Issuu

The

blue paper 2014 Magazine

Worth Society Life

Welcome to our new Chairman Summer with the Mariinsky Ballet Life and Times of Worthians

Meet Major General Patrick Sanders

Julian Gabriel running for Africa

Worthâ€™s top fashion model The Old Place

Farewell to the Cardboard Castle Message from our first Worthian Abbot

The

blue paper

Contents

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE & OUTSTANDING PASTORAL CARE

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

First Term & End of Term Reports Jeremy Fletcher (G’72) and Nick Butterworth (G’76)

Are two Heads better than one? Dave (C’94) and Rob (C’92) Carter

A Message from Mary Lou Burge Worth Society Committee

Meet Major General Patrick Sanders

Worth Society Events 2014 City Lunch – Nick Barnett (G’73)

Team GB’s Worthian Gold Nigel Laughton (C’84)

Worth’s top fashion model Chloe Thomas (StM’10)

Running for Africa Julian Gabriel (C’87)

The Wedding Planner Naomi Sautter (StA’11)

Drawing the Camino James Cockburn

Running for their lives Daniel Pring (R’03)

Book Review: Silt Road by Charles Rangeley-Wilson Reviewed by James Cockburn

Worthians Caught on Camera

Announcements

2014 Business Networking Evening – Ibrahim Sami (C’12) 1963/4 Leavers’ 50 Year Reunion – Bernard Elkington (R’63) 1974 Leavers’ 40 Year Reunion – Mark Madsen (C’74) 1983 Leavers’ 30 Year Reunion – Pebbles Wheeler (StB’83) 1993 Leavers’ 20 Year Reunion – Adam Butt (B’93)

OPEN DAYS

2015 7TH FEB 21ST TH MAR 14 25TH APR

2003 Leavers’ 10 Year Reunion – Daniel Pring (R’03) 2014 St Mary’s Reunion – Maddy Ilsley (StM’12) 16

Worth Careers Fair 2014 Duncan Pring, Head of Careers

Work Experience A summer with the Mariinsky Ballet – Tess Ryan (StM’11)

Global Action Awards Introduction: Mary Lou Burge

20 22

GAA: Saint Benedict in a Far Corner of the World Ciaran Stordy (StB’12)

News in Brief

Obituaries Peter Gilbert (R’68) By Julian Clyde-Smith (G’68)

GAA: 6 weeks in the world’s happiest and most bio-diverse country James Folger (B’12)

GAA: A Chilean adventure with Christ Charlotte Bonhoure (StM’13)

GAA: Advice for Prospective Gappers: Take the Jump Merrick Winter (F’13)

Worthians Sport Rugby – Desmond Calnan (R’69) and Jack Bodkin (G’03)

Simon Douglas-Dufresne (G’81) By Hugo, Helen, Tania and Shirlie Douglas-Dufresne

The Old Place 64

Head Master’s 2014 Report Gino Carminati, Head Master

A Message from our First Worthian Abbot Abbot Luke Jolly (C’71)

Cricket – Michael Bilbé (StB’06) Girls’ Sporting Day – Charlie Hutchinson (StM’10)

Farewell to the Cardboard Castle

Golf – Ken Ross (G’65)

Fr Bede and the D-Day Box Fr Bede Hill

The Opening of the Glenn Robertson Fitness Suite Mary Lou Burge

Second Generation at the School Children of Worthians Registered at Worth

University Places Gained

Squash – Jeremy Dowling Football – Andy Taylor

CATHOLIC BENEDICTINE 11– 18 CO-EDUCATIONAL BOARDING & DAY SCHOOL IN THE HEART OF SUSSEX

Worth Society Directors Nicholas Butterworth, Mark Collini, The Hon Crispin Hayhoe, Jeremy Fletcher, Nicholas Barnett, Michael Gabriel Worth Society is a not-for-profit limited company (number 06506005)

The Worthians Charitable Trust Patron Fr Luke Jolly, The Abbot of Worth Trustees Nicholas Barnett, Robert Bodnar-Horvath, Jeremy Fletcher, The Hon Crispin Hayhoe

Advertisers We would like to extend our grateful thanks to this year’s advertisers: St James’s Place Wealth Management Cider House Bed and Breakfast The Wine Company Worth School Magazine designed and produced by: Green Lizard: 01892 619888

The Worthians Charitable Trust (registered charity number 1084948)

www.worthschool.co.uk

I 03

Abbot Luke and Head Master, Gino Carminati, with Nick Butterworth and Olivia Henley at their leaving dinner in April

My first year as Worth Society Manager has flown by and with a hugely diverse range of day-to-day requests and some fabulously entertaining reunions and events there has never been a dull moment.

First Term Report

nd the moral of my appointment is…beware the Benedictines; they can still talk one into pretty much anything when they put their minds to it! Joking apart, I am most honoured to have been asked by Abbot Luke to take over the Chairmanship of the Society from Nick Butterworth, who is retiring after a remarkable eleven years of unstinting commitment and service to the Worth Alumni and wider community. Hats off to him; he deserves all our thanks for a stellar performance. I step into his shoes very conscious that his is a tough act to follow. Under Nick’s careful guidance, the Society has developed into a well-oiled and vibrant machine. It is first and foremost a platform through which Alumni can connect, or reconnect with each other, the School, its staff past and present, and of course the Monastery, without which Worth doesn’t make much sense. It is about friendships. Every year, numerous social events amongst the various year groups are either directly organised or facilitated by the Society. We also support the Alumni sporting calendar which continues to be remarkably active. But increasingly, the Society is also proving useful in other ways. We now have a very substantial networking capability which can be deployed to help both current pupils of the School and Alumni on the work front. Worthians, it seems, get everywhere and so there is a huge potential base of experience across industries and professions to tap into. Alumni now support the School’s career advisory activities. Whilst there are obviously no promises, we are increasingly good at finding work placements or even internships for past and present pupils. Alumni looking for new careers or changes of direction can be put in touch with others with expertise in the areas of interest. Finally, the Society is able to offer some financial support via the Global Action Awards programme to fund Worthians who want to spend time volunteering for the good of others. Whither next? Most importantly, the Society is the servant of the Alumni and fixing what ain’t broke makes no sense. The Society is growing with about 100 new members joining each year as they leave the School. There is more, not less, demand for the Society to be an effective platform not only for fostering, keeping or rediscovering friendships and connections amongst Alumni but also to stay connected to the monastic community that touched our School lives, in many cases profoundly. Quite obviously, jobs, careers, work networking etc are front of mind these days for pupils, Alumni and increasingly the children of Alumni alike. We should try to do more in this area. So we need to do more of the same, building on what we know works for our members and the wider Worth community. But the key point is that the Society needs to stay relevant. As the needs of the School and the Monastery change, so too will the Society. The School is currently finalising its development plan for the next 10 years. We have a new Abbot. Girl Alumni, as yet unrepresented on the Society Committee, will become an ever more important part of the Society. So, watch this space, I guess. In the meantime, the continuing help and support of all Alumni and Society members is most appreciated. We also welcome all your input and feedback, and hopefully I will catch up with many of you at some of the social functions that I am able to attend. Jeremy Fletcher (G’72)

End of Term Report

Message from Mary Lou Burge

‘He has contributed much during his time here, some of it helpful’ might be how some would describe my time as Chairman but it has been an immense privilege and pleasure to serve on the Worth Society Committee for the last eleven years. As my appointment was only intended to be for three years, I feel I have rather overstayed my welcome, but at least I was not asked to leave! When Fr Christopher invited me to succeed Andrew Boys in 2003, the foundations for what then was the Worth Old Boys Society were well laid by Andrew and his Committee which included several Society legends some of whom, to their immense credit, continue to serve on the Committee. Our task was to develop the Society’s appeal as a body which offered former pupils increased benefits and ways for helping each other, the Monastery, the School and those outside the Worth family. The development included rebranding to Worth Society and WOBS to Worthians in recognition of what was then forthcoming young lady members and a simple, yet profound coining of the strapline ‘Connecting Worthians’, which encapsulates an important part of our mission. Beyond words, I believe that the Committee has achieved a great deal in recent years. A very significant number of Worthians have been reunited or connected through the now regular decade reunions, career guidance gatherings for recent leavers, new sporting events and expanded financial help to those wishing to help others through our Global Action Awards and Sponsorship funding. Our support for the School has developed through the immensely valuable involvement on the Committee of the Head Master and senior members of staff, with increased commitment to careers guidance and through Worthians providing work experience. Our connection with the Monastery has strengthened with the regular attendance at Committee meetings of the Abbot and another legend, Fr Kevin, and immense behind the scenes support from Fr Stephen. The Monastery helps Worthians in so many ways including confidential counselling, an annual Mass in London and spiritual events at Worth and going forward I feel the Society should focus on ways to support the Monastery. Equally the Society should find ways to further its support for the School and I know that my successor, Jerry Fletcher, is keen to focus on those aspects. I depart with immense gratitude to all past and present members of the Committee who have given up considerable time and worked as a tremendous team. My greatest thanks must go to those who have really operated the Committee and without whom the Worth Society simply would not function, namely the wonderful MarieClare McMenemy, Olivia Henley and now Mary Lou Burge who have contributed more than many realise to the success of our Society and who each deserve particular recognition. Finally, I thank every Worthian who has supported the Society in so many ways from their membership, generous donations, attendance at events and contributions to The Blue Paper over the years. By supporting the Society you have not only helped fellow Worthians, the School and the Monastery but also countless others far less fortunate than ourselves. I leave with the greatest optimism for the future of our Society knowing that my first Head of House is now my successor. Nicholas Butterworth (G’76)

04 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I particularly enjoyed the City Lunch – as the only woman lunching with 50 chaps who wouldn’t! At our very first 50 year reunion I had the honour of meeting some of our very special founder pupils and began to appreciate just how dearly they keep ‘the old place’ in their hearts. The high-pitch banter at the St Mary’s Reunion was an introduction to the formidable group that is the Worthian Girls. I was hugely honoured to represent the Society at the opening of The Glenn Robertson Fitness Suite, and felt particularly moved at our little farewell before the demolition of the ‘iconic’ old Rutherford - to name just a few of my key highlights of the year.

s this is my first official Blue Paper I thought I should take the opportunity to introduce myself properly. My connections with Worth go back 30 years with my first visit here in 1984 when, along with my parents, I delivered my brother, Simon McMenemy (R’89), for the start of his Worthian life. It’s funny to think that all these years later here I am sitting in the School Office, in what was the old subterranean Sixth Form Centre (luckily now refurbished), managing the Worthian hub.

I want to say a huge thank you to all the Worthians who have been so charmingly accommodating with my various requests for help. A special thank you to our fantastic sporting coordinators who work so hard to get teams together, and our reunion coordinators whose investigative skills help us find our lost Worthians.

I finished my schooling at The International School of Geneva, completing the International Baccalaureate and then on to a Business College in London. I spent the next 12 years climbing the slippery ladder of the advertising industry as an account handler, and finally swapped the early mornings and late nights of Adland for the early mornings and late nights of motherhood.

I’m getting increasing numbers of requests from recent leavers for help with work experience and thanks to our cohesive network have been able to organise some fantastic opportunities this year. Worth pupils have also benefited hugely from inspirational careers talks from some of our experienced professionals. We are hugely grateful to all those involved.

I’ve been married to Alex for 17 years and been blessed with three jolly handsome sons; Harry (15), Oliver (11) and James (10). We live five minutes down the road from Worth and are regular parishioners at the Abbey Church.

I’m very keen to get more Worthians using our Facebook page www.facebook.com/groups/Worthians/ which I regularly keep up to date with snippets of news from the Worthian network. So do link to us now!

In more recent few years I have put my hand to many roles; starting a small fashion business, proofreading some major novels, researching and writing as Features Editor for a local magazine, being appointed a Lady Ambassador for the re-launch of The Lady Magazine, and even researching and briefing medical students on a rare illness that put my mother on life support for nine months.

I do hope you enjoy reading this year’s Blue Paper as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. The next year will see some exciting new events hopefully starting with a cycle ride from London to Worth in the Spring - so roll on 2015! Mary Lou Burge Worth Society Manager

Worth Society Committee Ben Babington (G 1994-96) Office: 020 7664 6649 e-mail: benbabington@jackson-stops.com

Crispin Hayhoe (StB 1977-82) — Director, Trustee Mobile: 07718 339802 e-mail: crispinhayhoe@hotmail.com

Nick Barnett (G 1968-73) — Director, Trustee Office: 020 7404 4022 e-mail: nicholasbarnett@fsmail.net

Abbot Luke Jolly (C 1966-71) — Patron, Chairman of Trustees Office: 01342 710308 e-mail: ljolly@worth.org.uk

Robert Bodnar-Horvath (B 1969-74) — Trustee Office: 020 8408 2524 e-mail: robertbodnarhorvath@blueyonder.co.uk Mary Lou Burge — Society Manager Office: 01342 710241 e-mail: worthsociety@worth.org.uk Gino Carminati — Head Master Office (sec): 01342 710222 e-mail: gcarminati@worth.org.uk Mark Collini (StB 1984-89) — Director Office: 020 7783 4941 e-mail: markcollini@yahoo.co.uk Jeremy Fletcher (G 1967-72) — Director, Trustee Office: 020 7070 6611 e-mail: jeremy.fletcher@kewcapital.com Michael Gabriel (C 1980-85) — Director Office: 01892 619888 e-mail: michael@green-lizard.co.uk

Ed Keelaghan (R 1993-98) Mobile: 07967 303496 e-mail: edward.keelaghan@gmail.com

Worthians Cricket Club Michael Bilbé (StB’06) e-mail: michaelbilbe@hotmail.com Mobile: 07545 002803 Worthians Golfing Society Ken Ross (G‘65) e-mail: Kenneth.ross2@virgin.net Home: 01323 733499 Worthians Rugby Club Desmond Calnan (R ‘69) e-mail: dcalnan@tecres.net Home: 01372 386511 or Mobile: 07535 939582

Daniel Pring (R 1998-2003) Mobile: 07865 064439 e-mail: danielpring@ymail.com

Worthians Sailing Hugo Sunnucks (R’09) e-mail: hugo@sunnucks.co.uk Mobile: 07794 089985

Duncan Pring — Careers Office: 01342 710239 e-mail: dpring@worth.org.uk

Girls’ Sporting Co-ordinators Louisa McCarthy (StM’10) e-mail: mcclouisa91@gmail.com

Fr Kevin Taggart Office: 01342 710338 e-mail: ktaggart@worth.org.uk Andrew Taylor — Football Office: 01342 810548 e-mail: ataylor@worth.org.uk

Tess Ryan (StM’11) e-mail: tessryan10@hotmail.co.uk Alice Rooke (StA’12) e-mail: rookie93@hotmail.co.uk For all other Sporting activities and fixtures contact: Mary Lou Burge, Society Manager e-mail: worthsociety@worth.org.uk Tel : 01342 710241

I 05

2014 Business Networking Evening

2014 City Lunch Events

50 Worthians and 4 honorary guests tucked into some tasty steaks and chocolate puddings, whilst renewing old friendships, catching up with news and gossip, and even trying out a bit of networking with old boys from 5 decades of Worth. The most senior on parade was James Wheeler (C’68) and we had a very good cross section of ages, right up to recent leaver Ibrahim Sami (C’12). There was also the usual mix of different professions – lawyers, bankers and property tycoons, but still only one monk and one jeweller. We were able to welcome Father Stephen as a guest, and were delighted to welcome Abbot Luke (C’71) to the event for the first time. We were also entertained – and informed – by Nick Butterworth in his last speech to the City Lunch as Chairman of the Society. His enthusiasm and commitment to all things Worth is one of the reasons this – and many other events – are so successful. New Chairman Jeremy Fletcher was unable to attend, but we look forward to seeing him, and hopefully some Worthian girls, next year. Everyone was also able to meet our wonderful new Society Manager, Mary Lou Burge, to whom many thanks must go for helping to organise and run the event

We welcomed the following 54 Worthians and guests to the 2014 City Lunch: Abbot Luke Jolly (C’71) Nick Butterworth (G’76) Mary Lou Burge Fr Stephen Ortiger James Wheeler (C’68) Tim Pethybridge (StB’71) Michael Worrall (R’71) James Forte (C’72) Liam Hammond (C’72) Nick Barnett (G’73) Edward J Sandle (G’74) Richard Breen (StB’75) Julian Kirk (StB’75) Mark Breen (StB’76) Dominic Nevill (R’76) Mark Simpson (StB’76) John Tate (G’76) James Blake (B’77) F William Clutterbuck (G’78) John Bennett (R’81) Richard Brown (C’81) Andrew Clutterbuck (G’81) Mark Jenner (C’81) Henry Thornton (B’81) Sean Buckley (G’83) Simon Cheshire (B’83) Ben Drummond (R’83)

Dominic Latham-Koenig (B’83) Guy Montgomery (C’83) Luan de Burgh (StB’84) Edward Hooper (C’84) Edward Horgan Goumas (C’85) Chris Rybak (B’85) Sean Donnellan (StB’86) Anthony Legge (G’86) Tim Ross (R’86) Mark Collini (StB’89) Simon McMenemy (R’89) Charles Gerada (R’90) James Southon (StB’94) Ben Babington (G’96) Freddy Crossley (StB’96) Edmund Fitzgerald O’Connor (B’96) Jack Smales (B’96) Darran Smith (B’96) Julian Stevens (B’96) Aubrey Burn (R’00) Lorenzo Curci (B’00) Nicholas Kelly (R’00) Daniel Pring (R’03) Richard Stephens (C’04) Alexander Kendall-White (StB’08) James Padolsey (R’08) Ibrahim Sami (C’12)

Nick Barnett (G’73)

he 2014 Worth Society networking event took place at the Samuel Pepys Bar & Restaurant in the City of London on Wednesday 8th January. Enticed by the prospect of a free drink at a picturesque setting on the River Thames and the chance to meet new people, I hadn’t appreciated quite how beneficial the evening would be towards my banking career plans. As soon as I arrived I was struck by the diversity of industries represented by the experienced Worthians who had come along to chat amongst us. There were representatives from energy, insurance, film & television and finance to name but a few and they all had a genuine interest in our ambitions. The industry professionals varied from those who had recently started work, who not so long ago were standing in our shoes and therefore able to relate to us and give up-to-date advice on applying for careers, to the more established Worthians who were able to bust myths about certain industries and give tailor-made advice as to what steps we should be taking to shape our future careers. I must say a big thank you to Mary Lou for organising the event and gathering the right contacts there, to all the experienced professional Worthians for taking the time to come and chat to us recent leavers, and to Nick Butterworth (G’76) and Dan Pring (R’03) for acting as hosts. I made many new contacts in the banking industry and was given excellent advice about the necessary steps I will have to take to be successful in this field. Ibrahim Sami (C’12) “I just wanted to say thank you for your efforts in organising the Worth business network evening which was a great event. It was a pleasure to meet old friends and potential work contacts who were extremely helpful. I very much look forward to the next evening.” Kieran Vinycomb-Brown (B’04) “It was a great event, seeing some faces I haven’t seen in a while and meeting other alumni and making new contacts at the same time.” Matthew Scotland (C’08)

06 I

James Forte, Nick Butterworth & Mark Simpson

John Tate & Julian Kirk

Sean Buckley & Guy Montgomery

Simon McMenemy entertains Fr Stephen and Charles Gerada

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Events

hursday 6th March was the date for the now well established City Lunch event – held for the 3rd year in succession at the excellent Vivat Bacchus in Hays Lane near London Bridge.

We welcomed the following young Worthians to the Worth Society Business Networking Evening: Evan Merali (F’03) Kieran Vinycomb-Brown (B’04) Sean Dwyer (StB’07) Philip Knebworth (StB’07) Miles Taylor (F’07) Andrew Talty (StB’08)

Thomas Bisgood (R’09) Marco Boodramsingh (C'11) Nicholas Gordon-Macleod (StB’12) Arthur Russell (C’12) Ibrahim Sami (C’12)

Worthian Advisors included: Paul Cattermull (StB’73)

Investment Management (Brewin Dolphin)

Nick Butterworth (G’76)

Property (Jackson-Stops and Staff)

Mark Collini (StB’89)

Law (OfCom)

PJ Bickford (C’91)

Media (Pretzel Films)

Angus Gairdner (StB’96)

Media (SKY)

Matthew Knight (C’98)

Medicine (Respiratory Registrar, Barnet & Chase Farm NHS)

Daniel Pring (R’03)

Insurance (Kiln Underwriting Group)

Michael Bilbe (StB’06)

State Street Global Markets

Thomas Bilbe (StB’06)

State Street Global Advisors

John Paul Matthews (B’06) Innovation Consultancy James Talty (StB’06)

Accountancy (Ernst & Young)

Andrew Scanlon (B’09)

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch

Nick McMenemy

Procurement (Valero Energy)

We’d really like to encourage more of our recent school and university leavers to come along to our next event in January 2015. If there is an area of specific interest to you please let Mary Lou know and she will try and ensure there is somebody from that field there for you to speak to. And for those Worthians out there with valuable experience and wisdom to share then do please offer your services!

I 07

1963/4 Leavers’ 50 Year Reunion Events

Events

n Thursday 26th June we were invited back to Worth to celebrate our 50 year reunion. 50 years.... a very frightening thought for many of us old boys! It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and very warm. Perfect to see Worth at its best and bring back many memories… 12 old boys attended and 6 wives. Some had travelled many miles to come, and Peter Jonas had managed to fit the day into his very busy schedule and fly in specially for the event. Following coffee on the lawn, the day started with a tour of the school in small groups shown round by 2 delightful, well informed girl prefects. It was impressive to see how the school has progressed in 50 years, although the tours were somewhat hijacked by those wanting to make nostalgic visits to some now unused parts of the Main Building!

Everybody then met on the terrace for pre-lunch drinks and a 'group photograph'. Some of us, easily recognisable from 50 years ago, others not so! A number of the original 28 sadly no longer with us but, on these occasions, not forgotten. After a brief welcome from the new Worth Society Chairman, Jerry Fletcher, followed by grace, lunch was a delicious affair - not the usual menu I would have imagined, but asparagus mousse, fillet of beef and apple terrine. Dom Kevin, Dom Philip and Dom Bede were all present and a lovely informal atmosphere ensued which continued well into the afternoon. We all thank the School and Worth Society for their hospitality and look forward to the next milestone in 10 years’ time.

Above, left to right: Fr Philip, John Muscat, Patrick Baynham, Terence Delaney, Rodney Bligh, Fr Kevin, Mike Gilpin, Patrick Nivelles, Bernard Elkington, Jeremy Best, Peter Jonas, Fr Bede, Michael Setter, Simon Slaughter & Nicholas Wynne

The following 12 Worthians, their wives and guests attended the 1963/4 Leavers’ 50 Year Reunion: Fr Kevin Taggart Fr Philip Gaisford Fr Bede Hill Andre Gushurst-Moore Jeremy Fletcher Mary Lou Burge

Bernard Elkington (R’63) Simon Slaughter (R’63) Sarah Slaughter Patrick Baynham (G’64) Charmian Baynham Jeremy Best (C’64) Bronwen Best Rodney Bligh (C’64) Ann Bligh

Terence Delaney (G’64) Mike Gilpin (G’64) Jackie Gilpin Peter Jonas (G’64) John Muscat (R’64) Patrick Nivelles (R’64) Michael Setter (G’64) Nicholas Wynne (G’64) Sally Wynne

Bernard Elkington (R’63) Left: Patrick Nivelles, presenting Fr Kevin with a beautiful hand-carved statue of St Benedict

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Neil Barry Jonathan Brasher Sean Buckley Simon Cheshire Malachy Doran Kevin Dring Ben Drummond Pebbles Eberle Marcus Elwes Nicholas Franck Dominic Hall Laurence Hatfield Brett Hatton Edward Hooper Jonathan Hope Simon Hoskyns

The following 32 Worthians and their guests attended the 1983 Leavers’ 30 Year Reunion: James Cockburn Keith Owers Roger Stokes

1974 Leavers’ 40 Year Reunion

1983 Leavers’ 30 Year Reunion

Events

In amongst the crowds of young and beautiful people that seem to populate Gordon’s I did pass one small group of distinctly seedy looking individuals and dismissed them from my mind immediately before I was thankfully hailed by one of my few constant friends from Worth, Dominic Quennell (Capactive Technologies). He was sauntering with a bottle and four glasses, unchanged really in my eyes over the years, and just as delightful as ever. He also was searching for faces he might recognise and I think pleased to spot me. He being sharper than me also spotted the aforementioned group and we approached hesitantly, they looking at us suspiciously and then in shock at the toll taken by the years, at least on my part.

Suddenly it all became worthwhile and the years fell away as Richard D’Alton (ex-Special Branch), Liam Hammond (Computer Magnate) and Simon Cope (Experential Expert), Dom and I shook hands, slapped backs and laughed at seeing each other again. Simon Gordon (Wine Bar Owner and FaceWatch), and totally unchanged I should say, appeared like a genie, crowds of staff parting before him, as he waved us to the best table. There we met up with a slightly greyer but distinctly recognisable and delightful Nick Rivlin (Property Entrepreneur) and a Father Stephen (Monk and Mastermind Contestant). Whatever hesitancies each of us must have felt about attending fell away as copious amounts of wine kept appearing from ever resourceful staff (nothing like sitting next to the boss!) and friendships were seemingly remade in a split second as though 40 years hadn’t really gone by. The only concern of the evening was to try and establish exactly what substances Father Stephen was taking to remain so unchanged by the years - still the same jovial delightful monk he was back then. So 40 years later seven of us got together, not many you may say, but I can tell you that all of us found it worthwhile, encouraging and uplifting to find that essentially we were unchanged despite all the travails of life. The ethos that had helped shape us at Worth had lasted.

Events

pproaching Gordon’s Wine Bar off the Strand I was assailed with all the usual doubts as to whether I really wanted to attend this get-together, the long train journey home tugging at my thoughts. Gordon’s is, I understand, the oldest wine bar in London which seemed appropriate as I reflected that 40 years had gone by and what the hell did everyone look like and would I recognise them or indeed want to see them. The situation became worse as I battled my way through the boisterous crowds of early evening drinkers, peering under umbrellas in an intrusive manner, before realising that yet again they were all too young and couldn’t possibly be from my year group.

Dick Brasher, Ed Hooper, Marcus Elwes and Jonathan Hope

Marcus Elwes and Lawrence Owers

shared news of their families - mothers and fathers remembered from Speech Day picnics - and of their own children. I was reminded of a quote from a book entitled The Velveteen Rabbit, and reflected that although we are slightly grey (or bald), and somewhat loose fleshed (except Brett Hatton who looked about 20), we are more compassionate and real:

riday 12th July 2013, Soho House, Greek Street, London W1. Is it a good sign that the generous wine allotment ran out just as the starter was being served? Is it a good sign that apart from those who had to leave to get last trains home, the rest of us spilled out onto the streets of Soho at 3 o’clock in the morning? Is it a good sign that some of us got an 80‘s ‘fix’ dancing to Depeche Mode, Spandau Ballet, and Kajagoogoo? “Is ‘Hobbo’ here yet?” “Haven’t seen him.”

Mark Madsen (C’74)

“That’s not a good sign.” The food was delicious, the wine was superior, the setting was lovely, but the company… the company was fantastic! I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. Deep belly laughs recalling the antics those boys got up to: the night raids in combat gear, breaking into the kitchens, breaking into humongous tins of pineapple, ‘borrowing’ the bursar’s car, the smoking room rituals, ‘Tool’ Hattfield’s radio station (which issued ‘Blob’ sightings for boys who weren’t doing their prep). Some of the Machiavellian-like boyish adventures were downright scary, but they had a lot of fun. It was so good to remember the stories, 30 years on. “Where IS Hobbo?” “Has anyone seen him in the last 30 years?” There are advantages to waiting thirty years before the first reunion: noone was consumed with stories of how ‘successful’ they were in life; everyone had had some corner knocked off them - some more than others. But the main advantage was watching the joy in people’s faces as they

Simon Cope & Liam Hammond

“Real isn't how you are made,” said the Skin Horse, “It's a thing that happens to you...Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.” Thirty years was a good starting point, but let’s not wait another thirty. I don’t want to wait until my eyes drop out! We were all doing just fine, being Real and middle aged, until the slide show started. About three slides in there appeared this mirage, all ginger and freckled and round faced: Andrew Hobbs. It dawned on us that he was still not in the room. Between slides he was elevated from Master to Deputy Head to Head Master of Downside Abbey (someone was sure he was Head Master). Hobbs hadn’t shown up! The call went out to “Get him on the phone,” “Get him to account for his absence.” It turned out that Hobbs was planning to be at the reunion the following Friday and had completely the wrong date. Good reason not to send your son to Downside! A good time was had by all, and we missed you Andy. Pebbles Wheeler (StB’83)

James Cockburn and Paul Porral

A group toast by host, Simon Gordon

Pebbles and Sean Buckley

10 I

Paul Johnson Laurence Kennedy Dominic Latham-Koenig Michael Marr Chris McCourt Guy Montgomery Lawrence Owers Julian Pasqua Jonathan Pemberton Paul Porral Charles Rangeley-Wilson Godric Smith Anthony Sugrue Justin van der Lande David White Adrian Whyatt

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Lawrence Owers and Tony Sugrue

Malachy Doran and James Cockburn

Mike Marr and Pebbles

I 11

I apologise for that, but hope you can remember I was never very good at reading or writing, but always tried very hard in one way or another…usually another! The pub was great. Right in the middle of Mayfair at Guy Ritchie’s spot - where he and Madonna no doubt had a few arguments about age and time. Very appropriate really.

1993 Leavers’ 20 Year Reunion

Fr Christopher Jamison Jeremy Dowling David Noyce Keith Owers Nick Robinson Roger Stokes James Albert Harold Au Justin Bramley Howard Brookman Adam Butt Greg Harris Andrew Hodson Simon Hiscocks Ben Holloway Luke Hudson Christian Jamison Anthony Leonard Ben Nelson Guy Nivelles Guy Robinson JP Stilwell Julian Tang Teresa Sham (Julian’s wife) Matt Watts

o, after leaving Worth, 20 years has gone by like a flash! Time has exponentially sped up and all of a sudden minutes become days and days years. I find myself looking back at my life thinking “where have all these grey hairs come from?” and “why do I look like all these other strange and fat people?” It’s a very good question and it’s one that scientists have tried to prevent people from asking, but to no avail. I must say that in all reality only a few of us have actually lost all hair, in fact only a couple of us have really changed much at all. The spirit of the team is still intact and it resounded on the night of Friday 4th October 2013 at The Punch Bowl, 21 Farm Street, London W1 with an epic coming together of characters. When the build-up to a 20 year reunion starts, a warm glow of nostalgia slowly hits you. You start to connect with old friends you haven’t spoken to since you left, and a feeling of unity starts to grow… within the first few moments, I could feel the old spirit of our year returning… most of us spent 8 years living together, and that is a bond you can’t easily break. Although many of us didn’t remain in contact at all through the years, talking to friends so much like family came as second nature. Living in Los Angeles has been a great experience for me since leaving Worth. I’m a Location Scout and Manager in the film business, and being a Teamster I have worked on hundreds of different Hollywood shoots now and have basically become a ‘Yank’. Over the years, I married an American/Cuban girl and have a 5 year old son. I think most of us will agree that having children changes a few things and teaches you a whole lot about reality. While reality is arguably something we try to suspend in Hollywood, on this trip back to the Worth reunion, I felt grounded and wholly grateful for the very real friends and experiences we shared at school. I want to say that about 20 of us showed up and several teachers and old staff. I will probably miss a few names, and

As we walked upstairs to our event room in the pub, flashbacks started coming back to me…classes with old BJ Law, smoking his roll-ups, shouting “For god’s sake, Butt!”… I love remembering these moments from school. Dr. Miller talking about “Darkness being visible”... John Denman and Mr Robertson on the sports field and teaching Geography. I have to give a big shout to the Robertson family and was very upset to hear the news about Glenn. Only that he was playing golf made me feel a little better. We missed you at the reunion Pete, but we thought about you and your awesome family. As the old boys arrived I was able to appreciate the fun game I called “Please don’t let me forgot who the hell this is?” In fairness it’s not that hard remembering people, and if you can’t, you may have had too much fun since you left. Admittedly, I did forget the first name of Nick Robinson, the old Bede’s House Master, but mainly because he now teaches at another school and I was just trying to show allegiance to Worth! He found it amusing at least, and reminded me of how smart and decent the House Masters generally were - unless you were rude of course! Seeing Keith Owers for me, an old Butler boy, was immense. I remember thinking how big and scary he was when I had to go to his office, and now we were almost the same size! Keith has shrunk a little, and I have got larger. This was probably the hardest thing for me to accept - I am now the same size as Keith Owers and larger than Jeremy Dowling! How is this possible? Hollywood is where JD Dowling should have ended up. He would make a fortune teaching Yoga and giving diet tips. Seeing the Stokes’ was epic. Kudos for coming, and they seriously haven’t aged at all… which is slowly becoming the thesis of this piece - the teachers of Worth have aged less than the pupils. What should we take from this? Perhaps that being a teacher has greater rewards than most of the businesses we go into? But perhaps only if you are as good as the teachers at Worth. Becoming a parent helps you understand how difficult being a teacher really is – maybe the hardest thing to do ever – because there is no gauge to how good your kids can be… how much they can learn. I personally want to say I missed having Daniel Harrison at the reunion and give a shout to his amazing family. Not a day goes by that I don’t live with Daniel in my heart and I’m sorry that my best friend missed this reunion. Worth is an amazing place and every day I realize how lucky I was to go to school there. I would send my son to the school in a second, and cherish everyone I met and was lucky enough to be taught by. Thank you for an amazing reunion!

2003 Leavers’ 10 Year Reunion Events

Events

The following 18 Worthians and guests attended the 1993 Leaver’s 20 Year Reunion:

As Christian (Jamison), Justin (Bramley) and I walked into the bar together, Ben Holloway shouted out “GUYS!”, and it started…. Ben explained how he’d been there for 3 hours already as the train he’d got was quite early and I thought to myself “nothing has changed”. He was as excited to see everyone as we were. Ben is a successful cameraman now in productions around Europe and was on seriously fine form.

The following 24 Worthians and guests attended the 2003 Leavers’ 10 Year Reunion: Fr Christopher Jamison Duncan Pring Andrew Taylor Charlie Birchall Jack Bodkin Sam Burman Jamie Bruce (popped in!) Peter Conlon Kevin Danagher-Smith Gavin Frost Tom Galliano Ben Green Giles Heather

Oliver Hulme Nicholas Khoury Toby Logue Edward Long Rorrie Mars Evan Merali Tom Middlehurst Ed Nunn James O’Farrell James Potten Dan Pring Nicholas Rush Lachlan Sykes Matthew Wade

any things have happened since the summer of 2003; England have won the rugby world cup, we’ve had two new popes, two new prime ministers, we’ve had hacking scandals, expenses scandals, a royal wedding, a royal baby and Worth’s favourite year group had their ten year reunion. Twenty-four of Worth’s finest sons, two teachers and a former Abbot/Head Master met up for drinks and dinner in Fulham to reminisce on their time at Worth and catch up on what’s happened since. After many months of planning, the authentic Italian ristorante Papa Cicca’s was chosen as the venue and the Worth contingent certainly did their bit to add to the atmosphere. Father Christopher, Andy Taylor and Dr Pring were invited to represent the faculty and were able to keep us updated on how the school has changed with new boarding houses, facilities and the introduction of girls throughout the school. The group had come from as far wide as Antigua, Jersey and Guildford and although many hadn’t seen each other since school it was striking how quickly people were able to pick up on each other's news with weddings, babies, stags and even impending thirtieths amongst the various topics of conversation. All good things must come to an end and this was no different as the Papa Ciccia’s kind staff politely reminded us not to overdo the ‘atmosphere’. At that point some went on to the local boozer and some more to the local nightclub but all would have been feeling it the next morning!

Adam Butt (B’93) Special thanks must go to the event organisers Charlie Birchall and Olivia Henley for their tireless work on planning a cracking event. To the next ten years! Daniel Pring (R’03)

12 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 13

The following 19 St Mary’s Worthians and 7 members of staff attended the 2014 St Mary’s Reunion: Caroline Brown Fr Stephen Ortiger Nikki Webb Gino Carminati Mary Lou Burge Louise Taylor Helen Brown

2014 St Mary’s Reunion

Maddy Ilsley (‘10) Danielle Jeyes (‘10) Sophia Knight (’10) Charlotte Perry (’10) Celia Young (’10) Niamh Fogarty (’11) Julia Hollis (’11)

Eleanor Minch (’11) Sasha Richards (’11) Tess Ryan (’11) Tilly Butcher (’12) Claire Hodkinson (’12) Maria Jover (’12) Sarah Turner (’12)

Flora Dickinson (’13) Kate Hamilton (’13) Izzie Pollard (’13) Mia Ryan (’13) Felicity Smith (’13)

The returning girls spanned four different school years, and so topics of conversation ranged from memories of the first arrival of girls to the development of Worth as a co-educational school over the years. Current staff, including St Mary’s matron Nikki Webb and teacher Louise Taylor, updated the returning girls on the numerous changes to both the girls’ houses and the school as a whole. And whilst the girls from the ’10 cohort gasped at the realisation that 6 years had passed since they started their time at Worth, the ’13 girls proved that the school continues to nurture determined, ambitious and adventurous young ladies. Each and every Worthian had a tale to tell about travelling around the world, experiences of university or entry into the world of work. Though the successes rang strong around the room, the overriding emotion of the event was undoubtedly nostalgia. Anecdotes of schoolgirl days were shared and relished over a glass of wine and buffet food, and bonds were formed between girls who had never even been at the school together. Caroline Brown left her position as housemistress of St Mary’s a year ago to move to Italy, after having been at the school since the arrival of the first cohort of girls, and her return was the highlight of the event for many of the Worthians. Claire Hodkinson (’12), former St Mary’s Head of House, commented, “It was a great evening and it was

14 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Events

n Wednesday 2nd July, the corridors of Worth rang out with shrieks of joy as 19 female Worthians gathered for a reunion in the Cowdray Room. The guests of honour included staff members from St Mary’s House, with a star appearance from former housemistress, Caroline Brown, who was visiting from Italy. Fr Stephen Ortiger, current chaplain to both St Mary’s and St Anne’s, ensured the event was well documented and even managed to get the girls to stop talking for long enough for a group photo!

Left to right: Helen Brown, Nikki Webb, Louise Taylor, Maria Jover, Tilly Butcher, Sophia Knight, Tess Ryan, Eleanor Minch, Claire Hodkinson, Julia Hollis, Stephen Brown, Danielle Jeyes, Sasha Richards, Fr Stephen, Caroline Brown, Niamh Fogarty, Maddy Ilsley, Sarah Turner, Celia Young, Mia Ryan, Charlotte Perry, Felicity Smith, Izzie Pollard, Flora Dickinson, Kate Hamilton & Gino Carminati

lovely to catch up with Mrs Brown”. Former Head Girl, Tess Ryan (’11), summed up the evening saying, “It was wonderful to see so many of us girls gathered in the Cowdray Room like the old days! I love going back to catch up with the Worthians and meet the new leavers and staff. Thank you to Mary Lou for organising such a great evening!”.

Stepping into the main Worth building and looking out over the tennis courts across the estate prompted the memories to come flooding back, and laughter resounded through the room as students and staff alike reminisced about the integration of an unstoppable female force into the school. Maddy Ilsley (StM’12)

I 15

Worth Careers Fair 2014 Our 2014 Worthian Careers Speakers; Paddy Jago, Jules Staveley, Daniel Taylor, Stefan Humphries, Louis Redman & Andrew Talty

or the eighth year in a row, Worth organised a Careers Fair for its Lower Sixth students. This took place on 28th June – a Saturday morning towards the end of term. It was felt that this would give more students a chance to attend – and so it proved to be, with almost 90 pupils taking part. The morning was designed to encourage them to think about possible options beyond Worth and indeed beyond university. The decision on which career to pursue is one of the most important that anybody makes, and the more that our pupils are aware of what really happens in a given career, the better placed they will be to make a wise judgement. The format we employed was similar to previous years, with a number of outside speakers talking about their own career to small groups of students. Each speaker made their presentation four times, so students had the opportunity to learn about life in four careers that were of interest to them. Once again we were indebted to the Worthians, who contributed more than half of the speakers. Daniel Taylor (B’80) and Paddy Jago (StB’75) both spoke with great authority based on their years of experience in advertising and the insurance industry respectively. Stefan Humphries (C’05) gave some well-timed advice about a

career in law, whilst Louis Redman (F’05) explained how accountancy actually embraces much more than that, including consultancy and professional services. Jules Staveley (StB’99) has worked in the marketing and events industry for a number of years and was able to sum up the advantages of that particular life-style, whilst Andrew Talty (StB’08), who is currently a freelancer in the TV industry, was able to excite his audience with sporting stories based on his own journalistic assignments. It is extremely important that students understand what is involved in different careers, as this can help to guide them either toward or away from a particular profession. This knowledge comes best ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ and the above mentioned speakers have all spent time in their respective careers. Their advice was very helpful and was much appreciated by the students who rated their presentations highly. I would like to express my gratitude to them, especially since the event took place on a Saturday. Many Worthians contribute to the school community and as Head of Careers I am particularly grateful for their support, both at functions such as our Careers Fair and also for offering work experience opportunities to our students. Duncan Pring, Head of Careers, Worth School

Top left: Xander Parish and Yulia Stepanova rehearsing Swan Lake. Top middle: Nicholas Elvidge (C’11) and Eleanor Minch (StM’11) as my guests at the dress rehearsal Top right: With my brother Fergus outside the Royal Opera House. Above: The corps de ballet in Swan Lake. Below: A drawing I did of one of the dancers

A summer with the Mariinsky Ballet

ictor and Lilian Hochhauser have promoted Russian arts for over fifty years. They have introduced singers, musicians, composers, dancers, orchestras and ballet companies to Britain since the early 1960s and are Britain’s leading independent promoters of classical music and ballet. Each summer, the Hochhausers alternate between bringing either the Mariinsky Ballet or the Bolshoi Ballet from Russia to Covent Garden to perform their spectacular ballets. This summer, it was the Mariinsky Ballet, formerly known by its Soviet name, the Kirov Ballet, which offered five breathtaking performances in London over the course of three weeks. Having interviewed for a work placement scheme at M&C Saatchi, the international advertising agency, I was offered work with M&C Saatchi Arts to assist with Marketing and PR for the Hochhauser’s presentation of the Mariinsky Ballet at the Royal Opera House during the Summer. Prior to starting my work placement, all I had been told was that half my time I would spend in the Royal Opera House and the other half at the M&C Saatchi office in Soho. On my first day, I was met outside the Royal Opera House Stage Door, given my security pass and a tour of the building. It was so exciting to be shown around back stage of the Royal

16 I

Opera House, where I thought I might get a glimpse of the famous Russian dancers. I had no idea that over the next three weeks I would not only meet these dancers but that part of my morning itinerary allowed me to sit in on their group warm up rehearsals! On occasion, I also got to see the principal dancer’s solo rehearsals (with only the dancer, the coach, the pianist…and me in the room!). During the three weeks the Mariinsky Ballet danced five ballets; Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Apollo/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Firebird/Marguerite and Armand/ Concerto DSCH and Cinderella. For each new ballet there was a photocall, where press photographers from international and national newspapers captured the dress rehearsals for the critic’s write ups of each ballet. I had to organise the photographers and meet with editors and journalists which was very exciting. On the days where I wasn't hurrying up and down the stairs and corridors of the Royal Opera House, or working with the dancers and photographers, I assisted with interviews for the BBC, met with critics and editors of major magazines and newspapers and worked on a daily basis with Xander Parish, the first British dancer (from Hull) to have ever joined the Mariinsky Ballet. And, if working in the Royal

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Opera House wasn't enough, on my second day, not only did I find out that my desk for the next three weeks was actually on the partners floor of the M&C Saatchi office, but the first person I met there was Maurice Saatchi himself! I want to thank Mary Lou at Worth Society so much for helping me to make an initial contact with Luke Kenny (B’98) at M&C Saatchi who also helped me a great deal throughout my experience. Being immersed in the world of Russian Ballet was extraordinary and I learnt a colossal amount by being given so much responsibility as a Marketing and PR assistant. Whilst being involved with everything I did at Worth, I noticed during my three weeks how much my time at school helped to prepare me for an experience like this. With confidence I enjoyed meeting new people, working with the editors, critics, dancers, photographers and the management team, whilst adapting to sometimes being thrown in at the deep end! Tess Ryan (StM’11)

I 17

The Global Action Awards

The Global Action Awards Merrick Winter (F’13)

he Worthians Charitable Trust (WCT) Global Action Awards (GAA) programme is now in its 14th year – during which time the WCT has awarded a total of £19,830 to Worthians who have spent time in unpaid work for the good of others and the community, either within the UK or overseas. We continue to encourage Worthians to apply for a GAA at any age or stage in their lives – this might be during their last year at school, during a gap year, or perhaps in anticipation of taking a sabbatical from work later on in their lives. The adjacent table lists the GAAs that have been awarded by the WCT since the programme’s launch in 2000 – and clearly demonstrates the depth and breadth of projects that it supports. Since the 2013 issue of The Blue Paper we have seen the return of James Folger (B’10), Ciaran Stordy (StB’12) and Charlotte Bonhoure (StM’13) from their respective GAA projects.

Ciaran Stordy (StB’12)

James travelled to Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, in July 2013 for a six week volunteering programme where he taught English to children of low income families living in the surrounding areas of the city. Ciaran and Charlotte both volunteered for The Manquehue Movement in Santiago, Chile – following James Harrold (StB’10) in 2011 and Xavier Geissman (B’11) in 2012. Ciaran returned to the UK in September 2013 and Charlotte returned from her 5 month trip in August 2014. As is always the case, our awardees have come away with some powerful memories which will last them a lifetime, as well as a desire to do more for the people and communities they encountered during their trip. You can read all about their incredible experiences on the following pages.

During this current year, the WCT has awarded three GAAs amounting to £1,150.

GAAs Awarded since 2000

Merrick Winter (F’13) was our first awardee who went off in April 2014 for a 2 month project with Global Vision International teaching English at a Catholic school in India and then a village school in Nepal. You can also read Merrick’s story over the next few pages.

2013-14 Merrick Winter (F’13) – teaching English with Global Vision International in India and Nepal

Charlie Bridge (STB’09) was awarded his GAA for his project with TASK Brasil in Rio de Janeiro teaching disadvantaged teenagers. Charlie returns in November 2014 and we are very much looking forward to hearing about his time there in the next issue.

2012-13 Charlotte Bonhoure (StM’13) – working with the Manquehue Movement in Chile

We also made an award this year to Thomas Harrison (StB’92) in recognition of the amazing work he has done to set up Fusion Enterprises, a music and drama group for adults with learning difficulties here in the UK. This year we have also provided funding for both Alice Rooke (St A’12) and Thomas Ferguson, a current Year 13 pupil, for their respective Arundel & Brighton and OMV Lourdes Pilgrimages during the summer of 2014.

Charlie Bridge (StB’09) – teaching English with TASK Brasil in Rio de Janeiro

£500

Thomas Harrison (StB’92) – founding Fusion Enterprise Music & Drama Group for adults with learning disabilities

£150

Naomi Dring (StA’13) – volunteering for Worth Abbey’s ‘Outreach Peru’ programme in Peru

£400

Ciaran Stordy (StB’12) – working with the Manquehue Movement in Chile

£500

2011-12 Niamh Fogarty (StM’11) – volunteering with Tanzanian NGO, TanzEd Xavier Geissmann (B’11) – working with the Manquehue Movement in Chile

2010-11 Jack Clancy (F’11) – working for a remote Maasai community in Tanzania

£900

Chris Napleton (C’11) - volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal

£700

2008-09 Tristan Stutchbury (StB’01) – teaching English in Uganda

£750

2006-07 Luke MacWilliam (R’07) – eco-tourism in South Africa; teaching in Malawi

£500

Tom McMurray (B’08) – nature guide training in South Africa

£500

Fridolin Steinbeis (R’08) – working with aids orphans and as a hospital volunteer in Mexico

£780

Rob Carson (G’94) – running a camp for disabled children in Ireland

£750 £500 £500

Michael Burr (F’06) – conservation work in Cambodia

£500

Rob Carson (G’94) – running a camp for disabled children in Ireland

£850

Edmund Chedgy (G’00) – medical elective in China

£500

Johnathan Craik (C’00) – medical elective in China

£500

2004-05 Daniel Grace (F’05) – teaching in Chile Elliott Webber (R’04) – teaching in Nepal

£500 £500

2003-04 Andrew Welsh (B’04) – teaching in the Galagapos Islands

£500

2002-03 Francis Binney (G’00) – conservation work in Indonesia

£200

2001-02

Mark Haden (G’03) – the building of nurses homes in Zambia

£250

James Powys Lybbe (B’02) – working as a carer in a Romanian orphanage

£500

Alex Tyrwhitt (G’02) – teaching English in China

£250

2000-01 Nick Smith (C’01) – teaching in Uganda Ed Bonn (G’01) – teaching in Kenya

The Old Place

£750

Benedict Wintour (B’09) – working as a teaching assistant in Kenya

Mary Lou Burge, Society Manager

Life and Times of Worthians

£400

£250

2007-08 Benedict Kelly (StB’78) – fund-raising for communities in Peru

Worth Society Life

£750

Max Watson (F’05) – voluntary work in Tarma, Peru

2005-06 Dominic Moor (StB’00) – medical elective in Uganda

18 I

£500

£1,000

Will Desmond (C’09) – working with Cross Purposes in the UK

Charlotte Bonhoure (StM’13)

£700

Francis Dring (C’12) – volunteering with The Peru Mission in the Amazon

If you’d like to apply for a GAA, donate to the GAA fund via the Worthians Charitable Trust, or just want to find out more; then do please contact me at worthsociety@worth.org.uk

James Folger (B’12)

£750 £1,000

James Folger (B’10) – teaching English at schools in San Jose in Costa Rica

2009-10 James Harrold (StB’10) – working with the Manquehue Movement in Chile If all this is enough to whet your appetite and spark your interest in the Worthians Charitable Trust Global Action Awards, then please do visit our website at www.worthsociety.org.uk under the ‘Community Support’ section as we are keen to encourage more applications this year.

£500

£500 £250

I 19

The Global Action Awards

Saint Benedict in a Far Corner of the World Taking care of kids not able to go home at normal time

hile is under my skin. To think of my time there is to be rocked by a cocktail of diverse emotions, a sort of renewable catharsis of violent love.

After a freezing swim in the lake in Patagonia

The Manquehue Movement is an intimate circle of Benedictine lay monks, known as ‘oblates’, based in Santiago de Chile. Gap Year students from Worth, Ampleforth and Downside are invited to live with oblates and volunteer as members of the Tutoría (the rough equivalent of our Chaplaincy) in one of the three schools founded and run by the Movement. These are called San Benito, San Lorenzo and San Anselmo. Tutoría is at the heart of all three. It is made up of ex-students known as tutores who spread the Word in their respective school. It plays a much more active role than our Chaplaincy; tutores are ever-present, Bible in hand, connecting with students spiritually in a personal way. They lead prayer groups, organise workshops, accompany year groups on retreats, throw parties, sponsor confirmands, mentor individuals and sometimes teach. These affable spiritual guides are the source of their schools’ happy auras. I got on well with the Chileans who visited Worth, enjoyed Lectio Divina with them; I speak Spanish and my grandfather was born in Valparaíso. For these reasons I accepted just such an invitation.

San Lorenzo is in Recoleta, a deprived area of the city blighted by over-population, lack of infrastructure, thieves, foul by-products of cocaine and belligerent poverty. It is a low, mean place, people on the street don’t smile, some dwellings are no more than shacks supported by planks of wood. The school is a collection of concrete buildings with roofs of corrugated metal. Four rows of narrow rectangular wings with long porticoes at their sides house classrooms with spaces of dusty playground between. Overlooking these is a two-floored complex that includes offices, playrooms for students who require extra time at the school because of complicated situations at home, a library, a refectory and the Tutoría office. In one corner of the school stands the church and adjacent chapel, where I must have sat down to sing lauds at first light more than a hundred times. There is virtually no grass, only the odd twiggy tree. All windows are protected by thick blue bars that would invest the school with a prison-like appearance were it not for displays of colourful artwork, footballs left lying around or stuck in roof-gutters, a statue of the Virgin Mary with flowers by her pedestal, the nursery with its tiny climbing frame, a blithesome mural and, most overwhelmingly, the students themselves. Very soon I realised what the place was: an oasis, a sanctuary fenced off from hostility.

Flying over the red ochre Andes of mid-March I looked for the first time on the city of Santiago. It is a smog-choked patchwork of sprawling slums, gleaming towers and greentinged suburbs surrounded by mountains and their foothills. Borrego, an oblate in charge of the Gringos, met me at the airport. He is likable and rather funny, short and slim with cryptic eyes that sometimes contradict the rest of his face, forcing one on one’s guard. As we drove towards the city he asked whether I wanted to work at San Lorenzo. It is the only state-funded of the Manquehue three and in a nasty part of town. Only Gringos with fluent Spanish are able to work there full-time as its students speak little English. One of the Chileans I had met at Worth, Jaime Adasme, was an ex-student of the school and had always championed it. The kids were ten times friendlier, he said, I would be treated like a rock star. It was real Chile. I would be appreciated more than in the other schools. I assented to Borrego’s offer, but later found out that I was expected anyway – doubtless Jaime’s doing.

On my first day I was introduced by the Headmistress to nine hundred curious faces at Assembly in the central patio. When the gathering broke up many rushed to meet me; they were effusively warm, honest, smiling. My Madrid accent immediately became food for great mockery and I found out the hard way that some Spanish expressions translate into Chilean obscenities. From then on I worked as a tutor but also assisted in English lessons, took manic eight-year-olds for P.E. and introduced students of all ages to rugby. I got friendly with the librarians and helped to organise a chess competition. Really I did anything to help out and at break-times I would stroll around the playground fraternising. I was a mate more than anything else, there to laugh with, confide in, level hearty banter at and, in the case of some implacable fifteen-year-olds, share lewd jokes with. The sort of friendship I found in that place, in the students, fellow tutores and teachers, is one that I have never in all my life experienced elsewhere. When one approaches one’s personal relationships with Christ in mind, Christ will infuse

With some year 10s before a retreat

20 I

Tutoria group photo

Worth Society Life

With some younger students

those relationships. I learned this in San Lorenzo and in retrospect I understand that it is the placing of Christ between people that protects the school from its terrible environs more effectively than any barbed fence. When I wasn’t at the school I was living with three oblates and two Gringos from Downside in a little house on the corner of a leafy suburban side-street. I knew one of the oblates already, Nicolás, from Worth. He is a sensitive man and a great cook. The other oblates were Rodrigo, a robust fifty-one year old Anglophile, and Andrés, a short swarthy man always up for a laugh but never an argument. The two Gringos were Fergus and Konstantin, the one a stoic Scot and the other a musical German. The house functioned as a miniature Benedictine monastery, complete with hierarchy (Rodrigo was abbot), tiny chapel, close quarters and rotas. We divided ourselves into two bedrooms. There was little personal space, my Old Gregorian room mates and I shared a single rickety bedside table, but we certainly learned much about each other very quickly. We prayed lauds, sext, vespers and compline together every day. It was not easy, there were clashes and irritations in the house, but if I met up with any one of them now we would be able to slip instantly into an easy intimacy. In May we were taken for an eight-day retreat to the Patagonian wilderness. I have never seen such vast natural beauty. Three hours in an aeroplane followed by six in a mini-bus trundling over rocky and icy roads took us to the shores of Lake General Carrera. We stayed in a cabin (named after the Venerable Bede like my boarding house) without electricity and embraced the Benedictine maxim Ora et Labora – manual labour and prayer. Looking out from a bluff overlooking the cabin and separating it from the enormous lake I remember experiencing awe like a physical reaction. It was raining and the lake lay enormous and pure in differing shades of blue. In the distance a noble wall of snow-veined mountains pierced damp cloud and broke them in wreathes about their shoulders. No sign of Man anywhere; everything was vast, ancient, virginal. Each night after compline there was silence and we all sat around in peaceful candlelit murk, many reaching for cigarettes. I would successively rout my schoolmate Franz-Anton playing chess in that smoke-filled night-time quiet. For a retreat they split us into two groups and we delved deeper into the wilderness to live a day in

total silence. I turned nineteen in a shack in an utterly remote spot in a forest on the edge of a gorge. Those days, decidedly the best of all I had in Chile, were perhaps made more compelling and precious by what happened to me a few days before travelling there. Unfortunately, one evening I ran into a spot of trouble. Three hooded men attacked me outside the house, forced me inside, tied me up on the floor and left me there as they ransacked the place for valuables. At that moment I was inexplicably calm, utterly focused on their movements and able to answer their aggressive questions with composure. Once they left I began to shake with shock. I had been defenceless and at their mercy for twenty minutes. I had met the ugly side of Chile. This bad memory is vastly outnumbered by good ones, however, and I am grateful for the many friendships I made at San Lorenzo and in the Movement. I cherish my time in Chile as formative and will never forget it. I would like to thank the Worth Society for making a financial contribution to my trip. Ciaran Stordy (StB’12)

Editor’s Note We were incredibly shocked to hear about Ciaran’s experience whilst volunteering with The Manquehue Movement in Santiago. We have subsequently been in touch with them to voice our concerns and to request improvements to the safety of the volunteers we send to them. This type of event is rare, but it is important that volunteers are made aware of the dangers that can be faced in these troubled parts of the world.

With San Lorenzo sixth-formers on an excursion

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 21

The Global Action Awards

6 weeks in the world’s happiest and most bio-diverse country A weekend trip to the beautiful beaches of the Manuel Antonio National Park

were made by dividing the hall into two with a folding screen. The school provided a supplementary service to the children focusing only on their English skills. This was of significant importance to the children, as it unlocked a range of opportunities for them in the tourism industry where English is a pre-requisite, and jobs are plentiful. However, the noise from rubbish trucks hurtling past outside, and the stink of the garbage made the teaching and learning conditions immensely difficult. The passion and dedication shown by Jorque and Daniella, the two class teachers, was moving. Each day, I would take part in a mixture of teaching activities, working independently with the children with the best ability to really push them on, to playing games with the class – although the games led to full scale war whenever any points were controversially awarded. I helped with the children’s pronunciation and got laughed at a lot in the process, as they were used to American accents, but I made sure that they realised which one is correct!

Inside one of the two classrooms, made by splitting the church hall in half

eing at University at U.C.L has the enormous benefit of a 5 month summer holiday. So, in July 2013, I decided to set off as an amateur traveller more used to the luxuries of travel with parents; posh hotels, fancy food, and no need to pay for anything. How my expectations have now changed! I was heading to Costa Rica, a country labelled the world’s most bio-diverse, with 0.1% of the world's landmass, yet 5% of the world's biodiversity. 25% of the country's land area is designated as national parks, the largest percentage of protected areas in the world. However Costa Rica, despite being one of Latin America’s most stable countries and enjoying high development rankings, still has its fair share of poverty. So I set out on my 6 week trip to volunteer as an English teacher. Leaving two days after my 21st birthday and the day after having been at a music festival is not something I would recommend. I was up in time for my early flight. My head hurt a little but everything else seemed to be going okay. I made it on to my flight heading to San Jose via New York. Having a 5 hour stopover it was tempting to dash into the city, especially when I could see the soaring towers of Manhattan in the distance, but I decided it presented too many risks, so I decided to enjoy my first legal drink in America instead. Arriving at San Jose airport after a turbulent few hours, a couple of other volunteers and I were picked up in a minibus, and dropped off one-by-one at our designated host families’ houses in San Jose. I was greeted by Marlene, who would be my new mother for the next six weeks. She showed me to my room, which was a little different to what I have enjoyed in the past, as six beds were crammed into the small area, and with that I spent my first night in Central America.

22 I

Marlene – a remarkably generous lady, lived with her daughter, son and granddaughter. She earned her living from housing and looking after volunteers – there were twelve of us in total. She would cook breakfast, a lunch to take away, and dinner for us each day. Rice and beans, rice and beans, and rice and beans being the usual menu. The house was located in an area called ‘Cedros’, located 15 minutes away from the downtown area of San Pedro by bus depending on the traffic (it must be mentioned that the traffic customs were remarkably unique – motorcyclists felt at ease on the pavement, and roundabout manoeuvres were very ad hoc). I was taken to my project by Mani, one of the volunteer directors at Maximo Nivel – the agency that organise the volunteers in San Jose. He explained the aims of the project and told me more about the area. ‘La Carpio’ – where the project is based, is the poorest part of Costa Rica. It is a Nicaraguan slum that was built illegally on a landfill site. Its residents now number 40,000, all living in conditions of squalor. There is very little, if any, support provided by the government, and it is saddening how the conditions these people suffer are ignored. When you enter the area the stench from the rubbish is immediate, and plagued with dengue fever, it’s not somewhere you would want to live; let alone go to school. The area has a bad reputation among Costa Ricans, and many people reacted with surprise when I told them where I was doing my volunteer work – taxis would not enter La Carpio. This was obviously a slightly intimidating atmosphere but I embraced it, because this was the true reality of life in La Carpio, and I wanted to experience that as much as possible. The school where I was to work was housed in an Evangelical Church hall called ‘La Casa de Oracion’. Two ‘class-rooms’

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Some of the children showed signs of physical abuse. My aim was less about teaching English - although this was important for them, given the time constraint I knew I wouldn’t be able to help them develop significantly over the period - it was about trying to be a source of inspiration. Leaders of nations have on occasion come from backgrounds such as theirs; and they should not limit what they think they are capable of achieving as a result of their circumstances. However, being a youngster in that environment it can be hard to dream, as role models are few and far between.

Spanish ability, I had formed deep bonds with the teachers Jorque and Daniella, and many of the children and the preschool children. Leaving is always the hardest part, and it was tough to say goodbye, but what a fantastic experience I had enjoyed. Costa Rica is a remarkable country, with outstanding natural beauty and welcoming locals. This trip, my first extended period away, has made me a more thoughtful and balanced individual. I would urge all students to take advantage of gap years and university holidays to make the most of the fantastic volunteering and travel opportunities that are available. The people you meet and the memories that you form are irreplaceable. There are not many other substitutes that can help you develop so much as an individual in such a short space of time and I urge you to take advantage of the opportunities that surround you before you spend a lifetime chained to a desk. I would like to take this opportunity to give enormous thanks to the generosity of the Worth Society Committee for awarding me funds towards the trip, without whom it would not have been possible. James Folger (B’12)

The project ran during the week, and on weekends I had the opportunity to go to visit other areas of the country with other volunteers, and see what all this biodiversity nonsense was really about. My trips included going to the sparsely populated and stunning Nicoya Peninsula to stay in Santa Teresa. This was a surfer’s paradise, with beautiful beaches and dense rainforest. I went with some New Yorkers who were volunteering at my project, and we managed to end up in our own cabin complete with a swimming pool for just over $12 each a night. I will always remember the beautiful scenery as we ripped around the island on ATVs that we had rented for the weekend. Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Coast was my destination another weekend. The national park provided many amazing sights; a boa constrictor, a sloth, the most useless animal in the world, a group of monkeys with attitude and after we had decided to surround a snake, it suddenly sprang at us across the beach. At times it can be frustrating being a volunteer, with the disorganisation, occasional poor teaching methods and occasional difficult attitude of some of the pupils – I now know why I was sent out of classrooms so many times at Worth. It was moving saying a final goodbye, as the children and the teachers sang to me. After 6 weeks, the children were able to use past, present and future tense in simple sentences. Despite my sometimes frustrating lack of

The children of Casa de Oración

I 23

The Global Action Awards

A Chilean adventure with Christ

ne of the first questions I was always asked by Chilean acquaintances during my time there, working for the Manquehue Movement, was, “Why did you decide to come to Chile?” followed by, “Is it what you expected?” and “Are you enjoying yourself?” In response to these questions, after just over 5 months of living in the capital, Santiago, I now have the perfect answers…

Me with the community’s dog, Candela!

Lizzie and Mary with some of the girls from San Lorenzo’s Casa Santa Escolastica

The reason I decided to go to Chile during my gap year was due to an invitation from the Manquehue Apostolic Movement in my last year at Worth. I was struck by the Chileans from the Movement that come to Worth every year for two months to work in the Chaplaincy and set up Lectio Groups amongst the students as well as to make many friends. The Movement’s motto is “No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15,13) and appropriately, it was through friendship with the first two Chilean girls to come to Worth that I began to learn about living life with great faith. What impressed me most about my new Chilean friends was just how ordinary they were yet they seemed to have something more in their lives which gave them immense joy and peace. I decided to take up their invitation to go to Chile to learn more about myself and my faith. I knew I would be living with a community and working in one of the Movement’s three schools, helping out with English classes and participating in different activities but in reality what I experienced far outstripped my expectations. The role of the ‘gringos’ in the Manquehue schools is extremely hard to describe as it depends on how involved they want to be. I ended up working in San Anselmo with two other gringas, Lizzie Narbeth (StM ’13) and Mary Townsend from Ampleforth. On arrival at the school for our first full day, we were each introduced to a form of girls to which we would be ‘tutora acompañante’. I was given Octavo C which is the equivalent of Yr 9. The experience I had every morning of walking into a classroom of screaming 13 year old girls and standing helplessly with my back pressed against the whiteboard, clutching a Bible and trying to get them to settle down in order to pray took some getting used to. Harder still was trying to make friends with them as one of the only things we had in common was their love for One Direction and my complete indifference to it! However, the more I got involved in the things they had to do, such as gym classes and music, English and tutoria period, I got to know them really well. The other half of the work we did was to work in the school’s tutoria office. The Movement has three definitions of tutoria, the first being the physical building where the tutoria department is located. Tutoria is also the name given to an hour on the schedule when the older students go and ‘do’ tutoria to the younger kids. This last tutoria is quite complicated to explain in Spanish, let alone in English. The Movement describes it as ‘welcoming’, recognising Christ in the other person and showing them hospitality. From the older students to the younger students, this takes the form of becoming friends with and listening to someone who is probably about 10 years younger than you and teaching them about the Word and its importance in daily life and relationships through Lectio Divina. Our work in the tutoria department ranged from helping sort out papers, coming up with ideas for games to play on retreats, making posters

24 I

for the Scouts and organising a Confirmation group. We went on several retreats with some classes which usually lasted three days and two nights and always ended up with karaoke and a lot of food! We also participated in service trips and a mini-pilgrimage up one of Santiago’s many mountains. One of our most important jobs at the school was to talk to the girls in our class and take them out for individual chats. These conversations were usually very one-sided as we were meant to be there to listen to anything the girls had on their minds. An essential part of our timetable was Monday afternoons when we would go to San Lorenzo, the school for disadvantaged children in the poorer part of Santiago. The kids there were very engaging and seemed to really appreciate every minute of our time we gave them. We helped out in Yr 12 English classes, participated in volleyball and tennis after school clubs with the primary school children and also worked in Casa Santa Escolastica which is a place where the youngest children can go after school to play and do homework in a safe environment if their parents have to work late or are not at home.

Advice for Prospective Gappers: Take the Jump

An important experience for me during my time in Chile was the week of Works and Missions which we did with San Anselmo School in the first week of the winter holidays in July. During the week, around 200 students go off to the countryside around Santiago to build simple, wooden houses for needy families while living in local primary schools in small groups of around 30 students. I had an amazing week and my community was an incredibly tightknit group; we had a lot of fun as well as a very deep experience of service and prayer. Working in San Anselmo formed a big part of the experience but there was a whole other side to this time in Chile with the Manquehue Movement. The movement has a Benedictine, lay and ecclesiastical charisma and a very dedicated following. Some people become oblates and live their lives like Benedictine monks but remaining totally lay. Of these, there are married oblates that live with their families while others are celibate and live in communities. Lizzie, Mary and I were living with the celibate women oblates of the Movement in their community house a 10 minute walk from San Anselmo. Life with them was a bit strange at first as most people taking a gap year don’t expect to be living in a cloister and taking orders from an ‘abbess’ but it was also very ‘life-giving’. The community was where I could be myself and where I really learnt the true meaning of service. The other people I was living with quickly became as close as family, united in our search for God and life in accordance to the Rule of St Benedict. The Movement also organised spirituality classes for us and set up a Lectio group with three young Chileans, old girls from the schools. Also, a week retreat in San José, the farm they run in Patagonia which is a place where post-school aged people can go for a four month formation period. The community there lives very basically without electricity, the main source of heating coming from wood burning stoves in the kitchens. The big town where the monthly shop is done is several hours drive away. The silence of the place is impressive and the landscape indescribably beautiful. My time in Patagonia was crucial as it gave new meaning and real direction to the experience which was just about two months in at that point. I enjoyed my time in Chile very much; it was a life-changing experience. For me, one of the best things was the people. The Chileans of the Movement and in the schools are the most generous and kind people ever. I loved all the communities I got to be a part of: my class, the house, works and missions, the tutoria department, our Lectio group etc. I know that without the support of the Worth Society, I might not ever have considered going to Chile let alone taking a gap year in the first place. And so I would like to thank you for your generosity and encouragement which enabled me to have this incredible life experience and encounter with Christ.

o, you want to take a gap year. Your mind is reeling with the possibilities, the practicalities, the pressures, vying at you from every angle - parents, teachers, career advisors, peers. Your mind is probably in a limbo about whether to take the leap or not. Well here’s my two cents worth. Life is a continuous stream of opportunities taken, and opportunities missed. Take this advice to heart. You can never know what any experience will be like until you try it. Take the jump. Travelling will lend you a sense of compassion and appreciation for what you have been given. By simply taking a gap year and seeing other cultures, you will realise just how spectacularly you may have won the geographical roulette in terms of equality and opportunity. A real appreciation for a comfortable upbringing and a private education, is something which students who go straight to university may only truly gain once they have finished, if at all. You literally cannot help but grow as a person by exposing yourself to new cultures and meeting new people. It is inevitable. Primarily however, you will better understand how a position of privilege should be used to give back to the world. Now, some important advice. You have to know you will be the right kind of person to be a volunteer. I know that may seem difficult given that you haven't experienced it yet, but here are some basic guidelines:

1. You need to have commitment. There is no use travelling all the way to wherever you will be going, just to flake. I almost did, but I’m glad I didn’t. 2. You have to be open to and ready for entirely new experiences, something which I think a lot of privately educated students could benefit from greatly. They will not always be positive, but you will grow in ways you can’t imagine because of them. 3. You have to want to make a difference. Even if it’s just in a small way. Find your altruistic streak. It’s ok, you don’t have to keep it up forever, but whatever work you choose, give it your all for the time that you’re there. 4. You need some creativity up your sleeve. Irrespective of the work you choose, you will always have to be ready to work in a group environment, and improvise by being resourceful enough to deal with a crisis or solve a problem - harder than it sounds. My gap year was a total leap of faith. A 360° trip around the world was the biggest solo venture I had ever undertaken. After 6 months of working at the Ashdown Park Hotel, I finally embarked for New Zealand. Over the next 7 months, I travelled over 45,000km, visiting 10 countries, including, Australia, Thailand, Laos and the USA. I came to love simply arriving in a new place with no particular plan, and just seeing what life threw at me. There is a lot to be said for

Charlotte Bonhoure (StM’13)

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 25

The Global Action Awards

Take the Jump continued

The Children we worked with at Male Patan were aged 2-3, and required constant supervision. Our job was to entertain them, care for them, and instil in them the rudimentary concepts of numbers and the English alphabet. We worked alongside the ‘Didi’s’ (preschool carers), cooking simple meals, brushing their teeth, and playing games with them. Despite the children’s age, many of them showed great interest and enthusiasm, though an equal number did not. I found that music was the best teaching method. My guitar was an invaluable tool through my time in India and Nepal. We also taught part time at a boys orphanage - ages ranging between 9 and 14 - helping them with maths homework and coaching them in football, which, as you might imagine, rekindled no small amount of boyish competitiveness in me. I still maintain that the Pokhara Streets Lads are bound for the World Cup… some day.

spontaneity. However, my journey was centred around a volunteering project, possible in part by the support and guidance of The Worth Society, which is an incredibly valuable resource to prospective gappers. They motivated me and facilitated my goals. For this, I am extremely thankful. I was faced with more gap year companies, NGO’s, and volunteering organisations than I knew what to do with, drowning in a sea of nauseatingly exuberant advertising. However, I chose to work in teaching and childcare, spending one month in Kochin, Kerala, in Southern India, and one month in Pokhara, a rural city to the west of Kathmandu in Nepal. As volunteers, we were given options between a few different ongoing projects which GVI ran in the local areas. The GVI volunteer group was an eclectic mix of people from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and France. So eclectic were we in fact that we were cast in a commercial for the World Cup, and as extras in a Bollywood movie!

With the girls at Auxillium School in Kochin, Kerala

Merrick with Aneesha

Our work in India was focused around teaching English through tuition in the sciences and humanities, as well as through practical games and sports. Our students were girls from the Auxillium Order Orphanage, Kochin. We taught all ages together for certain activities, but also divided the girls into ability groups for reading and maths. The two girls I tutored were aged 6 and 18. Needless to say that this provided some logistical problems, and required creative solutions. However, it taught me how to hold their attention and get them engaged in learning together. I encouraged Aneesha, the older, to help me explain words and concepts to Shinu, the younger. As a volunteer group, we tried to get the older girls engaged in teaching the younger ones as a whole, encouraging them to lead by example and translate between Malayalam (the Keralan language) and English.

Culture shock is something which is guaranteed to affect you to some degree, depending on your travel destination. Arriving in India for the first time is something which I cannot really describe accurately in words. It has to be experienced to be truly understood. The smells hit you like a tiffin tin to the face and the heat will drain your will to move. But once you see that the people and society surrounding you are functioning with more purposeful urgency than most westerners, you drag yourself out of your humidity induced apathy and start to acclimatise. Likewise, Nepal’s altitude and coinciding heat provided a great challenge. This can’t really be avoided unless you have acclimatised elsewhere. You’re guaranteed to make friends for life while travelling, but volunteering will really bring you and your new acquaintances closer together. I was lucky enough to meet some fantastic people on the GVI team which made my experience thoroughly enjoyable although you are never going to get along with everyone. Close living quarters is a challenge and group life can be stressful. However it is invaluable preparation for Uni, as no student accommodation will ever be more dire than what you will get used to in developing countries. You will most likely be surrounded by at least a few people from your home country which can be a source of great comfort when starting out.

What struck me most from the experience was just how much the girls appreciated us being there, and the teaching materials we brought with us. Many of them had an attentive eagerness which I knew would serve their ambitions to no end, given the proper educational opportunities which, thus far, only we seemed to be providing them. On a sadder note, it was shocking to see just how much the conventional education system was failing them by western standards. The majority of them did not know which continent India was located in, and could not name or locate any countries on a map at all. Ensuring that the entire class understood the concepts of continents and countries, and could name 20 countries on a map, therefore became one of my proudest achievements from my time with them.

If you need some persuasion to help you make a decision about whether to jump or not, then, speaking with the benefit of relatively fresh unbiased hindsight, let me close with this. I am not the same person I was, the day I waved goodbye to family, comfort and security. I put myself out into the world, with a desire and a willingness to experience, and returned with stories, memories and successes which I would not trade for the world. Be sure. You will grow. You will make mistakes. You may fail. You may succeed. Who knows, you may even fall in love. But what is certain is that you will learn things about the world which school can never teach you. They will form you as a person; influence your thinking, and shape your decisions. Life is out there for the taking. Now go out and live the adventure.

My experience in Nepal was very different. Not only was the culture noticeably more laid-back, but the country itself was far less developed. Nepalese cities experience regular power outages due to a dependancy on inconsistent hydroelectric and renewable electricity, and the water is not safe to drink at all. The altitude was a key factor in the lack of energy which you notice immediately. Pokhara is the second largest city in Nepal, and is nestled in the southern foothills of the Annapurnas, under the shadow of Mount Machhapuchchhre, known locally as the Fish Tail.

Merrick Winter (F’13)

Annapurna foothills, near Pokhara, Nepal

26 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 27

Remember this is your Club, for all Worthians, and we always need new players! Everyone is welcome to play even if you can’t commit to a full season. Take your pick of these choices to join in: • In August/September: Play in the National Under-21 Competition (Bank Holiday Monday). Play in the ‘old’ versus ‘young’ Worthians match (played at Worth on the second Sunday of September) • During your Gap year: Sign up for a few games before you set off on your gap travels • While at University: Play in the Under-21 fixture at Christmas. Play in the Sevens at Easter. Or ring up for a game if you’re visiting parents for the weekend! • After University: Join Worthians RFC full time if you’re working in London or nearby If you’re thinking of playing, all you need to do is ‘phone one of the following people: • Jack Bodkin (Captain): 07917 415165 • Desmond Calnan (Chairman): 07535 939582 or 01372 386511

Worthians Rugby 2013-2014 Season ‘Youngers’ vs ‘Olders’ 2014 Teams

fter a good set of warm-up matches against the Young WOBS, Old Johnians and Emanuel, the League Season started with two high-scoring exciting games against the Met Police and Old Radleians where, although we scored 30 points or more, we found ourselves as ‘lucky losers’ in each case. Our performances (if we ignore the leaky defences) were encouraging – as indeed was our third League game which we drew with Mitcham… but our League position was not healthy at all. Alarm bells started to ring as we then met the top 3 teams in the League and suffered successive defeats.

the 2nd row, until an injury curtailed his season. The back row was well supplied with skipper Jack Bodkin once again making the hard yards with his pick-ups from the base of our (sometimes retreating) set piece scrums and always leading by example, flanked by guest Ken Marshall and, variously, Giles Sacarello, Dan Pring (both of whom were limited by injuries this season) and newcomer Raffaele Marino – our versatile Neapolitan flanker and sometime prop, who hands were always first to get to any loose ball (and, for that matter, they were often the first to get the referee’s yellow card too).

Fortunately in the weeks leading up to Christmas, traditionally a potential low-point in the season, the boys rallied well with four successive League victories to secure a position of safety in Surrey 3 – plus a momentum-building win in the Surrey Cup and in a new year’s friendly. Sadly, this form did not continue after January and, having avoided the twin threats of relegation and promotion, we finished off with some average performances only managing a win against Raynes Park, and a draw to secure 6th place in the League. Our run in the Surrey Cup continued with a close win against Haslemere, but we were eliminated in the semi-final.

Behind the scrum, the regular half-back pairing was Ollie Owen (guest), who marshalled his forwards well throughout the season, and Harry Killoughery who wrote his name on the No 10 shirt for the season. Adam Braverman, our ‘prop in waiting’ provided the bosh at number 12, partnered at different times by guests Giuliano Russo, Rory Garratt and a sprightly Ed Kemp and, later in the season, the veteran Lee Howard. Rob Rooney soon tired of waiting for the ball to reach the wing, preferring instead to hunt relentlessly for the ball in midfield, eventually shifting into the Centres himself, as well as covering scrum half too. Wing duties were shared between Ben Calnan (at start), Tomek Nawrocki, Eoin O’Connor and Ben Derbyshire and (when available) Chris Brown. Like many others, Chris played too few games for the WOBS this year, but his 3 tries to win the Away game against Mitcham almost single-handedly in February will be hard to forget. In each case Chris had the speed and (just enough) stamina to round the covering defence with determined outside breaks on his right wing to score in the corner. Kevin Danagher had a remarkable season at full-back, playing in all but one League games, showing great flair in attack, as well as making countless decisive try-saving tackles, and deservedly received the ‘Paul Kozary Memorial Cup’ for Player of the Season.

The team was led for the second Season by Jack Bodkin at Number 8. When we had our best forwards available we put in some high class performances, and the trick was to get the same team playing week in week out. Our regular props were the ever-dependable Peter Osborne and Giles Heather – with Marco Boodramsingh putting in a lot of graft (and some dubious up-and-unders) during the season. These were partnered at various times by guest hookers Ed Hackett, Andy Thick and Phil Swann who all made an impact when they played. Richard Brown and Josh Taylor were in the engine room of the second row much of the time, while Dom Bosher was proving to be pacey and effective also in

Our annual ‘older’ versus ‘younger’ Worthians RFC match took place on Sunday 14th September 2014 on the School’s Rugby pitch. In a hard fought match the ‘olders’ claimed victory with a 53 to 14 final score to win the Glenn Robertson Worthians RFC Challenge Trophy with Fr Kevin on hand to proudly make the presentation to ‘olders’ captain, Adam Braverman (G’05).

The Silver Fox’s All Time WOBS XV

One of the key features and benefits of WOBS RFC is inclusiveness of the Club and the great number of playing members. While this is certainly ‘a good thing’ for sociability and diversity, it does not necessarily lead to consistent results on the field – as the team has to adjust to the changes week by week. The very long list of ‘occasionals’ playing for the Club illustrates this point well. Thus in the forwards, players like Nick Elvidge, Dan Pring and James Madsen made a big impact when they played – but could do little to improve our League standing. Likewise in the backs, the rugby talent of Chris Brown, Ben Green and Craig Monteiro were vastly under-utilised.

13 Lee Howard (guest)

The challenge in the coming season is to persuade these players, and a dozen others, to commit to 10, 15 or even 18 games per season. That way we will get consistent results and the opportunity to climb in the Leagues. Not an easy task if you have heavy commitments to a new job or if your place of study is 200 miles from our home ground in Surrey. It should be added however that there was no shortage of commitment to our Social events throughout the year – which were all well attended by regulars, casuals and friends with very little coercion. This was certainly the case in July when ‘Twenty Years of the Worthians’ was celebrated in fine style (see separate account of the Celebration Dinner in Pall Mall), proving that the Club is indeed in good shape. And the good news is that a lot of our younger members are keen to take the Club forward into the next two decades.

The following 43 Worthians represented the Worthians RFC during the 2013-2014 Season:

A profile on Nick Walshe (B’92) WOBS RFC’s new President Nick was born on 1st November 1974 in Chiswick, London, studied at Worth from 1987-1992, and went on to graduate with a BA Hons Business Studies from Kingston University. He enjoyed a flourishing rugby playing career playing for Harlequins, Saracens and Bath. He showed his versatility by covering both half back positions, winning two England caps, six

28 I

days apart, on tour in Australia and also representing and captaining the A team that has since become England Saxons. Since his appointment as a National Academy Coach with the RFU Elite Rugby Department last September, Nick has played an important role in assisting England U20 Head Coach Rob Hunter and guiding them to the IRB Junior World Championship title, beating Wales in the final.

In January this year Nick was presented with Performance Development Coach of the Year Award at the UK Coaching Awards 2013. For 2014/15 he has taken up the post of attack coach at Gloucester Rugby.

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

15 Tom Calnan (R’95) 14 Matt “Frankie” Williams (guest)

12 Matt Pardo (B’01) 11 Chris Brown (C’05) [sharing the shirt with Nick Vasquez (G’97)] 10 Andy Tyler (G’00) 9

Nick Donovan (StB’93)

Simon Coughlin (R’80)

Harry Fisher (B’81)

Hugh Lynch (B’95)

Richard Hammond (guest)

Danny O’Connell (R’02)

Tony Riley (R’09)

Chris “Jacko” Jackson (StB’95)

Hugo Sanders (R’00)

Forward Reserves: Paul Kozary RIP (R’94) – he has to be included, as he’s already arrived booted and baselined. Andy Roberts (guest) – in case force is required, or if Conrad should appear at the Middlesex 7s. Jack Bodkin (G’03) – to cover 8 and prop. Mark Lane (F’04) – to throw in whenever we’re close to our line or theirs.

Desmond Calnan (R’69) Jack Bodkin (G’03)

Desmond Calnan (R’69) Tom Calnan (R’95) Ben Calnan (R’97) Rob Rooney (G’01) James Madsen (B’02) Jack Bodkin (G’03) Ben Green (C’03) Giles Heather (F’03) Tom Middlehurst (R’03) Dan Pring (R’03) Livio Belpassi (B’04) Jamie Bruce (R’04) David Osborne (R’04) Adam Braverman (G’05) Chris Brown (C’05) Nick Hopkins (G’05) Craig Monteiro (StB’05) Josh Taylor (B’05) James Henwood (C’07) Matt Blott (B’08) Dom Bosher (R’08)

Sprot

Sport

Desmond Calnan and Fr Kevin presenting ‘Olders’ Captain, Adam Braverman, with the Glenn Robertson Worthians RFC Challenge Trophy

Peter Osborne (R’08) Giles Sacarello (StB’08) Fez Barber (StB’09) Kevin Danagher-Smith (StB’09) Osaro Idemudia (B’09) Ed Kemp (F’10) Christian Killoughery (R’10) Alex Neville-Smith (StB’10) Marco Boodramsingh (C’11) Nick Elvidge (C’11) Ed Everington (B’11) Tomek Nawrocki (F’11) Dom Robinson (B’11) Harry Killoughery (R’12) Eoin O’Connor (F’12) Ben Derbyshire (B’13) Tom Hicks (B’13) Tom Poynder (F’13) Angus Bonner (R’14) James Kemp

Back Reserves: Nick Vasquez (G’97) [to share duties with Chris Brown (C’05)] Ben Calnan (R’97) – if tackling is required. Patch Wilkinson (StB’92) – ditto, and to cover positions 1 to 15. James Robertson (B’89) – iron fist in a velvet glove, to be used as and when necessary. EGS (guest) – to cover positions 10-15. Ben Holloway (C’93) – for mad Gallic 40 metre throw-ins, if the scores are tied late in the game. The following British Internationals to bring Boots to the game (in case of any WOBS no-shows): Nick Walshe (B’92), Alan Mitchell, Peter Dewey (R’77), Tom Mitchell (F’07), Pete Robertson (B’93), Crispin Dawson-Walker (StB’93), Thom Evans (guest).

I 29

Worthians Cricket

Celebrating 20 Years of the WOBS RFC Summer Ball

2014 Match Report Mr & Mrs Nick Walshe

Sport

The evening started in the Ladies Drawing Room of the RAG with the champagne flowing. It was great to see so many faces from the past and present of WOBS rugby. The original players who helped set up the club 20 years ago were mixing with the current squad of 2014. There was a strong group of recent leavers including Eoin O’Connor, Nick ‘channel swimmer’ Elvidge, Harry Killoughery and Marco Boodramsingh who were leading the charge, while Alan ‘bring back the tash’ Mitchell and Fr Kevin represented the School and Abbey.

2013-2014 WOBS RFC Awards Lifetime Achievement Award: Desmond Calnan Player of the season ‘The Paul Kozary Memorial Cup’: Kevin Danagher Most improved player: Richard Brown Top Supporter of the Season: Penny Brown WOBs High Impact Player: Rob Rooney Pink Fluffy Cushion: Desmond Calnan All-time Top Supporter of the WOBS: Julie Calnan

After a booming announcement from Giles Sacarello, the guests made their way downstairs to the Dining Room. Once seated, Giles Heather (the team’s Social Secretary), introduced proceedings and explained the three main reasons for organising this WOBS’ RFC summer ball: 1) Celebrating 20 years of WOBs rugby 2) Supporting the Glenn Robertson Memorial Fund 3) Supporting the ongoing future of the WOBs rugby Grace was said by Fr Kevin, remembering the families of those present, and after a delicious 3 course meal with a game of ‘Heads or Tails’ in between courses, we soon came

Desmond Calnan receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award

30 I

Lorenzo Belpassi with his WOBS Whisky

to the speeches. Nick Walshe, our new President and current England Under-20 Head Coach, spoke about rugby at Worth and the influence that Glenn Robertson had on his rugby career. He went on to describe the recent success of coaching the England Under-20 side to World Cup glory in New Zealand, and also expressed his appreciation of the welcoming atmosphere he was experiencing whilst dining with the WOBS. Nick handed out the first prize of the evening, his England jersey (from the 2003 Six Nations game against France), to the WOBS Chairman, Desmond ‘The Silver Fox’ Calnan. TSF was jumping for joy and immediately put the shirt on (apparently he still hasn’t removed it) but despite this kind gesture from Nick, TSF showed no prisoners as he despatched Nick in the drinking race to follow. Skipper Jack Bodkin next went through the Season’s awards (see left for the list of winners), during which a toast was proposed by Giles Heather to the memory of Glenn Robertson. Following this Desmond Calnan spoke about the last 20 years and took on the near-impossible task of naming his ultimate ‘Silver Fox’s All Time WOBS XV’ in a concise and time-efficient manner. The raffle then took prominence where Dom Bosher, Dan Pring and Giles Heather came into their own, kindly supported by two beautiful WOBs WAGS. Due to the selling techniques of Richard Brown, all the guests had plenty of interest in the raffle and this also resulted in a significant amount of money being raised for Glenn’s fund and for the WOBS future. The auction followed shortly thereafter where a staggering 4.5 litre bottle of Whisky dressed in the WOBS colours and emblem was bought by the Belpassi Bros, who entered into the spirit of the event in an amusing fraternal battle in the auction. The signed 2014 England shirt also went for a hefty amount of money bought by Simon Coughlin. Once the prizes were distributed, the music was on and there were a number of shapes being cut on the dance floor. The evening was a huge success and in the early hours, the guests slowly departed away. The WOBs RFC Ball Committee led by Giles Heather and heavily supported by Giles Sacarello, Dom Bosher, Dan Pring, Richard Brown, Des Calnan and Jack Bodkin did a fantastic job, so a big thank you goes to them for their huge effort in arranging such a memorable and classy event. Many thanks to our special guests Nick and Jenny Walshe, and Annette Robertson and her sons James and Peter Robertson. Special thanks must also go to those that contributed generous and significant donations for the raffle and auction: - Simon Coughlin (for his special Celebration Bruichladdich Whisky) - Jeremy Marozzi (for the Jeremy Marozzi & Co Conveyancing Prize which was won by Hugh Lynch) - Lucy Bodkin - Grace and Thorn Flowers - Holly Gottlieb Thanks also go to Sophie Sacarello for her creative skills in preparing all the promotional material for the event.

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

his season has been a very inconsistent one for the Worthians. Thankfully this was due to poor weather rather than poor performances on the pitch. With three out of the six games called off this season due to rain it is understandable that the team did not quite find the same groove as last year. The season ended with Worthians winning one of their three matches and there were some great team and individual performances. The first match of the 2014 season was against John Denman’s Occasionals. The Worthians opted to bowl first on a very green pitch and were able to utilize the conditions from the start, keeping pressure on the Occasionals for the first 15 overs. Early wickets from Greg Russell, Thomas Bilbé and Rishi Amin put the Worthians in a good position at the drink’s break. However the break was the respite the Occasionals needed and they quickly regained composure and started attacking the Worthians bowling. At the end of the first innings the game was evenly poised with the Occasionals reaching 180 all out. The Worthians got off to the worst possible start losing nearly all the top order without troubling the scorers. There was a middle order recovery thanks to some aggressive batting from Hopkins and Lannen, but just as things were looking up John Denman decided to put any hopes of a memorable Worthians victory out to pasture. A return of the Occasionals ‘wheels’ opening bowler and secret weapon cleaned up the tail end with ease. In the end the Worthians slumped to 100 all out thanks to a more than useful seven wickets for the Occasionals opening bowler. On a beautiful summer’s day, the Max McAllister invitational side visited Worth in a game that epitomised Worthian cricket. Batting collapses, a late call to arms to get a side together, and a fiercely contested match played in the spirit of the game saw Worth comprehensively beaten by a strong visiting team. Worth veteran Hugo Bashall hit a steady and dignified 40 having opened the batting, before running himself out to allow Captain Tom Woodman to reach his 50, who played in a form reminiscent of his school days. At 99 for 1 Worth looked to be building a good first innings total, but then in true Worth fashion a middle order collapse followed by a tail that failed to 'wag' meant that the Worthians were all out for 183. Bright eyed and refreshed from the orange squash and tuna paste sandwiches served for tea, Worth took to the field with a strong bowling side. The McAllister XI made a strong start, with their opening pair taking the attack to Worth's young pacey duo of Cummins and Coleman. Obviously not in a rush to hang around and face the first bowling change, the openers put on 144 for the first wicket, with many a six hit that would have put the old Rutherford building in danger - had it not been demolished a matter of weeks

previously. A sudden surge of wickets from the ever reliable Stuart Barnett (3 wickets, 24 runs, 5 overs), helped out by Bashall and our resident ringer Phillips (lent to us by the opposition team), meant that the game suddenly was in the balance. However a late stand from their lower order meant that Worth fell to a hard fought defeat with a mere 13 overs remaining. On balance, the scorecard showed a somewhat gloomy outlook, but in truth the resilience and character that epitomises Worthians Cricket shone through as bright as the sun was that day. The match was an uphill struggle from even before the toss of a coin, due to some late pull outs and no shows - but thanks should be given to Damian and Luke Cummins for making up the numbers and for those players who stuck to their word and brought a tremendous amount of energy, character, and spirit with them. The final game of the season was against Downside Wanderers. Arriving at the ground to torrential rain didn’t fill us with much hope of turning the season around. However, after a 20 minute delay the clouds cleared and play got under way with Worth fielding their strongest side of the season. Worth started well with a solid early partnership between Tom Woodman (28) and Theo Rivers (28). After a couple of quick wickets the Worthians looked on the edge of a collapse. Thankfully Joseph Rivers steadied the ship with a quick fire 39 and helped Worth to a par score on a tricky wicket of 125 from our 30 overs. Downside responded with a slow but unbroken opening partnership reaching 46-0 off the first 15 overs leaving the game very much in the balance. There was some very tight but fruitless blowing from Thomas Bilbé and Rishi Amin who were unlucky not to get the early breakthrough. The game was flipped on his head when Ed DeMott (3-11), Theo Rivers (2-21) and Matt Donegan (2-24) ripped through Downside’s top and middle order in a game changing 10 overs. This left Downside on 90-9 with 6 overs to spare. The game came to a nail biting conclusion with Rishi Amin taking the final wicket with 2 overs to go, bowling Downside out for 110. This was a well-deserved win for the Worthians and a fitting end to the season. I would like to say thank you to all who played for the Worthians this season. I appreciate that people are busy during the summer and plans can change, but at times it has been very difficult to put a team together. To keep the club going it is important that we continue to retain current players and bring in new players. Irrespective of your standard we would love to get as many Worthians as possible involved in the club, so when the email comes out next season please don’t hesitate to get in contact! Michael Bilbé (StB’06)

The following Worthians represented the Worthians Cricket Team during the 2013-14 Season: Rishi Amin (F’11) Hugo Bashall (R’06) Michael Bilbé (StB’06) Thomas Bilbé (StB’06) Mark Breen (StB’76) Ed DeMott (B’07) Luke Donegan (StB’13) Matt Donegan (StB’10) Nick Hopkins (G’05) Ed Long (G’03) Joseph Rivers (F’10) Theo Rivers (F’11) Greg Russell (F’11) Ben Oakley (F’08) Tom Plantarose (R’06) Ben Pullan (C’13) Adrian Vella (C’08) Ed Watson (StB’09) Tom Woodman (F’07) Non-Worthians Liam Lannen Stuart Barnett

Sprot

here was a lot of anticipation about this event and it didn’t disappoint. After twenty years of WOBS rugby, it was time to celebrate and that is what over 90 guests at the RAG (Army & Navy Club) on Pall Mall most certainly did.

Fr Kevin with Annette Robertson

Worthian Girls Sporting Day

Worthians Golf

2013 Match Report

2013-2014 Season Greg Pickard winning the Spring Meeting

Sport

The current Worth girls showed some really skillful play and teamwork which led them to a quick goal in the first half scored by Bryony Maxwell. However the old girls fought back and after a great through ball their first goal was provided by Hermione Wilkinson which equalled the scores. There was some great and well thought out play by the current Worth girls who dominated the second half of the match as the oldies began to tire. Some strong breaks up the wing allowed two more brilliant goals to be scored by the school despite some lunging saves by the Worthian goalie Jessica Cook. The whistle blew and the score was 3–1. Unsurprising to the current first team however both teams made a great effort. A special mention to Molly Cummins (current Yr 10) who played brilliantly.

Next it was on to the first time netball match where some fresh faces joined both teams. The old girls placed themselves into some mismatch positions but this didn’t seem to disadvantage them as they took the lead in the first quarter. There was some great attacking play by Sarah Turner which led to some accurate shooting by Issy Rothman. However the current girls came back in the second half with some well-rehearsed and well executed plays to equal the scores. After some moments of what seemed like utter chaos and some of complete uniformity by both teams, Issy Rothman scored in the last minute of the final quarter which saw the Worthians win the match by a single point with a score of 8–7. Thank you to all who played both matches. It was great to see so many of both old and current girls. Thank you also to all the supporters who watched and cheered. Special thanks goes to Sam Clark and Jo Barnes for coaching and umpiring the matches, and Olivia Henley for organising yet another successful event. It was a great day and I'm sure we’ll all be looking forward to next year.

lthough not as well supported as Europe's Ryder Cup Team, I am pleased to report that the Worthians Golfing Society continues to be supported by our core group of members, and encouragingly a few new members enlisting during this last year.

Schools Old Boys Scratch Foursomes event. The date conflicted with other fixtures to which some of our lower handicap players were committed. To compete at this level requires a greater depth of low handicap players and hopefully on reading this some might contact me.

The 2013 Autumn Meeting was, for the third time, a weekend meeting at the East Sussex National golf course and hotel. Unfortunately, the Saturday game was a washout but following a visit to the local pub for lunch, Worthians took part in a ‘round the Bedroom Suite’ putting competition with no damage to either the participants or the hotel! Thirteen players took to the course on the Sunday, in good weather, and Graham Hutchings (G’05) won the Worth Salver with 31 stableford points, with Peter Gottelier (R’70) and Dominic Pasqua (B’76) close behind.

We managed to field a team for the Russell Bowl Catholic Public Schools tournament in May being represented by Patrick (C’01) and Phillip Davey (F’04), Peter Gottelier, Rupert Pridham (G’81), Matthew Wood (B’77) and myself. We have won this in the past, but came an honourable 2nd on this occasion.

Two nearest the pin prizes were won by Rory Pickard (StB’11) and the third by 'Keep it in the Family' Simon Pickard (StB’78). Hugh Bett (B'73) flexed his muscles to win the longest drive. Everyone agreed that the weekend was a great success and it is to be repeated over the weekend of 1st/2nd November this year. In April we had our annual match at Royal Ashdown Forest against the Old Gregorians Golfing Society and I am pleased to report that the Worthians won by 4 points to 2 - almost a resounding victory!

Charlie Hutchinson (StM’10)

Unfortunately, as in the previous year, we were unable to field a team to take part in the Grafton Morrish Public

Sprot

et another successful Worthian day of sport was played on 7th September and this year for the first time included both hockey and netball teams. The 7-aside hockey match was made up of a selection of old girls including the first intake and newest leavers. Being slightly unfit, from what I can only imagine was due to a lack of exercise and a summer of over indulgence, the team was in good spirits and ready to take on the current girls who appeared much more structured and organised. There was a huge crowd of supporters ready to cheer everyone on for what was hopefully going to be a very entertaining match.

The Spring Meeting was repeated at Moor Park and was enjoyed by all who took part. Greg Pickard (StB’81) carried away the Worth Rose Bowl, with 36 points, with Dominic Pasqua and James Robertson (B’89) taking 2nd and 3rd prizes. On this occasion the mighty Matthew Wood won the longest drive with Peter Gottelier taking the two nearest the pin prizes. Currently I have a postal membership of some 50 members although only a relative minority are active participants during the year. I am sure that there are many Worthians that are active golfers and they would be very welcome to join the Society irrespective of handicap. If you are interested in joining please contact me at kandbaway@gmail.com or on 01323 733499. Ken Ross (G’65)

Worthians Squash 2013-2014 Season

his academic year there were two more fixtures for Worthians to have the opportunity to play on the school courts. The first was on Saturday 30th November 2013 when an impressive turnout of Justin Mould (StB’81), Harry Fisher (B’81), Howard Brookman (G’93), Stephen Barham (StB’94), Daniel Hughes (R’98), Thomas Lewis (G’05), Matthew Doggett (F’07), Guy Salimbeni (F’07), and Ben Oakley (F’08), returned to Worth to play against the best of the school players. The Worthians proved too strong for the school team, winning seven matches to two.

32 I

The following Worthians played in the 2013 Worthian Girls Hockey match versus the School 1st XI:

The following Worthians played in the 2013 Worthian Girls Netball match versus the School Mixed VII:

Sophie Bowe (StM’10) Andra Hess (StM’10) Charlie Hutchinson (StM’10) Jessica Cook (StA’13) Issy Rothman (StM’13) Hermione Wilkinson (StA’13)

Andra Hess (StM’10) Charlie Hutchinson (StM’10) Catherine Bailey (StM’11) Sarah Turner (StM’12) Elaine Yim (StA’12) Jessica Cook (StA’13) Katie Kenward (StA’13) Issy Rothman (StM’13)

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

On Sunday 23rd March 2014 we were delighted to welcome back Worthians spanning the decades with Desmond Calnan (R’69), Harry Fisher (B’81), Bobby Acworth (C’81), Stephen Barham (StB’94), Darran Smith (B’96) Tom Lewis (G’05), Ben Oakley (F’08) and Sam Buckley (F’09) for some competitive matches amongst themselves, followed by a buffet lunch. This date was chosen to coincide with the Worthians Football fixture that took place that afternoon. Although the matches were all ‘friendly’ they were arranged so that competitive matches could take place and the overall winner was judged to be Darran Smith.

If you think you’d like to join in the fun and play in future Worthians Squash matches, then do please get in touch with Mary Lou Burge at worthsociety@worth.org.uk.

I 33

Are two Heads better than one?

Worthians Football 2014 Match Report Alex Davis-White, 2013/14 Head Boy, receiving the Henry Surtees Memorial Trophy from John Surtees

Sport

he 6th Annual Worthian Football Tournament took place on Sunday 23rd March. With a cool chill in the air but in bright sunshine, the four magnificent teams battled it out under the watchful eye of John Surtees OBE. The School 1st XI, captained by current Head Boy Alex Davis White, beat the Worthian Under 21s, captained by former Head Boy Nicholas Elvidge (C’11), to retain the Henry Surtees Memorial Trophy with a 3-1 victory. The two teams were evenly matched – there were a couple of absentees for the 1st XI – however this allowed our replacements from the bench to show their potential, with most noticeably Cameron Pring stepping up to score the winning goal. Another noticeable achievement in this game was the presence of 4 brothers!! Two in each team. Mr and Mrs Rivers should be congratulated for their contribution and support to Worth School football, which will continue as Max (the youngest) enters the Sixth Form, whilst Olly has received a football scholarship to attend an American university. Theo showed how talented he is as a footballer with an outstanding free kick and Joe was as always the solid centre of the Old Boys midfield. It is hoped that I can tempt the ‘Matthews Four’ into appearing next year. It makes organising the fixture so much easier!!

Dave Carter (C’94), Headteacher, St. Philip Howard Catholic High School

Rob Carter (C’92), Headteacher, St. Paul’s Catholic College

am blessed by the fact that I have been privileged to have worked with (and for!) my brother in our career in teaching. So how did we both end up as Catholic Headteachers in the same Diocese, therefore having a family representation of 18% of the total of Catholic state secondary heads?

he prospect of me speaking in front of a thousand or more students and staff, at one stage of my life would have been totally unthinkable! I was a shy boy, keen to avoid putting his head above the parapet and not one for the limelight (although possibly my parents and teachers at Worth may have different recollections!) I now find myself as Headteacher of St Philip Howard School, a Catholic 11-18 secondary school near Arundel, working in the same Diocese as my brother, another ex-Worth boy, who is Headteacher at St. Paul’s Catholic College in Burgess Hill. How on earth did we end up here?! John Surtees presenting Nicholas Elvidge (C’11) with the Henry Surtees Award

The overall winners of the round-robin tournament for the Henry Surtees Award were the Under 21s squad with two wins over the Staff and the Over 21s teams. I would like to thank Nick Elvidge for sorting out and captaining the under 21s and Mark Breen for doing the same for the over 21s. Their assistance makes my job so much easier. It proved to be a great afternoon’s football thanks to everyone who made the effort to turn up. It really is a special day, especially because John Surtees continues to support this venture. This year John celebrated two important dates, his 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his winning The Grand Prix title. John still remains the only man to have won world titles on both motorbike and motorcar which is why he won BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1965. We ended with a quick dash to the Pitstop for a well-earned post-match tea and presentation of the awards. Look forward to seeing you all next year on Sunday 22nd March 2015. All the (Georgie) Best. Andy Taylor

I’ve been blessed to have had some wonderful role models in my life, whom I have aspired to be more like. Three have made a particular impression on my decision to teach and my journey to Headship. We remember our very best (and worst!) teachers. The TES used to run a feature on ‘My Best Teacher’ where a host of celebrities spoke of the teachers who had made an impression upon them. The common theme throughout was about inspirational, passionate teachers who had a love of their profession and a selfless quality to the approach they took to their work. I was very fortunate to have been taught History at Worth by Alex Farquhar. What a dedicated, caring, patient and hard-working teacher he was. His passion for History was infectious, his desire to walk the extra-mile endless and his commitment to ensure you realised your full potential made a huge impression on me. Education has the power to transform and make a lifechanging difference to others. It was Alex Farquhar who demonstrated that to me most. Nothing worthwhile in life is achieved without commitment, hard work and sacrifice. Bringing up five children, running your own successful business and still having time to take care of everyone else’s needs, is no easy job, but something my mother did and continues to do with aplomb! Her example to me has without doubt led me to want to teach and serve others. My vocation into teaching wasn’t immediately obvious to me despite the fact I’d spent 6 months in Canada during my Gap Year doing just that. It took four years of accountancy following my graduation from Newcastle to realise it was time to take the leap of faith. That leap was very much more the easier for having an older, far wiser and very supportive brother who to this day inspires me in my work. Rob wasn’t one to avoid putting his head above the parapet and his courage, commitment and integrity to do what’s right was the single most important reason for choosing to change career.

The U21s 2014 Team

The following Worthians played in the 2014 Football Tournament: Under 21s John Manning (C’10) Joseph Rivers (F’10) Rishi Amin (F’11) Nicholas Elvidge (C’11) – Captain Tim Long (B’11) Nick O’Dwyer (StB’11) Theo Rivers (F’11)

34 I

Benedict Gardener (B’12) Edmund Gritten (B’12) Nick Gordon-Macleod (StB’12) Conor Keating (R’12) Adam Mascarenhas (B’12) Hugh Slater (B’12)

Over 21s Julian Kirk (StB’75) Tim Starkie (G’90) Mark Breen (B’05) – Captain Edward Michie (B’05) Toby Ingram (B’06) James Talty (StB’06) James Doyle (C’08)

Worth Society Life

Ben Oakley (F’08) Andrew Talty (StB’08) Matt Jeffery (C’10) Ryan Lall (C’10)

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Teaching has been the making of me. I haven’t looked back once and feel extremely fulfilled in my job. It is an enormous privilege to serve the young people entrusted to our care. Young people are an endless source of energy, enthusiasm and vitality. We are challenged by Christ to witness the world through the eyes of children and we have a lot to learn from them. At the heart of it is that we are all teachers whether we know it or not – let’s hope we can all rise to that challenge!

What was it in our experience at Worth that led us in this direction? I have thought carefully about what led me towards teaching. At the heart of this are three core formative aspects of this journey. 1. An inspirational role model - one of my English teachers called George Daly was a person who ‘lit the fire’ for me when it came to learning, motivation and identity. He was someone who was passionate about all he did ranging from his teaching of drama to sport. He had a sense of drive, conviction and focus that had a profound impact on me. In essence I could see unless you gave everything in life you might as well not bother! I hope I have echoed this and lived it out in a small way in how I have taught and led. I have now pledged in writing the impact he had on me. 2. A sense of moral purpose - we were privileged at school to have opportunities to do voluntary service. This helped us see beyond the insular life of school to be challenged to take our place in the world that we live in. Two examples of this for me were volunteering in a special school and at St Botolph's in Aldgate, a homeless crypt. This awoke for me a sense of purpose and direction where I knew I couldn't live a life solely focused on a career without it making a positive difference to the world we live in. 3. An independent spirit - staying away from home gave you skills to live independently. Looking back having a 24/7 school experience encapsulates the best and worst of school days. You had the freedom to be with friends, enjoy sport and a sense of adventure as well as the challenges and intensity faced in school when all isn't going to plan. During this time my faith was nurtured and developed through pilgrimages to Lourdes, cross walks at Easter and other experiences. I also became politically aware and was drawn to the Justice and Peace group which included the work of Amnesty International. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, "Whoever thinks religion and politics don't mix must be reading a different Bible to me." Sometimes this meant sticking up for your beliefs even if nobody else shared them. I hope to engender this sense of conviction and character in the students I serve today. And finally... it has been an immense privilege sharing my vocation as an RE teacher and a Catholic Headteacher with my brother. To have worked together, and now alongside one another, in Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese is fantastic. He is my best friend, confidante and an inspiration and I couldn't think of anything better to bind us together. When we are in school together we are often mistaken for one another - physically there may be some similarities but at the heart of it I hope I share in his vitality, energy and commitment to a job we live and breathe. I believe in this we are in our ‘element’ and for this I give thanks each and every day.

I 35

p (Ireland, ¤1) 70 tember 2007 Wednesday 5 Sep ent.co.uk

www.independ NUMBER 6517 ••• ••

THE T N E D N E INDEP ST POEMS O L E H T : N E D AU

Meet Major General Patrick Sanders

IUS IN EXTRA ESIS OF A GEN EN G E TH LS VEA VERY THAT RE TERARY DISCO LI E V SI U CL EX

Patrick at a COBRA meeting to discuss the flooding crisis

• Born Tidworth 1966. 34 years later had office in room I was born. Sad or what. • Grew up in Gibraltar and Iraq before joining Junior House at Worth and then Rutherford. School career only distinguished by record number of beatings in a term. • After a year of breaking farm machinery and learning to ride and wield a stock whip in Australia, went to Exeter. Didn’t go well. • A year later attended Sandhurst and commissioned into The Royal Green Jackets. Began to grow up.

Patrick, Father Bernard (his housemaster) and a very young looking Father Stephen

• The next 10 years were formative, learning my trade and my Riflemen in the Battalion. Served in Germany during the Cold War, UK, Jamaica, Arctic Circle, Canada, Poland, and on operations in Crossmaglen, West Belfast, Bosnia and Kosovo. • Married Fiona Bullen in ‘92 and had Kit in ‘96. • Attended Staff College and became Brigade Chief of Staff serving in Oman and Kosovo (again). • Promoted to Lt Col and sent to Baghdad in 2003 to work for US General in charge. Fascinating, surreal, alarming. Awarded OBE. • Returned and taught at Staff College, before taking command of 2nd Battalion, which was re-titled 4th Battalion The Rifles. Trained and formed 4 Rifles Battle Group and deployed to Basra. A brutal, intense, very hard fought and hot 6 months. Awarded DSO. • Promoted to Col and given strategy job in MOD. Then promoted again and given command of 20 Armoured Brigade in Germany. Three very happy years follow, increasingly focused on training for Afghanistan. • Take 20 Armoured Brigade to Afghanistan and command Task Force Helmand (British combat forces in Afghanistan). Amazing, sometimes brutal, sometimes thrilling 7 months. Awarded CBE. • Series of brief jobs in Washington and MOD, then promoted to Maj Gen in March ‘13 and take over job as Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Operations) in MOD. Pinch myself. Try to avoid incredulous school friends. What are your fondest memories of Worth? Churns of fresh milk from the school farm at breakfast with several inches of cream on top; Fr Andrew Bertie chanting the call to prayer as our reveille; Dom Bernard’s reenactment of the Charge of the Light Brigade with a broom; Gregorian chant at Matins and Vespers; the monks – especially Bernard, Stevie, Kev, Bruno, Jimmy, Benny and Charlie; mist rising over Monk’s Pond; toast and cocoa in Dom Benedict’s attic; cinema nights in the converted barn used as the auditorium. My friends.

36 I

LF OR (OF YOURSE E) BY A LOVED ON Er NN CO LA ANGE

And your least fondest? Being shouted at by Dom Bruno at weekly confession in Junior House with everyone else sniggering in nervous dread outside: “IT’LL MAKE YOU GO BLIND, BOY!”. Blue papers – a dreadfully destructive punishment, which for a long time caused me to regard writing as a chore rather than a joy. Was there one particular individual who stood out as an influence? Two: Dom Bernard Moss for his constancy, care, quiet reserve, unexpected bursts of passion, the delight and pride he took in our successes, and the sympathy he showed for our failures. He was a wonderful surrogate parent as Housemaster of Rutherford. And my tutor Fr Andrew Bertie who encouraged us to be irreverent, eccentric, to challenge, and (of most use in my career) to be prepared to break the rules. What made you choose the Army as a career? I’d long wanted to because I was so proud of my father and inspired by his military adventures. It was probably a bit lazy of me, but nothing else really appealed. And after a modest turn at Sandhurst (where I continued my career as the most ill-behaved student, accumulating a record number of punishments, as I had in Rutherford), I found I loved the experience of being among Riflemen who had enjoyed none of the privileges I had, but transformed themselves, excelled, and taught me to do so. How have the Christian values you were taught at Worth fitted in with your career as a soldier? Worth highlighted two of the qualities I value and envy most highly in my soldiers and officers. Both are indispensable to military leadership in peace, but especially in war. The first is humility – the ability to recognise you may often be wrong, that everyone has equal value, and that the best ideas often come from the most unlikely and junior sources. The second, selflessness – putting others first, giving credit to others, and ultimately being prepared to put yourself in harm’s way for the sake of other people. Worth’s greatest gift to me was probably faith. I am a poor, mostly non-practising, lapsed Catholic. But when I have needed it, in my lowest moments, particularly at dark times on operations, the faith Worth instilled was a source of strength and comfort. What aspects of being in the Army do you enjoy most and why? In my current job as the Operations Officer for Defence, I enjoy a fascinating and privileged perch watching political debate and decision making at the highest level in Whitehall. Sharing a bunk bed with the PM on the crew deck of a transport aircraft after accompanying him to Afghanistan and Pakistan was quite surreal! But mainly it has been the company of soldiers and the very close ties you develop in adversity that has been my greatest pleasure.

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

15 Full details page

Boom or bust?

ES L A T ’ S R DIE L O S E H T fo r e r BA S R A : e h t d e y a t ve s ‘ We could ha lled a i k d n a . . . s onth m x i s r e h t ano ut b , s s e c o r p e in th lot of people ed? ’ v ie h c a e v a h t a what would th A PALACE OFFICER, BASR ICK SA LT COL PATR

NDERS, COM

SPECIAL DIS

How to beat the market

.propsupeplertmeynt 28-page

Claudiaan

Patrick in his first term in Junior house 1976

Winklem In Extra page 7

MANDING

PATCH FROM

2&3 IRAQ PAGES

How did you deal with the responsibility of all British combat troops in Afghanistan? I’d been lucky enough to command on operations at every level from Platoon all the way up to Battalion. So I was able to draw on that and in particular the experience of a very bloody and hard fought tour as a Battle Group Commander in Basra in 2007. We had trained the Brigade very hard before we deployed to Afghanistan. I knew most of the Brigade very well and they knew me. I had a group of extraordinarily close and talented friends as my immediate subordinates commanding the 7 Battle Groups, and an amazing staff supporting me in the HQ. I became very close to my Afghan opposite number as we fought alongside each other, and we were incredibly well supported at home by our wives and families. So all that made it pretty hard to fail. How did you manage to co-ordinate the Flooding Task Force so rapidly? Easily – I was only the front man. All the real work was done by my team in the MOD, by the Army Headquarters in Andover and by the soldiers, sailors and airmen who worked alongside the emergency services. The more interesting

question is how I ended up sitting next to the PM at the Cabinet Table… Essentially the PM’s Chief of Staff, who I know well from travelling together, called me very early one morning (needless to say he doesn’t often call me!) and asked me to come to No 10 in uniform at 08:30. When I got there I discovered they were going to have a COBRA meeting in the Cabinet Room to discuss the flooding crisis. Seeing all the chairs had been allocated to the Cabinet members except two in the centre (for the PM and DPM I assumed), I took a seat on the back wall. Whereupon to my horror I was moved to the seat next to the PM, who then came in and having opened the meeting in front of the press, turned to me, wholly unexpectedly, and said “So, Patrick, what’s the military plan...?” I hadn’t been able to put one together over breakfast, so I bluffed… What is your ultimate ambition? It’s taken me a while, but I’ve learned that appreciating the journey is more important than where you get to; I’ve been lucky. But once I’ve left I’d quite like to be able to go to Glastonbury one day and watch someone like The National or Elbow under the influence of something. The Army doesn’t let you do that...

I 37

XXII Olympic Winter Games - Sochi 2014 Team GB’s Worthian Gold

n late January, following a final camp at the HQ and ‘Home of British Skeleton’, at the University of Bath, a team of 4 athletes and 9 staff set-off for Russia, as part of Team GB’s Olympic Squad. As Performance Director for the National Governing Body for the Sport of Skeleton, I was selected to be Team Leader by the British Olympic Association. Coming along with me for the 3 weeks were 4 coaches, a team manager, a physiotherapist, strength & conditioning coach and a sled technician. After an overnight stop in Moscow and a 2-hour journey south to the Black Sea coastal resort of Sochi, where the majority of 2,500+ athletes from 88 nations were accommodated, we were transported to the Caucasus mountains 30 miles inland. Accommodated in a purpose built Athlete Mountain Village, the Team GB delegation, including Skeleton, Bobsleigh and Ski & Snowboard athletes, was spread amongst 3 identical ‘lodges’, all decked-out with union flags and Team GB branding, within the vast and well-catered village. Dining halls, gyms, shops, medical centres, etc., were all serviced

by timely and efficient transport, which also took athletes and coaches to each of the venues for training, competition and spectating. In Vancouver 2010, Amy Williams MBE won Team GB’s only medal, a Gold in Skeleton. Since retiring, the vacuum she left was filled by the Silver medallist from Turin (2006) and reigning World Champion, Shelley Rudman, and this season’s World Cup winner Lizzy Yarnold. In the men’s field, Kristan Bromley was competing in his fourth Olympic Games whilst Dominic Parsons, his first. After 4 years’ intense preparation, training and competing, these four athletes, ahead of their peers, had been selected and their ‘time’ had now arrived. Despite some horrendous press, primarily focused on the security threat, the Games were regarded by those that went as sensational. The facilities were ‘world class’ and the security arrangements felt appropriate, well-organised and hassle-free (and were neither overbearing nor aggressive, as was predicted). These along with 25,000 smiling volunteers and a spectacular Opening Ceremony made the XXII Olympic Winter Games a memorable, happy and exceptional event. With 75,000 daily spectators filling the stadia, a worldwide audience of 3bn and some glorious weather (sunny, rather than snowy!), the fans of winter sport were treated to a feast of sporting excellence in an event that the Russian people can be enormously proud of. Prior to the Games in the sport of Skeleton, athletes are restricted to a maximum of 40 runs on the track. These runs

Kristan Bromley at Sanki Sliding Centre

38 I

Lizzy Yarnold and Nigel (front right) with the rest of Skeleton Team GB

Worth Society Life

were achieved in a variety of International Training Weeks and a World Cup Race in 2013, since this new Russian track was opened and homologated in early 2012. With the exception of the Russian athletes utilising ‘home advantage’, and thanks to a plethora of other visits, recces and preparatory work by staff and coaches, British Skeleton athletes arrived as well prepared as any. Following a week of training and the last 10 runs of the allocated 40, Kristan and Dominic both finished in the Top 10, in 8th and 10th respectively in a very competitive field, with the Gold Medal being won by the Russian Alexander Tretiakov. In the women’s competition, GB’s Lizzy Yarnold dominated from the outset and left all her rivals, including Shelley, fighting for the other places. Her natural talent, sliding skill and speed, both at the start and whilst sliding resulted in her being the fastest athlete in all 4 runs of the competition, breaking the track record twice, and won her a Gold medal by almost a second. With an additional 3 other medals, a Silver and 2 Bronzes, Team GB returned to the UK as the most successful team to have competed at a Winter Games in 90 years, albeit the comparison is not exactly ‘like-for-like’ given there were only 20 competing nations and a total of 376 athletes, in 1924!

athletes, adding to Shelley’s Silver in 2006 and Alex Coomber’s Bronze in Salt Lake 2002. There is little doubt the athletes have peaked at the right time, but important to note that Lizzy’s medal was actually the 101st by just 9 World Class Programme athletes, within British Skeleton, in the 4-year cycle since Amy won hers. These staggering results by the team and individuals represent an incredible consistency and systematic success that has been possible thanks to the UK Sport National Lottery funding in tandem with the most incredible, dedicated and fearless athletes – all of whom have been recruited as ‘Talent Transfers’ from other sports and who, excepting the fact that they are unpaid, are professionalism personified. Nigel Laughton (C’84)

In the months after the successful Olympic Winter Games, and ahead of the start of the PyeongChang Olympiad, Nigel resigned from his position as Performance Director to look for his next challenge.

British Skeleton, with no track and no historical culture in winter sport, has won four medals in four Olympic Winter Games with back-to-back Gold medals from two different

Lizzy Yarnold - Olympic Champion Sochi '14

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Opening Ceremony

I 39

Worth’s top fashion model In Vogue Italia

In Toni & Guy's Label M global ad campaign

hen I left Worth in 2010 I had secured a place at City University London to study speech therapy. In my first year I was scouted by a modelling agency but couldn't commit as my degree, being clinical, meant lectures every day and placement one day a week. During my second year I had some bad news from home and was involved in a court case which involved me giving evidence and then appearing in court. It was a very stressful time and I ended up missing lots of lectures so I deferred and decided to go back in September that year.

Proudly holding Fiat ad in Daily Telegraph

One afternoon passing through Angel tube station I was scouted by D1 modelling agency and I thought ‘why not’ as I wasn't actually studying at that point. So I went along to the agency, met the owner and was persuaded to leave my other agency and sign a contract with D1! I had to start from scratch which meant doing test shoots these are unpaid and done to build your portfolio but you can then go to castings for jobs with some good pictures in your book to show what you can do. My first big job was in June 2013, a few weeks after I'd been signed, and I was lucky to get it as there were so many models at the casting! It was for the BedHead TIGI (hair brand for those of you not in the know!) for their show World Release London, celebrating 10 years of the product. I was the model who was picked to have my hair cut on the actual catwalk by Anthony Mascolo himself (he and his wife started the brand). I soon realised how much is involved in shows and what long hours models have to work. We had 3 days of rehearsals for the show and on the day our call time was 8:30am, followed by rehearsals and prep all day. The show started at 7pm and after that we had to stand on podiums for the crowd to see our haircuts. I finally left around 11pm, but the amazing rush of adrenaline when I walked down the catwalk with the other models, the bright lights, the loud music and the audience cheering and clapping was amazing. When it got to August I was really enjoying myself and I just loved going to work! The thought of going back to university and giving this all up was not even something I wanted to consider. In the end I decided to leave my studies and continue modelling. I will always have my brains and the A-levels that I achieved at Worth, however I won't always have my looks or all the opportunities that were, and still are, coming my way. Over the last year I have met and worked with some amazing people and feel very privileged. Daphne Selfe, who at 85 is the oldest supermodel gracing the pages of magazines such as Vogue and doing catwalks in Paris, even Facebook messaged me after we worked together, which was amazing. I met her when I was in Venice working for the Diesel clothing brand to launch a new collection in collaboration with Nicola Formichetti (he designs clothes for the likes of Lady Gaga and Brooke Candy). The show was held at the Diesel headquarters/factory and organised by the company owner, Renzo Rozzo, himself who is worth $3bn (he even has a helipad for his helicopter there). There were 50 male

40 I

On the Catwalk in Fashion Week Left: The Henry VIII Shoot

Modelling for Northern Ireland Hairdresser of the Year

and female models in one hotel and we all flew out and back together and had some great fun as we were all buzzing after the show! I've also worn some amazing clothes and been dressed by celebrity stylists (great for lots of gossip!) and Vogue's fashion assistant, Lucy Bower. Some of the designers I've been lucky enough to wear are Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Valentino, Givenchy, Swarovski-crystal covered dresses - to name but a few. I've travelled to do shows in Istanbul, Romania and Italy and am hoping to travel even more. We have castings with agencies from NYC, Paris, Milan and Tokyo every 4 months as they come over and visit all the top agencies to try and find more models. I've recently been signed to an agency in Milan where I will be going this year for a month during their fashion week. I love the thought that goes into the theme of every shoot. I did a great editorial of Henry VIII's wives which was published in All Hollow magazine online (sold in Harrods and Selfridges). I’ve also just been featured in VOGUE Italia online which was very exciting, but still hope to get into Vogue in print one day soon! Unfortunately there are some downsides to modelling. As I mentioned, the editorials and test shoots are all unpaid so any magazine work tends to be unpaid - yes, even in Vogue! So I could end up doing a 10 hour day for no money and also miss castings that day for potential well paid jobs!

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

And you could be shivering in the freezing cold shooting summer-wear in the winter (my lips have gone blue before!). It can take up to 3 months to get paid for each job. It's the way all top agencies work - and they take 25% commission. So I have to be very careful with my money. I could get a week of working every day and earning lots, but when the money comes in I can't spend it as I have to think about the future as I may not work for ages. The money is not consistent and if you don't go to castings you don't book jobs! It has taken me a year to get to where I am now, but I’m finally getting well-known and more work rather than unpaid shoots and therefore making some money. I am currently on the Fiat 500 car advert on TV being shown on all channels and elsewhere in the EU. The campaign advert is also on billboards all over the UK and in Europe and has been featured in The Daily Telegraph, The Evening Standard, Grazia magazine and The Metro. And in case you're wondering - I am not going back to study speech therapy for various reasons and have decided to do a Personal Training Course. I have all my manuals and have been studying when I can and I'll start the online course later this year. As well as continuing to model, I'd like to train people and work alongside Help for Heroes to help injured servicemen. Chloe Thomas (StM’10)

I 41

Running for Africa A mother and children collecting water at a borehole

In April of this year, Worthian Julian Gabriel (C’87) ran 6 marathons (250 kms) in 7 days across the Sahara desert to raise funds for Worth’s friendship parish in Irundu, Uganda. Julian looks back on his desert challenge and talks about the projects he has been able to support in Irundu.

t was back in 2004 when I happened to turn on the television and there was a documentary on the Marathon des Sables (MdS) – a seven day, six marathon race across the Western Sahara. The MdS is known as the toughest footrace on earth, not only because it takes place through formidable landscape (sand, rocks, dry river beds, steep dunes and more sand!) in one of the world’s most inhospitable climates (temperatures can reach up to 50⁰C), but the rules require you to be self-sufficient, carrying all your provisions with you on your back for the seven days (except for your tent and water supplies). I cannot say any one particular thing about the MdS caught my interest, but from the moment I had watched the documentary, I had a strange yearning to do the event. At the same time, I probably also knew in the back of my mind that I was being totally unrealistic if I thought I could ever compete in such a gruelling challenge, especially given I had three young children and a demanding job. Given both the amount of training and financial commitment needed to take part in an event like the MdS, it meant that over time I eventually wrote-off the idea of it ever happening. It was during one wintery day in early 2012 when a friend of mine phoned me out of the blue and said “let’s do the MdS”. The idea quickly raced back to the forefront of my mind. Was I physically and mentally strong enough to tackle such a challenge? How would I be able to broach the subject with my family? Given my work commitments, how would I ever be able to find the time to put the amount of training

in that would be needed? Was this the once in a life time opportunity I had been waiting for to do something different and make a difference? As I mulled it over in my own mind and then talked it through with my family over the coming weeks and months, unsurprisingly I heard a lot of the same comments: “You’re mad. Why would you ever want to take part in such a crazy event? It’s dangerous and you could do real harm to your body.” I suppose this was not an unreasonable reaction to get given the MdS was known to have had one or two fatalities in previous years, and the stark pictures posted on the website of blisters, drips and the harsh environment in which runners were having to survive said it all. I had always wanted to set myself a challenge at some stage in my life to help improve people's lives in Africa. Competing in the MdS seemed the perfect recipe both in terms of its difficulty and the fact that it took place in Africa. Although I had never been to Africa before, there had always been something about this continent which had captivated me. With so many great causes to support through the many events people manage to participate in these days, I felt that I needed to be undertaking a suitably extreme challenge to get people’s attention and to find a project to support that I could make a real difference to. When I moved to West Sussex with my family in 2009 and we joined Worth Abbey parish, I started to learn about Worth’s friendship parish, Irundu, and the work that the

parish had been doing to support people in this remote part of Uganda. Situated two hours’ drive north of Jinja, Irundu is a large parish with a population of 110,000. With the help of Fr James and the parish priest in Irundu, I identified a specific project to raise funds for, to build a borehole to provide fresh water next to a school in a village called Ngole. Water is a vital commodity in places like Irundu, and with only thatched roofs, roof water collection is impossible. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to Irundu last January with Fr James and four other parishioners to meet some of the people who would benefit directly from the water borehole. I also took the opportunity to meet with the contractor who would build the borehole. The cost of building the water borehole was going to be £6,000, which I felt was a good fundraising target to aim for, and amazingly it would provide clean water for around 4,800 people. Whilst I have always enjoyed running, I could never claim to have ever had a real talent for it – a middle of the row runner at best. However, I seem to be able to make up any shortcomings I have as a runner through having some reasonable stamina and determination. They say if you are going to successfully finish a race like the MdS, then it is as much about your mental strength as physical. Although surviving the seven days in the desert in itself would be a significant challenge for me, being properly

Meeting Local Parishioners in Irundu with Fr James

42 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 43

Running for Africa continued Tent no. 104 – my home for the 7 days in the desert

prepared for such an event meant that I would also need to complete a gruelling and rigorous 15-month training programme which involved more than 500 hours of training and running 2,700 miles (including completing 7 ultramarathons, with my longest run being a 3-day multi-stage ultra across The Ridgeway totalling 86 miles); 3 weeks of altitude, desert and heat training in Morocco and Uganda; and acclimation training in a heat chamber for 10 days immediately prior to the MdS. Equally important was to make sure that I had the right equipment and food (and practised with it in similar conditions to the MdS), and that I had prepared my body as best as I could for the heat and terrain it would have to endure, with blisters, dehydration and heatstroke being the three biggest threats to competitors finishing the race.

44 I

I also knew that if I was going to manage to carry a 10kg pack on my back and survive on only 2,000 calories of food each day, back and shoulder pain and constantly feeling hungry were also going to be significant problems to contend with. With no washing facilities, hygiene was also a major concern in such a warm environment (I would be sharing a tent with seven other competitors), with many runners not managing to finish the race because of illness. From a fund-raising perspective, things could not have gone better. I was overwhelmed by people’s generosity and the support they had given. I managed to raise a total of £24,000, a massive £18,000 above my original target. This meant I could fund the cost of building two water boreholes as well as build two classrooms for one of the local primary schools in Irundu. The second borehole would be located in

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

one of the other poorest and most remote villages in Irundu called Inuula, with both boreholes expected to be completed by the end of October. The classrooms would provide better quality teaching facilities for the primary school, where the children currently have to have their classes outside under a tree. The MdS itself lived up to all my expectations and more, both in terms of mental and physical challenge, and also in experiencing one of the most formidable landscapes and inhospitable climates on this earth. My two goals had been to complete the whole MdS and to enjoy it (if that was possible!).

I feel grateful that I have been able to achieve both of these goals, and finishing 272nd out of 1,029 was just a bonus. The generosity of people’s sponsorship and knowing that I would be helping so many people in Irundu without doubt kept me going through those difficult moments. The camaraderie amongst the competitors was also a unique experience, especially the friendships I made with my seven tent mates. Taking part in the MdS and being able to help the people I have in Irundu are experiences that will stay with me forever. I am now planning my next challenge! Julian Gabriel (C’87)

I 45

Drawing the Camino

The Wedding Planner A Wedding Fair at Marwell Hotel, Winchester

O Cebreiro Galicia

have always been involved in event planning from arranging surprise birthday parties for friends and family to various work placements, including organising a charity Dodgeball event for 700 people during a work placement in the MENCAP Fundraising Events Team. It was after helping out at a wedding at Combe House Hotel in Somerset during a work placement that I realised I loved the whole experience and that event planning was what I wanted to do. I’m very organised and have always had an interest in design, being creative and working with people from all walks of life, and I knew starting a wedding planning business would allow me to use these skills on a daily basis. I decided to undertake a Diploma in Wedding Planning from the Blackford Centre for Professional Wedding Planners and this gave me the confidence to start Naomi Sautter Weddings & Events. My years at Worth and Winchester University have played an important role in helping me to be able to run my business alongside my Business Management degree. I was very much involved with extra-curricular activities, in particular the music department, and playing three instruments as well as having singing lessons taught me to manage all areas of my life effectively. This balance has allowed me to excel academically, achieving First Class Honours, continue to run my business and occasionally have some free time!

Laila arriving at the wedding ceremony

The colour palette chosen was white with eye-catching floral decorations around the ceremony arch and an elegant white three-tier cake, which provided a stunning centerpiece. The entertainment also played an important part in the day, with Laïla and her friends performing a fantastic Bollywood dance, as well as a guitarist and singer providing beautiful acoustic music for the post-ceremony drinks.

Our first venture as a company was planning Wedding Fairs for the award-winning Marwell Hotel in Winchester. We planned, organised and hosted both the Autumn ‘13 and Spring ‘14 Wedding Fairs which held 30 of Hampshire’s leading wedding suppliers. The events were well attended and provided prospective brides with an extensive range of suppliers that they would need for their wedding day.

Here is what our lovely clients Jesse and Laïla had to say after their big day, “We contacted Naomi once we realised we had too many things to look after during our wedding, and that doing it ourselves wouldn’t give us the opportunity to enjoy our big day. Naomi and her team did an excellent job for us: they coordinated all of our suppliers, they were there making sure everyone was doing everything the way we wanted it to be and when we wanted it to be, and also solving some last minute issues. While getting ready at the venue we could just see Naomi and her team running around and ensuring everything was perfect which really made us feel very comfortable, and allowed us to enjoy the moment. We would absolutely recommend Naomi to any couple aiming to enjoy their wedding while being assured everything is running in safe hands. Thank you Naomi, Stephanie and Madeleine, you delivered an excellent service to us, which exceeded our expectations!”

The most popular wedding planning service we provide is Wedding Day Management. This package is designed for couples who have organised all their wedding plans themselves and gives them the reassurance that they will have a dedicated wedding planner to oversee everything on the day and make sure all the elements of their wedding plans come together.

I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with some lovely couples on their wedding days. We have some exciting ventures booked for 2015 including a Las Vegas themed event and a wedding at a stunning 18th century watermill. I’m currently undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Law at Oxford Brookes University and expect the forthcoming year to be just as busy!

I’d like to share with you the wedding of Jesse and Laïla who we provided Wedding Day Management for on their big day on Saturday 9th August 2014 at Ardington House, a beautiful listed Georgian manor house in Oxfordshire.

If you would like to see more of our weddings and events take a look at our new recently launched website www.nsweddingsandevents.com

Although running a business whilst undertaking a degree is demanding, the hard work is incredibly rewarding. I love the challenge that comes with meeting and working with clients who have a few ideas in mind for their wedding, but do not know how to bring all the elements together and make their ideas a reality. Being able to work with our couples to help them create their dream day and seeing them enjoying themselves as we ensure their wedding runs smoothly is highly fulfilling.

Jesse and Laila

Jesse and Laïla’s Bollywood glamour wedding and the stunning outside ceremony space was perfect for a warm summer’s day.

Naomi Sautter (StA’11)

My team and I arrived early to oversee setting up of the venue, co-ordinating caterers, florists and entertainment staff as well as putting the finishing touches in place in the marquee. Ardington House provided the perfect venue for

The Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela

Las Tres Guapas, El Burgo Ranero, León

n October 2013 my wife Flora and I set off on foot for Santiago de Compostela from St Jean Pied de Port at the base of the French side of the Pyrenees. We had given ourselves seven weeks to do the 800 kilometres. Some people do it much more quickly but, as I was intending to draw every day, we decided pace was not the priority. The first and second days soon gave us food for thought as we had got up early, walked all day, arrived just in time for supper and then it was dark. So no drawings so far. The third day convinced me that without a change of regime I would end up with no drawings, so I got up well before dawn and set off back the way I had come.

Drawing is a very good way of recalling places and making friends. Each drawing became an event, sometimes with a small crowd watching. Photography in the making, as with writing, is entirely private but drawing in public allows viewers to watch the process as well as the finished result. The entire collection can be viewed on line at www.jamescockburn.co James Cockburn

I set up my easel and, with my miner’s lamp on my forehead, started to draw the little group of buildings that was the romantic village of Akeretta. I thought there would be very few, if any, people around. Wrong. The path was buzzing with pilgrims all of them giving me a cheery “Buen Camino” as they passed. One hour later, and I was to follow them. After that I decided the best thing to do was to get up earlier and draw on arrival. We had a couple of ‘rest’ days in Burgos and León in which it was theoretically possible to draw all day. When we reached Santiago feeling elated and exhausted I had accumulated 40 drawings all in charcoal on hot pressed watercolour paper. From the balcony, Los Arcos, Navarre

46 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 47

Running for their lives – my Sierra Leone marathon experience

hate running. When my company sent an email round asking “who would like to run the Sierra Leone marathon”, I can’t say my hand shot up. This was the third year they had supported this cause for the UK charity Street Child of Sierra Leone and the two previous ‘recruitment calls’ I had swiftly deleted. This year, however, I thought I’d let it rest in my inbox a bit longer and having chatted to a few colleagues who had run it before, I thought I might as well attend the information meeting and make an informed decision on it. There were six potential candidates in the meeting, and the first words spoken to us were “so thank you for signing up”. So that was that. Far too polite to say no, we had signed the next seven months away to training and fundraising.

Dan arriving in Freetown

Training and fundraising. Two words that put most people off any form of sponsored endeavour. It involves a lot of pain without the relief at the finish line as you know you’ve got to do it two or three more times that week. Having purchased a brand new pair of shoes and ‘Running a Marathon for dummies’ (which should really be titled ‘Running a Marathon is for dummies’), I was set. Taking the advice to make it as scenic as possible, my routes included lunchtimes round Shadwell basin in The City and along the Thames either back home to Fulham or out to Brentford and back on the weekends. I had an app called ‘Map My Run’ on my phone which gave me mile splits and the distance I had travelled as I ran. It also gave me a snazzy breakdown of how my speed slowed over the distance as well as a map of the route I had taken. It was quite amusing reviewing the confused scribble on the screen showing me getting lost a couple of miles out from home. My hatred for running didn’t cease in this time as each new training run would come with a new niggle I’d have to deal with. Week by week I would slowly increase the distance until two weeks before the marathon I had run 19 miles on a Saturday morning and felt as close to death as I’d ever done before. The fundraising had its own challenges. The London Marathon raised £53 million this year and as a country, our top one thousand charities raised just under £11.5 billion in voluntary donations making us one of the most generous countries per capita in the world. Unfortunately Street Child does not make that list and the reality of charity fatigue, especially within my own company for whom this was the third year people were being asked for sponsorship, was quite daunting. We continued to crack on and as a team, we organised a pub quiz, a couple of raffles and even speed dating as well as pleas to family, friends, colleagues and reputable school alumni organisations all of whom responded in droves. It was quite humbling to see this generosity and as we were boarding the plane our total stood at just one thousand shy of our ten thousand target. The first sensation I got when I stepped out onto the tarmac was the heat. It was just before sunset and the air was still warm with humidity. Freetown International Airport wasn’t quite Heathrow Terminal 5 with customs and baggage collection pretty hectic with no obvious queuing system and I can’t say I saw a duty free but once through we were

48 I

greeted by our drivers and driven through a flash storm for a couple hours to the town of Makeni, the home of the Sierra Leone Marathon. The main focus of Street Child is to provide education for children who are either orphaned or sent out to work to help support their families. They also provide business mentoring and grant schemes for those small family businesses. The first couple of days were spent visiting these projects as well as a couple of urban and rural schools. I was amazed at the euphoria that greeted us as we drove down the roads as almost every child without fail would scream "Aboto! Aboto!" (which means "white man! white man!"). When we got out of the car they would run to us like rock stars, desperate to show off their English and say hello. In most cases they were just curious to see what these strange looking people were doing in their village and would hardly ever ask for anything. The older children were very articulate, again keen to share their day to day stories and views on Manchester United. When I asked about what they wanted to do once they had finished school, they all talked about their desire to work with some of the programs set out by Street Child or other charities out there. Whilst it was encouraging to see them already planning their future, it did demonstrate a dependence on these projects and the necessity to keep them running. If ever anyone needed reassurance that the money we were raising was both essential and worthy of the cause, those two days settled any doubts. Sunday was race day and my alarm went off at 4am with the race starting at 6am to give us plenty of margin for error. The overall feeling was that of nerves but also the desire to get out on the course and get on with it. It was still dark as we got to Makeni Stadium but by the time we were on the start line the sun was beginning to rise. After a short speech from the race director the gun went and we were off. The route took us out of the stadium, through the town of Makeni and then into the rural villages in a loop that lead us back to the stadium. At that time in the morning the temperature was pleasant and there weren’t that many people on the road but the one thing that was very noticeable was the gradient of the route. We had been told there would be hills and I guess London isn’t the best place to train for that, but although none of them were particularly steep they were long and undulating. The

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 49

Silt Road The Story of a Lost River By Charles Rangeley Wilson (R’83) 2013 Chatto & Windus £16.99

Running for their lives continued

Around about the same time one of the local marathon runners was struggling up ahead. We started walking together and got chatting. His name was Usin, he was 20 years old and was the eldest of three. His father had passed away when he was 16 so had to work with his uncle to help support his family. Like me, Usin was a Manchester United fan so we talked about the glory years of the past as well as how much we wished Cristiano Ronaldo had stayed on. The furthest Usin had run was 7 miles and was wearing red plimsolls so the pair of us weren’t in any danger of winning the race at this stage but we continued to stroll on, occasionally taking turns to start a jog that would normally last for 100 metres before slowing to a walk again. The added problem to this little run in the sun was that with the A4 laminated mile markers starting to disappearing after mile 17, Map My Run telling me conflicting distances after the half marathon mark and the water stations not entirely sure where they were let alone how far there was to go ‘til the end, we had no accurate idea about how far we were from the finish line. At this stage the heat and humidity was increasing and with my knees a bit better I was quite keen to get to the finish line before I fried. My phone ran out of battery having told me I had done 28 miles and we were still running but as the water stations became more confident that we were getting closer, our pace picked up until we could see the walls of Makeni Stadium. We could hear the noise inside but the added torture was that we had to run round the outside three more times before entering through the main gate. It was not exactly Wembley inside, but the euphoria of the few hundred locals cheering us on was overwhelming and as I crossed the line arm in arm with Usin I couldn’t stop myself crying. Seven months of preparation was over in six hot, sweaty, painful hours and I was delighted.

Book Review

an you really lose a river? Well, yes, it appears you can. You simply regard it as a nuisance and build over it, constructing culverts, sluices, pipes and drains to get rid of the water. This inevitably plays havoc with the environment, but, when the river is going through the centre of a town and its citizens decide to chuck shopping trolleys, household waste, or worse, into it, in short when it becomes a tip, what can the average mayor do to improve the look of their town? Bury the river.

mental challenge of seeing this long stretch of dirt track that extends for as far as the eye can see was considerable. The morning wore on and the villages started to get livelier with the children running to the street with their usual ‘Aboto!’ cheers. With ‘Map My Run’ somehow still functioning in rural West Africa, I could measure my pace and was on track with what I would normally do in London. I managed this for the first ten miles but the uneven terrain and consistent hills started to wear my knees down and by mile 11 I wanted to stop. I kept telling myself to keep going and my half marathon time was 2 hours and twenty minutes but at mile 15 my run went to a walk. I’d only ever done that once in training and knew it would be tough to get going again but I’d never had any problems with my knees before and knew I couldn’t risk not finishing the marathon.

Charles Rangeley Wilson (R’83), better known for his writing and his BBC films about fishing, has turned his prodigious talent to create an elegy for a lost part of England: maybe a part that only exists in the imagination. Robert Macfarlane, on the cover, describes the book as: ‘A passionate pursuit of landscape ghosts’. Specifically this book is about the river Wye under the town of High Wycombe in the Thames Valley. The title, Silt Road, is an ironic nod to the Silk Road where, from the 2nd century BC, traders made a fortune bringing Chinese silk, and, incidentally, other not so enriching things such as bubonic plague, to the west.

I said my goodbyes to Usin and his family and joined the others for the post marathon party. Not exactly the liveliest of afternoons with exhaustion, relief and incredibly boring post run chatter being the main themes but it was very welcome at the time.

Charles writes like Gower batted, with apparent ease, yet it is not an easy book to get into. The narrative veers from the very personal: chatting with his wife, feeling ill in a hotel bedroom, a visit to his mother’s grave; to the minute study of local history and its eccentrics, to excursions into the history of taking trout to New Zealand.

As a team we had never set ourselves time targets for completing our half/full marathons but rather looked at the fundraising as the benchmark. When we got back to the comfort of the UK (and Wi-Fi) we saw that our sponsorship page had hit £17k whilst we had been away. With our company adding £10k and the UK government matching every pound raised, it brought the total amount received to the charity up to £54k which is a phenomenal amount! I cannot thank my colleagues, family and friends enough for that support and am also grateful to the Worth Society for their generous donation. The whole five days were incredible and whilst other marathons have the huge crowds to cheer you along, I don't think anything can be as inspiring as having the very people you are running for lining the roads and cheering you on and I will cherish that forever. I still hate running.

It is a detective story and one must piece the disparate parts together to get the picture. Like an impressionist painting one has to stand back to see the subject. It is as well to accept that you do not know where you are being taken and just sit back and enjoy the ride. It often appears that Charles is discovering the subject as he goes along. For those that persevere, the final result is very satisfactory. Indeed Charles’s way of writing keeps the reader’s attention fresh and alert. The book’s concerns are with the big topics: the meaning of our lives, the environment (of course), and our need for sensitivity to one another. In microcosm we are all interdependent eco systems. This book is an exploration of emotional reality and it is touching, revealing, and a call to action for environmentalists. Those who enjoy off-centre romantics, and quirky realists, in particular those who know the work of Yeats and Sebald, a coupling Charles puts at the very beginning of this truly great book, will love it.

Daniel Pring (R’03)

This book is accompanied by Charles’ own photographs and, as one might expect from an artist who had studied at the Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford, they are well chosen, some precise, some suggestive, and do their job augmenting the text.

With the rest of my team heading off to a pool party at the local hotel, I had to make a quick stop off at Usin’s house as I had promised to meet his family. There I met his uncle, grandmother, sister and friends all of whom were so friendly and welcoming. It was remarkable how grateful they were for the charity’s work and it did make me recognise how lucky I was to have the luxuries I enjoy.

Reviewed by James Cockburn (Former Art teacher at Worth who taught the writer and is still a friend) Dan and Usin crossing the finish line

50 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 51

Cider House at Buckland Abbey

~ Cider House is a luxury bed & breakfast in Devon owned & managed by Worthian Bertie Hancock & his wife Bryony.

It is set in the heart of the National Trust 700 acre Buckland Abbey Estate and the Tamar Valley AONB, which offers stunning surroundings, and a 5 star experience with the truly personal touch of a family run luxury bed & breakfast. Nestled in a peaceful secluded valley steeped in history and charm, we offer home grown and reared breakfasts, open log fires and beautiful individually styled and luxurious bedrooms.

Luxury Bed & Breakfast in Devon

Caught on Camera

Our priority is that our guests feel relaxed and spoilt from the moment they arrive. Our rooms are simply luxurious, with sumptuous furnishings, beautiful bathrooms and fine linen. Let us exceed your expectations.

Michael Rowland [Falloon] (C’67) in his film ‘Being in Heaven’

Whether for an indulgent weekend with a loved one for a special occasion or take the whole house and enjoy the wonderful setting with a larger group of friends and family, find out more on our website and take advantage of our special offers to spoil yourself.

01822 259062 • www.cider-house.co.uk • indulge@cider-house.co.uk

Oliver Hall (B’13) taking part in a sack race whilst volunteering with Raleigh International in Mahama Village, Tanzania

Be it at the Vintners Club, Invitation Ball, the annual Call My Bluff evening, or any other given opportunity, Worthians have always shown a great appreciation of the grape! The Wine Company has been importing the finest wines in Christendom since 1854, and has put together an exclusive and delectable mixed case for members of the Worth Society and affiliates of Worth School.

The Wine Company

David Barder’s (C’63) drawing of his son, Benjamin

Worthian Selection 2013 Mâcon-Villages, Les Vignerons des Terres Secrets, France 2014 Viogner, Wide River, Robertson Valley, South Africa 2013 ‘Topuku’ Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand 2012 Cabaletta, Tenuta Fiorebelli, Rosso di Venezia, Italy Andrew Rome (G’78) salmon fishing this summer in Iceland

2011 Rioja Crianza, Señorio de Uñuela, Spain

Ben Booker (B’13), Alice Rooke (StA’12) and Olly Pateman (F’13) following their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award presentation at St James Palace in March 2014

Stephen Ebbett (R'97), on the right, having broken the indoor rowing world record: 1 million metres in 89 hours, 19 minutes and 9.8 seconds in June 2014

2009 Château Belrose ‘Réserve Moncaillou’, Bordeaux, France

2 bottles of each of the above (6 reds and 6 whites) for £99, saving you £15.88 Including next day delivery* and a complimentary corkscrew The Wine Company is proud to support the Worth Society, and will be making a donation for each case sold to contribute towards their charitable work.

Order now: www.thewinecompany.co.uk/worth or call us on 01206 713560 We are very confident you’ll enjoy every wine purchased from The Wine Company. If you don’t like any bottle, for whatever reason, please let us know. Faulty bottles of any description, and sound bottles returned unopened within one month of purchase will be refunded without question or delay.

52 I

Edward Paget (G’96) at the Sochi Olympics where he was osteopath to the Canadian Olympic Speed Skating Team

THE WINE COMPANY

Hugo Sanders (R’00) with his daughter, Ida

A trio of Worth Society Managers - Olivia Henley, Mary Lou Burge and Marie-Clare McMenemy – at Nick Butterworth’s Leaving Dinner in April

Independent Wine Merchants of Colchester *UK Mainland only. We’re sorry but this excludes Highlands, Islands and Northern Ireland. We will provide a competitive delivery quotation outside this area upon request. Prices include duty and VAT at rates in force at time of going to press. © 2014 The Wine Company. Closing Date: 31st March 2015. The Wine Company (UK) Ltd, registered in England 08922615.

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 53

Caught on Camera continued Sophia Stone (StA’13), who has won a prestigious place to study acting at the American Academy of Arts in New York

Julian Tang (G’93) with his wife Teresa back in his ‘fencing birthplace’ on a recent visit to Worth

Michael Bernard (C’77) enjoyed watching Mark Walker (StB’80) (on right of photo) playing drums with his group Caravan in Salisbury in April 2014

Clive & Terry Bayne celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this year

Ewan Ward-Thomas (B’77), history master, at his school’s Speech Day

Michael (B’99) and Sarah Matthews had their son Henry baptised by Fr Christopher Jamison at Worth on 3rd August 2014

Maddy Ilsley (StM'10), Christian Killoughery (R '10), Benedict Smith (C'11), Tim Long (B'11) and Claire Hodkinson (StM’12) reunited for a holiday in Italy

Alexander Fey (StB’09), Caspar Hoensbroech (B’09), Fabian Schiedat (StB’09), Jacob Hoensbroech (B’09), Jasper Tilmann (R’09), Laurenz Kaltholff (B’09), Sebastian Ottersbach (R’09), Sebastian Tenberge (R’09) and Thomas Ludicke (B’09) at an IB Class of 2009 Reunion at the von Hoensbroech family home near Cologne in July 2014

Tom Calnan’s (R'95) 2014 Guinness Book of Records entry

A large group of Worthians united at Tom Cottrell’s (StB’04) wedding. Back row (left to right) Tim Brenninkmeijer (B’07), Lorenzo Belpassi (B’04), Rupert Brenninkmeijer (B’10), Mark Madsen (C’74), Will Palmer-Brown ( B’07), Maxi Schmidt (StB’04), Boris Bohrer-Bilowitzki (B’04), Charlie Bellm (R’04), Tom Butter (B’04), Chris Madsen (B’04), Alex Gazzi (R’04), Alex Podbury (C’04), Maurice Brenninkmeijer (R’78). Front row (left to right) Livio Belpassi (B’04), Daniel Brown (B’04), William Cottrell (Honorary Worth boy), Tom Cottrell (StB’04), James Furlonge (R’04), Guy Bartleet (F’04) Alex Pollen (StB’ 04), Edward Wansbrough (B’04)

Louisa McCarthy (STM’10) with children whilst volunteering at Buziga Hill Primary School, Kampala, Uganda in July 2014

Robert Carroll’s (R’70) latest celebrity scoop - an interview with Catherine Deneuve in her suite at the Peninsula hotel Hong Kong Samuel Poynder (F’13) at a garden party at Buckingham Palace following the presentation of standards Ceremony for the Household Cavalry

Simon McMenemy (R’89) taking the salute at a parade in Haywards Heath after MidSussex District Council signed the Armed Forces Community Covenant and granted the Freedom of the District to the Royal Yeomanry. Simon has just assumed command of the Regiment

54 I

Tom Elliott (C’96) and Rohan Cavaliero (B’81) at the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur after playing Jakarta Dragons in an Asian 5 Nations club competition in which Tom got man of the match

Simon Albert (G’98) with his son Leo (2 and a bit)

Byard McHugh, Peter Davies and Michael Abbott reunited this summer for a weekend of celebrations to celebrate the 70th anniversary of them starting at Worth Prep School in 1944

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Philip Barnes (StB’73), Peter Hampshire (B’73), and Paul Magoris (G’73) taken at their dinner in London in February 2014 - still friends 41 years later!

Harry (G’05), Hugo (G’02) & Edward (G’01) Bonn preparing for Harry’s wedding in Jersey in June 2014

Team Taylor; Ben (F’03) Andrew and Joshua (B’05) at the annual Worthians Football Tournament in March

Hugh Jolly (C’74) and Jim Piddock (B’74), who normally lives in California, caught up with Fr Stephen when they visited Worth in July 2014

A rather dapper looking Tim Aldridge (B’74)

Dan Hughes (R’98) – with Fr Aidan in disguise – came back to Worth to speak to students about his Everestmillion climb

I 55

Announcements Thomas & Marie Cottrell

Edward & Suzanne Mannix

Harry & Hannah Bonn

Christopher & Hannah Madsen

Births

Marriages

Distinctions

Joe Delaney (G’92) and Sarah, a son, Louis, born on 7th March 2014, a brother for Mila Rose and Maybelle

Engagements

Edward Mannix (StB’78) to Suzanne Barber on 28th June 2014 at Meribel Les Allues, France

Ewan Clayton (C’75) awarded an MBE in 2013 for Services to Calligraphy

Dan Harlow (B’95) and Krista, a son, Benjamin James, born on 19th March 2014, a brother for Sam

Alex Kenney (B’97) to Jacqueline Sainsbury on 6th June 2014

Sam Barnett (C’97) to Laura Byrne, in May 2014

Gareth Maguire (B’97) and Genevieve, a daughter, Felicity, born on 21st May 2014, a sister for Cecily and Finlay Oliver Barnett (StB’98) and Rachel, a daughter, Lottie Rose, born on 24th July 2014 William Walder (C'98) and Sophie, a son, Rafe on 12th March 2014, a brother for Tiggy

Andrew Pollen (StB’00) to Candida Langdon in January 2014 Tom Carew Hunt (StB’02) to Sarah Johnson on 25th March 2014 James Madsen (B’02) to Rebecca Taylor on 28th March 2014 Roger Greaves (StB’04) to Alice Chilton on 22nd March 2014

Conrad Presgrave Payne (G’82) to Juliet Charlton-Tudor on 24th July 2014 at Chiddingstone Castle, Kent Robert Birchall (R’01) to Natalie Elias on 19th July 2014 at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Epsom Chris Coopman (R'02) to Louise Glover on 6th July 2013 at All Saint's Church, Gosforth, Newcastle Chris Kellaway (B’02) to Lucy Myers on 7th June 2014 at St Joan of Arc Church, Farnham

Daniel Garrigan (G’99) and Francis, a son, Cormac Jude Finley, born on 8th April 2014

James Hunt (StB’03) to Melanie Shelley on the 19th July at St Margaret's Church, Horsham

Francis Binney (G’00) and Kate, a daughter, Sophia, born on 8th May 2014, a sister for Maya

Thomas Cottrell (StB’04) to Marie Brenninkmeyer on 2nd August 2014 at the Church of the Holly Name in Esher, Surrey

Andrew Tyler (G’00) and wife, a daughter, Juno, born on 6th May 2014, a sister for Milo

Christopher Madsen (B’04) to Hannah Lovett on 19th July 2014 at Poundon House in Oxford

Louis Pitto (B’01) and Gianna, a daughter, Giulia, born on 9th August 2014, a sister for Louis and Gianella

Elliot Webber (R’04) to Esme Havill on 12th April 2014 at Muddifords Court Country House

Tom Podbury (C’02) and Lauren, a daughter, Claire Isobel, born on 5th February 2014

Harry Bonn (G’05) to Hannah Faulkner on 7th June 2014 at the St Brelade’s Parish Church, Jersey

Deaths Mark Sherwin (R’65) in January 2011, aged 63 years Peter Gilbert (R’68) on 12th December 2013, aged 63 years David Reynolds (R’71) on 7th December 2013, aged 60 years Julian Park (R’78) on 2nd June 2014, aged 54 years Simon Douglas-Dufresne (G’81) on 7th July 2014, aged 51 years William Swabey (G’81) on 1st September 2013, aged 50 years Peter Camilleri (C’92) on 28th December 2013, aged 39 years Dominic Maxwell-Lewis (B’07) in November 2013, aged 25 years Oscar Jefferies (C’14) on 27th July 2014, aged 16 years

Giulia, Louis & Gianella Pitto

Olllie and Rachel Barnett's daughter, Lottie

Conrad and Juliet Payne

The Delaney Family

Chris & Louise Coopman

Flight Lieutenant James & Melanie Hunt

56 I

Robert & Natalie Birchall at their reception at Polesden Lacey with Worthian ushers Luke Barbour (B’01), Luca Belpassi (G’01) and Rob Palmer (R’01) and Best Man, Charlie Birchall (R’03)

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Chris & Lucy Kellaway along with (from left) Max McAlister (G’02), James Powys-Lybbe (B’02) Gus Wardle (R’02) Mark Churchman (C’02), Jonny Smyth (StB’02), Best Man Jim Condie (B’02), Ronan Cloud (B’02), James Arney (R’02), Ben Newman (B’02) Jasper Doyne-Ditmas (B’02) and Ben Leslie (B’02)

I 57

Ben Ainslie! Regularly see Nick (R’72) & Deborah Bathurst who also live in Sherborne, Dorset. Patrick (Paddy) Jago (StB’75) Still working at Willis in the city - President of Willis Re and Chairman of Willis Re Inc. Spends inordinate amount of time in the US on business. Still living in Dorset and Fulham. Happily married (by Fr Stephen OSB) to Jane (nee Denny) for 29 years with two grown up children. Follows NH racing and enjoys seeing his horses beat those of Anthony Ward Thomas (B’76).

News in Brief David Barder (R’63) Now semi-retired in Calabasas, California. Have taken up drawing and water colours (see caught on camera). Peter Campbell (C’63) Since '63 I have; studied at University of Poitier in France; acquired a diploma in French Literature/Language; hitchhicked through most of France and parts of Spain; emigrated to Australia in '68, and spent time in Western Australia, New South Wales, but most of my years witnessed the sheer delights of sunny Queensland. I have been fully trained as a private tutor in basic English; reading, writing, grammar and the special skill of how to study (wish I had known this at school). I specialize in salvaging young children before they drop out of school. A kind of Trouble Shooter. In this, I have been successful for 40 years. At the grand old age of 68 I still compose music, glide sail planes, play table tennis competitions, swim in warm Queensland waters, and am planning to get married. I don't plan to retire. I just plan to live a long time. David Greenland (G’64) I qualified as a typographic designer in 1970 and worked in various jobs before meeting my wife Susan in 1976. I met her in the Roebuck pub, Hampstead, London, whilst having a regular solo gig playing guitar there. We married in 1977 and have 4 daughters and 4 granddaughters. I've worked in the same company as a graphic designer for 29 years and am now semi-retired working 2 days a week. I've seen changes in my work from drawing board to computer to web. Print has declined dramatically. I enjoy working part-time, giving me more time for family and other interests. I seem to be very occupied with our local drama group, the Pirbright Players, which put on 3 shows a year. Clive Bayne (G'65) Happy to say Terry and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary this year with joy and gratitude. Will be seeing my good friend Adrian George (G'66) in the UK this year, and I had the pleasure of seeing Richard Archer-Perkins (C'66) recently in Mexico City - Richard doing huge amounts of business around the world from his base in Shanghai. Mark Sherwin RIP (R’65) Sad news via Sean Goodsir-Cullen (C’65) that he recently discovered that Mark had died in January 2011, a few days short of his 63rd birthday. He leaves a wife, Athena, with whom he had three children as well as having two other children with his first wife, Suzie. For about 20 years Mark and Athena ran a bed and breakfast near Dundee, Scotland. He had previously managed an hotel on Iona, a wine bar in Brighton and lived in a community on an island in the Inner Hebrides. Terence Calnan (R’66) Still living in Gozo since returning to Europe in 1995 after 17 years in Houston, and continue to operate my program/project management consulting company, Project Solutions Corporation, working with clients in US, Europe and Gulf States. Decided to stay put here after Pam - my wife and partner for 43 years - died in 2012. Life is comfortable here, and Malta is convenient for international travel. I still waterski (well, mostly wakeboard now) and thoroughly enjoy my Little Red Rooster (ski-boat) almost all year round. I have lunch with Brian Edwards (C’66) and Louis Farrugia (C’68) in Malta or Gozo every now and again. And see a lot of the Calnan old boys (Des, Tom and Ben) and girl (Janey). We all made the Rugby Club 20 year anniversary dinner in July - almost a complete back line. Christopher (Chris) Dobson (StB '66) Happily working as a priest in Crawley, is about to attempt the Three Peaks 24 Challenge with daughters, Theo and Emily, and other family and friends for MIND in memory of his wife, Jo. Hopefully the knees will hold out! John MacWilliam (StB '66) continues his work as a missionary priest with the White Fathers in Tunisia. This year he has had to spend some time in UK for 'running repairs' but is now fit to continue. The WF research library IBLA has at last reopened following a fire in 2010.

58 I

Sinclair Webster (R’66) This morning a nattily dressed gent from Antwerp dropped by my office and handed me the rings for the wedding of our daughter on the 27th September. This is my first experience of being Father of The Bride. My next appearance will be the end of May next year, but in a supporting role as it will be our son who is getting married. I think we must be the last of our contemporaries NOT to have grandchildren. The cat is relieved.

Michael (Mike) Bernard (C’77) Now a Marketing Director at IBM, having just completed 33 years there. Married to Catherine, with 3 boys (22, 21 and 16) and living in Wiltshire, near Salisbury. Main hobby is playing music, and have recently joined the Hollywood Killers, having high hopes for some good gigs and possibly festivals. I had the privilege in April of seeing Mark Walker (StB’80) playing drums for Caravan in Salisbury. A hugely talented and charming musician!

Michael Rowland [Falloon] ('67) I returned last year to the UK, after four decades in Australia, to put my son into Worth. He is enjoying it and downloading the English gentleman qualities (hopefully!). I work in the personal development field, having given seminars for 220,000 people in Australia, written a bestselling book and made a film, and have now just about transferred everything to the Web, (giving webinars), which is very convenient, as I no longer have to leave my sofa to go to work! Website: www.youandyourlife.com Email: michaelrowland22@icloud.com

Ewan Ward-Thomas (B’77) Senior school history teacher in London. Happy to connect with old Worthians. Email ewanwt@ymail.com

1970s Christopher (Chris) Cussons (R’70) After nearly 44 years of working, I (semi)retired in May 2014; will spend more time travelling and on the boat (having already spent six weeks floating around north Brittany and the Channel Islands) and occasionally interacting with a few clients! James Forte (C’72) Continues to build his Executive Search, Interim and Corporate Responsibility ‘CR Insight’ practice – see www.vision40.net; welcomes informal discussion with any interested Worthian – potential candidate or client. James is also an Associate of James Wheeler’s (C’68) Pilot Partners, whom he first met at the 2014 Worthian City Lunch – the power of Worthian networking! Christopher (Chris) Quennell (C’73) Married to Michele, two sons (Ben and Sam) and presently living in Singapore after a few years in Shanghai and before that Dubai. Home base is Melbourne these days. Still in maritime law, with Campbell Johnson Clark. Dominic Nevill (R’74) Living in an idyllic spot overlooking the Ashdown Forest working at increasing the property portfolio one more time before starting a rock band. Happily married with four daughters, two married with three grandchildren and the ever present threat to the wallet with two teenage professional shoppers. Dominic Quennell (C’74) Married to Jo, one son (Raphael) and back living in London after several years in Japan. Working in a tech start-up involved in ultra-efficient transmission of electrical energy for grid systems. Caught up with a few other ’74 leavers at Gordon’s Wine Bar in June which was great fun. Mark Madsen has the full story elsewhere. Charles Russell (G’74) has moved home and business from London to Cirencester and all relevant information can be found on www.russellrarebooks.com Ian Bowker (G’75) Our eldest daughter, Rosie, graduated from Cambridge in music this summer, and is taking up a place at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama for performance flute in a quest to become a professional orchestral musician. Anyone seeking a wind quintet for functions, or a flute teacher for their child, in either London or Cambridge please get in touch! Our youngest, Laura, has just completed her first year at Edinburgh Uni doing History. Kate, my wife, has been working for the UK Government’s Chevening Programme helping to select outstanding international scholars to study at UK universities, and I am still failing to retire! We are re-discovering the delights of Scotland, turning long car trips at the beginning and end of the uni year into holidays, and my punting got to a working standard just as Rosie comes to an end. Still sailing regularly, completing the Round the Island race this year (no small achievement with over half the competitors retiring) and even beating

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Justin Brown (C’78) Introducing companies to the Myanmar market since 2000 with network to establish and represent. Edward (Ed) Mannix (StB’78) Done two things this year I never thought I’d ever do again: get married and start a chalet operation. Suzanne and I tied the knot at the town hall in Les Allues on 28th June at a wonderfully informal civil ceremony and our new project, ‘Matterhorn Chalets’, is coming together in preparation for this winter season. The Mannix household is however now spread between Méribel and Zermatt so we can never find anything!

1980s Mark Reynier (C’80) Now living in Edinburgh and working on a new distilling project in Ireland. Jonathan Stordy (StB’80) Leading San Miguel's international beer business and still based in Madrid. 2014 highlight so far has been Lisbon final when Real Madrid won 10th European Cup. Our Ciaran finished at Worth two years ago and now at Bristol reading English, daughter Anna (16) starting at Worth this September. Daniel Taylor (B’80) Married 22 years to Liz, and we have 2 daughters Emily (17) and Charlotte (15). Live in Kingston on Thames, and still working in advertising – now at McCann WorldGroup. Spoke at the Worth Careers Fair this year – and whilst there are a host of new buildings, it still felt the same. The closest thing I'll ever come to time travel, especially chatting to the amazing Fr Stephen. Andrew (Andy) Bernard (C'81) Currently living in Hong Kong, feeling a long way from either Kansas or Blighty and noting that the Far East is not very far when you’re in it. It seems the days of gin and tonic on the verandah with a sense of colonial superiority are gone, leaving me woefully ill-prepared. It’s all a bit hot and sweaty here, but it is easy to find opportunity, energy, and dim sum. Food is perhaps more exotic than I have been used to, but I still giggle when I get to ask: “Waiter, do you have chicken’s feet?” Another favourite is fish balls. I find I laugh alone. There is plenty to do – from fine dining to long (dripping) hikes around the New Territories. Work is keeping me off the streets, and occasional visits from friends and family are a welcome distraction. Or is it the other way around? I remain married to the long-suffering Catherine who loves Hong Kong, and my slightly embarrassed children are all doing their own thing and seem to be happy, so there is much to enjoy. John Bennett (R’81) Hung up my boots as CEO of Howden and am now a Non-Exec Chairman and enjoying farming on a larger scale up in Suffolk, but coming down to town once a week or so. My long-suffering wife, Deborah, is seeing rather more of me than she would probably like and our three teenage daughters are all thriving. Rohan Cavaliero (B’81) Living in Malaysia with my family. Am running a property development and investment company based in Kuala Lumpur with the main project being a resort development in Langkawi called 99 East, which includes a golf course and various other things. Worthian discounts are available upon request.

Sean Buckley (G’83) Sarah and I still trying to work out what a responsible parent is! Daughter Alicia turned 18 this summer and my son Max will be 17 next April. Where has the time gone? Caught up with Tony Sugrue (G’83) and family in Luxembourg in July and re-enacted some the '6th form bar' antics at the annual Luxembourg Jazz Festival (plenty of good rock and blues too!!). Completed my year as President of the Bromley and Beckenham British Dental Association section - a great honour to be asked and a very enjoyable year. Have started playing a lot more tennis and racketball in the past 12 months or so, regrettably at the expense of squash - injuries beginning to catch up and waistline expanding! Saddened that the only old boys up for the tennis this year were Chris McCourt and myself. I am incredibly lucky to be invited to the Ryder cup every 2nd year (for the past 6 years) as obviously non playing non exec committee hangers on - always an amazing event and atmosphere, so will be doing my best to cheer on another European victory. Hopefully catching up with the usual ‘83 crowd for our autumnal ale and curry evening in South Kensington - contact Ben 'hot bot ' Drummond if you want to come along. Richard Gale (StB’84) Married Lynn in 1995, living in Hampshire, daughter Jess just finished at St Swithuns in Winchester. She has ridden for GB at dressage for the last 3 years. Son Charley starting Sixth Form at Canford where he has been for 4 years, enjoying his life there. In touch with Luan (StB’84) and Michelle de Burgh, and Godfather to their son, Louis. Conrad Presgrave Payne (G’84) Following my engagement last year I married Juliet Charlton-Tudor on 24th July at Chiddingstone Castle, Kent. We were joined by Jules's three children Ollie, Amy & Will and my two daughters Madeline and Clare as well as family and friends. It was a magical day! William (Bill) Hurst (R'86) Am still acting and doing various theatre shows, TV and occasional movie work. Otherwise, am unmarried and looking after mum in wheelchair with Alzheimers in Suffolk. Feel a bit like Ronnie Corbett in Sorry!!! John Jeffcock (R’86) Katrin (Austrian) and I now have three daughters, Josephine (4), Franziska (3) and Philippa (1). Eamonn Store (C’86) Living in Stamford, Connecticut with Lucy, my wife of 11 years, Poppy (8), Albert (6) and Freddie (3). Have been in the US seven years, previously with WPP and more recently as CEO of The Guardian US, based in NYC. Mark Collini (StB’89) After spending the early part of the year living in a building site Alex and I have been enjoying having our ‘new’ house in Barnes back to ourselves and being able to entertain friends and family again. Now looking ahead to our next big project for 2015. Julian Gairdner (StB '89) and family are continuing to enjoy life in New Zealand. Am heading up the digital and data business for NZX Agri, a division of the NZ Stock Exchange. We're “busy as”, as they say here! Ollie our 11 year-old is excelling at football and will start a new school in February, Freddie aged 4 will start 'big boys school' in February, and Phoebe (3) will be starting kindy soon. That'll give Mel at least one morning without children - much needed! We've had several UK visitors and look forward to family friends arriving for Christmas and my parents visiting in Feb 2015. Dominic Hirons (G’89) Family now settled back in the UK after 3 years in Hong Kong where I worked as Head of Compliance for the Asia Pacific region for Morgan Stanley. We have finally moved into our new home in Cuckfield after a lengthy renovation.

I 59

News in Brief

1960s

Neil Leach (G'76) has been appointed to professorships at Harvard University and the European Graduate School. In November 2014 will publish his next book, Space Architecture: The Next Frontier for Design Research, based on his current research for NASA, developing a robotic fabrication technology to print structures on the Moon and Mars.

Matthew Brown (C’82) Living in Shaftesbury Dorset, in a state of bucolic bliss. (Nearly) married to reluctant fiancée Becky, spend a lot of time running around after two small, noisy children. Work-wise, my moment of clarity came when told by a head-hunter that I wasn’t “mentally configured for full-time corporate employment”. Result! Haven’t looked back since. Do about two days a week in London, either coaching corporate/individual productivity or sitting on company boards (currently a record label and a bespoke clothing business - neatly encompassing two of my passions). Bumped into Hope Elletson (C ’81) in my local recently. He lives in Shaftesbury, so it may be hard to avoid him in future. Also in touch with Giles Hamilton (B ’82) and Nick Moore (B ’82) both have weathered pretty well, considering. On the creative front, I am hoping to finish my blasted novel this year, and an album of classic rock in the same time frame. On both fronts, don’t hold your breath. Would love to hear from anyone who finds themselves in Dorset and/or can offer the prospect of paid work (but not a job). Contact: matthew@brownglobalenterprises.com

George Jeffcock (R’89) Our eldest daughter has recently graduated from Sussex University and following a stint at Herbert Smith has joined the graduate trainee scheme as an accountant with a French multinational. Edward (Dobbo) Robinson (B’89) Have been self-employed for 10 years now which I still enjoy even though I do not qualify for a Premium Bank Account - the big deal is always around the corner though! Living in Maidenhead with Helen (happily married for 16 years in October 2014), Tim (10) and Jamie (8). Happily meet any Worthians who live in or around Maidenhead. Have taken up golf and if any Worthian would like to play at Maidenhead please let me know - especially if you or anyone you know wants to sell a house in Maidenhead! Have realised I have said ‘happily’ twice in this short profile so that must be a good thing!

1990s

Dominic Stobart (C’90) I live in Pelham, NY with my wife and two kids. When not working as a Television Producer I race road and track on the Twin Six bike racing team. Tom Holloway (C'91) Back in the UK after a wonderful but short year at the Ecole de Guerre in Paris. Next stop Mali for six months working in the UN military headquarters, then who knows what. Christopher Wigan (R'92) 4 years ago, I set up an Aerial Fitness school called Flying Fantastic www.flyingfantastic.co.uk Currently run from two venues in Battersea and Farringdon – both rented by the hour – but desperately after our own venue where we can really take it to the next level. We're after a space of around 2,000 sq ft, 6 metre ceiling height, and accessible via public transport - any help much appreciated! James Abbott (C’93) In January, en-route to my youngest brother Mark’s (JH & C’93) wedding in New Zealand, I had a fabulous day’s stopover in Singapore with Carl Baptista (StB’93), who it was wonderful to see and catch up with – it always amazes me how old friends can pick up where they left off….in our case 20 years on. Carl is on top form and seems highly successful and if any contemporaries have a Singapore stopover I cannot recommend looking him up enough! It is also great to be back in regular touch with Bobby Acworth (C’81 & teaching staff), who I bumped into around Christmas and discovered lives around the corner from me in Market Harborough. Sebastian Bailey (R’93) Living in New York with wife Juliet and two daughters, building American presence of Mind Gym. After 7 year parttime slog, got my PhD in Psychology of Education 2 years ago. Very keen to meet Worthians living or passing through NYC. Julian Tang (G'93) News via Fr Christopher that Julian has been selected to represent Canada in the Men's Foil at the Commonwealth Fencing Championships in Largs, Scotland in November this year. Julian and his wife, Teresa, visited Worth recently and, particularly, the fencing gym. He subsequently told Fr Christopher that he “spent many sweaty hours in there poking and getting poked… it was quite the treat going back and absorbing the energies of my fencing birthplace”. He joins the impressive list of Worthian international fencers but is, I believe, the first of our fencers to represent a country other than England or GB. Dean (Ox) Hurley (StB’94) Temporarily swapping the south coast of England for the south coast of Africa on a sabbatical with Babcock. Chasing the winter sun! Not much to report otherwise... Tom Calnan (R’95) has made it into The Guinness Book of Records as the oldest player in international rugby history to debut at international level in both league and union. Angus Gairdner (StB’96) Still living in Putney and working at Sky as Head of Presentation – which in short means I am responsible for what actually ends up going on-air on all the channels at Sky, which is both a really exciting job (if not a little scary) and at times a tad stressful if things go wrong! Thankfully that’s not too often, but seemingly always late at night, at the weekend or when I’m in a restaurant and my food has just arrived!!! Just about to celebrate 1st wedding anniversary with Jules – that’s my wife not brother to add to the confusion, and any Worthian looking to book a ski trip should look no further than booking through Jules at PowderByrne, they are brilliant. We managed a trip to both Courmayeur

60 I

Paddy Scott (B'01) Working as a cameraman based in London, about to go on my second trip filming in Antarctica this winter.

Edward Paget (G'96) Went to the Sochi Olympics as the osteopath for the Canadian Olympic Speed Skating Team.

Tom Carew Hunt (StB'02) proposed to Sarah Johnson, in the Rose Garden of Christ Church Greyfriars on 25th March 2014, and plan to marry in May 2015.

Sam Barnett (C’97) Still at Morgan Stanley, working most hours of the day but managed to squeeze in a proposal to girlfriend, Laura; due to be married next August. Stephen Ebbett (R'97) broke the indoor rowing world record in June 2014: 1 million metres in 89 hours, 19 minutes and 9.8 seconds.

Simon Jalie (C'02) Living in London and working as an assistant producer in the football department at Sky Sports, principally attached to Spanish football. Chris Kellaway (B’02) Got married to Lucy who I met on A&B Pilgrimage to Lourdes with Gus Wardle (R’02). Best man was Jim Condie (B’02) with many WOBs involved including Ben Newman (B’02) playing Test Match Special on the organ! Was also Best man to Ben Leslie (B’02) as he married the lovely Gemma. Have left Accenture to begin a new career as an RS & English teacher at Westminster Cathedral Choir School from September.

Alex Kenney (B’97) Continue to live in New York City and travel across the U.S. for my job as a consultant to banks on financial regulations. In June 2014, I became engaged to Jacqueline while sailing on the Hudson and we're planning to be married in Stowe, Vermont in autumn 2015. We will be moving to London in early 2015, after a few months' break to travel the westward route home from the USA to the UK.

James Madsen (B’02) Got engaged to Rebecca Taylor in March this year.

Gareth Maguire (B’97) Baby Felicity was born on 21st May, sister to Cecily and Finlay. We’re now living in Manchester and look forward to catching up with old friends in the UK.

Tom Podbury (C’02) Now living in Texas. Wife Lauren gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Claire Isobel Podbury, on 5th February 2014, and named James Madsen (B’02) and Chris Coxall (R’02) as Godfathers.

Lucian Sumpter (StB'97) Still working in the design industry for a brand agency in Shoreditch, working across a broad range of financial service, FMCG and tech clients. At home, Ava just turned 2 in July, and we've got another girl due in November. Looks like I'll truly be out numbered/voted at home... Me and the dog have made a pact to stick together.

Sam Burman (B’03) Cycling up Mont Ventoux, a stage of the Tour de France in September 2014 for charity.

Simon Albert (G'98) Fully embedded into Hampshire with Clare, Leo (2 and a bit) and a faithful hound. Now working locally and relishing the time saved from the commute, and soon to complete a distance learning MBA after 3 years of study. Recently stayed with Bertie and Bryony Hancock (G'98) in their fantastic B&B, The Cider House, in Devon. Ollie Barnett (StB’98) Still working in private banking at C Hoare & Co. Recently blessed with a daughter, Lottie, born in July – she is a delightful handful! Bertie Hancock (G'98) An exciting new venture for the Hancock family (Bryony my wife, and Bella and Oliver our children) has now been open for 4 months - we have taken on a 10 year lease with the National Trust and converted Sir Francis Drake's former Cider Barn into a Luxury Bed and Breakfast in the heart of the 700 acre Buckland Abbey Estate and Gardens, a 6 mth building project with Oliver arriving at the same time, a complete refurbishment and finally we opened in May. Having somewhat overspent on the house, the second part of the project is temporarily on hold but having successfully acquired the planning permission we are looking forward to purchasing 2 safari tents each complete with wooden floors, luxury furnishings, sleeping up to 6, a wood burning stove for cooking, paraffin powered shower and composting loo. Positioned on the edge of woodland with breathtaking views of the Abbey, the Tamar valley and sea beyond, watch this space for our glamping holiday opportunities. It is certainly more work than we had ever imagined but a truly amazing place to bring up our family. With tranquility, history, culture (a newly confirmed Rembrandt in the Abbey), home reared/grown/made breakfasts, should you be venturing to South Devon do look us up www.cider-house.co.uk William Walder (C'98) Delighted to announce the birth of my second child, Rafe Walder, in March. His big sister Tiggy is delighted to have a new toy to play with – poor lad! The four of us are currently planning our great escape to the Sussex/Surrey countryside.

2000s Francis Binney (G’00) Our second daughter was born on May 8th 2014. We have named her Sophia. Jack Harrison (G’00) Still living in Taiwan working for Jardines (KFC). Despite swimming abilities more comparable to ‘Eric the Eel’ than Michael Phelps, took part in the All Japan 200km triathlon aka Strongman. Thanks go to the various Worth Boys who helped me raise over £2,000 for the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, which aims to raise awareness of depression as an illness and reduce the stigma attached to seeking help www.cwmt.org.uk Patrick Davey (C'01) I got married in India to Veera Maria D'Souza on 27th December 2012 and we're expecting our first child this coming September. I also qualified as an Architect last year and work at ECE Architecture down in Worthing so if you have anyone looking for work experience we offer it.

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Quinton Choi (G'03) After 8 years in Asia, I moved out of Hong Kong to the Middle East and am now based in Doha, Qatar. Being a little closer to Europe, looking forward to coming back to the UK and Worth for a visit. Welcome contact from any Worthians who are in the Middle East. Mark Corbyn (R'04) After a flirtation with consulting, I have taken the plunge and become a contractor at HSBC; since December 2013 been working on improving their Financial Crime Compliance controls for their global trade business. On the side, my older brother Mike and I have been running our Filipino supper club, The Adobros, for a year now which has gone from strength to strength introducing home-cooked Filipino food to the hungry masses of London. Christopher Madsen (B‘04) was married to Hannah Lovett at Poundon House in Oxford on 19th July 2014, with his brother James Madsen (B’02) as Best Man, and Alex Podbury (C’04), Tom Cottrell (StB’04), Charlie Bellm (R’04) and Alex Pollen (St B’04) as his ushers. Peter Rankin (R'05) Still living and working in Cardiff and recently took full ownership and running of operations of my strength and conditioning facility, The Boat Shed Training Centre, employing 7 staff which certainly keeps me busy! Enjoy regularly getting together with fellow Worth Old Boys Graham Hutchings (G’05), Nick Hopkins (G’05) and Paul Keenan (R’05). If ever in South Wales please don't be shy to stop by. Edward Hall-Smith (R’07) I graduated from St Andrews with an MA in Divinity in 2011. I have since been working at Sotheby's in London. No wives/houses/children to speak of yet. Thomas Cruz (B’08) starting at Martinez & Partner - an insurance broking company based in Basingstoke and working in London a couple of days a week. Spending quite a lot of time with Giles Sacarello (StB’08) and hoping to join the WOB’s rugby team next season. Andrew Talty (StB’08) I will be continuing my career in Boston, Massachusetts later this year working on documentary and factual television production. Since starting have been predominantly sport based and over the past year have worked on a number of shows ranging from the Sochi Winter Paralympics, Indian Premier League, Barclays Premier League, 2014 FIFA World Cup & many more. Moving to America is certainly the most challenging step in my career to date however the most daunting task will be getting to the pub to watch Chelsea play at 9am every weekend!

Tenberge (R’09), Thomas Ludicke (B’09) and myself from the IB class of 2009 got together for our five-year reunion. Thanks to the exceptional hospitality of the von Hoensbroech family, our reunion took place in the picturesque grounds of their family home near Cologne. Schloss Breill proved to be a superb setting to reminisce about our two years at Worth, share our more recent experiences and witness the early stages of a German World Cup victory in the making. We are grateful for the school's special relationship with its many German students, both past and present, and look forward to our next reunion.

2010s Oli Jacobs (F’10) Working in-house as a recording engineer at Real World Studios, near Bath. Occasionally going out on music tours too. Louisa McCarthy (StM'10) I have been living in the south of France for the past year, learning French from scratch and working as an au pair. I then spent the month of July volunteering as a teacher in a primary school in the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda. I am now about to begin a Postgraduate degree in Child Nursing in London. William Watkins (R'10) I am very happy to announce the release of my debut anthology You. Are. Not. Alone. which is available to buy today on amazon.com; amazon.co.uk; amazon.eu and various other stores that can be found on the amazon website(s)! It is also available on Kindle. I have also just graduated from Aberystwyth University, where I was studying Animal Behaviour. Nicholas Elvidge (C’11) Ben Barham (R'10), Tim Davies (C'10) Jack Udale (B'11) and I have just completed a four man Channel relay. It’s Ben's last year of being involved with the School Channel Team and so he put together a team of old boys to attempt the swim in recognition of this. We got across in 16 hours 15 minutes in relatively good weather conditions. Emily Jacobs (StA’11) Just started my placement year at Margaret Howell in London in the Sales Office. Naomi Sautter (StA’11) I’ll be graduating from the University of Winchester with 1st Class Honours in BA (Hons) Business Management and am looking forward to starting on the Graduate Diploma in Law at Oxford Brookes University in September. Oliver Hall (B’13) Just back from Tanzania after volunteering for 5 weeks with Raleigh International. Had a great time. For my project phase was based in Mahama Village, about four and a half hour drive away from Morrogoro City, a small mud hut village. Work consisted of teaching English, hygiene, water sanitation, treatment and storage at the school; conducting a community survey to assess the way of life of the locals; and teaching them how to build rocket stoves and sack gardens. We even held a community sports day with speeches. Went trekking around Irringa and stayed a night with the Manghati Tribe and had a tribal banquet which lasted 7 hours. The climate was tough, reaching 30 degrees during the day and around 5 degrees at night. Made a lot of friends and good memories. Merrick Winter (F’13) Over the past year since leaving Worth, I’ve been travelling and volunteering in Australia and Asia. Facilitated by the Worth Society's generosity, I spent two months in India and Nepal volunteering with Global Vision International, working on childcare and orphanage projects. The primary goals were to establish a good level of English among children of all ages, as well as provide general knowledge of the sciences and humanities. While this was undeniably challenging, it was an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling experience. Subsequently been working on film-making and online video, in conjunction with my photography. As of September, I’ll be attending King’s College London to study Liberal Arts.

William (Will) Desmond (C’09) In the last year I have launched a Catholic discipleship process for 15-18 year olds called ’the Ascent’. I have also released an album with a group called the ‘One Hope Project’, while I am continuing to study a 5-year part time degree in Divinity which I will finish in 2016. Hugo Sunnucks (R’09) has just launched (www.whitebearebikes.com), but also working to help raise awareness and promote good causes. For example, have just helped raise awareness to over 80,000 people about the serious flooding which has devastated countries like Serbia. Jasper Tilmann (R’09) - In late July Alexander Fey (StB’09), Caspar Hoensbroech (B’09), Fabian Schiedat (StB’09), Jacob von Hoensbroech (B’09), Laurenz Kaltholff (B’09), Sebastian Ottersbach (R’09), Sebastian

I 61

News in Brief

Trent Belasco (G'90) This year took up a 200-year family tradition in art. Founded Belasco and Co, which offers sophisticated art investors access to very old networks in art; rare art expertise, market insight, legal structures and 'off-market' sales opportunities in high-value art - all within a culture of the utmost discretion. Have moved to Mayfair and enjoying life as a bachelor.

and Morzine this year and were really lucky both times with the snow and good weather.

Peter Gilbert

Simon Douglas-Dufresne

15/04/1950 to 12/12/2013

31/07/1962 to 07/07/2014

Obituary

Peter was born in Jersey on 15th April 1950. He was educated firstly at Miss Garnier’s kindergarten school in Jersey, then at Farleigh House prep school in Hampshire and finally at Worth from 1963 to 1968. He joined the school when it had just completed its first five years as a public school and was led by such wonderful people as the late Father Dominic Gaisford, Father Kevin Taggart, the late Father Bernard Moss, the late Father Edward Cruise and the late Father Fabian Glencross. As with other pupils at that time he regarded them as towering figures who provided a quite unique educational and spiritual experience. It was a very formative period in the life of the school and he always felt privileged to have been part of it. Peter was in Rutherford House, under the late Father Bernard, and rose to be head of the house in his last year. He was a very keen sportsman whose enthusiasm often exceeded his natural talents, apart from cross country running in which he excelled and which he carried on as a pastime all of his life, completing in numerous marathons. He also maintained a close connection with the monastic community. Coming from a military background (his father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the 13th Frontier Rifles and a Japanese prisoner of war for some three and half years), he joined the army in 1968 after leaving school and was commissioned at Sandhurst. While in the army, he went up to Balliol College, Oxford to read modern history. He saw service in Northern Ireland but left the Army in 1973 and in 1974 took up social work. He obtained an MA in social work at Sussex University in 1977 and an MBA in 1992. It was through the Lay Community at Worth Abbey (now the Lay Community of St Benedict), of which he was a life-time member, that he met his wife Sue Riley, and they have three daughters, Mary, Joanna and Ruth and now a grandson. He was an enthusiastic and effective early participant in what was then an avant-garde experiment, the opening of Benedictine monastic life to lay people. The extensive knowledge and understanding of Benedictinism, which he deepened in this period of his life was to inform a great deal of his later writings and spiritual approach to care. He also brought his joyous wit and sense of humour to the community, most notably in the lampooning revues and musicals he wrote, such as ‘Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be’, and ‘The Abbot of Oz’. His style was always inclusive and welcoming, so that the newest incomer was made to feel that they belonged and were valuable. In later years, he would structure and give many retreats and workshops through the Abbey and Lay Community on spirituality in the workplace for managers and workers in the public and private sectors. Worth always remained a home from home for him and his family. As a social worker, he worked with and managed services for all user groups. He was very involved in partnership working in both Staffordshire, as a director of operations, and Worcestershire, as a director, initiating service user, carer and advocacy groups. In the 1980s, he specialised in

62 I

learning disability and mental health, publishing several books on working with people with learning disabilities and their families (including Managing to Care with Terry Scragg 1992). He ended his professional social work career as director of social services for Worcestershire in 2001, following which he experienced an episode of depression. He then worked as a consultant and was deeply involved in the spirituality programme. When presenting conferences or seminars he would share that experience and was able to understand the user perspective from within. This period of his life was one of frenetic activity and outstanding achievement. In addition to his consultancy work, speaking at numerous conferences and holding seminars, he was Emeritus Professor of Social Work and Spirituality at Staffordshire University and visiting Professor with the University of Worcester. He was the NIMHE project lead on spirituality from its inception and until 31st March 2008. He became national lead for the National Spirituality and Mental Health Forum, was chair of the National Development Team for Inclusion and visiting Professor at the Birmingham and Solihull Foundation NHS Trust, leading their spirituality research programme. He was also NIMHE/CSIP Fellow in social care. In November 2013, he won the award for his outstanding contribution at the Social Worker of the Year Awards. He has written extensively and as well as editing books and writing papers has written a number of books, notably Leadership: Being Effective and Remaining Human (2002), Spirituality, Values and Mental Health: Jewels for the Journey (with others) and Social Work and Mental Health: The Value of Everything (2010) (with others). He began his last book Spirituality and End of Life Care (2013) when he was fit and running marathons. It was completed with great determination months after his illness had struck. He loved Jersey and would visit the Island every year with his family to stay with his sister Sally Brouard. He would have loved to return there, but the opportunity never arose. He was, however, able to make a valuable contribution to the Island by assisting and guiding the Island’s Mental Health charity, Mind Jersey. As an avid runner, Peter kept very fit. It was therefore a cruel blow to be struck down with the most pernicious of diseases, which he endured to the end with great courage and dignity. He had a deep faith, but he saw spirituality as wider than religion. He defined spirituality as “something about the motivational force, something about the transcendent; something beyond ourselves that keeps us going”. There is growing evidence of the importance of spirituality in aiding recovery from mental ill health. He was an enthusiastic singer, his voice booming out at the Sunday School mass held in those days in the small monastic chapel, and had an instinctive cheerfulness and charm and a great sense of humour. He achieved real distinction in his field of which the school and the monastic community can be proud. Julian Clyde-Smith (G’68)

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

ou may or may not have known that Simon DouglasDufresne (G’81) had moved to Peru with his new wife, Ileana, and had a toto called Alfonzo. His other two children, Peia and Dylan, had been living with them these past 6 months. Simon had a great love of flying and his dream was to set up an aero club in the Andes. He had clocked thousands of hours in his trusty 1953 C180, and there was hardly a remote spot in Kenya that he had not been to in 5Y-KMO. At the beginning of July, he had taken delivery of a new Columbian made kit plane (MXP-850 TUMACO from TAYRONA) with special high altitude capability. He had some great flying in the new plane and was very excited about it. On the last flight of the day, with his wife, we think that he was performing a manoeuvre during a fly past at the small Aero Club del Mar, 50km south of Lima…something went wrong and the left wing clipped the top of the hangar, causing the plane to spin out of control and crash into the ground. Tragically, the harness was pulled out of its mounting and Simon was thrown out of the plane. Ileana was trapped in the plane. Unfortunately, the children were on the ground and witnessed the accident. Two Aero Club members assisted in getting an ambulance for Simon and extracted Ileana from the plane. Simon suffered severe head injuries and succumbed to these a day later in a Lima hospital. Ileana’s leg was severely shattered. It was a tragic end to an incredibly colorful life. He sailed close to the wind and had many close shaves. He achieved an awful lot, and we think fitted 100 years into 51! There are many amusing stories now coming out of the woodwork and there is a webpage set up (www.forevermissed.com/ simon-douglas-dufresne/#about) in memory of Simon. If any of you would like to share some stories, photos, pay a tribute then that would be great. May his adventurous and fun loving spirit live on… We hope to have a Kwaheri for Simon in Kenya some time. To us this poem, sent to us by Fuzz Dyer, sums it all up… Impressions of a Pilot by Gary Stoker

Obituary

eter Gilbert (R’68), a pioneer in the field of spirituality in health and social care, died on 12th December 2013 of Motor Neurone Disease.

e were immensely saddened to hear of Simon’s tragic death on 7th July 2014. Simon was one of the first Worthians I had dealings with when I started in my role as Society Manager last autumn when he requested that we obtain some record of his school examination results in order to obtain a Peruvian driving licence. He was extremely grateful and with great charm wrote a thank you email which I thought I would share as it shows a man who had a great philosophy of life: “Thank you so much for finding what you found, great stuff, I'm rather disappointed in my results though, I always claim I am very clever, and here I see that I didn't even get my English ‘O’ level!!! I guess to encourage the ones who don't succeed in School you should tell them that even the chaps at the bottom of the class can become the happiest, and richest in the world it is all in the mind. When I think about my life so far with all the adventures, travels, and beautiful places I have lived in and created, never once not having enough to buy whatever I wanted I am indeed the luckiest out of all the 9 billion people out there!! Now a new start in a new country with opportunities to go as high as I choose! I feel I am truly blessed. So next time you talk to some of the teachers remind them that it is not always the ones at the top of the class who are the most successful...” Mary Lou Burge, Society Manager

Flight is freedom in its purest form, To dance with the clouds which follow the storm; To roll and glide, to wheel and spin, To feel the joy that swells within. To leave the earth with its troubles and fly, And know the warmth of the summer sky; Then back to earth at the end of the day, Released from the tension which melted away. Should my end come while I am in flight, Whether brightest day or darkest night; Spare me no pity and shrug off the pain, Secure in the knowledge that I’d do it again. For each of us is created to die, And within me I know, I was born to fly. Hugo, Helen, Tania and Shirlie Douglas-Dufresne

The Old Place

I 63

Head Master’s 2014 Report Using the new Glenn Robertson Fitness Suite

Gino Carminati

am delighted to share with you some of the major highlights of the year. There is real quality in the depth and breadth of this year’s achievements and I congratulate and applaud the efforts and successes of our pupils and staff.

Seven years ago it was decided that the school would embark on a new path in its evolution by becoming a coeducational school. During the intervening years a great deal of effort, commitment, industry and financial investment has gone into realising this goal.

Before doing so I would like to record my thanks to colleagues who have left us this year. Dr James Whitehead left in April in order to take up the position of Head Master at Downside School. Dr Whitehead was an outstanding teacher, a gifted Second Master and someone who gave immense time and care to every member of our community. He lived the values of Worth visibly for all to see and I publicly thank him for his immense contribution to Worth over the last 7 years. After 14 years of excellent service as a teacher of Learning Support, Head of Learning Support and, since 2010, as Head of St Anne’s House, Mrs Julia Cook also leaves us at the end of the academic year. A great many pupils are indebted to her for the committed care and support she has given over the years and for the exceptional manner in which she has supported their individual needs. Mrs Sue Wilkinson leaves us after 11 excellent years in the Learning Support department in order to enjoy a well-deserved retirement. Miss Viruete leaves us to take up the position of Head of Spanish at Oundle School. Miss Helen Brown leaves us to become Head of Drama at Shrewsbury School and Miss Caroline Meurie leaves us to take up a full-time French position at Lingfield Notre Dame.

Since 2007 we have grown from being an all boys’ school of 420 pupils to being a school of 600, with girls in every year group and integrated in every aspect of school life. The Common Room has grown by 20 additional teachers and the curriculum offered has expanded. The range of extracurricular activities and academic societies has grown along with the creation of an impressive Worth Lecture Programme. The breadth of experiences available to our pupils is now the largest ever and the richness of diversity in intellectual, cultural, physical and recreational opportunities is remarkable for a school of our size.

I should also like to acknowledge a huge debt of gratitude to Fr Aidan Murray who, after 10 years as Abbey Bursar, steps down in order to become Parish Priest. Fr Aidan has overseen the school’s facilities development and building programme and has been exceptionally busy during his term of office. We are all indebted to him for his patience and resilience.

The facilities of the school have also undergone a major transformation with the provision of St Mary’s House for girl boarders, St Anne’s girls’ day house, a new St Bede’s boys’ boarding house, the refurbishment of the library, additional laboratories, the construction of the Pitstop, a floodlit astro turf, a new bridge across the Paddockhurst Road, the provision of additional classrooms, major refurbishment of the boys’ day houses, the creation of a wifi campus, new girls’ changing rooms and the provision of the new Glenn Robertson Fitness Suite adjacent to the Sports Hall. This list of facility developments does not even begin to cover improvements and upgrading of the school’s infrastructure which is not normally visible to the naked eye and let us not forget that all this capital investment has been delivered against a backdrop of economic recession. In essence, the last seven years have been about laying down the foundations for a vibrant and strong future and in

this we have been successful by being ambitious, robust and confident. Our success has been the result of the outstanding efforts and achievements of our pupils, the commitment of our teaching and support staff, the dedication and industry of our governors, the support and example set by our monastic community and the loyalty of our parents. For this combined commitment I express the gratitude of the entire school and continue to be very proud to lead such a wonderful community. Our aim seven years ago was to design, grow and embed a successful co-educational school for the 21st century and this is what we have done albeit that, as in any organisation, there is always room for improvement.

Battle of the Bands 2014

64 I

New Second Master André Gushurst-Moore

In academic terms, the last seven years have witnessed a significant increase in our attainment levels. The school consistently achieves grades at the end of Year 13 that average between 72% to 80% of all passes attaining A* to B grades. Our IB results, year-on-year, prove that we are one of the top twenty IB schools in the UK. This year’s university offers, including 7 offers to attend Oxford or Cambridge universities in seven different disciplines, alongside offers from leading IV League universities in the USA, show that Worth pupils are consistently able to gain places in some of the world’s leading higher educational establishments and

Entering into the spirit at Worthfest

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

attain some of the most prestigious scholarships available.

This year’s offers from top universities included 7 from Oxbridge

With the vast majority of students attaining their preferred university place to study the subjects of their choice, it is clear that in academic terms our pupils are well prepared for life beyond school. Worth is no second rate slouch when it comes to academic success or intellectual rigour. Whether our pupils are gifted academics or have to work extremely hard to keep their heads above water, whether they have learning support needs that enable them to learn differently or whether they need to discover the self-confidence and self-esteem to succeed, Worth’s pupils can and do succeed. Our sustained academic success is the result of excellent teaching and learning and the engendering of a strong work ethic. We compare equally and favourably with many other schools which are more academically selective. At Worth, academic success is not and will not be driven by teaching to exams and hot-housing young minds. We aim to inspire a love of learning and encourage the young to be intellectually curious, to ask questions, to use their powers of reason and to seek meaning and understanding. Passion and a love of learning must and will be at the heart of our pupils’ intellectual journeys. We also had other aspirations when we set out on our co-educational journey seven years ago. With the need for

I 65

Lining up for the Leavers' Ball

GCSE Art 2014

change there remained a firm and indomitable commitment to securing our distinctive character, namely to be a visible Catholic School with a Benedictine tradition, which welcomes people of other denominations and faith, and which has at its core, a firm and undiluted commitment to the well-being and nurturing of every individual. At the time of its foundation Worth was designed to be a school of the Lord’s Service, where the young could be nurtured to become more aware of who they are and to begin to understand what it is that God has in mind for them. Worth was always to be a place where a person could be accepted and respected for who they are and where they could learn to discover and develop their gifts and talents. Worth remains a sanctuary as well as a place to be challenged. It offers reflection as well as active engagement. Our Benedictine values, the Christian philosophy of Love and the need to put God at the centre of our lives remain the guiding principles of our school and the foundations of our future vision. This year a great deal of time and energy has been expended engaging with representatives of Worth’s constituent parts - parents, pupils, staff, former parents, governors and the monastic community, in a conversation which aims to understand better how we are perceived and what we might aim to look like in ten years’ time. This work is not yet complete but much has already been done to help inform and clarify what we seek to achieve and help influence the vision for our future.

Our vision for the future is not radical nor revolutionary. It does not have to be. But it has integrity, quality and vitality. We commit ourselves to making what we have better and even more successful. In essence we aim to secure the school which we are, so that in times of economic, political or social uncertainty, we will have the strong foundations and infrastructure needed to thrive. To help achieve this we will set up a Development Office, the aim of which will be to bring together the existing community of the school with its former members so as to help generate the longer term support and benefaction that will be necessary. The work of the Development Office will help bind more closely the extended Worth family whilst also seeking support for future developments and for the establishment of a bursary fund to enable families with limited financial means or who fall on hard times, to enjoy everything that Worth has to offer. Worth will continue to be a co-educational school of some 600 pupils supported and nurtured by a community living and learning in fellowship and in the love of God. Our hallmark will continue to be a pastorally strong school in which the care of every individual is paramount and where forgiveness and love play a central part. Worth will offer a broad and balanced education that will enable each child to discover their gifts and aptitudes and to experiment with the many opportunities that are on offer. To achieve this at the highest level we will aim to provide the best individual care package possible that proactively engages with parents in early intervention and better supports each child’s individualised learning needs. Academically we will ensure that every pupil receives the support, stretch and challenge which best fits them and which will ensure that they are well prepared for the best universities to fulfil their academic aspirations.

English Benedictine Congregation Essay Competition Winners

Worth aims to be a centre of excellence in sport, not just in rugby and hockey, but in providing a sporting experience that matches the needs and interests of every child be they an elite player or someone who wishes to enjoy sport at a more social level. This is a genuine commitment to sport for all regardless of ability.

Other facility developments for the future are in the process of being agreed but they will include consideration of additional indoor and outdoor sporting facilities, a new coeducational junior house for Years 7 & 8, additional music facilities, and an additional large auditorium that can act as a venue for public examinations and larger social gatherings.

Over the last 18 months a significant capital investment in the school’s IT infrastructure has taken place. This has enabled all teachers to be supplied with the necessary hardware to use modern media and technology in all their lessons and from September, the laptop will be part of the basic tool kit for every pupil at the school. The school will continue to embrace modern technology in its teaching, learning and communications as a means of stimulating a new vibrancy into all avenues of life. Our aim is simply to be at the cutting edge of affordable and practical technology because our children’s future will be dependent on its regular application and manipulation.

The desire to serve others is a key aspect of our future vision. Community Service, which has always been a significant characteristic of Worth, will be extended further. We will seek out new partnerships with outside organisations and extend our outreach programme. In this way we will not only respond to the call from Pope Francis to help support the poor and disadvantaged but we will make our Christian ideals and way of life even more real and learn much in the process.

By September 2015, the school will provide a second day house for girls and a new Common Room for the teaching staff. Plans for additional classrooms and offices for academic departments and the beginnings of a new Art Faculty Building are also being finalised. Old Rutherford will finally be demolished during the course of the summer holidays this year and the central part of the school campus will be landscaped to create additional open space. A new play area for the junior years will also be created on the Black Pitch outside the day houses for September.

A former Abbot of Worth once remarked to me, with tongue in cheek, “At Worth we are very proud of our humility”. Well we shall continue to champion humility for arrogance has no place at Worth. Yet we shall also be confident and strident; proud to project our achievements and our distinctive qualities and ethos. This school will not exist in the shadowlands but at the forefront of visibility and we will continue to strive to be the best we can be. Gino Carminati, Head Master, Worth School Taken from the Head Master’s Speech Day Address, May 2014

In the areas of the performing and visual arts, for which we have a deserved outstanding reputation, we will continue to invest resources and empower teachers to inspire their pupils to be creative. Our vision is that education is about nurturing an entire person in the many forms of knowledge and expressions of creative thinking be they artistic, musical, literary, scientific, mathematical, theological and spiritual. Worth’s vision is to enrich the mind, body and spirit of the young with life giving force.

Alice Robinson, Mid Sussex Volunteer of the Year Award Winner

School Production of Arcadia

66 I

Many were asked to contribute to a strategic marketing review of the school and it was wonderful to see the many affirmations and high levels of satisfaction with so much that the school offers. Equally it was good to hear of areas that we could strengthen further and how we might be able to improve our communications in various aspects of life so as to be more proactive and supportive.

On the way to victory against Hurst

In sport, we have seen a significant resurgence in boys’ achievements in recent years whilst at the same time creating from scratch, a solid girls’ sporting programme with high levels of success. The school will continue to invest resources in both the infrastructure of its sporting facilities and in the quality of its coaching and support.

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

Corpus Christi Procession

I 67

A Message from Abbot Luke Jolly (C’71) – Our First Worthian Abbot

first came to Worth in 1966 as a 13 year old and spent five years here. My younger brother came to the Junior School and progressed all the way through the Senior School. We were both sports mad, particularly where football was concerned. My own wild dream was to make a career in sport but, unfortunately, I was not that gifted. The community service programme in the School, including what we called at the time ‘granny bashing’, helped to sow the seeds of a career in social care and training as a probation officer. I wanted to have a career and to get married and have a family, but God persistently kept asking me if that was my deepest desire and wanting to be part of my decision making. I joined the Monastery when I was 27 years old, and I remain here 33 years later. I tell you something of my life story because a principle aim of the education at Worth is to promote in each and every student their sense of vocation. In the School Hymnal and Prayer Book we have the wonderful prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman: “God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission - I may never know it in this life, but I shall know it in the next. I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for nothing.”

Farewell to the Cardboard Castle

o mark this summer’s demolition of the Old Rutherford Building after 44 years of service, a very select gathering of Old Rutherfordians; Charles Gerada (R’90), Barney de Burca (R’96), Corrado di Mascio (R’96), Kevin Solan (R’90), David Wiehe (R’90) and Fred Bradley (R’04), as well as a St Bede’s Worthian Spectator - James Eade (StB’90) returned to say one last farewell at a Decommissioning Ceremony held after the Parish Mass on Sunday 13th July 2014. Following a short reading and a prayer given by Fr James, with a melancholic air memories were exchanged and the Cardboard Castle was blessed on its way! “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew Chapter 7, 24-7

Farewell the Cardboard Castle The Kingdom on the Hill The barrack rooms of Major Moss That monsters and creatures built Farewell Conductor Cutty Those cubicled showers were famed Who strode its towered ramparts Declaiming 'eh cum ere boy' To anyone in range Farewell to Captain Keeno That Chapman boy turned bad Who steered the ship through Patrick's storm While he taught us 'rejoice and be glad' Farewell to Glenda's gutness Whose reign cruelly cut too short It's his heavy tread that's rumoured To separate foundations from the walls Farewell the Cardboard Castle That sheltered so many from the swamps Of main school mediocrity And Bedean blinkered lumps Farewell the Cardboard Castle Victim of the Health and Safety claw So what if the beams were buckling and you could punch a hole right through the walls?

We believe that every person has their particular call from God – their unique path in life. This is the way they become fully themselves in loving God and loving their neighbour. For a few this path will be in consecrated life in the Church, for the majority their path will be a stable relationship so as to bring up a family and to serve the world in their work.

Your boys were independent Loyal, angular, and free Journalists and politicians not solicitors or bankers Not for you the bourgoisie

I believe that our time at Worth equipped us with some vital tools for exploring our vocation. We began to gain a true knowledge of ourselves within a caring Community; to gain a real sense of our immediate world and the wider world as a place of service, and have the opportunity to come to know God as our Creator and sustainer; to help us finally enter fully into our life’s vocation.

Farewell to the Cardboard Castle The kingdom on the Hill It stood to protect the least of these It's gone now. Peace. Be still. Bobby Acworth (C’81)

Memories of Old Rutherford “I remember it when it was cricket nets for the Junior and Tower House!” Mark Madsen (C’74) “Demolition will perhaps provide an opportunity to recover Marmaduke, buried under the foundations at the bottom end of the building. For those who don't know, Marmaduke was a wooden spoon, a favourite of Colonel Vredenburgh’s, Head of Junior House at the time Rutherford was built. Used for administering corporal punishment, Marmaduke was legendary and reputed to sport a nail sticking out of it - in reality it was a surprisingly small spoon easily confined to the biscuit tin in which we buried it. The burial ensured being spared further blushes (or red cheeks) for our regular misdemeanours, and it was doubly satisfying to end up at Rutherford in the Senior school, under the equally legendary Fr Bernard Moss, aka ‘the Monster’ (‘he did the mash, the monster mash’)” Stephen Turley (R’75)

68 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

“I remember it first being built... I'd forgotten it was cricket nets beforehand; having to suffer JJ Stanton's awful puns jokes during 'A' level history lessons and working out excuses for why I hadn't done my prep in Roger Stokes's Economics class... I remember Ben Bacon cheating at table tennis when I only needed a point to beat him, watching 'Football Focus' illegally (in black & white) before lessons ended on a Saturday as well as Fawlty Towers (1st run!) on a Sunday night and sneaking up to watch the 1978 World Cup to the only room in the school that had a TV for the late night kick offs... Ben Bacon again... I remember the aura of fear in Dom Bernard's office, the smell of Maurice as he polished the floor…” Simon McDonagh (C’78) “Fr Andrew Bertie singing a call to prayer while walking down the top corridor, waking us all by putting the plug in the sink and turning the taps on!” Dominic Sharkey (R’85) “I remember putting my foot through the reinforced glass door at the bottom of the hill end of the building...” Simon Furey (StB’86) “Rutherford existed before the main teaching block was built and for that matter before the sports hall. In those days it was the pride territory of the Junior House 1st XV and the junior house boys ran the gauntlet of Bede's and Rutherford. It was set apart - truly individual in nature - unlike Bede’s… in fact many dormed with us.. and later in 5th/6th form we had ‘outsiders’ on the top floor. We had a fire... it nearly burnt the whole building down. I think it was an electrical fault… We had communal spaces with a well-run tuck shop. We had good hot water for showers and I recall even some private bathrooms. We had house assemblies in what seemed like a fishbowl of the downstairs shared with the table-tennis tables… skits performed on the steps of the TV Room. These were the days of Fr Bernard...and the reign of Fr James.” Kevin Walshe (R’87) “Being late for prayers and having to stand on the spiral staircase and the wooden phone box on the 1st floor landing. Goodbye Rutherford - many memories.” Matthew Wilson (R’87) “Does anyone remember the great fire of nineteeneightysomething? We watched with amusement as the fire crews tore down the false ceiling exposing a large stash of cigarettes and other contraband.” Canice Hogan (R’88) “Airing my entire bed out on the morning of my birthday after having water thrown over me! It certainly woke me up! Tipping a bucket of water down on the first floor by Yr 9 and Yr 10 dorms at midnight with Ed Neil Gallacher, Chris Lamb and Pedro Alves (prior to carpets) and then rafting on the water, making a fair amount of noise only to look up at the end of my travels to see Fr Aiden (Rutherford House chaplain at the time) fuming with rage. I looked back to find there was only me my partners in crime had bailed on me. "See you at matins" Fr Aiden exclaimed... Great times.” Patrick Barr (R’01) “Endless games of 'Corridor Cricket' on the top floor. Demolishing light bulb after light bulb.” Nick Hopkins (G’05)

I 69

Fr Bede and the D-Day Box

ome years ago, in the course of my duties as monastery archivist, I came across a cardboard box in the walk-in safe on the ground floor of the Main Building, near the Head Master’s office. What I found inside the box was truly fascinating - it was full of military intelligence reports and aerial photographs relating to preparations for the D-Day landings in 1944. On top of the box was a handwritten note indicating that it belonged to one Major Jackson who had asked to leave the box here when he went off to France on D Day+4 and that if he survived the war he would return for it. I should explain that, from 14th April 1944, Worth Priory was occupied by the Headquarters Staff of 8th Corps under Lt. General Sir Richard O’Connor. 8th Corps consisted of the Guards Armoured Division assembled around Eastbourne, 15 Scottish Division in the Worthing/Brighton area, and 11 Armoured Division at Aldershot. The note on the box was written by and signed with the initials of Fr Aidan Trafford who stayed at Worth as Caretaker during its occupation by the military. Some of our older former pupils will remember O’Connor dormitory: it was the main map room during that period whose security was protected by whitewashed windows and barbed wire outside. And to this day there is a plaque on the wall commemorating the very significant events that occurred in that room.

devised a new and effective method and were keen to try it. With some hesitancy this was approved, and a large pile of papers was carried down to the Glen, below the pond, and interleaved with wadges of gun cotton. All stood clear and the charge was detonated. To general consternation, papers flew everywhere, lodging in trees and bushes. Panic ensued and furious efforts were made to recover it all and burn it. Fortunately, because it was out of sight of the Main Building, the ‘top brass’ never knew about it. Lt. Colonel Jackson’s book is fascinating to anyone who is interested in the events surrounding D Day and the subsequent campaign which ended the war on the western front. Before I knew about the book, I consulted the senior Military Historian at the National Records Office at Kew as to what we should do with our find. There was a considered pause before he said, “Well, the first thing is, don’t resign ownership of it!” That was a nice surprise! But we could, he said, if we felt we didn’t have the right conditions for document preservation at Worth, give it all on indefinite loan to the Sussex Records Office in Chichester. Since there were duplicates of practically every item, we have the best of both worlds: the full set is at Chichester, and we have copies of most of the rest here at Worth if anybody would like to view them. Fr Bede Hill

I discovered that Major G.S. Jackson headed the Intelligence section of the General Staff at Worth. He survived the war, but never, as far as I know, returned to Worth to collect his box. However what I did discover is that, now with the rank of Lt. Colonel, he was the principle author of 8th Corps: Normandy to the Baltic, a book published in 2006 by MLRS. In his book he describes one incident that occurred here at Worth that greatly alarmed him. They faced the problem shortly before D Day of how to dispose securely and in a hurry, of the large quantity of maps and intelligence reports no longer needed. The Engineers reckoned they had

70 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 71

The Opening of the Glenn Robertson Fitness Suite

Worthians—The Second Generation: September 2014 • Did you leave Worth between 2008 and 2014?

he grand opening of The Glenn Robertson Fitness Suite took place on Sunday 27th April 2014. Glenn’s wife, Annette, and sons Peter and James joined Abbot Luke Jolly and Head Master Gino Carminati for the formal blessing, along with representatives of the Friends of Worth and the School’s Governing Board.

• Were you doing your DofE Gold Award and never quite got round to finishing?

The cardiovascular suite has been constructed as an extension to the existing Sports Hall with additional changing facilities below and was equipped through the money raised by the Glenn Robertson Memorial Fund. I felt very honoured to represent all Worthians who had contributed to the fund, and having now seen the Suite in use I can say it is a fantastic addition to the School’s sport facilities and a truly fitting tribute to a much loved and missed teacher.

It may not be too late... If you want to find out if you could still receive your Award (and go to St James’s Palace to have it presented) please contact the School DofE Manager, Giles Watson, at gwatson@worth.org.uk

We were also delighted to hear that this year’s Glenn Robertson ‘Spirit of Rugby Trophy’ was awarded to Angus Bonner, and the Glenn Robertson ‘Sporting Promise Trophy’ awarded to Rowan Murphy-Hunt.

Pupil Surname

Christian Name

Current Year

House

Father’s/relatives name

Adams

William

Rutherford

Bruning

Emma

St Marys

Christian (StB'88)

Elwes

Barnaby

Rutherford

Benedict (G'81)

Elwes

Samuel

Rutherford

Benedict (G’81)

Gabriel

Samuel

Austin

Michael (C’85)

Hamilton-Deeley

Harry

Rutherford

Gavin (R'72)

Harries

William

Rutherford

David (G'80)

(house, year left)

Charles (R’86)

Jenkins

Callum

Farwell

Jonathan (G'81)

Pack

Freddie

Austin

Nephew of Laurence (G’83) and Benedict (G’87) Kennedy

Pack

George

Chapman

Nephew of Laurence (G’83) and Benedict (G’87) Kennedy

Quinn

Niall

Rutherford

Brother of Rory Quinn (F'08)

Rowland

Michael

Chapman

Michael (C'67)

Rumsey

Alexander

St Bedes

Brother of Oliver (G'99) and Dominic (G'02) Rumsey

Stordy

Anna

St Mary’s

Jonathan (StB’81)

Children of Worthians Registered to Join Worth: September 2014

Mary Lou Burge, Worth Society Manager

Pupil Surname

Please join us for Our Annual Worthians Mass to celebrate St Benedict’s Day

James, Annette & Peter Robertson

With the musical accompaniment of Worthian singers and musicians

Thursday 19th March 2015 at 7pm at

St Mary Moorfields Church, 4-5 Eldon Street, London EC2M 7LS Followed by drinks at The Red Lion, 1 Eldon Street

Christian Name

Proposed start date

Year group

Father’s/relatives name (house, year left)

Archer-Perkins

Georgina

2022

Richard (C’66)

Bain

Kyrian

2015

Peter (R’75)

Bayles

Sebastian

2017

Simon (B’90)

Bruning

Annabelle

2016

Christian (StB’88)

Byrne

Henry

2015

Nephew of Edward Sherlock (StB’85)

Ceparano

Matthew

2018

Anthony (C’88)

Halffter

Cristobal (Toby)

2015

Nephew of Jaime Zobel de Ayala (StB’77)

Johnstone

Dominic

2017

Rupert (R’85)

Le Gouellec de Schwarz

Amedee

2016

Nephew of James (G’93) and Simon (G’98) Albert

Le Gouellec de Schwarz

Maximillien

2019

Nephew of James (G’93) and Simon (G’98) Albert

Le Gouellec de Schwarz

Sophie

2016

Niece of James (G’93) and Simon (G’98) Albert

Little

Lochlan

2018

Roderick (G’90)

Little

Matilda

2016

Roderick (G’90)

Main

Calum

2016

Kevin (StB’76)

Owen

William

2015

Nephew of Alex (G’88) and Justin (G’91) Duckworth

Pavry

William

2016

Justin (StB’91)

Samuels

Raphael

2017

Dominic Quennell (C’74)

Simpson

Charles

2015

Nephew of Alastair (StB’95) and William (StN’96) Lockhart

Whitlock

Mary

2015

Niece of Thomas Derry (B’87)

Woolgar

Thomas

2015

Dermot (G’83)

Representatives of the School's Governing Body, the Friends of Worth and Worth Society joined Abbot Luke and the Robertson family

72 I

Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

I 73

Worthians—Year 13 University Destinations 2014 Course

Name

Guillermo Aboumrad Sidaoui Mathematics

University

Name

Course

University

Stanford

Max Iller

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Wearing the Society Colours Worth Society Merchandise

Sophia Adlkofer

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Henry Jacobs

Chinese

Oxford

Eleanor Ambridge

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Jack Jenkins

Art

Applying PQA

Tobias Amott

Chemical Engineering

Surrey

Aaron Jannoun

Economics

Applying PQA

Benedict Arterton

Computer Science

Oxford Brookes

James Kemp

Ancient History

Manchester

Esther Barrott

Music

Cardiff

Priyanka Keshavji

Biomedical Science

De Montfort

Bruno Belli

Italian & Management

Royal Holloway

Daniel Kinde

Audio Production

SAE Institute

Max Bergot

Economics

Manchester

Enoch Ko

Biochemical Engineering

UCL

Alex Blake

Italian & Spanish

Manchester

Dylan Lall

Playing professional soccer for Montreal Impact

Sarah Board

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Sam Ming Lee

Accounting & Finance

Sheffield

Angus Bonner

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Thomson Lee

Architecture

Glasgow

Christopher Brown

Chinese and Spanish

Leeds

Karen Li

Business Administration (Law) University of Hong Kong

Matthew Brumwell

Chemistry

Cardiff

Hugh Lurcott

Medicine

Manchester

Sarah Buller

Microbiology

Nottingham

Jeremy Man

Geography

Exeter

James Burns

Real Estate Management

Applying PQA

Dominik Masojada

Economics

Applying PQA

Ned Caderni

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Jenny McGregor

English

Southampton

Yongsheng Cai

Finance

Imperial

Eleanor McKillop

Psychology

Cardiff

Paco Carbo Valle

Economics & Management

Queen Mary’s

Francesc Mora Ortega

Natural Sciences

Durham

Nicolo Laner Carloti

Mechanical Engineering

Applying PQA

Hugh Murphy

Biological Sciences

Warwick

Ties @ £20.00 each

Daniel Carminati

International Hospitality Management

Oxford Brookes

Fergus Murphy-Hunt

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Choice of:

Partrick Murray

James Caruana

Accountancy & Finance

Kingston

Philosophical Studies, Applying PQA after GAP Year Knowledge & Human Interests

Andrew Chan

Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Kent

Computer & Management Science

Applying to Universities in Australia

Aerospace Engineering

Nodin Chan Herman Cheung

Jakub Nagrodzki

Medicine

James Nash & Drama

English and American Studies Kent

Cambridge

Luke Navin

Music

Oxford

Bristol

Amelia Nunes Carvalho

Fine Arts

Bournemouth

• 100% reppe silk, navy blue and gold striped tie

Actuarial Science

LSE

Hendrik Pallien

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Harry Coreth

History/ International Relations

Nottingham Trent

Charles Parker

Veterinary Science

Bristol

David Corr

Medicine

Applying PQA

Victoria Cotterell

Journalism, Media and English Literature

Cardiff

Peter Daykin

History Aeronautical & Aerospace Engineering

• 100% smooth silk with Worth cross and crown motif embroidered onto a navy background (pictured above) • 100% smooth silk, navy blue and gold striped tie

Horace Cheung

Alexander Davis-White

Visit the Merchandise section of the Worth Society website at www.worthsociety.org.uk and purchase items safely and securely using PayPal.

Katie Phillips

Animal Behaviour

Manchester Metropolitan

Alastair Redman

Development

Oxford Brookes

Emily Richardson

History

UCL

Oliver Rivers

Football Coaching

St Ambrose College, Iowa

Rowena Rutherford

Interior Architecture

UWE

Michael Ryan

Economics

Bristol

Oxford

Enamel Cufflinks Each pair comes in its own presentation box and is available in either a chain-link or T-bar fitting, choice of: • Chain-link @ £35.00 per pair • T-bar @ £30.00 per pair

Bristol

James Doherty

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

George Shaw

Psychology

Oxford Brookes

Jasper Elwes

History

Applying PQA

Kaeshini Sivananthan

International Relations

KCL

Sterling Silver Charm @ £30.00

Thomas Ely

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Felix So

Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Bristol

Sebastian Fairweather

History

Kent James Sparks

French and Business Management

Manchester

Marine Technology & Engineering

Newcastle

James Ferguson

Piers Spencer

Essex

Marcus Fletcher

Natural Sciences

Cambridge

Politics & International Relations

Engraved with the Worth crown and cross motif, has a sterling silver lobster claw fitting for attachment. Hallmarked on the reverse and comes in its own navy blue presentation box

Samuel Steers

International Business

Oxford Brookes

Dominic Suckling

Geography

Applying PQA

Adriam Sum

Physiotherapy

Sheffield Hallam

100% cotton striped in Worthian colours, choice of:

Ashley Thomas

Law

Manchester

• Gentlemen’s, short (size 6-12)

Conor Thornton-Clarke

Applying to train as a pilot

Emily Townsend

Psychological & Behavioural Sciences

Warwick

Oliver Fletcher

Economics and Politics

Applying PQA after GAP Year

James Fullalove

Physics

Bristol

Matthew Gallacher

Medicine

Applying PQA

Michele Gilling-Ulph

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Thomas Glen

History

Plymouth

Michael Glover

Philosophy & Politics

Oxford Brookes

Michael Green

Urban Studies

Manchester

Angelica Grusovin

Mathematics

Imperial

William Upton

Economics for Business

Leeds Metropolitan

Alexander Goodbourn

Geography

Plymouth

Peter Vangelatos

Economics/French

Cardiff

Alasdair Gordon-Macleod

History

Newcastle

Harriet Wan

Hotel and Tourism

Harrison Gutteridge

Business Studies

Bournemouth

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Adam Harber

Super Yacht Cadetship

UKSQ

Peter Webb

Theology

Applying PQA

John Hodkinson

Mathematics

Durham

Gary Wong

Physiotherapy

Keele

• Ladies’, long (size 3-7)

Francesca Horney

Events and Leisure Marketing Bournemouth

Oliver Wright

Economics

Leeds

Oscar Hoyle

International Relations & Politics

Oxford Brookes

Alexander Wyglendatz

Applying PQA

Not applied yet

Samson Hui

Computer Science

Exeter

74 I

Socks @ £10.00

Pottery Tankard @ £15.00 Cream pottery tankard decorated with blue illustrations – cross and crown on one side and a line drawing of the main school building on the other

Please note: these details were correct at time of going to press

Visit the Merchandise section of the Worth Society website at www.worthsociety.org.uk Worth Society Life

Life and Times of Worthians

The Old Place

ry t. 0 ll 98 nta en Ca 299 ime gem 0 pl na 97 m a 07 r co lth m ou ea ry w fo e to id

Review and protect your wealth with a financial health check...

focus solely on providing face-to-face advice and offer a dedicated, personal wealth management service to build long-term, trusted relationships. Together, we would look to create a working plan, providing you with a clear direction towards meeting your financial goals. This includes clarifying your objectives and researching all of the options available to you. I have the experience to help you successfully secure and enhance your financial future by offering specialist advice in a wide range of areas including: > Investment planning > Retirement planning > Financial protection For further information, or to request your complimentary guide to wealth management, contact:

SOPHIE-JANE KEELAGHAN Associate Partner Tel: 0207 638 2400 Mob: 07970 299980 Email: sophie-jane.keelaghan@sjpp.co.uk Web: www.sophiejanekeelaghan.co.uk

PA RTNER S IN MA NAGING YOUR W EALTH

The Partner represents only St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the Group’s wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the Group’s website www.sjp.co.uk/products. The title ‘Partner’ is the marketing term used to describe St. James’s Place representatives.