrounding the large assortment of farm animals, as well as learning the art of bee-keeping.

During this time, Don studied to become a qualified Scout leader, something that was to be a very important part of his life, and when a local scout camp was built on Magnetic Island, Don arranged for his annual scout camp to be held there.

Deciding that he needed to pursue adventure abroad, Don left Sydney aged 32 on a near-empty migrant boat on New Year’s Eve 1961, travelling to England after encouragement from the incoming headmaster at Ravenshoe. The ship sailed via the Suez Canal and Cairo, and Don visited the Pyramids as well as many other places en route to England.

After a less than satisfying period of time spent as a supply teacher in some areas where teachers seemed to be fighting a losing battle, he applied to be a teacher at Winchester House School, a private boys’ school in Brackley, and was offered a very-welcome position.

This school, that has associations to Runnymede and the Magna Carta, became his home for many years.

During this time, he developed the music component of the school to a high level, including annual Gilbert and Sullivan productions which were loved by the boys.

Don later commenced joint headmaster duties at the school and had a huge array of tasks under his portfolio. As you would expect, Don threw himself into the job whole-heartedly. He developed inter-school athletics and one of his students went on to be a finalist in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. He also established a

The opening of the School Hall in 1969.

strong scouting movement at the school, with many scout camps and activities, including 21 years of canal expeditions throughout England during school holidays. He filled in at the school chapel when priests were in short supply, becoming a Diocesan reader and conducting services, except for the blessing.

When not using his holidays for canal boating, Don took the opportunity to travel when he could and visited places like the Norwegian Fiords, a North Cape Eskimo village, Rhine cruises from Amsterdam to Switzerland and the Scottish highlands, as well as returning to Australia to see family every three years.

Part B by Michael Abraham When I first heard that Uncle Don was coming back to live in Australia, I can remember my mother was so excited to have her only sibling and brother coming home, she was beside herself, and to be honest I was not sure what to expect. Don, the pommy Headmaster, coming home to bring some discipline and HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 43

OBITUARY punishment to us boys, was the image I had conjured in my mind. Don had come to stay with us in Australia every five years and had always been the no nonsense straight-talking man and just his presence commanded respect. But the truth is, Don was a gentle natured person like his sister and he quickly became my go to person for advice, or to help me figure some of life's problems out.

When he retired and returned to Australia, I remember catching the ferry to the Island with Don, to look at a couple of houses that he had found for sale. When he first saw the house in Granite Street his face lit up and he decided straight away that this was going to be his home. It was the quickest house purchase I had ever been involved with and within a week he was settling in and making this house his home.

I remember suggesting to Don that he might need to investigate air-conditioning, which he quickly dismissed and said it was never going to happen.

The air conditioning decision reversal came quickly as the North Queensland summer set in and Don found himself dripping wet in sweat at 8.00am in the morning. Once installed, they ran 24/7 to keep his little haven at a perfect 24 degrees all year round.

A School performance of 'Pirates of Penzance', 1969.

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Don said that he had left his computer skills in England and would never ever touch one again. Yet a couple of years later he was learning languages online, creating his own website and has been printing his own books on plants he found on the Island, 19 of which can be found in the Townsville City Libraries.

Don loved exploring and would take hikes like the one into Balding Bay, or over the hill to Horseshoe Bay regularly, and I was always impressed on how fit he was considering he was 30 years older than me. He would also take his camera, capturing many landscape images as well as his beloved plants. For many years, he swam every morning at Picnic Bay. Some mornings he would have to break the ice to get in, but he never broke with his routine regardless of the weather conditions.

After Don moved back to Australia, I found him to be so much like his father who I spent my first 20 years growing up with and was always the gentleman.

He had no time for gossip, had a strong opinion on everything and did not tolerate fools at all. He was one of the smartest men I have ever met and what I really enjoyed about him, was he would always tell it like it was and sometimes not always what you really wanted to hear. It’s amazing to think that this man lived

ANNOUNCEMENTS

One of many school expeditions, 1980s.

The School orchestra, 1970s.

through a world at war and the great depression and so many other hard times and then find out that his own funeral would be affected by a world-wide pandemic that would restrict how many people would be able to see him off. Rest in peace Don, you have lived a full and amazing and inspirational life, full of years.

had a Cheshire cat cake and lots of hearts. They were wonderful occasions at the end of each Michaelmas term, which were enjoyed by all the school and staff.

Donald’s organisation was second to none, with a hired full orchestra, costumes made by the staff, singing and production.’

Condolences from the wider WHS community

Jeremy Dixon (1979-1984)

Christopher Wilson (1984-90) ‘Donald was one of those individuals who encapsulated, in his own unique way, all that was very special about Prep Schools during those years. It is hard to find such people in schools these days, and in my opinion we are that much poorer for it.’

‘Donald, or Daz as he was known on account of his initials being DAS, was my Maths teacher throughout my time at WHS as well as sometime housemaster, orchestra conductor and Gilbert & Sullivan impresario.

He was quite pleased that he had two choristers during my time there, me and Jonathan Danger, that looked sufficiently similar that he could finally put on the Gondoliers as the two leads are twins. Occasionally short of temper (he once gave me an almighty rollicking in front of the whole dining room when I told him I’d just dropped and broken the school oboe), but then who wasn’t at times? He introduced many of us to computers when very few schools had them and my Mathematical ability as a banker owes much to Daz and the dreaded triple Maths on Thursday mornings, where our exam technique was honed through test paper after test paper. A great servant to WHS, I remember him with much fondness.’

Patricia Baxter, former Catering Officer (1965-68) ‘My memories of Donald are how wonderful he was when he formed the ten year olds into a choir of trebles. I enjoyed listening to them during Sunday morning service. The Gilbert and Sullivan performances were great fun and I enjoyed planning party food for the ‘last night’. For Pirates of Penzance we made a galleon out of sponge cake with smarties for portholes and was helped by Jason one of the young masters in setting up the rigging and sails and the skull and cross bones pirates flag. Alice in Wonderland

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OBITUARY Simon Ward (1970-74) ‘I seem to recall he made his own, rare instrument - called a serpent I believe. Google images will show you what one looks like! I think it was required for a particular musical part in one of his Gilbert and Sullivan plays, possibly The Mikado. This would be in the early 1970's.’

Michael Christopher Lloyd (1953–1957)

Doug Reid (1973-79) ‘I was at WHS from 1973 and was taught the French horn by Donald, was in the chapel choir and school orchestra. I also took part in a couple of his Gilbert & Sullivan productions which were always one of the highlights of the school year. Donald was a bit of a Marmite character I remember. If you were musical or a mathematician he was relatively easy to get on with but could be a bit fiery! I certainly had a lot of respect for him.

‘He was the housemaster for the Upper Lodge, in charge of the boarders and lived in the upper lodge. He had a large reel to reel tape recorder and an impressive sound system and would invite groups of boys to listen to music on the odd Saturday evening.’

Keith Steel (1977-1982) ‘He was one of those masters whose devotion to the school, its values and its pupils was of a remarkable order, which one looks back upon and recollects with the warmest admiration and respect. His example of professionalism, commitment and giving of self, I am sure, will have inculcated and instilled in many an old boy/girl the foundations of much that is good in life. It is pleasing to know that after so many years of self-sacrifice he was granted so many years of pleasant retirement in his native Australia.’ H

Written by Michael's wife, Merryn Michael came to Winchester House School just before his 9th birthday. His younger brother, Peter, who overlapped him by one term, remembers that he was in the choir and had a very good treble voice, winning a prize; one year he sang the solo verse of Once In Royal David’s City at the start of the carol service.

He was a scout and acted in various school plays. A friend, Andy Falk, claims to have been on the stage with him in Twelfth Night, when he and Mark Dancy (son of John Dancy, former Marlborough College Master) were pages while Mike played Orsino. Mike had a distinguished career, winning a scholarship to Marlborough College and then later winning two scholarships to New College Oxford: a county scholarship and a New College scholarship in classics.

His deep convictions and sense of vocation (he at one time contemplated taking orders, and remained

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In 1969 Mike married Merryn Geddes, and it was an ideal partnership for over fifty years. Although he retained a lifelong love of and involvement with classics, he made his mark as an English teacher, first in the East End of London, and subsequently in Birmingham. He was an inspirational teacher who communicated a passion for Shakespeare and other writers, and embedded it by involving pupils in dramatic productions. He and Merryn broadened the horizons of his pupils - many of them from challenging backgrounds - in other ways, through canal trips on their narrow boats, walking, sailing and canoeing.

For nine years Mike organised a school exchange with Uppingham School, where his father had been Headmaster from 1944-65.

far better assessed in terms of students’ development over time, Mike was the prime mover in trying to re-establish a higher balance of coursework in English GCSE examinations in the 1990s (‘Save English Coursework’). This was in the days before email, let alone social media, and involved much hard graft with pen and typewriter. He won wide support for his brave campaign from colleagues across the country.

Driven by his commitment to equality of opportunity for pupils of all abilities, and believing that English was

Mike was a loving family man, with a tremendous feel for language and a gift for parody and pastiche. His engagement with his local community and beyond was committed and wide-ranging: from churchwarden to trusteeships of local charities and governor of Elmhurst Ballet School; from playing the bassoon and singing in choirs to strenuous hillwalking and, in retirement, adventures in cookery. Tragically, the onset of Parkinson's Disease curtailed these, but he remained determinedly as active as he could be, his enjoyment of their two children, three grandchildren and poetry undiminished. He died on 2 April 2020 as a result of Covid-19. His family looks forward to celebrating Mike’s life at a thanksgiving service when restrictions are lifted, grateful for a rich life well lived. H

Michael on a canal boat during his time in Birmingham.

Inspring his pupils.

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ANNOUNCMENTS

closely connected to his local church) attracted Mike to the idea of demanding public service. After Oxford, he seriously considered the prison service, before following his lifelong calling as a schoolteacher in deprived inner city areas.

COMMUNITY LIFE Winchester House continues to place community values at the heart of its ethos, abiding by the School’s motto ‘Non Nobis Solum’, not for ourselves alone. Children and staff are regularly involved with a variety of community based activities and projects, as well as the creation of new initiatives designed to meet specific needs. Never before has community involvement been more important than during the pandemic.

In March 2020, when care homes were advised to close their doors to visitors, School created the ‘Flowers for Friends’ initiative whereby families gathered spring flowers from their gardens and brought the most wonderful bouquets into school.

These were donated to local care homes, doctors’ surgeries and assisted living residences. The residents of Juniper House were delighted and sent the children small painted eggs in hand-knitted baskets with hand written messages and chocolate eggs inside.

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COMMUNITY LIFE

Brackley Town Council distributed hundreds of food boxes created by SOFEA (a community based larder in Milton Keynes) and distributed them to nearby parishes and families in need within Brackley, as well as the Brackley Foodbank. All this was undertaken by the council at very short notice in April, with Mr Silman and the school mini bus helping with distribution.

As documented on page 5, as the news headlines turned to PPE shortages, Head of DT Martin Scouse fired up the laser cutter loaned by Oakham School to make face shields. With the help of the McGowan family’s nimble fingers, and Mr Irvine, Mr Silman and Mrs Gray overseeing distribution, 735 face shields were made and given to 25 hospitals, care homes, surgeries and charities. Recipients shared images of the face shields being worn, a poignant reminder of the vulnerability of key workers.

Food boxes ready for delivery.

Martin Scouse, Head of DT and face shield production.

Above: The McGowan production line and just a fraction of the face shields that the team produced.

As the days of lock down marched on, care homes and the elderly spoke of growing loneliness. To keep the older generation in touch with the young, School embarked on a Pen Pal Scheme with over 35 children writing regularly to their companions. Both parties benefitted hugely from this interaction and the initiative continues to this day.

One of many pen pal volunteers posting their letter.

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Sheena Croston, the Manager of Kingsley Healthcare’s new Brackley Care Home, invited children and staff to name the home’s new dementia, residential and nursing wings. Sixteen children and staff entered the competition, with the owners choosing to use suggested names for three of the units. The Nursing Wing was named the ‘Delia Frost Suite’ as suggested

by Mrs Gray (Delia Frost was the midwife at the Brackley Cottage Hospital for many years) and the two Dementia suites were called the ‘Rainbow Suite’ as suggested by Jonah Watkins (2020) and Classics teacher Mr Roberts and ‘McGowan Suite’ as suggested by Mr Keating. Kingsley Healthcare kindly gave all children who entered a very smart rainbow baseball cap.

During the Michaelmas term, Pre-Prep children sent the residents of Juniper House autumn cards. Carved pumpkins from the School’s Pumpkin Festival were delivered to Juniper House in time for Halloween, making

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Above: Emma McGowan with Founder Sumi Thayan of Kingsley Healthcare.

Bottom left: The autumn cards created by the Pre-Prep children.

Below: The virtual Armistice Service.

for a very orange entrance to the home. On Wednesday 11th November, after the School’s virtual Armistice Service, trumpeter and Head of Drayton, Cate, played the Last Post outside Juniper House and Prefect Thalia read ‘In Flanders Fields’ for the residents who were seated in the entrance hall (see image right).

COMMUNITY LIFE

Above: Evening carol singing outside Juniper House.

Left: Hamper donations gratefully received from our parents for local care homes.

In December, WHS joined forces with the communityled ‘Brackley Elves’ campaign, to put together Christmas hampers for local care homes and assisted living residences. School was overwhelmed by the parents’ generosity and delivered a total of 13 large hampers to Brackley Care Home and Juniper House.

The boarders also visited these care homes to sing evening carols in the last week of term. Although unable to interact with residents, the children enjoyed performing and waving through the windows.

Below: Emma McGowan, Cate and Thalia at Juniper House on 11th November.

Below right: Head gardener Sam Webster-Smith delivering hampers to Sheila Croston.

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With the Advent Fair thwarted by the second lock down, School ran a week long online Christmas Fair to support the businesses of current and former parents and staff. With exhibitors offering shoppers a generous 10% discount, many enjoyed browsing and buying from Petrina Martin and Jo Peppiatt’s So Souk, Lara Bateman’s Lara Piercy Stamp Artworks, Sam Hartigan’s The Little Bazaar, Miss Mobbs’ Fleurs Bedtime Stories, Tania Parsons’ Forever Wild Interiors, Abby Lord’s Kiki Zaza Jewellery, Jenny Dicks’ Bay Tree Cottage and Katharine Pooley’s boutique.

Brackley Elves’ first campaign of 2021 focused on a laptop donation scheme to help children learning from home with inadequate or no devices. Donated laptops were reconfigured by professionals with Microsoft Windows 10 Home Edition, with additional costs being covered by local crowd funding, and distributed to children in most need. Once again, the School community helped this vital cause.

To support local shops and businesses suffering from a third lock down, School commenced a ‘Shop Local’ social media campaign in early January. With many businesses moulding their offering to fit in with lock down restrictions and closure, followers were interested to hear of the shopping, collection and distribution offerings available.

With vaccines being widely distributed amongst the most in need, we look forward to re-gathering the Brackley Community Dementia-Friendly Choir when circumstances allow. Choir members have remained in touch and remain an important part of our community, and we look forward to welcoming many new members.

On 18th January, WHS was honoured to be awarded a ’Rose of Northamptonshire Award’ by Northamptonshire County Council. The award was created to 52 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

recognise and celebrate the contributions of those who live or work in Northamptonshire to the County’s response to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Whilst we merely played our part in supporting our many friends, local businesses, clubs and societies, we were delighted to accept the award. What has come to the forefront of the pandemic, is the vital importance of supporting those within the community. The phrase ‘in it together’ has never been truer and the extraordinary pooled efforts’ of all community members has been humbling. Non nobis solum. H

SCHOOL NEWS

SCHOOL NEWS IGNITE The Ignite speaker programme continues to play an instrumental role in inspiring the children. Talks were taken online via Google Meet and were a much appreciated focus after a busy day of online school.

The children were treated to virtual talks by a variety of enthusiastic and engaging speakers.

Over 150 children and staff joined shark activist, free diver, stunt actor, ocean conservationist and athlete Liz Parkinson for her fascinating virtual talk. California-based Liz showed footage of her diving and filming with sharks, in a variety of locations around the world. She demystified the killer image films like ‘Jaws’ have given sharks over the years, and added that you must respect the species when entering their underwater ‘home’. Liz has Liz Parkinson filming sharks

been heavily involved in Shark Week for many years, appearing on the Ellen de Genres Show, and has shot underwater scenes as a stunt actress and body-double for TV documentaries, shows, films and adverts. She spoke about her work for a variety of oceanfocused charities and, in particular, her marathon efforts for ‘Run for Sharks’. We felt very privileged to spend 45 minutes with such a prominent shark activist and actor (who happens to be Deirdre Mullins’ cousin).

Irish film, television and theatre actor and director Deirdre Mullins gave a captivating talk to the Upper School. Deirdre explained the different skill sets required for stage and screen, and took her audience through her career highlights including playing Pi in the ‘Life of

Dierdre Mullins (image from Pinterest).

Pie’ whilst studying at St Andrews University, getting into Bristol Drama School, acting Rosalind in ‘As You Like It’ at The Globe Theatre, doing motion capture (‘mo cap’) at the Imagination Studios for a video game trailer called ‘The Walking Dead’, appearing as a young mother in Mumford & Sons’ ‘Beloved’ music video, directing an avant garde experimental film ‘Infinity Pool’ which she took to the Portsmouth and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, being a continuity announcer for ITV3, working on Dr Who audio dramas, doing the voice overs for commercials like Kinder Chocolate and TK Maxx and taught the children how to do the voiceover for a Muller Light commercial. She answered many questions from the children and it was fair to say that after 60 minutes, the vast majority of children (and adults) wanted to be actors.

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Zoologist Emma Lawrenson (below), who is a zoo educator and primate keeper at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, showed engaging footage of the small mammals and primates she looks after at the park. She told the children about her time in academia, researching social hierarchy behaviour in lemurs, spoke about the creation of the park in 1970, reviewed the wide variety of creatures that live at the Park, how to keep and breed animals and birds successfully in captivity whilst creating the perfect habitat for them, and talked about the world’s most endangered species and the importance of conservation. We have no doubt that visitor numbers to the park went up the following weekend.

Ignition talks were created for specific year groups. Diver and biologist Verity Redrup (right) spoke to Year 5 about the wonders of the underwater world. Egyptologist Hilary Wilson (below) from the Southampton Ancient Egypt Society enthused about her life’s passion; pharaohs, pyramids and mummies.

THE 2.6 CHALLENGE FOR OPERATION SMILE

Above: Emma Lawrenson.

Below: Giraffes at Cotswold Wildlife Park.

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With the 26.2 mile Virgin London Marathon postponed, and charities struggling to fundraise, what better way to spend Sunday 26th April 2020 than doing The 2.6 Challenge! Members of the WHS community joined thousands of people nationwide doing selfmade challenges that involved the numbers 2 and 6. With the

© Josh Stewart

community fundraising for the School’s charity Operation Smile, it was great to see so many children, parents, staff, former staff and alumni joining in. Our social media feeds were alive with activity throughout the day show casing: Daisy shooting 26 hockey goals, Teddy sneezing 26 times, Mr Irvine and Daisy cycling around the school ‘block’ 26 times, Luke completing 26 front, back and side flips on his trampoline, Logan and

Below: Mr Irvine and Daisy cycled around 'the block' 26 times.

SCHOOL NEWS

Henry (Year 7) swam 26 lengths (above); Skye (Year 8) cycled 26.2km (above centre); Mrs Irvine and Daisy (Year 3) ran 2.6km (above right); Emily (Year 7) cycled 2.6 miles (right); Harry completed 26.2km (far right); Peter Barr cycled 26 laps (below left); Rowan (Year 8), Declan and Liam cycled 2.6 miles (below top right); Mason, Scarlett and Hunter cycled 2.6 miles (below bottom right).

Penny creating and skipping over a 26.2 square hop scotch, Teagan doing 262 knee drops on her trampoline, Skye cycling 26.2km, Henry swimming 26 lengths, Flora running a 0.1km hill course 26 times, Rowan, Declan and Liam cycling 2.6 miles, Mr Leach doing 26 keepie uppies with a football, Charlotte completing 10 exercises in sets of 26, Hamish completing 2.6 lengths underwater, Maisy doing 26 activities, former staff member Peter Barr cycled 26 laps of a 2 mile course in the Scottish Highlands, Jamie completed 26 tennis volleys, Oscar did two sets of 26 turns on his Segway and Mr Gray walked 2.6km carrying 26.2kg with Mrs Gray filming! In all, over £600 was raised for Operation Smile.

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INDIVIDUAL FUNDRAISING EFFORTS Garden Run Inspired by Captain Tom Moore and his fundraising efforts, in April 2020 Harry and Ben decided to run 50 and 100 laps around their gardens raising fantastic £800 for the NHS charities.

Freya rows The Thames Freya decided to raise money for Cancer Research UK to support her grand father who was undergoing cancer treatment. Freya and her brother decided to row the 340km length of the Thames on a rowing machine, covering 4km a day in between online lessons. They raised a fantastic £4,970 in total.

UPCYCLING At the start of the summer term, and with children all learning online, Head of DT Mr Scouse tasked the children to re-purpose an object. The challenge had been set with children spending time after school being thoroughly ingenius! Mike Hill (right), Head of DT from 2002 to 2013, led the charge with the refurbishment of an old rocking chair, Archie (Year 8), who gained a DT Scholarship to Oundle School, made a wooden steering wheel, Daisy (Year 3) painted some old shelving, Kit (Year 8) made garden furniture out of wooden palattes,

Summer 100km Challenge During the summer holidays, Tamsin and Juliana invited their Year 4 class mates to join them on their ‘Summer 100km Challenge’.

Joined by Arthur H-A, Arthur S, Elodie, Florence and Rufus, they each completed 100km with a combination of walking, running, swimming and cycling.

Together they raised £1,600 which was split between the School’s charity, Operation Smile, and the Rainforest Foundation UK. World Record maker Freddie (Year 3) bounced an amazing 262 times on his pogo stick with the greatest of ease, so School challenged Freddie to attempt the world record for his age group (8 years old). Freddie smashed it with 2,293 non-stop 56 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

bounces on a Pogo Stick in 24 minutes without falling off!

SCHOOL NEWS

Rowan (Year 8) and Declan (Year 6) repurposed an antique dresser, Jamie (Year 8) constructed a target practice for his air rifle, Toby (Year 8) created an owl nesting box, Elliot

(Year 6) cleaned and resprayed a BBQ into a planter and Freddie (Year 6) turned an old BBQ into a drinks tray. The list goes on and the inventions were mind blowing.

VE DAY CELEBRATIONS On Friday 8th May, the nation and school community celebrated 75 years since the end of WW2.

In the week leading up to the celebrations, children, families and staff pre-recorded a singa-long to ‘We’ll Meet Again’, recording their voices to a dubbed karaoke version of Vera Lynne’s hit at home and sending Mr Price their best efforts.

Syncing together numerous homemade recordings was no mean feat and our Director of Music did a fantastic job!

A highly emotive and successful social media campaign began on HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 57

the 4th May with 51 members of the school community sharing photos and memories of family members who had fought, lived and died during WW2 as well as other conflicts. The stories, photos, and memorabilia only further highlighted the sacrifices made by so many and can be seen in full on the school Instagram account (winchesterhouseschool).

A snapshot of the stories told are documented here.

a

A Emma Goldsmith’s mother, Val Williamson, with her twin brother Neville, was evacuated from Sunderland to the family farm at Ryhope with their cousins. B Mrs Merritt’s grandfather, Sgt George Gornall, served in the RAF’s 195 squadron. C Mr Gray’s father, Duncan, was a Rear Gunner in the RAF, flew 44 missions over Europe and received the DFC. D Debbie Grainge’s father served in the RAF as a Rear Gunner and Wireless Operator in Wellington Bombers. e Mrs Johnson’s grandfather, Harry Fell, was

a driver during WW2 driving tanks, ambulances and officers in cars. f Mrs Lomax’s grandfather, William ‘Billy’ Norton, served in the RAF and is pictured in his uniform whilst stationed in Morecambe. g Mrs Kennedy’s grandmother, Elaine Brewster, was a nurse in France during WW1 and worked as a Sister at Norwich Hospital during WW2. h Mr Robert’s mother-in-law, Beryl Young, was a WREN and served in a variety of roles plotting ships’ routes and teletyping. She also sent the signal that launched the DDay Armada! e

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Cavalry and m the Jarman’s great grandfather, Pilot Officer Charles WH Cocks, was a Bomb Aimer in the RAF. n The Saunders’ great grandfather, Lt Col Thomas Bain Gunn, fought in both wars winning an MC in WW1. o The Cook’s great grandfather, Charles George Fitch, served in the Royal Army Medical Core. p The Shortridge’s great grandfather, Lieutenant Ivor Faulconer, landed a Fairey Fulmar on HMS Nairana in 1944 in the Arctic. q The Fletcher’s great grandfather, Colonel Roger

l

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Seymour, was in Belgium on VE Day as he was involved in the liberation of the concentration camps. r The Hartigan’s great grandfather, Flying Officer Kenneth Hackett, was navigator of Mosquito, No 21 squadron RAF. s The Flanagan’s great grandfather, Walter Milin Flanagan, served in WW1 and was too old to be called up for WW2, so volunteered to guard the Verwoerd Dam in South Africa. t Housian Andrew Phillips (1950-1954), shared a photo of his mother, Norah Keay, serving as an ambulance driver. o

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SCHOOL NEWS

i The Von Furstenberg’s maternal grandfather, Major John Michael Charles Bonsor of the Royal Lancers, can be seen meeting HRH The Queen, j and their paternal grandfather, Gustav, was a ‘Gefreiter’ (Private) in a German Cavalry Regiment manning FLAK (antiaircraft guns). k The Heygate’s great grandfather, Lieutenant Edgar George Partridge, served in the South Staffordshire Regiment. l The Kay’s great grandfather, George, was in the Polish Mounted Police and later drafted into the

u Former parent, Alistair Watkins, served as a Lieutenant and Platoon Commander with the Grenadier Guards during Gulf War One in 1991 and in South Armagh

in 1993/4. v Michael CasemanJones, father of Housian Catherine (2002), was SO2 Police and Prisons based at Basrah Palace in Iraq in 2006 and then OC of the 908

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ROB BIDDULPH GIVES LARGEST ONLINE ART LESSON! Budding artists took part in artist and illustrator Rob Biddulph’s Guinness Book of World Records attempt at breaking the record for the largest online art lesson. 45,611 participants took part on 21st May setting an Art World Record and raising £51,970 to help fight covid 19. WHS Children received a certificate and have a fantastic drawing of a whale as a souvenir.

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Labour Support Unit in Afghanistan in 2009. From WW1 to present day conflicts, the involvement of WHS community members will always be remembered.

The de Courcy-Ireland family drawing Rob Biddulph's whale.

In July 2020, Liam (Year 2) was diagnosed with Leukaemia. During the summer, he bravely underwent treatment, firstly in the UK, and then in his home town in the US. The charity, Beads of Courage, played a vital role throughout his journey. Through the use of colourful beads for each step of his treatment, he was able to record and tell his story of hope, courage and strength. As a community, we decided to give our support to both Liam and the charity via a ‘Michaelmas Half Term Challenge’.

Liam’s home town of North Bethesda in Maryland, is 3,610 miles from Brackley. We challenged the whole school community and Liam’s family and friends, in both the US and Austria, to create a family mileage target and together cover the total distance.

The community embraced the challenge whole heartedly and not only ‘travelled’ to North Bethesda but ‘returned’ to the UK. The stories of support for Liam and Beads of Courage were overwhelming, with all children from nursery to Year 8 completing a mile of the playing fields before half term. Family members father Sean and siblings Rowan and Declan, grandma Barbara Marks, great aunt Mary Mattison and cousin Owen walked daily, over 50 staff completed various feats, including Mrs Leftley’s 35 mile triathlon and over half of the children and their families notched up miles by foot,

bike, hoof and water. Nigel, the driver of the Trusted Cars minibus that used to drive Liam to school, walked 10.42km in the sun and rain from Buckingham to Winslow to show his support. Housian Patrick Hudson (2007), who lives near Liam in North Bethesda, ran 70 miles and galvanised support from his US friends and work colleagues who covered a further 157 miles. Year 3 parents Vicky Abell and Lara Angus made and sold a fantastic array of colourful BagBeads which now adorn many a school bag.

Vicky Berrie and Kate Keating.

The Year 8 pre half term runners.

SCHOOL NEWS

BEADS OF COURAGE

Declan, Sean and Rowan in Austria

Patrick Hudson.

Nigel.

David Barney.

Liam's Great Aunt Mary.

Mrs Goldsmith in Cornwall.

Below: The children spelling out Liam's name on the lawn.

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CHILDREN IN NEED On 13th November 2020, the School enjoyed supporting the annual BBC Children in Need campaign.

Staff and children wore an item of yellow and learned Strictly Come Dancing’s dance routine to Sigala’s ‘Lullaby’, which was performed with great gusto at the Upper Arch and in the Pre Prep car park at drop off.

Cupcakes, covered in yellow icing and Smarties, were consumed at break and the children chalked spots and pictures of Pudsey Bear on the drive under the encouraging eye of Mr Silman. Over £500 was raised for the charity and a lot of fun was had!

HARRY POTTER VISITS WHS… The School buildings are often compared to the architecture of Hogwarts but never has the arrival of Harry Potter been more needed and appreciated. After a Michaelmas term abiding by strict government guidelines, parent and interior designer Katharine Pooley and her team arrived on site and 62 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

SCHOOL NEWS

sprinkled their magic Christmas decoration dust over the Reading Room, Oak Corridor and Dining Rooms. Garlands crammed full of Harry Potter themed decorations graced the mantles, battery operated candles were suspended from the Dining Room ceiling, broomsticks appeared to be flying down the Oak Corridor and the walls were adorned with Hogwart’s house flags. The children designed Harry Potter-themed Christmas tree decorations for the Reading Room tree. The manor house’s High Street facades and the drive’s cedar trees were adorned with lights, which were much appreciated by

parents, children and the wider community as the nights drew in.

A local resident emailed School to say how the lights had buoyed his spirits during a very different Christmas period. Our continued thanks go to Katharine and her team for making the build up to Christmas extra special. The theme did not stop with decorations.

washed down with WHS home brew Butter Beer. All Harry Potter activity was shared with the school community via social media and our ‘Has anyone seen Harry Potter?’ campaign showcased some hilarious footage of possible sightings of Harry! (See Instagram)

For a week, our Thomas Franks catering team donned witch and wizard hats to serve Puff Pastry sorting hats, Hagrid’s cheesy feet biscuits, Severus Snape’s Potion Pots, house cup-cakes and Ollivander’s Fruit wands HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 63

VICTORIAN SECTION SUPPER On the final Thursday evening of the Michaelmas term, Year 8 boarders were treated to a Victorian Section Supper. With children and staff dressed in a wonderful array of costumes, from Mrs Goldsmith dressed as a very fine but rather formidable top hatted School Master to the boarding staff, tutors and children, dressed in stylish outfits of the day, the scene was set. Thomas Franks created a delicious banquet of roast beef, vegetables and puddings, all served in the dimly lit, Harry Potter infused Dining Room.

The children were then led up the candle-lit drive holding lanterns to be met in the Upper Quad by carols played on the piano by Mr Price, an array of Victorian style games, a hot chocolate and churros stand (slightly off theme but delicious all the same) and a festive horse trailer containing alpacas Paddy and Kenny owned by Housian Martha McGowan (2018).

The carol singing commenced and was streamed to parents and the wider community by Instagram live.

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The children then retired to the school hall to watch ‘A Christmas Carol’ with freshly made popcorn.

A wonderful evening was had by all thanks to the energy and creativity of the boarding staff Mr & Mrs Irvine, Mrs Hughes and Mrs Merritt, and the catering team led by Head Chef Mr de Haan and Catering Manager Mrs Hendren.

On the final Wednesday of the Michaelmas term, we welcomed two Scandinavian visitors to School. Father Christmas and his Chief Elf (aka Mr & Mrs Irvine) were driven onto the astro in the school golf buggy (cannily disguised as

Rudolph by Housian Martha McGowan). After a festive warm up with Mr Silman to a fine selection of Christmas music, the children donned their festive hats and charged around the astro.

After letting off steam, and having a great laugh, the children were

Bruno and Hennie rode 48km.

The Stoop family.

VIRTUAL PREP SCHOOLS FITNESS FIXTURE CHALLENGE Despite extremely muddy conditions, followed by freezing temperatures, the School community embraced its first virtual fixture with Akeley Wood, Ashford School, Beachborough School, Maidwell Hall and Swanbourne House, on the weekend of 6th & 7th February. The goal was simple, to notch up as many kilometres as possible as a School community.

Children, staff and families walked, ran, cycled and rode a total of 5,341km with 579 entries made, coming second only to Beachborough’s 8,012km and 746 entries. Maidwell came third with 4,301km and 262 entries. The total distance covered by all six schools came to an impressive 28,722km which equates to travelling to

Emily and Fred cycled and walked 105km.

Mrs Easterbrook walked 20km with Bella.

Perth, Australia and back. As it was, the WHS community travelled the equivalent distance from Brackley to Afghanistan! A great way to draw

The Sharman family.

attention to the importance of outdoor exercise at a time when screens dominate the school and work day. Well done House!

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CHRISTMAS FUN RUN

treated to hot chocolate with squirty cream and marshmallows and ginger bread biscuits, beautifully presented by Lewis De Haan and Laura Hendren, of our caterers Thomas Franks. With the children in bubbles, this process was repeated six times and the astro finally fell quiet at dusk, as Father Christmas and his merry band of staff helpers moved on to the Pre-Prep car park to wave to the younger children heading home. Father Christmas was reliably told by most children that they had been very good this year!

DRAMA LIVE With School performances and concerts postponed in the Michaelmas term, our new Head of Drama, Charlie Ponder, put on the much anticipated Drama Live on 4th December 2020 with Head of Music Chris Price. Pupils from

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Years 3 to 8 performed a full day of drama in bubbles, that was live streamed to family and friends. The day began with a ‘fabulous finish’ performance from Years 3 and 4 followed by Year 5’s performance of ‘The Adventures of Drama Kid’. After lunch, Year 6 show cased four mini

pantomimes, with the day finishing with a Christmas Variety show from Years 7, 8 and staff. Drama Live was an ambitious project which lifted the hearts of many who had been longing to watch a school performance for many months.

SCHOOL NEWS

WHS FILM COMPETITION In February 2020, film maker and parent Dan Edge (right) gave a Mastery Morning on film making to Years 7 and 8. He launched the WHS Film Competition, asking the children to make a short film on being their age in 2020. Little did Dan know what was about to happen worldwide!

Dan and Emma Goldsmith received many ingenious and engaging 2 minute videos, with Flora (Year 8) winning with her short film ‘Being 12 in 2020’. Flora reviewed the shaky start to 2020 with Megxit, the Australian bush fires and flooding and then recorded every news item and observation of the pandemic and first lockdown in graphic detail from loo roll shortages and the closure of schools, to the silence of

the M40, increased wildlife activity, clapping for the NHS and drawing of rainbows. Maisy (Year 8) came runner up with an emotive short film addressing the effects of social media on young people’s mental health. Maisy interviewed five of her friends for their views on the subject. The girls’ films can be seen on the School Instagram account Flora’s was posted on 20th October 2020 and Maisy’s was posted on 27th October 2020. Sit back, open a bag of popcorn and enjoy!

Above: A still from Flora's winning short film 'Being 12 in 2020'.

Right: A still from runner-up Maisy's short film about the effects of social media.

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PHIL HARVEY (1985-1990) Creative Director of Coldplay Housian Phil Harvey joined our Year 8 Leavers’ via Google Meeting as part of the Leavers’ Programme, and spent an hour chatting about his school days and the creation of the band Coldplay. Aside of being Head Boy, Phil said his main claim to fame at WHS was his sister Jo being the first girl boarder! He remembers his biology lessons with Mr Keating well, he played the double bass at School but doesn’t consider himself a musician and was a bit of a ‘swat’ and goodie goodie. He remembers the leavers’ trip to France and sleeping at the wrong end of his bed on the last night. On leaving WHS in 1990, Phil went to Sherborne School with an academic scholarship (where he met Coldplay’s Chris Martin) and then read Classics at Oxford.

Phil spoke openly about the formation of Coldplay with fascinating snippets including: he doesn’t like big crowds and loud noise (but loves the vibe of the Latino countries when touring), the track ‘Yellow’ propelled Coldplay onto the international stage, he loves the track ‘Viva La Veda’ and the album ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’, they ‘borrowed’ the name from an existing band and Phil actually wanted to call it ‘The Coldplay’. He also had a cameo role in the video to ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’ as a chimp, has an analytical brain and eye for small detail thanks to his Classics training, his favourite performance was at Glastonbury in 2016 and the band’s success is based on friendship, mutual respect and self-belief. Phil was the band’s Manager from its conception and is currently the Creative Director, looking into making the band carbon neutral when touring.

Phil’s advice to our Lockdown Leavers on pursing their dreams was to find something they love, to never give up, be utterly determined and to hope for a bit of luck along the way. Emma McGowan cheekily asked if Coldplay would come and play at WHS when they next tour, and Phil questioned whether the Third Form Lawn would be the vest venue!

FABULA ARTS

By Former Head of Drama James Gillam (2007–2017)

Fabula Arts is putting together a company of young people aged 1823 to take a show to The Edinburgh Fringe in 2022. We would very much like to hear from any ex-WHS pupils who might be interested in being part of the project.

In my professional life I have worked with young people from many backgrounds. Eighteen years of full-time teaching in independent schools ended in 2017 when I left Winchester House.

However, from 2014 onwards I was also running a Youth Theatre group in Northampton and was dealing with young people from very different walks of life. Indeed, it was

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Below: From our production of The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, performed on Remembrance Sunday 2019 in The Church of St Peter and St Paul in Preston Deanery.

Bottom: From our NT Connections 2019 performance of Stuff by Tom Wells.

during that period when these two roles intersected, that I was able to make direct comparisons which have driven my professional life since. All young people are creative, curious and driven; funny, engaging and talented. All young people are ambitious. However, all young people do not have the same opportunities.

In 2019 I founded Fabula Arts, a company formed to provide opportunities in the creative arts for all young people. We have a project planned for the summer of 2022 which has at its heart a desire to connect young people from different backgrounds, both creatively and socially. Our aim is to form a company with an equal number of members from a Youth Theatre background and from the independent school and university world, to put them together into a rehearsal room and to support them in the creation of a piece of HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 69

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Left: From our NT Connections 2018 performance of Dungeness by Chris Thompson.

theatre to take to The Edinburgh Fringe 2022. The company will get creative control of the process but Fabula Arts will provide support directors to, well, support!

So, we are looking for anyone aged 18-23 (in August 2022) who might be interested in being part of the project. The commitment would be twofold. Firstly, rehearsals would be in July 2022 and performances at Edinburgh in August 2022.

Therefore, you would need to be available then. And secondly, you would need to be able to commit to being part of the fundraising effort, which would be ongoing from September 2021 through to July 2022 … though, of course,

not continuously! We are looking for young people with a serious interest in drama and performing (or in the technical elements of theatre). If you are considering pursuing the performing or creative arts as a career, all the better but this is certainly not a prerequisite for joining the company.

I can guarantee that you will get to work with some fantastic people from our Youth Theatre. Throwing your life experiences and theirs into a great big pot will undoubtedly produce something amazing … and will be a lot of fun too!

I worked with many alumni when you were twelve or thirteen and the

experience was amazing. It would be fabulous to connect with some of you again.

If you’re interested, get in touch: jamesgillam@fabulaarts.co.uk and I can provide you with more information. H

Former Governor and Parent Tom Purton looks back at his family’s association with WHS Similar to a number of parents at WHS, we were living in London in early 2001. We had 3 children aged 4, 2 and 3 months old. Our eldest, Charlie, was due to go to Reception in September that year and we were very aware that, once you get into the school cycle, it can be difficult to move away from what you and the children know and grow to like. It was also a “life” decision and more important than either my wife, Jo, or I realised at the time. Where do we want to live longer term and what sort of education do we want for our 70 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

children? Despite the fact that I had a demanding job at a City law firm with long, unpredictable hours in the days when remote working was looked upon with deep suspicion (and the technology was not great either), we decided to move to North Oxfordshire.

We had our children registered at the Dragon but wanted to find a local school without the Oxford commute for the first few years.

WHS was recommended to us by my father-in-law who knew Richard Greaves, a WHS parent and, until

the recent alliance with Stowe, the Chair of Governors. We attended an open morning and instinctively liked what we saw - an informality which allowed the children and staff to be themselves but a sense of community, quiet determination, happiness and warmth which resonated with us. We also liked the emphasis on the all-rounder -

SCHOOL NEWS

the sport, the music, the drama as well as the academic achievements without the early pressure so often associated with that. Jeremy Griffiths was the Head at the time.

We found a house - a total wreck which would prove to be a labour of love to restore - and moved in September 2001 enrolling Charlie in Reception and our second child, Millie, in Nursery.

It was not too long before our third child, Harry, joined the school.

Our fourth child, Olivia, was born in December 2002, joining WHS in 2006. From the outset, all of our children loved WHS – they regularly talk about it; their shared experiences and the people they met and see today. They found the balance of life right for them – the academic side of the school was strong but not overwhelming; the sport, music and drama the right mix of competition and fun; Below: Fathers versus sons cricket match.

and friendships were made that continue to this day (and will undoubtedly do so for life). As for Jo and I, it is fair to say we arrived in the community knowing few people and have made so many life long friends on the boundary and touchline, at plays, concerts and sports days,that have shaped and enriched our lives. I am not sure any other school I know would have made that possible. As such, the decision to tell the Dragon we would not be joining them was made easy.

WHS taught our children to be independent, to believe in themselves and the art of the possible but with the selfdeprecation and humour which defines the WHS pupil. They found their strengths, learnt how to address their weaknesses and grew in confidence. All of them discovered they were good at a number of things that may never have been possible elsewhere to the same extent, with sport being one of those. Some of my fondest

Above: Millie, Harry, Olivia and Charlie Purton.

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memories remain the camaraderie and collective pride in watching the children play sport for WHS - at home or away; they always gave of their best and learnt how to win and lose. The music and drama at WHS was a well kept secret in the early days – no more and rightly so.

We encouraged all the children to do everything while the chance was there – and they did.

Charlie was made Head Boy at WHS and went to Radley with an allrounder scholarship - remarkable for the very shy, unconfident boy who arrived at WHS in 2001. He graduated from Edinburgh last Summer and started work as a trainee investment manager in London. Millie went to Uppingham on an all-rounder Thring Scholarship with a passion for music and drama which was founded and

nurtured at WHS. Millie graduated from Newcastle last Summer and is now teaching at a prep school in London. Harry went to Radley and ended up as Captain of Cricket there as well - using the skills he learnt at WHS to great effect in all his many sports at Radley. He is now in his first year at Edinburgh. Olivia is in her final year at Uppingham studying Drama as one of her A levels and flourishing across the curriculum despite not being at school during the lockdowns. She has an offer to go to Exeter in 2022.

Jeremy Griffiths left WHS early in our time at the school to be replaced by Mark Seymour. To this day, I am so grateful for the tone that Mark set at the school, for his extraordinary skill at public speaking and opening the eyes of the children at WHS to remarkable

Jo with Michael Philip awarding the Victor Ludorum Cup on Sports Day.

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events and people in the context of historical events. Many of his speeches were truly inspirational; the children looked up to him and continue to have enormous respect for him. It was during his tenure that I was approached in 2007 by the Chair of the board of WHS to become a Governor. I was very flattered to be asked and keen to do what I could to help the school but I had to think carefully before accepting because I did not want it to be a good or a bad thing for the children, all of whom were still at WHS at the time. As it happens, that potential conflict never proved an issue and I relished the challenge that the role presented, seeing the school through some good and difficult times; fundraising; building projects; development of the astroturf; the decision to move to weekly and flexible boarding

The saxophonists including Olivia (front left).

WHS is not perfect and it would be wrong of me to suggest that we did not have some concerns at times about aspects of the Millie with Lucy Chetwode. school during our 15 years as Harry scoring 125 runs.

WHS parents. That said, we never and away from Saturday school; to Under Emma’s leadership, the lost faith in the commitment of develop the nursery and pre-prep; school has evolved. All institutions the school to do its very best and to continually look for ways to have to move forward and none for the entire WHS community. I convey the essence of WHS in an more so than a prep school in look at our children taking on the ever challenging market for prep a world where parents want considerable challenges of the schools. Perhaps one of my most different things and are much wider world, believing they can do important contributions was to more prepared to ask for it - you it and accepting their successes be part of the interview panel that have to remain relevant whilst and set-backs with equal good hired Emma Goldsmith as Head retaining your core values. I hope grace. I also watch them meet up when Mark Seymour left in 2014. and believe WHS has done that with all their friends from WHS Emma had been a Governor at WHS and Emma deserves enormous when they return home and I know whose communication that we owe so much skills, EQ, touch and to the school. We We make a huge number of decisions in life vision I had seen and and you cannot hope to get them all right; the make a huge number admired first hand. of decisions in life key is to get the important ones right. When it and you cannot hope The current pandemic comes to choosing WHS for our children, that to get them all right; has only served to test to the limit the the key is to get the was one of our best decisions. ability of the school important ones right. to find solutions and respond to credit for her leadership through When it comes to choosing WHS what remains a very challenging this transition. The most important for our children, that was one of situation. I will remember the role of a governor is to ensure the our best decisions and my time as numerous board meetings deciding future prosperity and success of the a parent and Governor a huge and what to do by way of a response school for pupils, parents and staff very happy part of my life. I miss it for the rest of my life. There are alike. It was in this context that we but, as a family, fully intend to stay few situations that ask so many decided, as a board, to enter into part of the WHS community for questions of an organisation that the Stowe Alliance whilst retaining years to come. H thrives on being together in one the USPs and brand of WHS but place and affects the lives, health with access to the infrastructure Tom Purton is a partner at RPC, a and education of so many. and facilities of Stowe as well as City law firm.

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its resources. After 14 years as a Governor and a new job at another City law firm in prospect, I decided to stand down as a Governor on 31 December 2020, happy in the knowledge that the future of WHS is robust and bright.

LOCKDOWN LEAVERS

Little did we know when we were giving the Year 8 children their ‘Leavers Trees’ on 23rd March (the day the government announced the early closure of schools) that we would not be able to welcome the children back on site until the last week of term.

Some of our Leavers with their Leavers' trees.

The Leavers' Programme is, in normal times, a period of three weeks post CE exams in which Year 8 children can unwind, celebrate their time at WHS and embrace a whole host of activities from Tall Ship Racing to a Musical in a Week.

We kept our fingers crossed that the Year 8s would be able to return to school after the summer half term. However, it was not to be with only Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children allowed to return. The Leavers' Programme went virtual – a great sadness for all – but the children, at this stage desperately missing their friends, put on a brave face and embraced the condensed activities.

The three week programme included a wide variety of virtual

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Housian and English Cricketer Ben Duckett (2008) gave a fascinating Q&A session. The children joined Ben live from his golf club and they discussed the importance of playing a variety of sports when young, the significance of not only training hard but allowing your body to rest and the subtleties of being a left handed batsman. The children were inspired by Ben’s advice and encouragement, and a lot of cricket balls were apparently hit in home nets after the talk!

Will Perry preparing to race.

about his condition known as achondroplasia; how his condition meant that as a child growing up he was unable to take part in most sports, how he has driven himself to succeed, how he was encouraged to take swimming seriously by coach Stewart Cowie whilst at Stowe School, his rigorous training regime of 20 hours in the pool per week plus 5 hours in the gym, the importance of nutrition and calories when training hard, and his aim to hold all six breaststroke records for his category (he already

has three in the bag). Will considers Adam Peaty and his team mates at Northampton Swimming Club his main inspiration and told the children he finds having a goal, whether big or small, really helpful in life. In January 2021, Will was selected as one of 85 athletes in the England Swimming Team ahead of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and hopes the Para Olympic Trials in April 2021 at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield goes ahead.

The Leavers were joined at their online School Transition Talk by members of the Class of 2019 (below) Erin Jones (Bloxham), Tom Mayo (Stowe), Jemima Pearson-Gee (Stowe), Phoebe West (St Edwards) and Ranulph Youngman Sullivan (Radley) who talked about their first year at Senior School, offering advice on how to make a smooth transition and how to survive the first few weeks.

Ben Duckett in action, photo from The Cricketer.

Will Perry, brother of Housian Camilla (2018), gave a fantastic talk about his swimming career and dreams of making it to the Para Olympics in Tokyo 2021 for individual medley and freestyle relays. Will spoke candidly

Leavers' School Transition Talk.

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presentations. Housian Phil Harvey joined our Year 8 Leavers via Google Meeting and spent an hour chatting about his school days and the creation of the band Coldplay.

Jay Peppiatt, Houseparent of Winton House at Stowe School and Liz Robinson, Housemistress of Griffin House at Rugby School, then answered further questions on making the successful step up to senior school and the importance of taking every opportunity. This annual event is always invaluable to leavers and is a great way of reuniting members of the School community.

A variety of online workshops were also given. Pippa Guy, the first female senior bartender at The Savoy, taught the children how to make a mocktail mojito.

Mr Woodcock gave a bow tie lesson, parent/Governor and founder of 118 118 Patrick Bradshaw spoke about the importance of first impressions and how to make yourself employable, a lesson on make-up and skin care was given and Emma McGowan 76 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

Jay Peppiatt, Stowe School.

Liz Robinson, Rugby School.

took the children (and willing parents) through a circuit training session. James Gillam returned to school, virtually, with his company Fabula Arts for a week and worked with the children to make short films celebrating their time at School.

The Year 8 WHS Bake Off was also a huge hit with the children with show stopping, delicious (parents oversaw the taste test) cakes gracing the social media feeds and whetting everyone’s appetites.

The programme thankfully wasn’t confined to screen time. The 40 leavers were challenged to collectively cover the 1,406.6km distance from John ‘O Groats to Lands End travelling 35.15km each by foot and bike. Each child was given a specific ‘virtual’ section and, by a bit of pre-planning and luck, Skye cycled past the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow where her Mother, Cat, trained in athletics from the aged of 12-18 years and where her brother and Housian Kristian, trains with Warriors Rugby. Despite a mini heat wave, the children embraced the challenge whole heartedly, shared lots of footage of themselves in action and smashed the goal.

LEAVERS DUATHLON 2020: John O’Groats to Lands End Wednesday 24th June | 1,406.6km | 40 athletes GOOD LUCK! Raising funds for

JOHN O’GROATS Thomas Bicknell Gwen Grovit Aidan Kennedy DUNROBIN CASTLE

Rowan Marks

Don’t forget to take pictures

MERMAID OF THE NORTH

Grace Reilly Oliver Southan

Sasha Wakeford

URQUHART CASTLE

Luke Tomkinson

AVIEMORE RING CAIRN AND STONE CIRCLE

CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK

Kyra Tooley Tommy Wright Oliver Acors

Don’t forget to take pictures

Sam Shortridge

SCOTSTOUN STADIUM

STIRLING CASTLE

Charlie Hill

EDINBURGH CASTLE

Skye Kay

MELROSE ABBEY

Benedict Judge Toby Roach

Don’t forget to take pictures

Robert Sagar James Smith

Don’t forget to take pictures

ANGEL OF THE NORTH

Ed von Furstenberg Lucas Magnay

LAKE DISTRICT NATIONAL PARK

NORTH YORK MOORS NATIONAL PARK

Teagan Phillips Raffaella Cook Archie Macfarlane Nathan Lo

Don’t forget to take pictures

Louis Morgan-Smith

PEAK DISTRICT NATIONAL PARK

Teddy Flanagan TRENT BRIDGE CRICKET GROUND

Ed Saunders

SNOWDONIA

ALEXANDER STADIUM

Billy Barlow Kit Thorogood Don’t forget to take pictures

Luke Tuckey Jamie Fletcher

BLENHEIM PALACE

Harry Leetham

BRECON BEACONS NATIONAL PARK

Jessica Li PRINCIPALITY STADIUM

Freddie Palmer Jack Robbins Jack Sheppard Archie Trotman

LANDS END

Jonah Watkins

WIMBLEDON

Ted Stothard

CLEEVE ABBEY

DARTMOOR NATIONAL PARK

LORD’S CRICKET GROUND

Digby Eliot

Don’t forget to take pictures

STONEHENGE

SCHOOL NEWS

Visual feasts included Thomas’ Battenberg cake, Freddie’s Games Kit cake, Jamie’s WHS shirt & tie cake and Jack’s amazing Lockdown Leavers Loo Roll cake!

Much fun was had with the Year 8 Staff Challenge which saw teachers embracing the ice bucket challenge, Mrs Newman dancing

in online lessons (much to the bemusement of her online classes), and Mrs Goldsmith talking with a Scottish accent at Prize Giving.

The staff created a mini movie for the Leavers, co-ordinated by Mr Leach and Mr Robinson, and set to Bob Dylan’s Forever Young (see Instagram post of 2nd July 2020).

The children were able to return to School for the final days of term. The staff were delighted to welcome them back and a whole host of activities ensued including collecting their CE results from Mrs Goldsmith, collectively wearing their leavers’ hoodies, visiting the clock tower, a variety of games, Prize Giving and the Leavers’ Service. Richard Greaves addressed the children at the Leavers’ Service volunteering the following advice:-

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In the classroom take an interest in your subjects and be thorough. Get work done early to take the pressure off. l Don’t let your social life distract you – get the balance right. Work must come first. l

Aim high for the best results you can – they are the keys that will open the doors to the best opportunities. l Take advantage of opportunities outside the classroom – be adventurous. l

Know your boundaries – know when to say no. Be proud of yourself and your decisions. l Be a good friend. l In case of problems – talk, talk, talk. l And above all, enjoy the experience to the full. l

Emma Goldsmith went on to congratulate the whole school community – children, families and staff – for completing a term of online school, quoting from ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’

by Charlie Mackesy; ‘What’s the best thing you’ve learned about storms?’ asked the horse. ‘That they make us kinder’, said the boy ‘and that they end’. H

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YEAR 8 SUBJECT EXCELLENCE PRIZES

Oliver Acors Stowe

Drama Scholarship

Teagan Phillips Bloxham

Music Scholarship

French Cup

Billy Barlow

Radley

Latin Cup

Thomas Bicknell

Stowe

Grace Reilly Stowe

Drama Scholarship

Raffaella Cook Bloxham Digby Eliot Radley

Sports Exhibition Teddy Flanagan Oundle James Fletcher Radley

Sports Scholarship Gwen Grovit Stowe

Sports Scholarship Charlie Hill Rugby Benedict Judge Winchester Skye Kay Millfield

Sports Scholarship Aidan Kennedy Bloxham

Music Exhibition

Toby Roach Bloxham

Sports Scholarship Jack Robbins Stowe

Drama Exhibition

Luke Tukey

Science Trophy

Ed von Furstenberg

Geography Prize

Jessica Li

History Cup

Charlie Hill

Greek Prize

Sasha Wakeford

CUPS AND TROPHIES

Edward Saunders Stowe Jack Sheppard Bloxham

Speech and Drama Cup

James Smith

Sam Shortridge Stowe

Sports Exhibition

Drama Cup Oliver Acors and Jack Robbins

James Smith Stowe

Drama Scholarship

The Crawfurd Cup (most improved Musician) Jessica Li

Oliver Southan Radley

Sport Scholarship

Chorister Cup (Boy) Digby Eliot

Edward Stothard Uppingham

Music Salver (for Outstanding Contribution) Teagan Phillips

Jessica Li Oundle

Luke Tomkinson Stowe

Nathan Lo Stowe

Kyra Tooley Headington

Archie Macfarlane Oundle

Archie Trotman Stowe

Lucas Magnay Radley

Luke Tuckey Rugby

Computing Scholarship

Freddie Palmer Stowe

Teddy Flanagan

All Rounder Cup Teddy Flanagan

Kit Thorogood Bloxham

Louis Morgan-Smith Stowe

James Smith

English Salver

Robert Sagar Abingdon

Harry Leetham Radley

Rowan Marks International

Christian School Vienna

Benedict Judge

Maths Cup

Eduard Von Furstenberg Eton Sasha Wakeford Oundle Academic & Sports Scholarship Jonah Watkins

St Edwards

Tommy Wright Rugby

Chorister Cup (Girl) Grace Reilly

Lees-Millais Cup (for outstanding Effort in Music) Aidan Kennedy Art Cup

Jamie Fletcher

The Fowler award for Drawing

Freddie Palmer Design Technology Cup

Archie Macfarlane Victor Ludorum Cup for Boys’

Oliver Southan and

Jamie Fletcher Victrix Ludorum Cup for Girls

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LEAVERS’ DESTINATIONS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

OBITUARY CHRIS LEACH 1979–2021 Head of ICT 2010-2021 Chris was recruited to Winchester House by Mark Seymour who describes him as a brilliant fellow. It was an inspired appointment, as Chris brought to Winchester House a creative mind which had a passion for teaching and learning, all things technological and an empathy with young people.

He joined WHS with last year’s leavers and he was duly proud to have watched that particular cohort’s journey through the school. This last year before his tragic diagnosis saw Chris at his best. Within days of the school being locked down due to the pandemic, he had created 'House on Line', set up a virtual learning platform and created a range of training videos to support staff and children in accessing their learning.

Nothing was ever too much trouble for him, he would answer staff queries morning noon and night during this very intense period. We have so much to be grateful to Chris for in the last 11 years, but no more so than in the last year.

Chris was an integral part of the WHS community as a tutor, one of the few teachers who taught every child in the school, a boarding tutor and champion of those children who found school rather more challenging. He was a much loved colleague and his quiz mastering was legendary even down to his jazzy waistcoat and socks in his role as quiz master.

Chris cared deeply about WHS, its history, its community, and most importantly, the children. It was no surprise then, when he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, 80 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

Above: Chris and his family.

Right: Chris' novel 'The Crimson Mask'.

that the community far and wide rallied to give him and the family support and help them to tick off a number of items on their bucket list.

This included having his novel, ‘The Crimson Mask’, published.

Chris’ legacy will live on at WHS and his influence on a generation of children will keep him locked in their hearts. H

FOND FAREWELLS

KATE HARDIMAN Maths Teacher, 2018-2020 Kate joined Winchester House in September 2018. Previously she had worked as a secondary maths teacher at various schools, including Tudor Hall and Silverstone UTC. Kate worked hard in the classroom and was particularly pleased one year when some of her Year 8 Set 3 children did extremely well in CE. She was also busy outside the classroom sharing her love of the game of squash. Beyond the school gates Kate is a very keen walker, a strong squash player (as witnessed by the Brackley Squash Club board) and enjoys going for rides with the Brackley Nova Cycling Group.

MARK KEATING Master and Head of Biology, 1988-2020 Mark gave 32 years of loyal service to WHS. He was appointed by Richard Speight in September 1988 as a Science Master, teaching biology (his main love), chemistry, physics and geography and has worked for a total of four Heads.

During his time at School, he has headed up the biology department, been an encouraging and caring Tutor, coached rugby, cricket and athletics, helped with the Scout troop, led Learn to Lead Expeditions, oversaw the lighting and sound for school plays and performances, ran the clay pigeon club, taught karate and delivered Sports Day announcements. Mark was highly regarded by his pupils; his wise words, anecdotes and playful sense of humour meant his lessons were always enjoyed. His high expectations and wealth of knowledge brought out the best in his pupils and the stories and

JANET PITT Laboratory Technician, 2010-2020, We were exceptionally lucky to have Janet as the WHS science technician. Not only a Biochemistry graduate with experience working in research, Janet has a wealth of experience working in schools, which was utilised by the whole department during her 10 years, to create practical activities stimulating our scientists from Nursery to Year 8. Janet played a key role in setting up the science labs and we have her to thank for the exceptionally well resourced department. We are hugely grateful for her dedication to WHS, not only in the Science labs, but in her role supervising pupils, a true team player. We wish her a very happy retirement and hope to see her when volunteering at Stowe Gardens.

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examples shared by Mark made him hugely popular with pupils and colleagues alike. We look forward to celebrating Mark’s retirement at School, when restrictions allow.

Nigel Gillingham at WHS on 4th July 2020.

TIM RILEY Senior Master & Head of Geography, 2008-2020 Tim’s geographical knowledge and thirst for information has inspired many a pupil. His cheerful presence at the Upper Arch morning and evening has been appreciated by children and parents alike.

He was Head of Geography and coached rugby, hockey, cricket and athletics and led many a field trip and expedition. We look forward to celebrating Tim’s retirement at School when restrictions allow. See Tim’s ‘Staff Focus’ on page 76.

RAYMOND WEEKS Peripatetic, 1992-2020 When Raymond came to WHS the world was a very different place.

In his 28 years with the school as drum teacher, he worked with six different Directors of Music and inspired many a great drummer. He was a pleasure to work with and we wish him a happy retirement.

the sporting side lines, towering presence on the athletics finishing line and Common Room jollity.

The following extracts from James’ speech at Prize Giving on 2nd July 2020 sum up his time at WHS: ‘In 1996 in my first term of teaching I came to WHS for my very first match – Colts B Rugby: Caldicott v WHS. We were greeted warmly and looked after before and after the match and WHS made a very favourable first impression on me that day (although winning always helps).

‘I was no stranger to the school as there were many Housians at Uppingham School with me and indeed during life I have met lots of Housians, many of whom are friends. During the Y8 Leavers talk I reminded Ben Duckett how I had brought a squash team from a previous school with a seriously talented number 1 player, only to be beaten by him, a raw novice with a wonderful eye for a ball. I was therefore happy to apply to become Deputy Head at a school I had knowledge of in different ways.

Below: James' wife Alex Woodcock with Martin Roberts and Barbara Hales.

JAMES WOODCOCK Deputy Head, 2015-2020 SARAH SILMAN Minibus Driver, 2017-2020 Sarah drove the Milton Keynes mini bus route morning and evening and was always happy to help out with other journeys. Sarah married 82 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

During his time at WHS, James was Head of Boarding, taught Latin, recruited Gappers, oversaw applications to senior schools, coached the 1st XI and squash teams and was an incredibly encouraging and kind face around school. We will miss his support on

Above: With Mayor Don Thompson.

‘During my five years or fifteen terms at WHS I have enjoyed my time in the Pre-Prep, Mrs Leftley has always provided me with a special chair or table to sit on. I was fortunate to be allowed to teach in a Seligman classroom for one term – what a happy building it is, and how well the children are nurtured here as I saw from my own children’s experience.

‘I have enjoyed teaching Latin at the top end of the school, with my Year 8 set this year being a wonderful example of the cross section of children in School. I think many of this cohort consider that sport, music or drama should come before lessons, but as Phil Harvey of Coldplay reminded us in a virtual talk to our leavers, his studying of Classics at WHS and Oxford has ultimately proved useful!

‘I am a fervent believer in the benefits of boarding and have enjoyed working in both houses.

From a sporting perspective, I have a particular memory that stands out. In 2017 the whole Upper School travelled to Maidenhead in coaches,

‘The intimate nature of Chapel makes it a very special place within WHS and it has been a privilege to take services there. I have much enjoyed recruiting all the gaps and graduates during my time and I admire the way our gappers embrace what is a challenging role and give so much to the children.

‘I have happy memories of section suppers and the chance to enjoy a more formal meal amongst colleagues and Y8 Boarders. Sister Wendy, Tara and Jo always bring something special to these occasions and their enthusiasm and care for the children is unfailingly first class.

‘Preparing children for the appropriate next school is, for me, one of the key elements of a good prep school education. Thank you to Mrs Hughes for her hours of typing up reports. She has been fantastic support to me, unfailingly upbeat and helping to ensure, from behind the scenes, that so many elements of the school run smoothly.

‘To my common room and leadership colleagues, I wish you well for the future after a most unusual and challenging term.

Let’s hope the sun will shine for us all – children and staff – in July and August as it has done during lockdown. As Neville Cardus once said, ‘there can be no summer in this land without cricket’.’ H

A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR GAPPERS Madeleine Pettit Harry Cain (below)

Gwyneth Angel Sophie Cathrine James Freeman Samuel Gale Benjamin George

WARM WELCOMES Zoe Shipperley – Games/PE Chris Higgins – Director of Marketing, Communications & Registration Hayley Jackson – Key Stage 2 teacher Jane Newman – Head of English Karen Hart – Director of Finance Sarah McNally – Laboratory Technician Sophie Cathrine – Gapper James Freeman – Gapper Joanne Green – PA to the Head of Pre-Prep Charlie Ponder – Head of Drama, English Teacher Caroline Robinson – Classroom Assistant Mark Taylor – Drum Teacher Catherine Watson – Pre-Prep Teaching Assistant HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 83

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to watch the spectacle of the national rugby finals – they were as complete a team as I have ever seen.

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Tim Riley SENIOR MASTER AND HEAD OF GEOGRAPHY 2008–2020

Wye, North Norfolk and Dorset. I have run Rugby teams including the Colts A team, the Third XV and the U10 C team, the boys' hockey second team, and assorted Cricket teams, from the U13 thirds to the Colts A. I was involved with most swimming events, including running the inter house galas and assisted with athletics, notably in the Shot and Discus. I have been on the stage once, in my first term, turned cartwheels in a fairy costume and taken the boarders to the seaside with Miss Smith. Until March this year I had never missed a school breakfast and am a supporter of kippers and poached eggs as the best way to start the day.

Little did we think that when we waved goodbye to Mr Riley at the end of the Lent term at the Upper Quad, it would be the last time many of us saw him in person at school. Luckily Emma McGowan had interviewed Mr Riley in February, in advance of his retirement from life as a school master and teacher.

When did you join WHS and what was your first job?

I joined in September 2008 as Head of Geography. I had previously been Head of PE and Geography at Malvern College Prep School.

What extracurricular activities have you been involved in over the years?

I have been on every Year 6 expedition from 2009 to 2019 going to the Peak District, The Usk Valley, The River 84 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

Have many geography field trips have you led?

For the first 10 years field trips ran to Dorset for Year 8, only stopping when the very comfortable “Old Malt House” closed. The first five trips were to the rather more spartan Leeson House (old girls will remember the rumours of bedbugs). On the very first of these a coach had been hired and the coach driver was to stay with the party. I was not over impressed when I found out that he was supposed to be sleeping in the same room as the staff. He was rapidly “promoted” to a room in a local B&B. How has WHS changed during your time here?

The building of the Astro has been the single most significant change in the daily life of the school but, the

Being on time for a fixture.... need to leave a lesson 30 mins early so as not to be late; being on time for Speech and Drama/Music lesson need to leave a lesson 10 mins early, need to be on time for break, better be prompt.

Getting to the first lesson after break - five minutes late is still on time... Leaving the changing room having put kit away.... no need to rush is there?

What are your happiest, funniest, stand alone and most extraordinary moments?

My happiest moments will be my wedding reception in 2016, which was run quite close in the final moments of the 2019 2nd XI cricket match with Bilton Grange (Louis’s finest hour.) Sitting on the edge of Poole Harbour at sunset on the the Year 6 trips would be the most peaceful.

The funniest will be on the Year 6 Canoeing trip on the River Wye – a tall, silver haired, ‘prepared for any eventuality on a camping trip’ science teacher becoming progressively crosser with a canoeing instructer. Said colleague grabbed hold of the branches of a willow tree as his canoe continued on its leisurely way downstream whilst ignoring the wellmeant instructions before, in graceful slow motion, falling into the water.

Most extraordinary – and this is an easy choice – the trip back from Dorset with Year 6 last year. This was the three hour coach trip which lasted for nine. This was the trip when the coach driver had four separate incidents to deal with. We were stuck in the coach in a narrow Berkshire lane, blocked by a Tesco lorry one way and the ditch and hedge the other, and the wing

mirror, the driver’s window and the driver imploded.

Year 6 had to be decamped to a private garden to wait for the police to arrive to unclog the roads. Who should the policeman be but one of my former pupils!

On the games field several incidents come to mind. The first was while coaching the U13 third XI in my first term.

Two players had gathered, crouching close to a ball on the ground, when I stopped to make a coaching point, both politely stood to listen, crashing their heads into my chin as they did so (this was the closest either got to making a tackle that season). The second, more recently, belongs to a games player of rare talents - a boy by the name of Miles, for reasons of anonymity. Miles was not born to be a rugby enthusiast. Finding himself, by chance, holding the ball he heard me say “Playing Advantage to the greens” and being a polite boy he carefully handed the ball to the nearest green player to ensure their advantage. With an empty field in front, the visiting player gladly ambled in to score.

You are known as ‘Mr General Knowledge’ at School talks and in quizzes. How have you acquired this fantastic skill and knowledge?

I do enjoy learning new things, have a love of the curious and quirky and a memory that works best for the obscure. I have developed a fund of factual material that is of very little practical use and failed to learn all sorts of useful things such as playing an instrument or speaking another language. If I was to start again, my dream job would be to become a QI Elf. What do you intend to do next?

Next on the agenda is an open book, there will be a lot of dog walking, some geriatric friendly sports, Badminton, cricket and golf, trips away with Mme Momen in the camper van and possibly the odd part time job here and there. H HOUSE . ISSUE 14 . 85

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same things matter to the pupils. The priority list goes something like this:

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Lesley Rose HOUSEKEEPING 1976–PRESENT

and holidays. The staff would be served tea, coffee and milk from silver pots served in a porcelain tea service.

After leaving school at the age of 16, Lesley joined WHS’s Housekeeping Department full time working from 7am to 7pm and earning 75 pence per hour. She has worked for four Heads – Speight, Griffith, Seymour and Goldsmith – and highlighted how staffing was very different in the early days, with at least 10 Matrons (who oversaw all laundry), a sewing lady, ironing lady and bath time assistants. The boys bathed twice weekly and Lesley’s mother, Doreen, worked two nights a week overseeing this in House.

In the Michaelmas term 2019, Lesley was serving match teas from the hatch in the Hippo to visiting parents and was instantly recognised by a Housian who had returned to watch his nephew play rugby.

She was delighted to see him again, a good 30 years since she last saw him!

Lesley has very happy memories of working at School over the years and we can’t thank her enough for her continued service which always includes a huge smile and much laughter. H Lesley (right) with Tracie Garrett (now Titchener) (centre) and Marie Haynes (now Wilson) (left) in 1979.

The term ‘domestic goddess’ was really created for one person, and that’s our very own Lesley Rose!

Lesley joined Winchester House in 1976 at the age of 13 as a Domestic Assistant. She would walk to WHS from her home in Brackley to start tea duty at 5pm.

This involved serving the 100 or so boys and staff who would be seated in the Dining Room, Oak Corridor and Drawing Room. She remembers the teas as being quite sparse, with each boy being given a piece of bread with butter, a sausage roll or Scotch pancake and a piece of homemade cake. The cake was provided by the boys’ mothers who would leave a huge selection of tinned cakes and biscuits in the ‘Cake Cupboard’ after exeats 86 . HOUSE . ISSUE 14

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CAN YOU RECOGNISE THE STAFF BEHIND THE MASK? Answers by email to emma.mcgowan@ winchester-house.org First correct entry wins a copy of The House on the Hill.

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