For the Record No. 19 Spring 2014
IN HONOURED MEMORY The School was represented in the Procession by the Headmaster as a member of the Foundation, and Mrs Marie Roberts, Beadle Mike Holden and the Captain and ViceCaptain of School were among a congregation of over 800 as a great Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Lord Kingsdown (Robin LeighPemberton) was held in the Cathedral on 6 February. Rose Leigh-Pemberton, Lady Kingsdown, is one of the Governors Emeriti of the School and her husband was always supportive. Governor of the Bank of England for ten years from 1983, Lord Kingsdown was also a man deeply rooted in Kent: Cathedral Seneschal from 1983, Chairman of the Cathedral Council, Lord Lieutenant of Kent for 20 years from 1982, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Kent, and President of Kent CCC in 2002. As Lord Lieutenant he presented the School
HONOURS AND DISTINCTIONS Hugh Robertson (BR 1976-81) was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in October 2013. He has special responsibility for: Middle East and North Africa, North America, Counter Terrorism, Defence and International Security, Human Resources and Diversity, Olympic and Paralympic Legacy. The record of his achievements as Minister of Sport and especially the spectacular success of the London Olympics is secure. The 2014 New Year Honours List included knighthoods to Ian Cheshire (GR 197276) – for services to Business, Sustainability and the Environment; and to Governor and parent Roger De Haan – for services to Education and to charity in Kent and Overseas. In addition, Mary Berg, formerly Deputy Chairman of Governors, was awarded the MBE – for voluntary services to Education, Heritage and charity in Canterbury, and former History teacher Ralph Blumenau (Common Room 1951 and 1953-57), now of the University of the Third Age, was awarded the BEM, for services to Adult Education.
with its new Royal Charter in 1992. In his Address, the Dean drew an extended analogy of the good beekeeper, who welcomed the glad event of the swarm, and described a man rooted in the Book of Common Prayer, whose death (on 24 November) had occurred on the date Psalm 16 was set in the old Church calendar and whose Thanksgiving was occurring on the day now set for it: “The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground: yea, I have a goodly heritage”. Charlie Leigh-Pemberton (MR 1993-98) read The Grenadiers Collect; and the organ after the service played The British Grenadier, Lord Kingsdown having seen active service with the Grenadier Guards. We extend our respect and sympathy to Lady Kingsdown. ***** A distinguished public man of briefer but more direct involvement with King’s was
NEWS OF OKS Richard Murphy (MO 1941-42) won the Summer 2013 Special Commendation of the Poetry Book Society for his final collection of poems, The Pleasure Ground: Poems 1952-2012. His contemporary Demy at Magdalen College, Oxford, already an MO contemporary (1941-44), Paul Pollak, helped with the mathematics of the clay-tiled meditation octagon in a tea garden which Richard designed near Kandy in Sri Lanka. Many of the best stories in Richard’s memoir The Kick, a Life among Writers relate to Ireland, and Richard will know the line by Ireland’s most famous poet, WB Yeats: “Measurement began our might”. For yoga and meditation – go first to a mathematician. Oliver Ford Davies (LN 1952-57) (isn’t it time he was in the Honours List?) has the role of Duke of York to David Tennant’s Richard II in the highly-praised RSC production, and performs this part as required; that is (to borrow the critic’s words) “hangdog” and “fretful”. John Hall (Common Room 1956-64) in a letter to the Daily Telegraph describes the value to his gap-year course in Venice of exposure to the emotional power of classical music. He has been reminded that, when
Sir Christopher Chataway, who died on 19 January. His public fame began as an athlete, he being one of the two pacemakers when Roger Bannister was the first man to break the four minute mile barrier, at Iffley Road in 1954. Subsequently he broke the world three-mile and the 5,000 metre records, racing memorably against Kuts and Zatopek. Moving into ITV and then politics, he served in the governments of Macmillan, DouglasHome and Heath, and he had experience of education as Parliamentary Under Secretary in 1962 and then in the thick of education battles as Leader of the Inner London Education Authority from 1967, in which role he let comprehensive plans for seven boroughs go ahead but saved 44 London grammar schools temporarily. Sir Christopher was a Governor from 1996 to 2001, a Patron of the Birley’s Pavilion Appeal, and father of Adam (SH 1991-96) and Matthew (SH 1995-2000). they visit Padua, his students should also pay their respects to William Harvey (KSC 1588), Prefect of the English Nation at the university there. John Lowings (SH 1957-62) has been awarded an MA in Biblical Studies at King’s College, London. The Canterbury connections of Michael Morpurgo (GL 1957-62) were acknowledged when he received an Honorary Doctorate from Canterbury Christ Church University on 29 November 2013. Richard Ashworth (SH 1960-64), Leader of the Conservative MEPs and formerly a farmer, has a workload even busier than usual, maintaining the Conservatives’ position in the South East against UKIP ahead of the elections to the European Parliament on 22 May. Bryan Gipps (LN 1966-69) conducted the combined choirs of the Sutton Valence Choral Society and Thanet Festival Choir, 180 singers in all, in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem on 12 October in Canterbury Cathedral that was sold out. The tenor role was sung by Clifford Lister (WL 197175), who sings part-time with the choirs of Canterbury, Rochester and Westminster.