Your biannual alumni publication
Alleyn’s School Alumni Magazine Autumn/Winter 2021
Notes from the Chair
T
Paul Barber, Chair EAC, at the 2021 EAC Annual Dinner, 8th from the left (with Reno Antoniades, Ed Bowen, Frances Bowen, Martin Cook, Jon Lilly, Lisa Pavlovsky, John Battle, Mike Jones, Andrew Sneary, Frank Keenan).
he Club has had a hectic time over the summer as, like many other institutions, we’ve been bouncing back from the stringent Covid -19 restrictions.
To carry out the general business of the Club, our Management Board meetings have remained online across the last eighteen months but we were delighted to meet physically together with the School leadership in October. Following the success of our Zoom AGM last year, which attracted several people from far and wide, we were pleased to extend access to as many of you as possible by running our AGM ( which was held on 16 November) as both a physical and virtual meeting. We want to continue to innovate in our conversations with all of our members. Using the Covid-jolt positively means that we can hear from many more of you! A further boost to communication will be the successful agreement with the School to share data under GDPR. The original operations of the Club and the School from the establishment of the Alumni team saw them operating the membership database. This was a practical and sensible change which enabled many of the communications from both parties to become much easier. However, the impact of GDPR legislation, and confidentiality protocols therein, has made access to the data very difficult for the Club itself – not at all what was intended under the original arrangements. Therefore, a joint team from Club and School have been working through the right way to correct this situation…and we’re nearly there! I hope to
update you further by the time we publish our spring 2022 Magazine. The new bounce at Burbage Road is a literal one too. After a great deal of planning, the tennis courts are being refurbished extensively as I write. A new surface, the upgrading of an area on the periphery of the courts and new LED floodlights are being installed. Our thanks to the School – Claire Morgan, Oli Watkins, Mick Price and James Freeman - the Tennis Section - particularly Linda Lancaster and Liz Livingstone - and to Jason Lisiades, who runs the coaching at the Club courts. Their support, plus that of the central Club, has provided advice throughout the development planning and had led to a combination of funding which has paid for the works. Linda and Liz have built a vibrant all-ages Tennis Club over the last ten years or more and it is a great success! In further sporting news and as flagged in these notes last time, we hope to establish a Netball Section to play at Burbage Road in the coming months and years to further extend our reach to AOGs. The Cricket and Football Sections have had busy and productive seasons since we last reported to you, with cricket just having closed their season and football just kicking off their one. Club Section reports are to be found later in this edition. Please do also read about John Gibbons’ West Country walk
which is a great new addition to wider club activity. We’ve also been working on how best to deliver the Club Strategy for Burbage Road and to support the exciting ideas in Jane Lunnon’s Vision for the Club and School together. The first important plank in that work is creating and agreeing a new Licence to Use which is the legal agreement that governs both parties for the activities at Burbage Road. We hope to have this in place soon and my thanks to all concerned as we negotiate and agree the content of this important milestone. In current news, the new Director of Development and Alumni has now arrived at the School and we have been delighted to welcome Frank Keenan and his infectious enthusiasm! Our very grateful thanks to Jennie Moule who took on that post as an interim and established a great relationship with the Club in a very short time. We were delighted to be able to hold our Annual Dinner where we marked the end of Lizzy Frost’s two year Presidency and welcomed in Peter Yetzes as our new President for 2021/22. The support of the Management Board, with Club and School reps, has been fantastic throughout the last eighteen months of difficult operations through the Covid emergency, and so my thanks go to them all. We have much to look forward to in the coming months and years. Paul Barber (Spurgeon’s 1979)
Contents News from the D&A Office......5 Events.......................................7 Feature...................................10 Giving Back............................16 Presidential Interviews..........18 Alumni News..........................22 School News..........................30 In Memoriam..........................34 From the Archive...................41 Club.........................................42
From the President
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y final magazine address as the overstayed Edward Alleyn Club’s “Pandemic President” has arrived and it’s time to write something inspiring and motivating for the future of our alumni community. For me that motivation can be found in the wealth of awesome talent and entrepreneurship that we have within our Alleyn’s ranks, just a few examples of which I’ve tried to showcase over the last two years with the innovative alumni who have set up social enterprises. We’ve heard about Ted Rosner who set up a prison-based coffee company, which is now the only coffee served inside the Alleyn’s walls and whose new coffee shop has just opened in Dulwich Village, Phoebe Praill who helps young people from underprivileged backgrounds stay in university through her Bridging Project and Jacob Shaw who runs the Scandinavian Cello School. From page 18 onwards, you’ll also read about Zoë Miller who has started Bloody Brilliant Pads, an ecological/sustainable alternative to disposable sanitary products and Samia Tossio, a community artist, who has helped engage and connect with young and old, homeless and refugees alike by having them participate in her community finger knitting workshops.
that sort of innovation, entrepreneurship and concentration on making the world a better place that I wanted to celebrate about Alleyn’s – the kindness and the contribution which is so very much at the core of our School.
These people exemplify what a unique and interesting bunch we are and it’s
Lizzy Frost (Dutton’s 2006)
I’d also like to thank everyone who came to the Annual Dinner on the 13 November. It was a very special evening, I had a lovely time and hope all the guests did too. Finally, all that remains to be said is how much I look forward to seeing you at School events and reunions and down at the Edward Alleyn Club house for many more years to come and best wishes for a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year. Much Love, Lizzy x
Front Cover Image Image shows the first outdoor whole school assembly held on 13 September 2021.
Edited by the Development and Alumni Office Design by tgdh.co.uk Printed by JD Print & Marketing Services Letters to the Editor are welcome and may be included in future issues.
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Head’s Foreword
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e are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” These lines from Paul Robeson, formed the basis for our whole school assembly at the start of this Advent Term. The whole community gathered together, in the quad, under the tree, to celebrate being together again. And to reflect on how we enhance and inspire each other. There has been plenty of inspiration and plenty of laughter this term. Not least, because it is such a delight to be operating reasonably normally back on site and to be able to meet so many more Alleyn’s alumni in person. It felt deeply appropriate, that, on the very first day of our new school year in September, we welcomed alumni from the 1950’s back for their ‘Tin Tab’ reunion. (We enjoyed their semi-Dickensian stories about the tin hut and the race to get the seats near the two coal-burning stoves…) We were also very pleased to celebrate and congratulate the classes of 2020 and 2021 with their Alumni welcome party and Leavers’ celebrations at the start of September. Every meeting I have had with alumni has been full of joy. I have heard fascinating (sometimes outrageous) stories: launching missiles which landed on Lordship Lane, secretly building a hovercraft which then collapsed right on top of the cricket square, long evenings spent in the “workshop”, powerful memories of Shakespearean performances, monumental games of football and hockey– the occasional lesson… Above all, I’ve felt strongly the energy, talent and creativity of Alleyn’s alumni, which continues to find such rich expression in the lives of our pupils today. As I write, we are enjoying Alleyn’s fourth annual Sustainability Week, for example and it’s been great to see pupils and staff reflecting together on how we can best sustain our world and ourselves, through our busy, fast-paced lives. I was honoured to speak at the New York Times
Climate Hub, a sustainable education event, alongside the COP 26 activities in Glasgow. It was great to be part of the discussion about how we should best be educating to reflect the environmental focus and requirements of our times and to meet a number of wonderful Alleyn’s alumni (some of them recent alumni) who were in Glasgow showcasing creative and exciting innovation in environment and climate protection. That spirit of enterprise (a direct legacy from our pioneering founder, surely) is something we continue to foster with our current pupils. It is reflected in the energy and passion with which they engage with the issues that matter to them. We want them to be curious and to have the courage to make a difference and we have been delighted to have alumni back to inspire them with that spirit as they share their own entrepreneurial experiences. We were very grateful to Zoë Miller (Roper’s 2015) for talking to the pupils about her new company, which tackles plastic waste with a sustainable, fairly produced and viable alternative to disposable sanitary products and we love the fact that the School’s coffee (and a fair amount of my family’s weekend latte consumption) is now sourced from Ted Rosner’s (Spurgeon’s 2006) social enterprise: Redemption Roasters, freshly opened in Dulwich Village and providing coffee at key moments, including the wonderful EAC Dinner in November. Development and enterprise is also finding expression on our School site; with our major refurbishment work on the Junior
School developing apace and the building of the new Junior hall well underway. We are looking forward to it opening in September next year. My sincere thanks to the over 800 of you who completed our recent alumni survey; your responses will be illuminating as we look to the future and our ongoing relationship with you, our Alumni. It was particularly gratifying to see, in the feedback, the number of alumni keen to support accessibility and diversity through the Alleyn’s bursary programme. This is something dear to all our hearts; it is essential to sustaining the future of our school and it absolutely speaks to the past too. We love the fact that 10% of our pupils currently benefit from bursaries at Alleyn’s, many of them at a life-changing level and we hope to significantly increase that number as the years progress. And we’re delighted to have welcomed Frank Keenan, our new Director of Development and Alumni this term. Arriving from Hampton School, where he headed up the Development Department for five years, Frank has joined our Senior Management Team and is leading our Development and Alumni office, working closely with the Edward Alleyn Club and with all our alumni, to foster and enhance the experiences of the wider Alleyn’s community. We are hugely excited for the future of our School and we hope that you and all our alumni will continue to be an important part of it. Please do get in touch if we can ever be of help or if you would just like to reminisce and share a story. Always keen to hear them.
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From the Development and lumni Office
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fter the slight break from in-person events and activities it has been wonderful to have so many alumni back to the School this Advent Term. We have also had a few changes in the Office and want to take this opportunity to introduce and re-introduce ourselves: We are Frank, Rosalind, Katharine and Nikola and we are your Development and Alumni Team. Frank Keenan joined Alleyn’s at the start of September as the Director of Development and Alumni Relations: ‘I am hugely excited to have joined the Alleyn’s community and am looking forward to meeting as many alumni as possible, please do say hello and if I can ever help with anything please do get in touch, my email is keenanfe@alleyns.org.uk’ We’re sure many of you will already be familiar with Rosalind, Katharine and Nikola who have been working together for the past five years or more and are responsible for our communications, events and managing the alumni database. The Development and Alumni Office exists to support alumni throughout their
lives, to help them connect with one another and to support the School. We also serve as the School’s primary link with the Edward Alleyn Club and we work with them in their efforts to maintain a thriving alumni community. We hope that you can see from this magazine and other editions that we take great pride in highlighting the many and various achievements of alumni across the world. We are always keen to hear from you, be it exciting news or life updates, or if you wish to share details of your career and family highlights with us. We are hugely grateful to have such an active and engaged alumni community whose expertise, interest and support are integral to the success of the presentday school. There are several careers events hosted at the school and virtually throughout the year where we are very grateful to welcome alumni to share their
expertise. If you would be willing to help please get in touch. Alumni are always welcome back at Alleyn’s, both for formal events and also for more informal visits to the School. If you are ever passing by Townley Road, please do pop in and say hello! We are very happy to arrange tours of the School and help organise reunions. It has been brilliant to have alumni back at the School for a number of events already and the recent EAC Dinner was a great reminder of the lifelong connections that are formed at Alleyn’s. We hope that many more of you can make it back for the Decades’ Reunion on Saturday 18 June and Founder’s Day on 2 July. (Please see page 13 for Save the Date and details of the Decades’ Reunion on 18 June). Many thanks for your support with the Alumni Survey, as you will see overleaf, it has provided us with very helpful guidance as we plan for the future. We are here to help and are grateful for your support of our School, The Development and Alumni Office
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lumni Survey
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big thank you to the 860 alumni who completed the alumni survey this Summer. The responses are hugely helpful and inspiring as we refresh our strategy. Your views about your time at School, the School today, and the Alleyn’s alumni network are of great importance to us and will help us to engage more effectively with you and develop our plans for the future.
Memories of Alleyn’s
There were many positive recollections about friends, teachers, sport, music, drama and CCF which all featured heavily in the comments across all the decades. The post-war years generated many memories of the evacuation to
Relationship with Alleyn's The importance of alumni services and what is most relevant to alumni was a key question and it was good to see such a positive and helpful response.
Dora Wiggs (French teacher) emerges as another teaching ‘legend’ along with Loopy Young and Mr McCloy. Mr Barlow becomes the next teaching legend and remains so through to the 2000s, with The Buttery and Chelsea Buns being fond memories. There was also helpful guidance when it came to events and communications 1 2 3 4 5
Responses were very positive about the value of an Alleyn’s education with a strong sense of pride and lifelong impact for alumni when reflecting on their time at Alleyn’s. Most alumni agree that they are proud to have attended Alleyn’s (84%) and that their education has had lifelong impact (88%). Alumni also show high levels of agreement that the School has played an important role in their personal development with 75% agreeing with this statement. and will be reading this now. In addition the survey showed that alumni would like more relevant and consistent communications by email. We hope that many of you are already receiving our new monthly email newsletters. If you are not receiving the email and would like to sign up please email alumni@alleyns.org.uk
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1
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Key:
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n Very important n Not important
6 Key: n Very important n Not important
Rossall and a great fondness for the CCF. Gilbert and Sullivan, the Buttery, the Bear Pit and trips to Corbridge were all emerging themes.
The new millennium introduces positive mention of enjoying fields and green spaces, the sixth form, houses and trips to Buxton.
n Important
Alleyn’s School and the Edward Alleyn Club are reviewing the services we provide for alumni. How important are those to you. 1 Updating alumni on the news and
achievements of fellow alumni 2 Helping foster a continued sense of community between alumni and the school 3 Providing careers support and work experience opportunities to current pupils and recent leavers 4 Providing opportunities for alumni to get together at social events and reunions 5 Providing professional networking opportunities 6 Providing special interest clubs e.g. sports, performing arts, travel, books
n Important n Don’t know
As we emerge from the pandemic we are keen to resume our programme of reunions and events. Looking ahead, please indicate how interested you are in the following types of events. 1 Reunions and social events with alumni 2 Formal dinners and/or drinks receptions 3 Talks and lectures 4 School events 5 Professional networking and careers events
6 Family events including your partner/ children 7 Sports events 8 House events 9 Multi-generational events
Fortunately, 70% of respondents read the printed version of the Edward Alleyn Club magazine and found it interesting
Supporting the School We are grateful that many alumni indicated that they would like to support Alleyn’s further. 290 respondents expressed interest in supporting the school’s development activities • 71% expressed an interest in providing careers support • 34% expressed an interest in sharing their story about financial support • 22% expressed an interest in making a donation or leaving a legacy Thank you once again for taking part and congratulations to Jennifer Gleeson (Tyson’s 2008) who won the £100 Amazon voucher.
Event News 07
Remembrance Day 2021 Although last year’s ceremony proved deeply touching and poignant arranged so movingly and quietly as it was, it was wonderful to return to the time-honoured march by Alleyn’s CCF through the Village to Christ’s Chapel of God’s Gift and the traditional laying of the wreaths on the cenotaph. On Armistice Day itself, the whole School gathered to listen to a beautiful service led by the Reverend Liz Lander. The CCF paraded and the Last Post and Reveille sounded in a respectful act of remembrance.
“At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” Lizzy Frost, EAC President 2020/21 at Remembrance Sunday’s wreath laying ceremony
08 Event News
nnual Dinner The 124th Annual Dinner of the Edward Alleyn Club took place at School on Saturday 13 November. Guests enjoyed a delicious dinner followed by an entertaining address from the outgoing President, Mrs Lizzy Frost (Dutton’s 2006) with her emphasis on social enterprise, response by Head, Jane Lunnon with an engaging introduction and fulsome update of the School, and a thought-provoking and erudite contribution on history and its relevant perspectives by guest speaker, Ted Rosner (Spurgeon’s 2006). The traditional handover of the Presidency also took place and Mr Peter Yetzes (Tulley’s 1967) was welcomed as the Edward Alleyn Club President of 2021/22. EAC Treasurer Chris Heybeard was delighted to announce that over £900 was raised on the night for the Alleyn Benevolent Fund (ABF). (For all photos of the evening, please see our website)
Event News 09
10 Feature
Eden Cheng, pictured front, performing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer
n Olympic feat We have no less than three living Olympians within our Alleyn’s alumni community; Terence Higgins (Dutton’s 1946), Zara Long (Brown’s 1989) and Eden Cheng (Roper’s 2021).
Eden Cheng (Roper’s 2021) took up diving after being inspired during the 2012 London Olympics. In less than a decade she made it from Olympic inspiration to Olympic participation. She joined Crystal Palace Diving and after a string of significant successes as a junior, won her first senior major medal in 2018 at the age of 15, when she took gold medal at the European Championships in the 10m platform synchro with Lois Toulson. Successes continued including winning silver at the 2019 European Diving Championships held in Kiev, in the Mixed 10m platform synchro with Noah Williams and bronze in the team event. At the recent 2021 FINA Diving World Cup held in Japan, Cheng and Toulson won silver in synchronised 10m platform, thereby securing their qualification to the
Olympics and achieving two personal bests. The pair also won silver in synchronised 10m platform at the 2021 European Aquatics Championships. This summer, Eden and Lois finished seventh in their 2020 Olympics debut. Having performed so much better in training, the duo admitted to being a little disappointed, but we think it a phenomenal achievement and know we’re going to see a whole lot more of Eden in years to come. The highlight of the Games for Eden was performing on the world’s biggest stage and getting to speak with many of her sporting heroes like Sir Andy Murray, Geraint Thomas OBE, Adam Peaty, Allister Brownlee and Max Whitlock, many of whom she’d watched at London 2012. She described having childhood
inspirations wish her luck as she passed by in the Team GB block as an incredible experience, as was speaking to many elite and experienced athletes from all sports, learning something about their own disciplines, listening to their journeys to the Games and even getting some advice about future games. According to Eden, ‘It was a lifelong dream come true’. One of Alleyn’s newest alumni having left School in summer 2021, Eden is taking this year to concentrate on her diving and focusing on the major diving events coming up such as the World Championships, The Commonwealth Games and the Senior European Championships before taking up a place next year in the States at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on a full sports scholarship.
Feature 11
Zara Long (Brown’s 1989) Aged just 13, Zara (pictured above) competed at the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics in the 200m individual medley and made the Olympic team again at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Zara said of her experience, ‘I had never seen so many people at a sporting event. The opening ceremony virtually overpowered my whole being and walking out to the crowds for my swim deafened me.’ She went on to say ‘the highlight for me at the Games was having Daley Thompson come and check on me’ and that her highlight in hindsight was the realisation that she had been ‘part of something so huge and historic’. As part of her impressive swimming achievements, she also represented England and won two silver medals in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m freestyle relays at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in
Edinburgh, Scotland. Four years later she represented England and won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay, at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand. She also won the 1987 ASA national British Championships in the 100m freestyle and was five times 200m medley champion in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990 and 1991 and twice 400m medley champion in 1990 and 1991. Life after her competitive sporting career saw Zara earning a BSc studying psychology at London Metropolitan University and she is now Director at Take the Plunge Swim School in Bromley and Founder of First Aid Buddies and Align Mental Health First Aid, allowing her to bring together her passions of physical and mental health, first aid and the sport at which she has excelled since such an early age. Having opened Alleyn’s newly refurbished swimming pool in
2014 with its new timing system (bought with monies raised by kind donations of Advancing Alleyn’s supporters), Zara’s most recent involvement with Alleyn’s has come in helping coordinate the recentlyrun Summer School in August 2021 where 44 Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children identified as having had a particularly hard time during the pandemic, were invited to Alleyn’s for a week of lessons in Science, Art, DT, Mathematics, English, Music, Dance, Drama, PSCHE, swimming and first aid, as well as visiting talks from the Police and Fire Brigade! Enabled by generous funds raised by parents and alumni, the aim of the scheme was to provide every pupil (and family) with an engaging and positive educational experience to help gain confidence and enjoyment in learning and start the new school year positively. (More details of this scheme can be found on page 32).
12 Feature
Terence Higgins (Dutton’s 1946) discovered his passion and talent for running at School, smashing the School Record for the 440 yards in 1946 by 1.6 seconds and regularly competing in the Public Schools London Athletics Club Championships. In the RAF between 1946-48, Lord Higgins became RAF 440-yard champion and European Combined Services champion for the 100-metres. He was a member of the British Olympic Team in 1948, competed in the 1950 Commonwealth Games and in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki
– the last great amateur meeting with a maximum cash prize of £15 where ‘one had to continue to hold down a full-time job’. Lord Higgins explained that the lasting benefit from his involvement in athletics ‘was the joy and experience of meeting those people with whom he competed and his lifelong adherence to the motto of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the architect of the Modern Olympics, that in life ‘it is not the winning but the taking part’’. Of the Olympics in particular, he added ‘the enduring legacy of the modern Olympic Games is the encouragement of
today’s youth in the participation and enjoyment of sporting events.’ Sport was indeed only one facet of a fascinating life and he can certainly be said to have taken his part to the fullest; Lord Higgins pursued an initial career in shipping, attended Cambridge University, had a teaching post at Yale, was Conservative MP for Worthing for 33 years and held a lengthy tenure in the House of Lords which only ended in 2019. A Fellow of Alleyn’s and former Governor he has maintained close links with Alleyn’s since leaving School.
Forthcoming events 13
Alumni Walk along Abbott’s Way – Dartmoor 21 June 2022 In June 2022 a group of Alleyn Old Boys will be walking a large section of The Abbott’s Way, a long-distance footpath across Dartmoor from Buckfastleigh to Tavistock and are inviting any alumni who would like to, to join them. The walk starts where the Way enters the moor and will follow the ancient route across the southern mass of the National Park as far as Plym Ford where it detours to the old Eylesbarrow Mine, down Drizzlecombe to Sheepstor and
finishing at the Royal Oak at Meavy. A total distance of about 20 km.
are all in our sixties) but a decent level of fitness is essential.’
Organiser John Gibbons (Tyson’s 1970) writes, ‘For those unfamiliar with Dartmoor, it can be a magical place. It can also be quite inhospitable in inclement weather. There are no easy routes off the moor once the trail is started so you would need to be comfortable with completing the distance and properly prepared for a wilderness hike. You do not need to be in the first flush of youth (we
If you are interested in finding out more about the walk, you can contact the Alumni Office at alumni@alleyns.org.uk and we will gladly put you in touch
Summer Decades Reunion Saturday 18 June 2022
This year we’re planning on making up for the Covid cancellations and catching up with our traditional Summer Decades Reunions, so, if your ‘Class of’ ends in a 0, 1 or a 2, look out for your invitations early next year. If the year you would have taken your A Levels was in 1940, 41 or 42; 1950, 51 or 52; 1960, 61 or 62; 1970, 71 or 72; 1980, 81, or 82; 1990, 91 or 92; or 2000, 2001 or 2002, then Save that Date as we look forward to welcoming you back!
14 Event News
Leavers' Celebrations
‘Not farewell but fare forward, voyagers’ Mrs Lunnon reminded the Year13s, evoking T S Eliot at their School Leaving Ceremony on 6 July. It was a lovely occasion celebrating their journey through School, complete with speeches from the 2020/21 School Captain, Morgan Le Fevre and Vice Captains Jonathan Wanyanga and
Since both leavers and parents were denied a Leaving Ceremony in 2020 and parents unable to join in the 2021 Leaving Ceremony, recent leavers from both this year and last were joined by parents and guardians on a bright and sunny Saturday in September, for a celebratory tea party overlooking the School playing fields. Speeches were made by Head Jane Lunnon, Senior Deputy Head Andy Skinnard, Head of Upper School Rob Atkinson and former Head, Dr Gary Savage. The event served as the perfect opportunity for the School community to say an official and ‘in-person’ farewell to former Head Dr Gary Savage who was presented with gifts from Shannon Fairchild and Sarah McCourt of the Alleyn’s Parent Association (APA).
Jules Lanari-Collard, housemasters, a jazzy interlude and an address by 2021 Edward Alleyn Club President, Lizzy Frost who welcomed them into the alumni fold. Alongside their Valedictory Reports, leavers were delighted to receive a Class of 2021 keep cup and their first copy of the Edward Alleyn Club magazine from the Alumni Office.
Ten Year Reunion for Classes of 2010 and 2011
Alumni Welcome Party It was lovely to see many of Alleyn’s newest leavers at the Clubhouse on Burbage Road in early September for their inaugural alumni event, the Alumni Welcome Party. We were delighted to welcome back both Classes of 2020 and 2021 and over 150 recent leavers joined Head Jane Lunnon, 2020/21 Edward Alleyn Club President, Lizzy Frost (Dutton’s 2006) and other staff and teachers for a barbeque and drinks. There was clear delight at being reunited again and the energy and enthusiasm shown for the next chapter of their lives was clearly palpable. We wish them all the best!
The Classes of 2010 and 2011 reunited in the EAC’s Burbage Road Clubhouse to celebrate their 10 year anniversary of leaving School. With perhaps less hugging than in previous years, the recognition and welcome amongst old friends was no less delighted and a wonderful time was had by all at this most relaxed and happy of events.
Event News 15
Tin Tab Reunion friends who entered form 2c in 1951 as I could muster. In the beginning we were eleven out of the original thirty-one in the form. Since then we have met in various locations, as a group, thrice each year and have expanded to about 30 to embrace those others of our wider era who still feel affection for the Tin Tab.” The lively group enjoyed a chance to catch up, reminisce and have lunch together in the old Buttery, joined by Head Jane Lunnon and Director of Development and Alumni Relations Frank Keenan.
After such a long stretch of virtual meet-ups and Zoom calls, it was a joy to have some of our longest-standing alumni from the class of 1951 and their partners back at School in person on 2 September, making a very special start to the beginning of the School year. They gathered under the chestnut tree in the Quad to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of their time in the temporary hut known as ‘The Tin Tab’. Instigator of the event Colonel Robert Shedden (Class of 1957) explains: “To set the scene, the Tin Tab(ernacle) was a building which stood adjacent
to the chestnut tree, at right-angles to the old fives courts and ran along the lower edge of the quadrangle. It was built of corrugated iron (hence the name) and lined throughout with wood and was heated by a coke-fired stove in each of two form rooms; 2b and 2c. It was probably left behind by the First World War; in any case it looked like it. In every respect it was a health hazard: but we loved it, not surprisingly it was demolished circa 1966. The Tin Tab group has been running for about ten years. I started it as a gettogether with as many of my surviving
Last Lappers This year it was a smaller number than usual of the close-knit group known as the Last Lappers who got together in September at the Alleyn’s Head for their 13th Reunion. However, despite missing a number of the regulars and Peter Revers (Brading’s 1957) breaking his 100% attendance record, organiser Barry Graham (Brading’s 1956) reported an entertaining and convivial meet. Everyone was pleased to be joined by Bob Clutterbuck (Tulley’s 1956) who drove all the way from Cambridgeshire to meet the gang, Gavin English, Alleyn’s Director of Sport and Frank Keenan, Director of Development and Alumni Relations. The Last Lappers, a group of keen Alleyn’s athletes from the 1950s meet annually and are always happy to welcome new faces. If you would like to join their number, do please contact Barry Graham on 07973 313187.
From left to right Steve Marians, Frank Keenan, Victoria Hastings, Barry Graham, Bob Clutterbuck, Peter Jackson and Neil French
16 Giving Back
Giving Back
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e are grateful for each and member of the Alleyn’s community who takes the time and effort to give back to their School, whether that is financially or a gift of their time. Current pupils are always keen to engage with those who have been here before them and hear their stories. Here are just some of the alumni who have done so in the past months:
CCF Contingent Commander Major Scott Benest met up with Dr Peter Lammer (Brown’s 1976) in March this year at his home as he wished to donate his .22 Small Bore Target Rifle to the School’s Rifle Club. Peter was an avid member of the Shooting Club whilst at School and was in fact Captain for two years. We were thrilled when Peter also agreed to be Guest of Honour at the CCF’s traditional passing-out parade on 24 June. He watched over the prize-giving ceremony and parade and later regaled the students with memories of his time in the CCF, including hair-raising tales of the days when there was a working glider onsite and of a certain MoD ammunition mishap. Peter remembers his experiences with the CCF fondly, in particular the camps in the Scottish mountains. In his speech to the Cadre, he also reflected on the impact his school life has had, emphasising the high quality teaching he received, particularly in Maths and Physics, which he felt had paved the way for his future.
CCF Glider
In June, and fresh from her final exams, Oxford PPE graduate Matilda Palmer (Cribb’s 2018) spoke by Zoom to a packed room of Alleyn’s Philosophy Politics and Economics (PPE), Economics and Management, and History and Politics applicants. Matilda kindly went through her application experience and some reflections on college life, and she was as up to date as our students could have hoped for in her understanding of the course content of PPE. Matilda has just started her MSc in Sociology at Oxford and is hoping to go into the policy world in the future.
In July, we welcomed back recent OBE awardee and EAC Vice-President Chris Grant (Tyson’s 1980) as guest speaker at Founder’s Day. Chris’ speech drew heavily on the value of friendship.
Giving Back 17 In October, we were delighted to welcome back both Zoë Miller (Roper’s 2015) and Theo Dan (Spurgeon’s 2019) (pictured below left). Zoë returned to talk to Year 11s about sustainability and development as well as Alleyn’s Upper School geographers about choice of degree courses and life at University. She also told the story behind her new company which tackles plastic waste with a sustainable, fairly produced and viable alternative to disposable sanitary products. You can read all about her business on page 18. Theo returned to the Junior School to tell his story of dedication and love of sport that led him to play professional rugby for the Saracens. Good luck for this season, Theo! In September 2021, current year 12 and 13 students were treated to the company of Tom Glenister (Tulley’s 2014) & Zrey Sholapurkar (Brown’s 2019) (above). Hosted by Mr Piper, Director of Drama, the two actors spoke about how they had gone from playing a mushroom in an eco-friendly play at Alleyn’s (Tom) and playing Julius Caesar (Zrey) to securing places at drama school. They shared brilliant advice, encouraging current Alleyn’s student to ‘find the school which works for you and fits you’ and to ‘be open, say yes and give in to the ridiculousness.’
Having recently graduated from York with a BSc in Film and Television Production, we were delighted to have Francesca Long (Tulley’s 2018) (above) back at Alleyn’s for 2 weeks working with Year 12 and 13s, showing them the practicalities and technicalities of working with different AV equipment, assisting in Film Studies lessons and producing guides for future reference; all of which knowledge and expertise helps current students effectively create and tell their stories.
Professor Edward (Peter) Robinson (Tulley’s 1951) attended Alleyn’s with his twin brother John Robinson (Tulley’s 1951). They joined the School in 1944 and spent one year at James House at “Alleyn’s at Rossall” before Alleyn’s returned to Townley Road in 1945. After Alleyn’s Peter studied at UCL before travelling to Canada as a post-doctoral chemistry fellow, where he stayed to blaze a trail at Erindale College (now U of T Mississauga). He joined the University of Toronto faculty in 1961 as an Assistant Professor of chemistry and moved west five years later to help create Erindale College. Peter served variously as first Associate Dean, acting Dean, Dean and Principal as the new campus took shape. In the laboratory, Robinson’s initial foray into research was directed toward a greater understanding of the complex chemistry of sulfuric acid. He and his research partners were involved in the invention of superacids, pioneered the use of the Toronto Mercury Arc-Lamp, were among the first to use laser spectrometry, and discovered the elusive proof of C-H---O hydrogen bonding in methanesulfonyl fluoride and other substances. We are hugely grateful that Peter chose to donate to
Science at Alleyn’s and our outreach efforts. His donation has supported the creation of The Professor EA (Peter) Robinson and Colonel John Robinson Outreach Laboratory at Alleyn’s that will benefit not only current Alleyn’s pupils but also the wider community through partnerships and the Primary Outreach Programme. Regular donations to Advancing Alleyn’s have helped to support many projects this year including portable floodlights and a new electric minibus and charging point. In addition, funds helped to support our very first Summer School for 44 families from eight different local state primary schools.
John Robinson (on right) Alleyn’s Cadet Corps
18 Feature
money pretty quickly… The charity, Bloody Good Period, estimates that in the UK, a lifetime’s menstrual products (pads, tampons, liners etc. not including pain relief and other period care products) cost around £4800 or an average of £11/month. If you were to buy three each of the light, medium, heavy and super-dooper BB pads and kept them in use for four years, the average UK menstruation would save just under £400 in that time. Even if you were spending just £5 a month on periods you’d still save £111.
Presidential interviews
Zoe Miller (Roper’s 2015)
We are striving to promote nature-positive production, consumption and disposal that is non-depleting and non-destructive to the environment as well as being kind to your body and your pocket! What inspired you to set up BB Pads? About two years ago, I first started to become aware of and was horrified by the immense environmental damage being done by the production and disposal of conventional period care products.
What is BB Pads? BB Pads or Bloody Brilliant Pads began mid-pandemic around August 2020 and was launched at the end of May this year. Bloody Brilliant Pads are reusable, zero-waste, 100% plastic-free, harmfulchemical-free, compostable period pads.
carbon-offsetting projects and, if you live in London, your delivery will be emission-free, brought to you by HIVED on a bicycle or electric vehicle! Ten percent of profits will be going to the Pachamama Project which makes and distributes reusable period pads to refugees in Lebanon and Greece.
Each pad consists of a combination of beautiful fabrics such as certified organic, unbleached and undyed cotton, TENCEL™, blends of waste plant fibre fabrics including pineapple, hemp, galangal and kapok and handwoven pure cotton dyed with natural, plant-based dyes. They are highly absorbent (more so than disposables), naturally anti-bacterial and incredibly soft — no more scratchy plastic and irritating adhesives!
BB Pads may require an initial investment and we know that sadly environmentallyconscious options are still often more expensive and aimed towards only affluent consumers, making the environmental movement a class-based one. We believe that for a solution to be successful and workable it must try its best to be accessible to everyone. BB customers can therefore opt to pay for their pads in instalments and we suggest that they gradually build their sustainable period wardrobe up over time as they work out what needs adding to their period routine. Reusable pads also end up saving you
We (well, it’s just me really at BB HQ, but there are lots of hard-working, amazing people behind the scenes contributing to each and every stage of the process) are all about transparency, sustainable and ethical textile production, consumption and disposal, feeding into a transition towards a circular economy, eliminating plastic waste and micro-plastic pollution, reducing chemical production and runoff, helping to tackle period poverty, pushing back against the stigma and taboos that still shroud menstruation and supporting and advocating for women’s and human rights. All of our packaging and paper is either compostable or recyclable and the ink we use is non-toxic, acid-free and vegan. Our shipping emissions are offset by Carbon Jacked through a renewable wind power project in Taiwan which has been certified by the Gold Standard for the Global Goals, the leading international standard for
Every menstruator’s needs and cycles vary quite a bit, but based on an average of 38 years of menstruation, 13 cycles per year, people with periods will use somewhere around 11,000-16,000 disposable pads, pantyliners or tampons over their lifetime. That’s half the human population using that many disposable, plastic and chemicalinfused products. The average single-use, disposable, conventional period pad contains up to 90% plastic, 99% of plastic is made using fossil fuels and a lot of these products end up getting flushed down the toilet or sent to the landfill and many unfortunately wash into the ocean. Plastics can take 500 years or more to breakdown; and when they do, they break down into micro-plastics which contaminate soil, air and water supplies and accumulate in food systems. I was also shocked to learn that companies selling so-called “sanitary products” in the UK are not legally required to disclose all the ingredients in their products. I made the switch to the period cup which I absolutely loved but I was still using it in conjunction with single-use pads and I really wanted to only use reusable products. Period pants personally weren’t for me as I wanted something that I could change throughout the day without having to faff around taking off my trainers and trousers. I found that most reusable pads on the market were made from synthetic fabrics containing micro-plastic fibres such as polyester, spandex and nylon which can take anywhere between 20 to 200 years
Feature 19
to break down, and for an item that was to be so frequently washed, this didn’t make much sense to me. Last year, after spending some time working with a Thai, women-led, human rights organisation in Bangkok, I ended up stumbling across an incredible textile company who produce fabrics composed of waste plant fibres. I quickly became obsessed. I then worked briefly for an incredible organisation called the Sermpanya Foundation who provide psychosocial relief and education through open-air cinema screenings in refugee camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border and whilst there came across Chimmuwa. Chimmuwa is a women’s collective, handicraft group. They make small batches of handwoven, cotton fabric using traditional ethnic Karen weaving methods and natural plant-based dyes. I began spending my evenings with pencil, paper, ruler and rubber, sketching out period pad designs, researching and then testing what qualities the different plant fibres had and how they could work perfectly for their function in a period pad. I loved the idea of making the product out of “waste” and it being completely circular so that when it was eventually disposed of, it would quickly breakdown into healthy soil leaving no toxic residues. An expected hurdle, or two or three later and we’re here! BB Pads is going strong! I have been incredibly lucky to meet so many astoundingly kind, generous, passionate, creative, hard-working people throughout this process who I cannot thank enough. What advice would you have given yourself leaving School, would you have followed the same career path initially? I think younger Zoë would have benefitted from tuning into her gut instincts about things a little more. I’d say to her: stay true to your values, don’t just follow the crowd and notice what you notice. If there’s something that keeps you up at night or gets you leaping out of bed in the morning or something you jump to do and do it well without forcing it too much — pay attention to that. And never stop asking questions, always be curious. Also, you don’t always need to have a plan I’ve realised. It’s good to have a bit of a plan and an idea of where you’d ideally, roughly like to be in a year or couple of years time but I never planned that I would be doing what I’m doing right now and, if I had been too rigid and structured about things, it would never have happened. It’s good to be a bit flexible, to be prepared to change your plans as well as your mindset and to listen. I remember when I was at Alleyn’s, a girl from a few years above who did breakdancing and played the cello came in to talk to us in the EAB and told us that she tried to do one thing a day that scared her. I love this. It’s stuck with me for almost a decade now. Doing something scary doesn’t have to be particularly drastic and certainly not dangerous… It can be anything; trying your hand at something new, switching up your routine or habits, exposing yourself to a new activity or way of thinking, doing something that is slightly pushing you out of your comfort zone — and if you miss a few days then do something bigger to make up for it!
Career lowlight? I think when I left university I was very naive about the job prospect situation. I sort of arrogantly thought that after all that studying, once I graduated the world was my oyster and that I would know what I wanted to do with my life and would quickly land myself a job in something that I loved and was passionate about. How funny. For ages I was applying to loads of stuff and spending hours and days over cover letters and applications and most of the time didn’t get an acknowledgment or feedback — it can be very demoralising but you just have to keep plugging away and the right thing will eventually emerge! Baz Luhrmann’s “Sunscreen Song” definitely helped me through. Career highlight? The first time I had a complete stranger place a second, repeat order for BB Pads because she was so over the moon with her first order was a real highlight for me. The feedback I get from customers really keeps me motivated and keeps the momentum going — I do a little dance around the kitchen each time. In the past month, BB Pads has been featured in the Sunday Times and we won the Covid-19 Start-Up Award at the Southwark Business Awards so those have been pretty bloody brilliant highlights too!
What are the main challenges you’re having to overcome to make this a success and do you have any aspirations for BB Pads? I thought that the logistics of pre-launch would be the hardest part but it turns out that the workload is actually more postlaunch! It’s quite a job increasing visibility, drawing in new customers and nurturing a trusting relationship with them. I’m studying for my Masters and working part-time too so time management, planning ahead and getting a good amount of sleep is crucial! At the moment I’m beginning to make plans for Period Pad Batch Number Two, so have been researching and ordering samples of some very exciting new fabrics using waste orange fibres, seaweed and all sorts of non-synthetic dyes. I’d ideally like to make BB Pads into more of a social enterprise in the future — but baby steps, we’ll see! Who have your mentors been and what’s the best piece of advice they’ve given you? I’ve been very grateful for the huge amount of free online content available which, due to Covid, has become even more accessible as it’s all been online. I’ve attended a tonne of webinars hosted by the British Library’s Business and IP Centre, Virgin Start-Up and all sorts of other business accelerator schemes and have reached out to other young, solo, female entrepreneurs and business owners for advice. Also my friends and family have gone above and beyond in supporting me, advising me and listening to me bang on about period pads. Tom Tapper who works for the B-Corp creative agency Nice and Serious and was a panelist in one webinar I went to said: “People are looking to belong somewhere. The products we’re buying are doing something. In deciding who and what you want to invest in and support, you are also making a statement about what defines you as a person, what your identity is.” He also said, “The truer you are to yourself as a founder, the more trusted and genuine your brand will be.” In navigating various dilemmas and hurdles over the past several months since launching BB Pads, I’ve come back to these two snippets of wisdom to guide me quite a lot.
20 Feature
Presidential interviews
Samia Tossio (Roper’s 1988)
What is SamiArt, the Finga Ninjas and the Great Yarn Project SamiArt became the name of my creative venture as a community artist where I view what I do as creating the art of wellbeing. You often hear “Oh, I’m not creative at all, I can’t draw, I was told I was no good at art” or “I used to be creative but I don’t make or paint anymore”, and I wonder when that innate ability to be playful, creative, and curious becomes lost? I realised I wanted to do my best to recapture and release that creativity in people. The things I do with my groups are there to inspire; we share through playful, creative communication. The Finga Ninjas is anyone who has been to one of my workshops and learnt to finger knit. The classes are open to all with participants ranging from six to 78. Children love the immediacy of it and need little encouragement to make their designs as bright and bold as possible. I get a lot of mums thanking me. It helps children with their self-esteem as they can teach others – teach adults something. And they always have such great ideas. Finger knitting is intergenerational. It gets the community involved and it gets them talking. What inspired you to set up your venture I am not a formally trained artist but I am a maker, a doodler and over the years made decor for parties, created flyers, made gifts for friends and basically used up whatever was to hand to create something rather lovely from nothing. I’m also very much a people person and started to feel I had a calling to share. A particular, magical dream one night of a beautiful village on an Italian hillside full of art, the sound of music and happy people laughing and chattering, cemented that calling to inspire others through playful creativity and a chance encounter with a local Arts Officer shortly afterwards led to me beginning some community workshops with older people in Wallington; SamiArt was born. I realised the value of the arts for social, emotional and mental wellbeing from that very first workshop. I started with something really simple – some flower pressing – as I believe no one should be afraid of art or being artistic. It is something that should bring joy and lift the spirits.
My involvement in community arts projects continued and I curated exhibitions, festivals and installations. It was in 2015 that I discovered finger knitting. I had recently lost my beloved mum to colon cancer and took myself on a conscious grieving process. I asked my mother to send me something to keep my hands busy to help get me through the grief and the next day, whilst searching for something completely unrelated online, I clicked upon a finger knitting tutorial - that’s when I found colour and fluff to be truly therapeutic and it’s how my journey to becoming a ‘Finga Ninja’ began. In the six years since, I’ve taught over 3000 people to finger knit and launched yarn-bombing installations far and wide. [Editor’s note: Yarn bombing is the placing of temporary eye-catching crocheted artworks in public spaces, bringing much needed colour, light and laughter to our post-lockdown lives]. This led to A Good Yarn project – a workshop for migrants and the homeless, offered in conjunction with Sutton Night Watch, which weaves the art of finger knitting with storytelling to demonstrate our common bonds. To hear and listen to the stories they share is a gift. The workshops
are offered free, encouraging those who may not feel fully confident with their place in the community to join in and be part of something joyful. What advice would you have given yourself leaving School, would you have followed the same career path initially? I considered becoming an actress, after being on the Alleyn’s stage in my 2 years here, but it felt like a plan that would be all about me and I didn’t want the hassle of an ego problem (I would have been a nightmare!). I also had a vague idea of working as a translator for the UN, so I trundled off to study Arabic at Leeds Uni (top of the class, too) but dropped out, carried on experiencing life with no clear idea of what I truly ‘needed’ to do until after having my own (home-educated) kids. Now I’m grateful to be doing something I never would have imagined. Career lowlight? Self-inflicted artists’ doubts but my dreams got me through the low points - an especially magical one about ‘having faith
Feature 21
and trusting the flow’ back around 2011 helped me focus and the doors have been opening ever since. Almost immediately after that dream one of those doors led to a career highlight. Career highlight? Getting a Culture Seeds grant for A Good Yarn, and its three exhibitions; to hear some of the experiences of the refugees and the homeless – often these people have lost everything but are trying to carry on, to rebuild – is incredibly moving and inspiring. Presenting a commemorative silk painting created with my sister, a skilled calligraphy artist, to HRH Prince Charles at the launch of CSCA, the Charity for Spiritual and Cultural Advancement, at
Old Trafford. Fairly awesome moment, with many butterflies - I’m a confident sort, but I was a bit flustered that day. Installing my motto on a 5m wall space at Lockside Bar in Camden, seeing it also in crochet, adorning railings with the yarnbombs. Having a 5-page spread about my work and this year’s Sutton & Carshalton bombing escapades in Surrey Life Magazine. Having this interview in the EAC magazine (I only reached out to put something in the newsletter!) What are the main challenges you’re having to overcome to make this a success and do you have any aspirations for SamiArt? Taking SamiArt on tour - I saw the
Love Life Life Loves You possibilities back in 2008 but it wasn’t practical with children. They’re now independent 23 and 17 yr olds so I can manouevre more freely. All my choices - the inspired, the good, the reasoned, & just plain doofus - have led me to now, contemplating how to burst through the ceiling of sailing the SamiArt ship solo to having a permanent crew - or joining a fleet? - to take my passion and love for humanity on tour, and spread a tidal wave of joy, affecting positive change, with 13 years’ experience behind me. Who have your mentors been and what’s the best piece of advice they’ve given you? My mum, telling me to “sing your own song” reminding me to always be true to my heart and mind. My dad, whose expression, ‘hold, don’t carry’ serves me well, and a favourite saying from Naqshbandi Sufi, Shaykh Nazim: ‘We ask to be no-one and nothing. For, as long as we are someone, we are not complete.’ That one really keeps me humble. Whatever I manage to make happen for the good of the whole in my lifetime, it will be thanks to the magic to be found in loving Life, because Life wants us all to be happy - hence the motto #LoveLifeLifeLovesYou – You can also buy a number of products featuring Samia’s motto via her website, check out her workshops and latest creations at www.samiart.co.uk
22 Alumni News
lumni News
Derrick Willer (Roper’s 1957)
1900’s
Major General Sir Leslie Williams (1900 – 1905)
We were delighted to receive a copy of the book Dunkirk to D-Day written by Phil Williams about his father AOB Major General Sir Leslie Williams who attended Alleyn’s pre-WW1 and was president of the Old Boys’ Association in the 1950’s.
The book (published by Pen & Sword) chronicles the deeds of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, with Williams at its helm, which supplied the troops with anything from socks to scout cars. Phil explains ‘At Dunkirk, the British Army had lost most of its equipment, yet of D-Day, only four years later, Max Hastings would write in Overlord ‘To almost every man of the Allied Armies, the predominant memory of the campaign, beyond the horror of battle, was the astounding efficiency of the supply services. None of this happened by accident. It was by dint of hard work, a willingness to learn from mistakes, and an openness to new ideas. The book is a quest to find who the leaders were, what fitted them for their task and what they did afterwards.’
Derrick Willer MBE is leading a project to run the next Robot Day at Coventry University on 7 and 8 May 2022 as part of Coventry City of Culture, following the previous one in 2019 which over 7000 people attended. He asks anyone who knows of a company that could contribute to get in touch at dw@dwiller. com You can watch a video of the 2019 event here http://www. robotdayuk.com Derrick has also set up a new community website to support STEAM in schools world-wide. Please see http://www.schoolsliaisoncommunity.net
1960s
John Harding (Tyson’s 1961)
You can read more here https://www.philwilliamswriter.co.uk Dunkirk to D-Day: The Men and Women of the RAOC and Re-Arming the British Army is available from Amazon ISBN: 9781526794307
1950s
Vic Elford (Brading’s 1953)
We were delighted to hear from Vic Elford all the way from Florida: I left the UK to live in France in 1970 and then moved to the United States in 1984. I was a professional racing driver with many years spent with Porsche. I was actually the last Englishman to win the Monte Carlo Rally (driving a Porsche 911) in 1968. I was also one of the lead drivers driving the fearsome Porsche 917. I am now 86 years old and unfortunately am now suffering from advanced Prostate Cancer. Best regards to everyone at Alleyn’s. Everyone at Alleyn’s wishes you well, Vic!
John writes ‘Perhaps you will think this a curiosity worth including, of interest to some Old Boys wondering what to do in retirement. I should have liked to tell the masters who taught me, but none is now contactable. Last September, I got a PhD in 18th-Century Welsh history at Oxford Brookes University and have recently been appointed a Visiting Research Fellow there.’ Congratulations, John! David Ivan White (Dutton’s 1963) It is good to re-connect with David who tells us that his time at the National Council for Training in Journalism and London College of Printing and Journalism was followed by a short career in journalism before entering into the European Union Service (European Investment Bank, HQ Luxembourg) in 1974 through to 2010. He held various positions there in central management, further education in finance and economics, infrastructure financing in Italy, then passing to external service under the EU’s cooperation agreements with African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries. He then became Deputy Division Head for Eastern and Central Africa, then Counsellor to the Management Committee on Africa operations, finally Head of Regional Office in Pretoria, South Africa, covering cooperation with the governments of 17 Southern Africa and Indian Ocean countries (2005-2010). David now lives variously in Cornwall, Vancouver Island and Rome.
Alumni News 23
David has fond memories of Alleyn’s teacher Dora Wiggs ‘a wonderful French teacher who awoke in me interest for the wider world. Little did she know that her French lessons would stand me in good stead when starting EU life in Luxembourg and Brussels, and indeed in Rwanda, Burundi, Gabon, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Madagascar in later years.’
John Greatrex (Spurgeon’s 1966)
Michael Kemp (Roper’s 1968)
The 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park was the First World Expo, in the original Crystal Palace. On 1 October 2021, alumnus John Greatrex launched the plan to recreate Paxton’s Crystal Palace in the Midlands, coinciding with the opening day of the latest World Expo in Dubai, where the UK Pavilion includes the ‘1851 Restaurant & Bar’. An exhibition to commemorate will be on display at the Coventry Canal Basin in the West Midlands (Coventry is currently the UK City of Culture). The 1851 exhibition was housed in Paxton’s first Crystal Palace, a temporary greenhouse in Hyde Park, which was moved in 1852 to be a permanent structure on the top of London’s Southern hills. This second Crystal Palace of 18541936 became an iconic London landmark, but burnt down on 30 November 1936. Michael Kemp has a new track out called Tantamount to Tango and it is available via Bandcamp https://michaelkemp. bandcamp.com/album/tantamount-to-tango . Listen out for AOB Martin Bartlett (Tyson’s 1968) who also plays on it. Mike Bryant (Tyson’s 1964)
Twice awarded the Woolwich Prize for English Verse, John was hugely inspired by a talk by Sam Wanamaker he attended in Dulwich about his dream to recreate Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre that burnt down in 1613. It took Sam about forty years to finally achieve his ambition. We hope that it doesn’t take you that long to recreate the Crystal Palace, John! Michael Houghton (Tyson’s 1968) Congratulations to Professor Sir Michael Houghton who was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his work identifying the Hepatitis C Vaccine in the 1980s. You can read more about his work which led to him jointly winning the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize in physiology or medicine in the Autumn Winter EAC magazine on page 22-23 Howard Nye (Brown’s 1969)
Mike Bryant, now residing in New York City has updated his photography website after his last trip to Indonesia in March 2020 here http://www.mikebryantsite.com The photo was taken by Mike in Indonesia showing a Banggaii Cardinal Fish, sheltered in a sea urchin. Stefan Gatward (Tulley’s 1965) Stefan writes:‘There is no chance that this boy could ever pass a science exam’. On that basis, I was (quite rightly) not entered for ‘O’ Level Physics in 1963, being an out-and-out Modern Linguist. Indeed, I went on to gain ‘A’ Levels in English, French, and German in the Sixth Form, and simply had to accept my lacking a science qualification. However, during the 2020-2021 lockdown, deprived of gym/ aerobics/tennis/rambling/watching Pompey, I decided to study medical science at a local college, and have just gained a 6:6 Double Award in GCSE Combined Science (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics). Belated and elated!’
Howard Nye FRAeS, MInstP, BSc (Hons) has recently taken up the role of President of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) a Learned Society and charity founded in 1866, today with more than 22,000 members around the world. Her Majesty the Queen is patron of the Society. www.aerosociety.com/about-us/ourvalues/our-president
24 Alumni News
On leaving Alleyn’s Howard went on to read Physics at Bristol University. His space career began in 1973 at British Aircraft Corporation, Filton. Following work on the Hubble Space Telescope Solar Array, he become head of the BAe-Bristol solar array group in 1978. In 1980 he joined Vega-Ltd. to prepare ESA Spacelab I operations at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany, and astronaut training at NASAMSFC in Huntsville, Alabama, later moving to NASA-Johnson in Houston for the Spacelab 1 mission carried aloft by Space Shuttle Columbia. He joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1983 assigned to the ESA-Giotto mission, playing a lead role in cruise phase operations and the successful encounter with comet Halley in March 1986. He was then concurrently responsible for Hipparcos preparations and post-launch recovery, ISO preparations and as Flight Director, the unforeseen Giotto Extended Mission to encounter a second comet, successfully completed in 1992. From 1993, he was responsible for delivery of both the mission operations centre at ESOC and the science operations centre in Spain for the XMM-Newton X-ray astronomical telescope mission and all related activities until end of the in-orbit commissioning in 2000. In 2002, he led an ESA cooperation involving eight ESA member states, negotiating an agreement in 2004 assigning responsibilities for flight operation of the EU Galileo satellites, valid until 2016. From 2004, all five ESA establishments across Europe were placed under his responsibility and from 2006, he was additionally responsible for ESA-wide corporate informatics. He transferred to Paris in 2009 to elaborate political and financial solutions for evolution of ESA-HQ, liaising with the Mayor of Paris and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was responsible as ESA Senior Executive from 2012 until the end 2014 for ESA-wide organisational change and cost efficiency.
Richard Calland (Tulley’s 1982) AOB Richard Calland has thirty years of experience in law, politics and sustainability. He went to South Africa in 1994, where he is now based at the University of Cape Town (UCT) as an Associate Professor in Public Law. In the field of sustainability strategy, Richard is a Fellow of the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership and as such has served as a member of faculty on numerous CISL leadership programmes for organisations such as the World Bank, African Development Bank, PWC, Network Rail, Namdeb, Tata, Anglo Platinum and Nedbank. He is also the co-director of the African Climate Finance Hub – the only African-based organisation with a specialist track record of working with governmental and development partners on climate finance in Africa. You can read a recent article in the South African Mail and Guardian here https://mg.co.za/opinion/2021-10-04presidents-panel-calls-for-end-to-coal-but-wholl-fund-it/ We were delighted to have Professor Calland share his valuable knowledge as a speaker at The Edward Alleyn Club Lecture in 2018. Alan Harding (Tyson’s 1982) We would like to congratulate Alan Harding on his recent induction into the Worshipful Company of Engineers, a modern livery company of senior, leading engineers from industry and academia representing the full diversity of today’s engineering; a fellowship which aims to enhance the future engineering wellbeing of the nation. John Piggott (Spurgeon’s 1987)
Since 2015, he offers aerospace consulting. He is a Fellow of the Society, Chair of the Space Specialist Group, Vice-President of the Paris Branch and Member of the Institute of Physics, fluent in French and German.
1980s
Chris Grant (Tyson’s 1980)
Alumna Josie Gill (Brown’s 1987) sent us this great photo of John taken on the set of Season Two of the Netflix show Bridgerton. John has been a freelance camera operator in drama for 25 years and specialises in steadicam operating. He is currently working on the upcoming prequel of Game of Thrones for Sky.
1990s
Nancy Carroll (Brading’s 1992) Manor is a darkly comic new play by Moira Buffini (The Dig, Handbagged) featuring Nancy Carroll as Diana:
Many congratulations go to EAC Vice - President Chris Grant who was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his role on the Board of Sport England and services to sport.
A storm is brewing. Diana is struggling to keep the roof on her run-down manor house. As a violent storm sweeps the coast, a group of strangers unexpectedly arrive in search of shelter. Enter Ted, the charismatic leader of a far-right organisation. He could be Diana’s saviour – or he could pull the fragile household to pieces. Stranded together, the explosive mix of people must survive the weather and each other. Manor is on at the Lyttelton Theatre from 16 November to 1 January https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/manor
Alumni News 25
Alom Shaha (Cribb’s 1992) Physics Teacher and author Alom Shaha has shared news of his new book Mr Shaha’s Marvellous Machines which was published on 8 July. You can read details about the book, and watch a video trailer here: https:// alomshaha.com/ portfolio/mr-shahasmarvellous-machines/ Alom is also trying to coordinate with other STEM organisations to encourage people to make their own toys this Christmas instead of buying more plastic. If you’d like to partner up, get in touch @alomshaha James Carroll (Tulley’s 1997) ‘I would love to share my story since leaving Alleyn’s in 1997 with a stint as Director of Studies at Alleyn’s Junior School 2010-2014. I have spent the last 20 years in international education and school leadership and now work as UK Director of Education for the Cognita schools group, leading education in 40+ independent schools in the UK. Cognita is the world’s largest operator of private schools, with schools in 11 countries including the UK, Switzerland, Dubai and Singapore. One of two Directors of Education in the UK overseeing the 43 schools in England and Wales, leading the continuous improvement of the quality of education. The UK schools portfolio is formed of Early Years, Prep and Senior settings following either the British national curriculum or the International Baccalaureate. The past two years have been like no other in education, it has been a privilege to work with educators both in Cognita Schools and further afield, leading a strategic focus on Ed Tech and the use of AI whilst maintaining the laser focus on pedagogy both in the physical and online classroom. Working closely with educators from across the UK, strides made in teacher professional development continue to lay strong foundations to further develop the educational experience for students in Cognita Schools.’
projects, and on behalf of all of the team in Syria, I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I still remember attending Founder’s Day myself, many years ago - the strawberries and cream were a tradition in those days, along with wearing a cornflower - Edward Alleyn’s favourite flower. I also always remember the story of how the school was founded, with twelve poor scholars, and it is my prayer that we too will be able to found a school of a similar quality in Syria, to serve the poor and vulnerable.’ You can find out more here samarasaidappeal.org Helena Merriman (Brading’s 1999) First the awardwinning podcast, now the book! Tunnel 29 was published by Hodder Books in August 2021, ahead of the 60th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall. Back in 2019, Helena wrote, produced and presented Tunnel 29 – a BBC podcast series about a group of students who dug a tunnel under the Berlin Wall in 1962. It has had over 6 million downloads and was listed by The New Yorker as one of their top five podcasts of 2019. It won the Foreign Press Association’s Podcast of the Year, Rose D’Or Best Audio Entertainment and Best Radio Podcast and Moment of the Year at the British Podcast Awards. The Times described the book as ‘a fantastic story, exceedingly well told…more gripping than a thriller. The story arc, through betrayal and disaster to triumph, is perfect.’ More details are here http://waterstones.com/book/ tunnel-29/helena-merriman/9781529334012 The TV rights have now been bought by Sister Productions and the series will be directed by Johan Renck (who directed Chernobyl) so we look forward to Tunnel 29 - The Movie to add to the mix! Orlando von Einsiedel (Dutton’s 1998)
Samara Levy (Brading’s 1996) The Alleyn’s Parents Association (APA) have been delighted to support the work of alumna Samara Levy who founded Samara’s Aid Appeal. This initiative started in August 2014 and has quickly grown into a larger project providing medical and humanitarian aid, currently focused on Syria. Samara says ‘before taking this on, I had no experience in fundraising or charity work. Yet since October 2014 we have sent 110 consignments of aid, lorries of aid to Iraq, and containers of aid to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.’ Samara wrote to the APA in response to the donation: ‘This great news comes at such an important time, as things in Syria become more and more tough. The situation is dire, but we are now in the process of building a second outreach centre for orphans and widows. Your gift will have a big impact on these
Courtesy of Grainmedia
Orlando and his company Grain Media have been as busy as ever with a range of new projects from Convergence: Courage in a Crisis - a truly global collaboration about the Covid-19 pandemic – to Heart of Invictus, a docuseries for Netflix. The latter, made in partnership with Archewell Productions will follow a group of former armed service members with life-changing injuries or illnesses, as they prepare to compete in the Invictus Games at The Hague in 2022. Convergence was released in cinemas on 8 October and is now available on Netflix.
26 Alumni News
2000s
Scott Karim (Brown’s 2003) Scott Karim has been gaining deserved recognition of late, whether as Ali Hakim in Oklahoma! at Chichester in the summer of 2019 or at the Bush Theatre later that year as half of Bijan Sheibani’s superb two-hander, The Arrival, about the fraught reunion between two half-Iranian brothers. In July, Scott was at the Kiln Theatre as the lone new member to the cast of a return engagement of their acclaimed 2016 production of The Invisible Hand. You can read this in-depth interview with him here https:// www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatre-news/interviews/theinvisible-hands-scott-karim-on-how-stories-should-makesense-of-the Joe Surtees (Brown’s 2004)
With the help of Arts Council funding, alumnus Miran Hadžić has produced a new audio drama series called Out of the Woods: New Plays from the Balkans which was launched during Refugee Week in June 2021. Series one is inspired by Kosovo, the newest state in Europe. Fifth Dimension (a 45-minute dark satire on a dystopian UK) was written by Miran himself and he visited Kosovo to work with acclaimed composer Trimor Dhomi. Subscribe free to the series or read more here https://tamasha. org.uk/projects/out-of-the-woods-new-plays-from-thebalkans-podcast/
2010s
Tom Glenister (Tulley’s 2014) Tom Glenister plays JRR Tolkien in The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of CS Lewis, a new biopic tracking the life of The Chronicles of Narnia author. Directed by Norman Stone and due for release in November, the story follows the author as he battles with himself and ultimately finds faith. Watch the trailer here https://www.cslewismovie.com/home/ Ben Tinkler-Davies (Tyson’s 2016)
Joe writes: ‘Back when I was at Alleyn’s it’s fair to say I wasn’t a fan of running. I’m still not. As far as I’m concerned, running is like Brussel sprouts, possibly good for you but definitely unpleasant. Yet the past few months have seen my wife and I tackle marathons, half-marathons and ultra-marathons. Why? Because we’re raising money for the baby loss charity Tommy’s. Over the past few years my wife and I have suffered three miscarriages. Part of the tragedy is that we’re not that unusual. One in four pregnancies ends in baby loss. Luckily the charity Tommy’s exists, doing vital research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth to support babies, parents and families. By learning about the root causes of miscarriage, Tommy’s helps people avoid its devastation. If you’d like to contribute to Tommy’s, you can find out more about our fundraising effort here: https://justgiving.com/fundraising/nicola-and-joeisleofwight But - and this is very important - even if you can’t, I wanted to share this so others out there who’ve experienced miscarriage know they’re not alone. If this is something you’ve been through and need to talk about, support is available to everybody through organisations such as Tommy’s and the Miscarriage Association.’ Miran Hadžić (Roper’s 2008)
Ben is Batty about bamboo! Could bamboo see the end of traditional willow for cricket bats? Ben Tinkler-Davies, University of Cambridge engineer, has researched and produced what looks to be a winning alternative to the traditional willow cricket bat. In conjunction with bat manufacturers, Garrard & Flack, he designed and tested a full-size bamboo prototype and found the bamboo bats to be three times stronger. The bats are also stiffer having the effect of increasing the velocity of the ball once hit. Despite being significantly heavier than willow, the bamboo’s inherent strength means bats could be made lighter whilst still hitting the ball as hard and as fast. Their tests showed that bamboo bats are not just a viable alternative to willow but in all likelihood, superior: stronger, stiffer, more sustainable, with a bigger sweet-spot. They are also cheaper. Impressive results indeed. The only question left to ask is, does it still make the same lovely sound? Helena Barlow (Cribb’s 2017) Helena Barlow is currently doing a MA in Acting at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She writes ‘As part of my final year project I have the exciting task of creating my own short film, that I believe has the potential to extend into a feature film. I will be entering it into film festivals, both at home and abroad. I will also be inviting leading industry professionals to our screenings, as well as all those who generously contribute towards our goal. I have written the script myself, and I will also be starring in it and I am currently fundraising for it. The funding will cover crew hire, equipment hire, film festival entry fees etc. I would love to get in touch with alumni who are patrons of the arts or who specialise in acting or Shakespeare. I have such fond memories of the drama department at Alleyn’s so I would love the opportunity to share my work with other Alleyn’s alumni.’ The link for my fundraising page is https://gofund.me/04f1a574
Alumni News 27
ltogether
lleyn's
As ever Alleyn’s alumni have been busy celebrating, creating and commemorating together:
CELEBRATING... Kate Clark, daughter of former Head of Alleyn’s Derek Fenner (1976-1992) has sent us this beautiful photograph and explains: ‘I read the obituary for Graham Garrett who was a pupil at Alleyns after the War and was later head at Wellingborough school. Coincidently he attended Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge at the same time as my father Derek Fenner and was best man at my parents wedding in Halifax on 20 July 1957. He, my father and one of the other groomsmen Stuart Parsonson (all pictured here) were all maths undergraduates together at Caius! Strange how things work out!’. The Class of 1970 reunited after 50 years
school, and we had a free-flowing afternoon catching up on decades of stories and developments. Everyone came away with a sense of regaining friendships we had lost. Many thanks to Angus Adigun, Andrew McKinna and John Clifton for all your hard work finding us and organising an amazing day. Rather than wait another 50 years, the class is planning to meet again in 2023.’ Peter tells us ‘A very enjoyable time was had by all, and we are hoping that those who weren’t able to be there will be able to come on another occasion.’
CREATING... Felix Barrett (Tulley’s 1996) Jude Law (Spurgeon’s 1989) and Sam Booth (Brading’s 1998) Florence Welch (Spurgeon’s 2005). You may have seen The Third Day, a BAFTA-nominated psychological thriller exploring the mysteries and Photographer Liam Daniel rituals of a remote British island, which premiered on Sky Atlantic, NOW and HBO in 2020. What you may not know is that this groundbreaking show (designed to be the world’s first immersive TV show) was created and written by alumnus Felix Barrett (Tulley’s 1996) at Punchdrunk and is a true Alleyn’s collaboration - the cast including alumni Jude Law (Spurgeon’s 1989) and Sam Booth (Brading’s 1998) alongside a guest appearance from Florence Welch (Spurgeon’s 2005). The Third Day has already received much critical acclaim - The Third Day: Autumn was awarded the RTS Award for best Live Event in 2021 and the DQ Daily award for Drama Craft at the C21 International Drama awards 2020.
The photo shows anticlockwise from the head of the table: Angus Adigun, Steve Bargeron, Andy Brown, Mark Chamberlain, John Clifton, Mike Darsley, Steve Garrett, Peter Holland, John Isaacs, Peter Lammer, Andrew McKinna, Kanak Patel, John Pullinger, Peter Sherrington.
Thank you to both Peter Lammer (Brown’s 1976) and Mark Chamberlain (Spurgeon’s 1976) for updating us about their class reunion The 25 boys of Class 2E, the last cohort of the School’s accelerated stream, met for the first time in September 1970. Mark explains: ‘49 years later, some expert cyber sleuthing brought all but three together online to plan for a 50th reunion. Of course, 2020 was cancelled, but fourteen ‘boys’ finally made it to the Crown and Greyhound in Dulwich village in September. It took only a few minutes for 2E to come together as closely as we were at
Sky Yang (Roper’s 2017) and Ben Bainbridge (Brown’s 2019) Alleyn’s alumni were represented at the Crystal Palace Film Festival on Saturday 18 September with the World premiere of Sunny directed by Sky Yang and Ben Bainbridge. The film depicts a Chinese boy moving from childhood to adolescence and finding himself lost in a world that tells him he should hate where he comes from.
28 Alumni News
COMMEMORATING... An Alleyn’s presence at the new IWM Holocaust gallery. Tim Locke (Dutton’s 1976) and Lucy May Maxwell (Roper’s 2007) deemed Jewish because they had three Jewish grandparents. On Kristallnacht in November 1938 the family was ordered by Nazis to ‘leave by dawn or else go to prison’: thus homeless, they decamped with a few suitcases and moved to an attic in Munich. When Ruth died in 2012 I emptied the rambling old house in Sydenham where I had been born in 1958. Astonishingly she had kept virtually everything from her past life – all the letters her parents had sent from Germany to England, her school note books, over a thousand photographs of prewar Germany, diaries dating back to 1937, sheet music, the ferry ticket for the Kindertransport and the suitcases they brought with them from Germany… the list goes on and on.
I
n October, the Imperial War Museum became the first in the world to house dedicated Second World War and Holocaust galleries under the same roof, changing the way young people understand the past for generations to come. It has also brought together two Alleyn’s alumni, Tim Locke (Dutton’s 1976) and Lucy May Maxwell (Roper’s 2007) who worked closely together on a special contribution to the galleries:
Tim takes up the story: While at Alleyn’s I never discussed my mother Ruth’s narrow escape from the Holocaust with anyone. In the 1970s that wasn’t the sort of thing people talked about, and I didn’t know a lot about it anyway. But in the past seven years I’ve been piecing the story together, and the fate of her family – the Neumeyers – is now featured in the new Holocaust gallery opened at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London this October. By total coincidence, one of the curators I’ve been in close contact with over recent years in connection with setting up this gallery was Lucy: the first time she and a colleague came to visit me in Lewes we found out we had both attended Alleyn’s at different times. Ruth and her brother Raymond departed Munich on a Kindertransport
to England in May 1939, leaving their parents Hans and Vera behind on the platform: the family never met up again. Three years later both parents were deported: Hans to the Theresienstadt ghetto near Prague, and Vera to an unknown destination – either the Warsaw ghetto or Auschwitz. Neither survived. Ruth and Raymond had been brought up as Lutherans by their mother. It was quite a bohemian, arty family: both parents were very musical – Hans was a blind pianist, composer and music teacher, and Vera taught eurythmics and English. They lived in a beautiful house in the artists’ quarter in, of all places, Dachau – and all was well until the Nazis came to power. In 1935 it transpired that because of the Nuremberg Laws the family was in great danger – Hans was Jewish, Vera was mixed race (Mischling) and the children were
Some objects that I’d grown up with without giving much thought to them were brought over by Ruth on that Kindertransport. Her teddy bear had languished upside-down in a toy basket throughout my childhood, then spent retirement on a chair in Ruth’s bedroom, and on a hook on her bedroom door for as long as I could remember was a red and white spotted dressing gown. And there was a whole lot of silver ancestral cutlery and napkin rings that looked too special to have escaped the Nazis’ eyes – how did that lot get smuggled out? Ruth stashed away a lot of prewar correspondence in a trunk on the upstairs landing of our Sydenham house. While she was alive I never had the nerve to pry into it – there were hundreds of letters, tightly bound up with string and in polythene bags. After she died I finally opened it up, and
The family home in Dachau
Alumni News 29 been unable to secure passage out of Germany in time. Vera writes: ‘Going on journey, but cheerful and happy, healthy. Father same. Keep in touch with aunt Dora Böse, Dresden, Leipzigerstrasse 147. Keep happy!’ This message is dated 9 July 1942. It was the last message Vera and Hans were able to send to their children. They were both deported by the Nazis and neither survived the war. There is a third space where visitors pick up the Neumeyer family story. It is in the Justice space. Raymond, the boy on the Kindertransport has grown up. He is now a soldier in the British Army. He is back in Germany in 1946 and demanding that the Mayor of Dachau, who threw them his family out of their house before the war, loses his job. It was important to the team that we could include this as we wanted to show that the children of the Kindertransport grew up and some, like Raymond, sought out those that had persecuted their families to demand justice.
the story opened up with it. I started writing a blog based on the artefacts I found – and that has helped me unravel this unspoken corner of my family’s past, answering so many questions but asking so many more. The new Holocaust gallery simply blew me away on my first visit. It’s a very strange but wonderful feeling to see the bear, dressing gown, family letters and photographs on display to remind the world what happened, and that it should never happen again. The IWM has to my delight offered to take the entire family archive as they felt it is so substantial that it needs to be preserved in its entirety. Lucy:
take nearly four years from that point in time for the new Holocaust Galleries to be ready to open to the public. Across those years I met with Tim several times and corresponded regularly to make sure that the display of his family’s objects in the galleries was appropriate to the people’s lives they represented. The Neumeyer family story is told at several different points in the galleries, which are both chronological and contemporaneous. This means that we drop the visitor into the situations people faced at particular points in time without the knowledge of what was to come. Visitors first meet the Neumeyers as Ruth and Raymond part from their parents on the Kindertransport in 1939.
I first met Tim in December 2017 when I visited him in Lewes. When he mentioned ‘growing up in South London’ within seconds of meeting, we realized that we both went to Alleyn’s!
As well as displaying objects that the children took with them – like Ruth’s teddy bear – as a team it was also important to us to represent the anguish of the parents who were left behind. A quote from a letter written by their mother Vera is printed on fabric behind the display: ‘I miss them greatly, but please do not tell them that, as I do not want to afflict them with matters that cannot be altered for the moment.’
It was great to have established a personal connection so easily. It would
The next time visitors meet Vera and Hans it becomes clear that they have
I have worked at the IWM for about a decade, starting out cataloguing film and photographs before moving into exhibition development.
It is also interesting to consider that while Ruth, Tim’s mum, did not actively seek this kind of justice for her parents, she kept every object associated with them with her for the whole of her life. It is an honour indeed for the museum to now have some of these objects in its collections and on display in the new Holocaust Galleries. It is thanks to Tim’s generosity with his family’s story, and the generosity of many other families, that the IWM are able to tell the stories of people whose lives were ended or altered irrevocably by the events of the Holocaust. I am very grateful to him for his faith in us. Tim Locke’s blog about his mother’s family before, during and after the Holocaust is here: https:// ephraimneumeyer.wordpress.com The Holocaust Galleries https://www. iwm.org.uk/events/the-holocaustgalleries
30 School News
School News The first outdoor Whole School
ssembly
On Monday 13 September, pupils from the Junior School and Senior School gathered together for the first outdoor Alleyn’s whole school assembly. The event signalled the beginning of a new tradition, the reuniting of the school after 18 months of Covid and a celebration of the school’s identity and values as one connected community. Head Jane Lunnon began her speech with a quotation from Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African-American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950, from the poem titled Paul Robeson: ‘We are each other’s harvest; we are each
other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.’ Head of Junior School Mr Severino added, ‘how immensely proud we are to be part of this bigger family and all that such a community brings… its inspiring, energising and reassuring collective spirit’. After further speeches from the Captain, Vice Captains and the Chaplain; a prayer read by Year 5 Mila and a performance by the saxophone quartet, everyone joined in for a rousing rendition of William Blake’s traditional school hymn ‘Jerusalem’.
Alleyn’s celebrates Black History Month 2021 Student leadership has long been a strong feature of Alleyn’s and it is no surprise that our pupils took an active role during Black History Month (BHM) in October. In addition to organising a series of events to mark Black history, our Minority Students Union (MSU) – a student-led group dedicated to combating racism – gave an inspiring
address to the student body to explain both why BHM is so important and why it is vital to embrace diversity all year round; it also highlighted the value of being proud of one’s own identity and the need to create environments in which that pride can be celebrated and respected. Discussions have also been taking place about Black
Curriculum recommendations in all departments and the MSU is working closely with the English Department to review texts for inclusion within our future curriculum. The MSU has also extended its membership to the Lower School and appointed a new Lower School Ambassador.
School News 31
Tony Bruni lleyn's long-serving Maths teacher retires
A
fter joining Alleyn’s back in 1983, Mr Bruni retired this summer, an incredible tenure spanning over 3 decades and one which meant he taught literally thousands of Alleyn’s alumni. Below is his valete from close colleague and Head of Maths, Anne Poole. Tony leaves Alleyn’s after 38 years. During his time at Alleyn’s he held a number of responsible posts: Housemaster of Brading’s from 1991-2000, Deputy Head of Maths from 2001-2020 and, perhaps his biggest claim to fame: instigator of the Fun Movement (or Fun Fizz) initiative which he started in 2001 and which still runs today. Tony was appointed Volunteering Co-ordinator in 2009 and this thriving section of the co-curricular at school owes much, if not everything, to Tony’s passion and enthusiasm. In addition to Fun Fizz with disabled children, the section also extends to visiting care homes and primary schools and to running computer courses for the elderly at School. The profile of Volunteering at Alleyn’s has increased exponentially over the years due to Tony’s commitment and vision. As if all of this wasn’t enough, Tony has been fully involved with sport at Alleyn’s over the years. He took cricket and football teams for many years and, in more recent years, he ran a Thai Chi class for the pupils. As a teacher of Maths, Tony excelled. Whether it was teaching and turning
around a disenchanted bottom Year 10 set or extending and captivating a Year 13 Further Maths class, Tony never disappointed. He was never that keen on schemes of work and his students quickly learned that they could easily encourage him to go off-piste with lesser known facts about mathematicians of old or obscure theorems. You could never accuse Tony of being a boring Maths teacher and his students loved him for it. It is hardly surprising that, after 38 years at Alleyn’s, he is something of a School legend. He is held in such high esteem by the pupils that they wrote him into a Bear Pit production – 35000 decisions. Tony could have retired many years ago but he made no secret of the fact that teaching is his passion and he was is no hurry to leave a job that he loved. Even the mighty Bruni could not work forever, however, and having completed this most difficult of years, Tony decided that enough is enough and it was time to retire. Tony is a family man. His loyalty to and pride in his family shines through when he talks of them and I have no doubt
that a huge positive to his retiring is that he will be able to spend more time with them, including the most recent addition to the family; his third grandchild. He does not intend to sit around idly and he plans to do some volunteering work at St Christopher’s and a little part time teaching. Alleyn’s will simply not be the same without Mr Bruni. He has been a rock in the Maths Department and an integral member of the staff team over the years. He will be hugely missed by students and staff and we send him on his way with our very best wishes. Anne Poole, Head of Maths
CCF honour for Major Scott Benest Congratulations to Major Scott Benest, Alleyn’s CCF Contingent Commander, who has been awarded the ‘Most Outstanding CCF Contingent Commander of the Year’ by the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association. After two Covidrelated cancellations the ceremony finally took place at Yeomanry House in Central London. The award was presented by the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London and Ministry of Defence top brass. This year the award reflected not only dedicated service to the Cadet Forces - and Major Benest can boast 21 years in total - but it is also awarded for leadership and resourcefulness during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using his e-learning
experience, he was able to ensure the contingent remained connected, engaged and motivated during the various lockdown periods. While Major Benest is rightly proud he is also thoughtful: ‘I am especially honoured that our very esteemed colleague, the late Colour Sergeant Kevin Granger, started the nomination process. His support and approval means a great deal to me.’
32 School News
lleyn's In Partnership Pupils and staff at Alleyn’s School engage in a range of outreach, community and partnership projects. Here’s some of our current projects:
Alleyn’s Summer School Following the raising of funds during the pandemic by the whole Alleyn’s School community (including alumni), Alleyn’s embarked on delivering its very first Summer School to 44 families from eight different local state primary schools. The primary schools helped to identify families that they felt had had a difficult time during the pandemic and/or were classified as pupil premium. For five days pupils from Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 arrived at 8am for breakfast then had lessons in Science, Art, Design Technology, Mathematics, English, Music, Dance, Drama, PSCHE, swimming and first aid, as well as visiting talks from the Police and Fire Brigade! This was followed by sports activities each afternoon.
Many members of our Junior School staff helped to teach the lessons throughout the week and our Year 12 students did an amazing job with volunteering and supporting the visiting pupils each day. One of the highlights of the week was the final afternoon presentation where all the pupils performed a dance and several songs, learned during the week, in front of parents.
Fume Cupboard Donation
Each pupil received a rucksack, packed full of school resources to help them get the academic year off to a good start as well as a family game and a £15 WHSmith voucher to buy a book. Mr Green Assistant Head Co-Curricular & Partnerships in particular thanked alumna Zara Long (Brown’s 1989) who helped to coordinate the scheme and said: ‘This has been a brilliant scheme to offer to these families for free following the amazing fund-raising support from our parents and alumni. The aim of the Summer School was to provide every pupil (and family) with an engaging and positive educational experience to help gain confidence and enjoyment in learning so as to start the new school year positively. The visiting pupils were absolutely fantastic and there is no doubt that it has made a huge difference to all these families’.
Following the installation of new ‘built in’ fume cupboards, (used for experiments with noxious chemicals), the Science Department were able to donate their spare cupboard to Trinity Academy in Brixton. Trinity Head Teacher (and former Alleyn’s Senior Deputy Head), Antony Faccinello said: ‘A big thank you to Alleyn’s Science Department for the splendid fume cupboard; our Trinity Academy new Chemistry A level students are looking forward to putting it to good use.’
School News 33
Making a mark with Maths Saturday Maths Scheme
The Saturday Maths Scheme continues to flourish at Alleyn’s, with four tutors teaching 52 pupils from 12 local primary schools, with the help of Alleyn’s pupil mentors from Year 11. The sessions are aimed at Year 5 pupils who already demonstrate an aptitude for mathematics and provide exciting and educational tuition in an informal and inspiring environment which goes beyond the National Curriculum. Southwark Community Education Charity (SCEC) is a registered charity which for over 20 years has worked together with participating primary schools to offer selected children the chance to extend their skills in this way.
“One of the best things about the Saturday Maths Scheme is that all of the kids really love maths. It is the best feeling to see a 10-year-old excited about algebra, or celebrating when they nail negative numbers: something which they won’t learn in school for at least a year.” Meg, Alleyn’s Saturday Maths volunteer
Alleyn’s hosts Model United Nations Alleyn’s Model United Nations 2021 (AMUN) marked the first in-person conference at Alleyn’s since the pandemic, bringing together over 100 delegates from six different schools, representing a total of 24 countries, including Alleyn’s, Dartford Grammar School, Dulwich College, Epsom College, Lingfield College, Royal Hospital School and St. Paul’s School.
Rights Council, Special Political Committee, Historical Council and the World Health Organisation.
The day began with our opening ceremony with a fascinating and inspiring talk from Dr Paul Chambers, a senior civil servant with significant experience of international climate policy.
In a fictional crisis during the General Assembly, the lost city of Atlantis emerged from the ocean to threaten nuclear war and demand compensation for years of plastic pollution. This fictitious scenario was a welcome change of pace from some of the more serious aspects of Model UN and many speeches were made advocating international nuclear disarmament and the crisis linked well to a recurring theme of environmental action during the day!
The conference was split into five committees: Security Council, Human
Incredibly, five participants from Alleyn’s were given awards, and the delegations
of China and the United Kingdom took home the prizes for Highly Commended and Best Delegation.
34 In Memoriam
Death notices It is with the deepest regret that we announce the following deaths:
Professor James Albert Algie (Cribb’s 1957)
Martin Andrew (Brading’s 1973)
David Banks (Tulley’s 1947)
Richard Coldham (Cribb’s 1973)
Eric Hirst
(Cribb’s 1950)
Raymond Jewkes (Brown’s 1953)
Derek Mathews (Tulley’s 1951)
John Neeld
(Spurgeon’s 1947)
Tony Recaldin
(Spurgeon’s 1946)
Kenneth John Seabrook (Brown’s 1947)
Obituaries
Paul Block
(Surgeon’s 1977) I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of my best friends at School, and with whom I had fortunately been able to keep in contact with at least sporadically during the 44 years since we departed Alleyn’s. Age 62 is far too
early, but a long illness eventually overcame him, and he died on 18 March 2021. Paul was an outstanding sportsman at School, a regular feature of the first XI football team, and a top athlete during summer, cracking the 2-minute mark for the 800 metres among many other then impressive achievements. Outside of school time, I also have fond memories of Paul and I queuing for hours outside Parliament to access the public gallery and listen to MP debates in The Commons. We were both heavily into politics at the time and receiving tickets from a local MP for Prime Minister’s question time was a real highlight. Southampton University also benefited from Paul’s sporting prowess before he graduated with a BA Hons degree in History in 1980. He then moved on to King Alfred’s College, Winchester to gain his teaching qualification (PGCE) for a year where he met Ruth, his eventual wife of 33 years. Next, came a move to West Sussex where he took up teaching English and History at Great Ballard Preparatory School. There he progressed to Deputy Head teacher, put on school plays, and coached football and cricket. His varied CV then took a different turn as he left teaching to work as an independent financial advisor and, subsequently, a mortgage advisor at an estate agency in Winchester. He eventually became manager of the entire agency. He was clearly pretty good, as I recall he actually arranged a mortgage and sold me an insurance policy at one point! Then it was back to teaching for 8 years as the owner and head teacher of Kirtlands, a small preparatory school in Broadway, Worcestershire. He followed that up with 6 years as owner and head teacher of Harecroft Hall, a day and boarding school in West Cumbria. Not being a person to decline a move away, Paul then migrated to Guernsey for a year to teach English at The Ladies College in St Peters Port. More recently though, he became involved in the Cumbria Youth Alliance, a charity dedicated to helping disadvantaged young people. He also became Chair of Trustees for another charity, Promoting Autonomy and Change (PAC), based in Carlisle. PAC provides therapies (talking, drama, art, play, equine) for children and young people. Passionate about this cause, Paul became CEO of PAC,
and thoroughly enjoyed this role, actually chairing a meeting two days before he died. The last time I met Paul in person was at a ceremony of dedication of my marriage, in Petts Wood in June 2017. It was so good to see him again, but so sad that this was to be the last time we met, barring conversations on the phone when we frequently reminisced on memories of our times at Alleyn’s. Sports and Paul Sherlock, maths and Mr McCartney (we weren’t the best at maths!) not to mention field trips organised by Geography teacher Jim Buckman. Paul was married 33 years and had four children, He owned a variety of cars including a Datsun Cherry, Ford Capri, Daimler, BMW convertible, Land Rover Defender, and Shogun. He loved Chelsea Football Club, had a profound interest in politics, but enjoyed good food, and relaxing with whichever family members were at home, not to mention walking with the dogs on the Sussex Downs, Cotswolds, Lake District fells and local meanders. Paul will be much missed by everyone who knew him. John Powell (Browns 1977)
Alan Carlisle
(Tulley’s 1966) My husband, Alan Carlisle, passed away on 8 December 2020, after a short illness. After a month in hospital during which time he was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease, he returned home and died in my arms a week later. He was 72. Alan was born on 30 August 1948 and entered Alleyn’s in 1959. During his time at Alleyn’s he was encouraged to learn the French horn. He always told me he didn’t so much choose that particular instrument, it was more a case of “Carlisle, you will learn the French horn.”! Fortunately, he discovered an aptitude for it. He played in the School orchestra
In Memoriam 35
and also represented the School in the London Schools’ Symphony Orchestra for several years. It was also at Alleyn’s that he first sang in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas and began a life-long love of the genre. Although his father had hoped that Alan would follow him into the scientific world, that was not Alan’s wish. On leaving Alleyn’s he studied French horn, voice and organ at the Royal Manchester College of Music. After college, Alan joined ICL and worked there until 1982. During this time music was still very much an important part of his life - singing, playing and conducting. He first came to Luxembourg in 1981, following an invitation to sing the part of Nanki-Poo in the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta The Mikado. He returned that year to sing the part of the defendant in Trial by Jury (also G&S), and in January 1982 was asked, on 10 days notice(!) to be one of the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella as one of the original Ugly Sisters worked at the European Parliament and had to go on mission to Harare! All these shows were produced by Pirate Productions, an English-language musical society in Luxembourg. It seemed inevitable that, after leaving ICL, Alan moved to Luxembourg! In 1984 he passed a competition for employment at the European Parliament where he worked in IT until taking early retirement in 2006. Throughout his time in Luxembourg, music and theatre were an integral part of his life. He played in the Luxembourg Philharmonia, sang in various ensembles, was Director of Music for the Anglican Church of Luxembourg for many years as well as being involved, both on and off stage and in the orchestra pit, for many Pirate Productions shows. During Luxembourg’s “European Year of Culture” in 1995 he fulfilled a personal dream by musically directing Fiddler on the Roof. For many years he was responsible for Luxembourg’s annual Burns Night entertainment. Alan was a prolific composer: his compositions ranged from cabaret (including one taken one year to the Edinburgh Fringe) to a Mass commissioned for the Anglican Church’s 50th anniversary. A major singing role as the Abbot in (to quote the composer) ane kirk opera The Passioun o Sanct Andraa
again took him to perform at the Edinburgh Festival, including at Dunfermline Abbey.
you always knew that you could rely on him to make that last ditch, match winning tackle.
Whilst much of his music-making was within the British and wider expat community, he also became involved in the Luxembourgish musical scene, singing in local Chorales and playing in local bands.
He had played for the AOBFC Strollers at one point and in 1990, when managing the team, I persuaded him to return. He rejoined for several very successful and enjoyable seasons, bringing with him his own particular brand of good humour. Once committed, he was truly committed. At one of the Stroller’s re-introduced Easter tours, he really showed his true colours and his wonderful and admirable nature. In preparation for the tour’s gala dinner, I selected the various tour awards. From the moment he arrived, Alan was in a particularly boisterous mood, persisting the whole weekend. My task was providing him with an appropriate and fitting award and the moment I presented it will live with me forever. His was for the ‘most obnoxious player on tour’ and, as I gave it to him, far from being angry or even a little miffed, he accepted it with pride and great jollity. Indeed, he wore it as a badge of honour and I believe he continued to treasure it; it was still making him (and me) laugh only last year. The other thing about Alan was he wasn’t judgmental – there were no hidden agendas with him – he was just a good friend. Like me, all the Strollers and their partners have been deeply affected by his death. John Smith (Brown’s 1966) observed that Alan was ‘such a party animal’ and the life and soul of the party. Dave Hebden (Cribb’s 1966) remembered Alan ‘as a towering figure in our Vets team. He was always ready to give 100% in every situation and was someone who played a huge part in building the great team spirit that we enjoyed over so many years. I can’t remember ever looking at him and not seeing a big broad smile on his face.’ Dave’s words are echoed by all of us. Alan was very popular with all of the Strollers group, as he was with almost everybody that he came into contact with. He was truly loyal, honourable, caring, trustworthy and genuinely good fun to be with and I, for one, am missing him and will continue to miss him very much. My heart goes out to Jackie, Lianne, Rachel and Little Alan.
Alan and I married in 1995. It was a second marriage for both of us. Whilst Alan had no children of his own, he was a wonderful stepfather, and later grandfather and greatgrandfather, to my daughters and their growing families. He was so fond of our great-grandchildren and I know was saddened to realise he would not be around as they grew up. His passing has left an enormous hole in our lives. Pamela Carlisle
Alan John Dowie
(Roper’s 1970-75) 5 October 1956 – 8 July 2021 All his many friends and colleagues will acknowledge that Alan was a larger than life character that always had a positive impact on you. Having known him for 53 years, I just believed he would always be there. We first met in September 1968 when I was entering the 3rd Year at Alleyn’s and for the next half Century, our paths crossed regularly, much more often than not, with great joy and laughter. Indeed, our great friend Ian ‘Stoker’ Stewart (Tulley’s 1971), added how much fun we had whenever we saw him and what a good heart he had. I have to agree. We would ridicule each other, sometimes mercilessly, all the time but it was always given and taken entirely in a spirit of good fun. Our main areas of coincidence were Alleyn’s and the school team football, Bruce Porter’s Idmiston Road Youth Club, Norwood Strikers FC, The Park Tavern, the Bon Bonne, AOBFC Strollers, South Bank Polytechnic, where we were both trainee surveyors, the RICS and, more latterly (for me), the Puerto Banus Posse, of which Alan was a founder member. There were also numerous house parties around West Norwood. Football clearly had a big role in both of our lives and Alan was a keen Crystal Palace supporter, while I am an Arsenal fan, which was much to Alan’s disgust. Alan was a more than competent centre half, a very keen and fair competitor and
For a full version of this obituary please see the In Memoriam section of our website John Parker (Brading’s 1968-1973)
36 In Memoriam
He wasn’t bad at football either.
Graham Hopkins
(Cribb’s 1968–74) Graham was a lifelong friend to myself and many others until his sudden death of a stroke on 30th November 2020. He leaves behind wife Pam and daughters Ella, Laura and Nikki. But most of all he leaves us all with a host of glowing memories. I first encountered Graham when we were in different classes at Dulwich Hamlet and different sixes at cubs but our friendship really started when we were thrust along with eighteen other unsuspecting individuals into the accelerated 2E class on arrival at Alleyn’s in September 1968. We remained in that E stream until going on our separate paths in Sixth Form. While I went for straight Classics, Graham kept a foot in two camps by doing double Maths and English at A level. He then went on to study English at Exeter University. Following a period travelling in the USA with his good friend Paul and a few stints of bar work, Graham spent some time working as an estate officer for Southwark Council. In the early 1980s he met Pam and also set upon a career path in the burgeoning world of IT, having done a TOPS course. His mathematical ability came to the fore and he occupied several posts in the City, the longest job being with City Max Finance, where he progressed into management positions in IT strategy and business analysis. His affable personality and fondness for socialising ensured that he conducted many successful deals over long lunches in the hostelries of EC1. He devoted most of his last twenty years spending time with family and friends. Anybody who knew Graham will agree that his greatest gift was making other people feel at ease. He could walk into any situation and initiate conversation with strangers just as easily as with old friends. He was also fond of engaging in deeper discussions on a wide range of topics and his natural intelligence meant he always had something worthwhile to say, especially when expressing his strong socialist principles. He himself, however, might have argued that his greatest talent was with a pool cue!
My own fond memories of Graham range from our first pints at the Dog and combing Dulwich for parties afterwards, through decades of memorable gigs (The Who at Charlton in 1974 was one classic) and pilgrimages to White Hart Lane to watch our beloved Spurs (such as the unforgettable 1972 UEFA Cup Final victory), to his three visits to India while I was researching the Rough Guide and the last time we travelled together in Corfu in 2017. It has also always been a joy to spend time with his wonderful family. Thanks to the 2014 school reunion, ten of that class of twenty boys who first met in 1968 rekindled our friendship and have met up on a number of occasions. This brief memorial to Graham is also on behalf of the other eight. He may no longer be with us in person but his warm smile always will be. Nick Edwards (Tyson’s 1968–1974)
Vernon Law
(Brown’s 1957)
and Steve Hunt
(Brading’s 1957) Vernon Law (pictured above) and Steve Hunt entered the Lower School in 1950. Both died in January 2021. Steve didn’t enjoy his schooling but, as he described it in 2017, led a “heedless path in my varied and crazy activities....My mid-teens were so filled with caving, cycling, competitive swimming, scouting, mountain climbing, motorcycling, gliding, shooting, flying, driving, studying, fixing cars and motorcycles as well as earning cash as a jobbing gardener, a laundry hand, a petrol pump attendant and whatever else I could find to drive my parents crazy.” While at school Steve introduced Vernon and I to the Mendip Caving Group, a club of Londoners who held an annual Easter camp, potholing in the Cheddar gorge area. I descended my first cave one morning. That night I was asleep in a tent when a
cry went up in the camp. A second group had gone down the same cave that evening and a newcomer had fallen backwards while doing a high traverse of a chamber. I was told I, having rested through the afternoon, was part of the rescue party. Fortunately, shortly after we reached the injured youth the Mendip Cave Rescue group arrived, so we rank amateurs could be replaced. The youth survived, thanks to his helmet, which was split open. He never came potholing again. That summer, Vernon and I spent a fortnight camped on the Mendips, exploring many potholes, taking the odd risk, but coming out unscathed. I recall the sheer beauty, after a difficult descent, of edging along a narrow V-shaped passage, a narrow stream rushing below, bottoms on one rock face and boots on the other as we edged along. The flame from our acetylene lamp head-torches illuminated the most wonderful array of stalactites above. I burst into the lines of a ‘pop’ song of the time, “For this is the kingdom of Heaven....” We also spent a couple of days crouched down a fissure in a surface rock, wielding a hammer and chisel in order to create a slot in which an explosive might be placed. Just as Cheddar gorge is the result of the collapse of a massive cave system, so the group thought that there could be a further large cave system which the fissure might lead to. Hence it needed to be enlarged so that a human could squeeze through. As Steve wrote, at a later time “I nearly killed myself whilst blasting, when hoping to breakthrough into a cave system.” A friend of his had supplied him with Amatol – a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate. The friend was relieved that it was not something more potent. Years later I returned to the scene. Alas, there had been no breakthrough. In January 1956 Steve, Derrick Fordham and I, aged 16, went for three weeks to the Outward Bound School at Eskdale in the Lake District, courtesy of the then London County Council. When at HQ, a former country house, we started the day with exercises in the gathering dawn. There followed a concession. It being mid-winter, we didn’t have to dive into the lake but had to take a shower – cold tap only. We spent twelve days, in total, camping on the hills, having been provided with a sleeping bag, a very large groundsheet and
In Memoriam 37
an ice axe. We had to create a bivouac which four people could make using their ice axes as corner posts. I recall the exquisite feeling of exiting the bivouac onto the snow in the grey light of dawn. On went the totally sodden clothes of the day before, a shiver, pack, then off on the next day’s march. The next night a massive storm came through. It was sufficiently wild to have our instructors back at HQ worried. As Steve wrote, “an introduction to bivouacing in appalling conditions.” After leaving School, Steve was called up for National Service and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force. He elongated his statutory two-year service and qualified as a pilot of fixed-wing aircraft but was never able to shake off airsickness. Eventually he ceased flying and ended his service in a ground appointment. He subsequently settled near Ashford in Kent, where he married, produced two sons and two daughters and founded and ran a transport and haulage company. Sadly, he had health problems in later years. In 2017 he wrote that he had had three strokes and a broken back. Nevertheless, he struggled on to join the Tin Tab group, a cluster of Old Boys, at their thrice yearly meetings in London. Vernon and I grew up 100 yards apart. We attended the same primary school, then to Alleyn’s. Our primary schooling ended with a trip, with thirty-odd of our peers, to the Isle of Wight. There was a bus tour round the island. One of us challenged the other to be last off the bus. There followed an unseemly scuffle as Vernon and I tried to push the other out. The teacher in charge was not amused. We were given the option of taking a beating or being sent home. We opted for the former. Mr Abel had very gnarled hands. We were ordered to drop our trousers and underpants and bend over a bed. In addition to bruises, I ended with a few cuts on my bottom. Good preparation for the threat of ‘Gaffer’ Snowden’s ‘Bendy Willy’ in later years. In our second year in the Lower School many of us were housed in the Tin Tab, a large green, corrugated hut, put up as a ‘temporary’ measure during the First World War. It contained two class rooms and occupied the lower end of the quad. I recall what I term ‘the Shedden roar’, named after its originator, Bob Shedden, from our time in the
Tin-Tab – Heah. Heah, Heah, Heah – expressed in a rising crescendo, when Colonel Snowden or Mr McDonald had their backs turned. Vernon was a co-conspirator. On one occasion, the colonel, a genial man but with occasional problems of crowd control, held back both 2B and 2C after School. It was all too much. When he was in 2B the roar went up in 2C. He would rush to 2C only to have 2B reciprocate. (Ken Grace, teaching older boys, stood in polar contrast. As Fred Goldner wrote in The Edward Alleyn Magazine, Grace “perfected a method of remote control that was the envy of many of his colleagues.” There was no mystery there. The slightest murmur and it would be “Talking Smith. Two hundred lines of Copperplate, to me by Monday, subject, Voice Control.”) At Alleyn’s, Vernon learnt the soprano saxophone while I took to the trombone. We both played in the military band. Out of school we formed a jazz band. One of the members was a contemporary of ours at primary school, Ginger Baker. He didn’t stay with us for too long, moving on to partner more accomplished players. He later joined up with Eric Clapton to form Cream and was voted drummer of the year by Playboy magazine. In the late ‘sixties I was in a pub in Sydney talking to some girls and I mentioned that I had once played with Ginger Baker. They gathered round as if I was a rock star. Their attention waned as I revealed how tenuous my connection was. In middle school, Vernon and I spent too many Saturday afternoons working off detentions. The worst part for me was having to front my Housemaster, Fred Goldner, to get signed off for each offence. I don’t recall how forgiving L.A.R. Shackleton was to Vernon. On one occasion Vernon and I, along with a friend, went to a dance in Dulwich. We left early and walked to Alleyn’s to show the school to our chum. The Great Hall was packed with people watching the School’s production of Anthony and Cleopatra. We must have been noisy as, shortly after, while crossing the quad, we were accosted by two senior boys. Once the play had ended we were taken to the Headmaster’s study to be hauled over the coals. Vernon and I were to report again after school the next day, the last day of term. There were individual interrogations, before being
dismissed. The Headmaster would make a decision on our fates over the holidays. Not the best way to start a vacation! We came back the next term and nothing was said. Vernon, like Steve, took part in other Michael Croft productions, playing men of arms. Following Vernon’s death, a press clipping was found in his wallet – a review of one of Croft’s school productions by The Daily Telegraph’s W.A. Darlington, the pre-eminent theatre critic of the time. What does that say about the charisma of Michael Croft and the bonding of his ‘lads of life?’ Vernon left school after 5th form. Following National Service, he worked as a trainee trade mark agent in Rothman’s patent office in London, which led to widespread travel. When the office re-located to South Africa in 1975, Vernon and a colleague set up the splendidly named MarshallLaw patent firm in Sevenoaks, where he worked for 40 years, prior to retirement. He was most proud of representing the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, as part of a team which won a long and hard-fought battle against the World Wrestling Federation over the right to use the initials WWF. He married Linda and they set up home just south of Knole House, on the ridge looking over the valley towards Tonbridge. They had son Dominic and daughter Meridith and ran a few sheep to keep the grass down. Vale Steve. Vale Vernon. Good men, both. Hugh Pritchard (Brading’s 1958)
Christopher Lawrence
(Spurgeon’s 1966) Chris Lawrence died in January 2021 from Covid. His death came as a
38 In Memoriam
great shock as he had been fit and healthy- still working and playing tennis regularly. While in the Science 6th Form Chris became a Prefect in Spurgeon’s House. After leaving Alleyn’s with A levels, Chris chose not to go to University but while training as a Chartered Surveyor he worked with several property companies. After qualifying, Chris moved to Wiltshire before becoming a Partner in a firm of Chartered Surveyors in Marlborough. However, Chris wanted to set up his own practice which he did. Over a number of years, he developed that practice and was well respected in the local community. His website was comprehensive and well visited by those looking for a Surveyor. He is survived by his second wife Sue, whom he married in 1984 and by their daughters Alexandra and Isabella. Roger Celia (Brown’s 1966), Edward Lord (Cribb’s 1966)
David Johnson
(former Head of Lower School 1959-1994) We were greatly saddened to learn of the death of David Johnson in August this year. An incredibly long-serving master at Alleyn’s, his love for the School was very evident and he returned to School reunions for as long as his health allowed. Reproduced below are extracts from his Valete from Scriblerus 1994 written by Paul Kingman. ‘David’s retirement in July 1994 ends a career which has spanned 35 years and has been entirely devoted to Alleyn’s. He came to us in 1959 with a degree in History from University College, London and a Diploma in Education from Leeds, to teach History and Latin. We think of him, primarily, as the Headmaster of the Lower School, a post he has held since 1969. It is an easy and natural association to make because he has filled that
role so effectively and with such distinction. Thousands of pupils and their parents have owed their first, crucial impression of Alleyn’s primarily to him. Invariably that impression has been positive, in large part because of the immediate effect of meeting him. David is authoritative, yet reassuringly avuncular: firm, yet kindly; modest and enduringly goodhumoured, with a good-natured wit which is often targeted at himself. His experience, inborn good sense and robust confidence give sanity and balance to his judgements. He has never lost sight of the need for both discipline and encouragement and of the need for tolerance and patience in dealing with pupils. His understanding of his pupils and of the complex factors affecting their attitudes and performance is subtle, but his decisions are firm, fair and direct. The interests and qualities which first drew him into teaching are still there, mainly, I believe, because he has always seen his pupils as individuals and derived his enjoyment from teaching them as individuals, each with his or her own attributes and, in some cases at least, idiosyncrasies! When he speaks of them, it is with affection, interest and good humour, without the least trace of weariness or cynicism. His ability to remember all their names and, often enough, lots of other things about them - not just of those in the Lower School now, but of those he has taught in previous years, is symptomatic of his whole approach to his calling. The same positive qualities are apparent in his dealings with staff. His efficiency, sense of order, practical common sense, sympathetic understanding and tolerant courtesy serve as a model for any teacher with responsibilities towards subordinates. His mood and manner are, in the best of ways, totally predictable and the equability of his approach is a consequence of his inner strength. He has, of course, contributed to Alleyn’s in many ways apart from his invaluable work as Head of the Lower School. Tom Hodgkiss, who was for many years a member of the Classics Department, kindly made a note of his own recollections of David: ‘When I first came to Alleyn’s as a raw recruit to teaching, I soon encountered a young colleague who also taught Latin in the Lower School…In later years we pioneered school trips to Greece and throughout all these expeditions
his never-failing good humour was a great asset in dealing with the inevitable crises and mishaps, and his wise advice invaluable. Happily, his skills as a photographer produced many delightful shots to reminisce over on a winter’s evening.’ We say au revoir with great regret to a friend who leaves us with his talents undiminished, one whose cheerfulness, loyalty, sense of proportion and professionalism we shall greatly miss. We wish him every happiness in his retirement. Paul Kingman (from Scriblerus 1994)
Colin Page
(former teacher of history and geography 1969-1985) Born in 1926, Colin was brought up in Bexhill, Sussex where, as a result of being good friends with Billy Morris, his father owned an early Morris Car dealership, a fun and glamorous family livelihood in that British era. Certainly, an early exciting and notable memory for Colin was from 1931 when he and his cousin met Amy Johnson, the early transatlantic aviator and remarkable celebrity of the day, who opened the dealership as part of the launch ceremony. Having been educated first at Malvern College, Colin went on to attend Clare College, Cambridge. He then served in The Royal Artillery as a Commissioned Officer from 19441948 and afterwards went on to teach at Forest School where my father and he met as enthusiastic young teachers, Colin specialising in history and geography. Colin then continued his career overseas. With a passion for cricket, he said he was happy to work anywhere where the game was played. This included Christchurch, New Zealand where he once remarked how dour it was in the 1960s; the locals would play their game and immediately afterwards, instead of convening in the pub for an after-match drink, would take a jug of beer home to drink with their wives. (Just not cricket!). His work also took him to Kampala in Uganda where he taught at the Aga Khan’s School. After these foreign adventures, Colin moved to work at the splendid
In Memoriam 39
Alleyn’s School in Dulwich which he adored. Having joined in 1969, he worked there for sixteen years teaching his subjects across all levels of the School, contributing his military expertise to the CCF, maintaining the standard of cricket at the School and as an outstandingly successful Cribb’s Housemaster. On learning of his death, fellow teacher Mrs Ilse Termanis remarked, “Colin was a true gentleman. He was a wise and kind colleague and an excellent teacher”. On well-earned retirement from Alleyn’s in 1985, Colin moved to Norfolk as two Alleyn’s colleagues had moved to the County and ‘he liked the look of it’. Colin settled in King’s Lynn and enjoyed his retirement, not least because he met the love of his life there, Elizabeth, otherwise known as Betty. Betty and he married and decided life would be more agreeable in London closer to family as they were both retired. They found a lovely flat at Laybrook Lodge overlooking Eagle Pond and just down the road from Forest School where Colin had worked forty years before. They both enjoyed Laybrook, Snaresbrook, Wanstead and Woodford very much. It was the foundation of their very happy lives together with many expeditions, holidays and laughs.
career as a headteacher, university classics tutor, translator and director of Greek drama. Boundlessly enthusiastic and cheerful, David delighted in sharing the fruits of his erudition and kept working as long as he could, translating and directing Greek plays into his 90s. Born in Hampstead, north London, David was the eldest of seven children of Walter Raeburn, a barrister and judge, and Dora (nee Williams), an artist. He attended Charterhouse school, in Godalming, Surrey, and then studied classics at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1949. It was here that he directed his first Greek play, Aeschylus’ Agamemnon in Louis MacNeice’s translation. Following national service in the Royal Army Educational Corps, he began teaching at Bristol grammar school. After spells at Bradfield college, Berkshire, and Alleyn’s, in south London, he became the headteacher of Beckenham and Penge grammar school in 1963, and in 1968 cofounded the Greek summer school, intended to offer classes to pupils who could not take up Greek at school. It still takes place every year at Bryanston school, Dorset.
My link to Colin came via my father’s close friendship with him and he was a wonderful Godfather; always incredibly supportive and encouraging. He was a constant throughout my life, visiting me as I grew up in South Woodford (and giving me a most treasured toy car as a child!). He always took me for holiday days out in the West End and provided continual encouragement rather than judgment as I travelled through my life with its highs and lows. I learnt a great deal from him, greatly appreciating both his wisdom and counsel as well as his fascinating and intricate knowledge of history which brought new insights into some of the great characters of the 20th Century, including Clement Attlee.
In 1970 he was appointed as the headteacher of Whitgift, an independent boys’ school in Croydon, south London. A natural liberal, he oversaw the end of corporal punishment, while his most tangible legacy was an ambitious building programme including a science and technology block. Benevolent and humane, he was revered by former pupils and staff.
God Bless you Colin and thank you for being part of my life.
But his most striking achievements lay in drama and translation. He had put on many productions during his school teaching years, including some performances in the original Greek. From the age of 80 onwards, he enjoyed a remarkable late run at New College, directing 10 Greek plays with student casts, often using his own translations.
Adam Cooke
David Raeburn
(Former Head of Classics 1958-63) My friend David Raeburn, who has died aged 93, led a distinguished
After his retirement in 1991, he embarked on a new career at Oxford University. For five years he was the classics faculty’s Grocyn lecturer, responsible for undergraduate language teaching, and later taught at New College.
His last production came in 2019, with Agamemnon – the same play (and in the same translation) with which he had started his directorial career 72 years earlier. He also co-authored (with Oliver Thomas) a scholarly commentary on Aeschylus’ timeless masterpiece. David distilled a lifetime’s thinking about Greek theatre into his book Greek Tragedies As Plays for Performance (2016), in which he employed his scholarship and practical experience to discuss 10 of the 33 tragedies to have survived from ancient Athens. His efforts as a translator were crucial to his project of revealing the meaning of ancient texts. Four of his translations of Sophocles’ plays were published in 2008 by Penguin Classics as Electra and Other Plays. He also made a verse translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2004) for Penguin. In 1961 David married Mary Faith Hubbard. She died in 2013. He is survived by their sons, Mark and Martin, a daughter, Fiona, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Chris Tryhorn, The Guardian 18 March 2021
Michael Charles Stokely (Dutton’s 1960) 20 May-23 June 2020
During his time at Alleyn’s, in addition to his academic studies he became a good athlete, eventually competing at The White City in Hurdling events. He studied at Nottingham University and became a Civil Engineer, working in Africa. After returning to the UK, he married Chantal King, a friend from University. They lived in the Salisbury area for 50 years and had two daughters. Peter Stokely (Dutton’s 1955)
40 Development News
The Cornflower Club Leaving a gift to Alleyn’s in your will
W
hen you leave a gift to Alleyn’s in your will, you are helping us to ensure that we can continue to provide co-educational excellence for all, in a caring, friendly, and welcoming community.
Legacy donations allow us to fund bursary places, offer outreach activities with our partner schools, provide stateof-the-art facilities to our pupils and local community, and do more than we would otherwise be able. You can direct your gift to be used at the Head’s discretion, where the need is greatest, or you can support a specific area, such as bursaries or an academic department. Your gift can be used immediately, or invested in our Founder’s Bursary Fund to provide enduring bursary places. Past bequests have ranged from £500 to £100,000. If you make a gift to Alleyn’s in your will, you will be invited to become a member of our Cornflower Club, which allows us to recognise and thank those who have chosen to make a bequest to the School.
‘I was very privileged to be able to go to Alleyn’s under a Direct Grant, which covered virtually all the fees. Without it, it would have been impossible! I have benefited significantly from having such a first rate education and I’d very much like to help someone else do the same’ Martyn Barr (Cribb’s 1978)
If you would like to receive more information on how to remember Alleyn’s in your will please email development@alleyns.org.uk or find more information on the Support Us pages on the website.
‘My father died in September 1941. I was born in October. My mother worked full-time to bring me up but by the age of 10, I was a street-wise hooligan. Unexpectedly, I passed the 11 plus and was offered a place at Alleyn’s. The next six years completely changed my life. I can think of no better thing than to assist other young people to take advantage of the benefits that I was offered of good guidance, good understanding and a good education, by teachers who knew instinctively how to deal with someone like me. I will be forever grateful for this opportunity to help.’ Derek Rogers (Brown’s 1959)
Archives 41
Bea worked closely with School Archivist, Nicola Waddington (both pictured below) but the choice of materials, captions and layout in the cabinet were all hers.
From the Archives Showcasing the lives of World War Two alumni
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ollowing the success of the exhibition of 400 year-old objects in the Reception Foyer for the Alleyn’s 400th anniversary, the School decided to make this pupil-curated initiative a permanent feature. Duke of Edinburgh and archive volunteer, Bea was asked to curate the exhibition and chose material recently donated by Derek Smith (Roper’s 1953) relating to his family and elder brother, Ian Kirkman Smith (Roper’s 1949) and the bombing of their home at 6 Park Hill, Forest Hill during WW2. Their first floor flat suffered near total destruction; Derek’s only but vivid memory was being carried from the wreckage on the shoulders of a fireman during the rescue.
Ian Kirkman-Smith
After leaving School, Derek and Ian, who sadly passed away in 2017, always stayed closely engaged with the School and the Edward Alleyn Club. Derek remains a strong supporter of Alleyn’s as well as a regular at the Edward Alleyn Clubhouse, so it was particularly lovely to welcome him back to School to see the exhibition for himself in situ: a fitting way to mark the start of a new School initiative and another wonderful example of how alumni stories enrich the lives of current pupils!
Derek Smith ( pictured centre)
42 Club News
OBFC After a disrupted past two seasons, the Football Club is hoping to manage to complete the 2021-22 season in its entirety. The Club has had a good start to the season so far, we are on the hunt for silverware and have strong momentum behind us. We encourage former pupils to get in touch as there are many opportunities to play for the Club, particularly in goal! We also welcome
supporters on a Saturday afternoon to fortress Burbage Road to help our players to victory. Please reach out to chairmanaobfc@gmail.com for more information on playing for or visiting the Club. Max Waters (Cribb’s 2008) & Sam Eade (Spurgeon’s 2008)
Tennis
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he tennis section is slowly returning to our usual activities after the lockdowns and restrictions of the past 18 months. In June we were able to re-instate our adult Club sessions, but we decided to leave reintroducing our other organised club activities to later in the year. Our Junior Section is also back up and running. The Junior Section is large enough to use all three courts from 3-7pm Monday to Friday and 4-6pm on Saturday. In July and August our coaching team once again used the School facilities to run a series of successful junior tennis camps. Our big news is that the courts at Burbage Road are being resurfaced. It has been around 15 years since they were last resurfaced, so they certainly needed some attention. As well as the resurfacing work, the floodlights are to be upgraded to LED which are more energy efficient. The photos show work in progress, with the central floodlight pillars removed and initial work to provide drainage completed. Root damage, caused by trees being planted too close to the courts is being repaired and the courts are being levelled. The grass area to the side of the courts is being removed and new drainage included in this area. The weather has been good, so the team from the contractors, Trevor May, are speedily working to finish the work before winter sets in. While the work on the courts is being undertaken, the School has very kindly offered us the use of the courts at
Townley Road. We are therefore still able to run our usual club sessions on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. On our return to Burbage Road, we plan to reinstate the club activities we organised prior to the Covid outbreak and lockdowns. So, as well as Club sessions, we aim to provide Spanish drills, doubles and singles tactics sessions, video analysis, American tournaments, a singles and doubles ladder and club tournament. Our coach is also planning demonstration days and a number of Sunday tennis festivals throughout the year. Junior tennis will continue throughout the year. With all our planned activities we expect the courts to be really busy once they are resurfaced but we will try not to wear them out too quickly! Liz Livingstone
The 200 Club
F
or 50 years the 200 Club has been and remains the EAC’s principal fund raiser, raising much needed funds for the running of the Clubhouse and grounds at Burbage Road. More recently it has been used to provide financial support to Year 13 leavers who wish to take a Gap year and undertake voluntary work overseas. Since its inception it has collected in £635k and paid out just over half in prize money. Membership is only £5 per month or £60 per year and enters you in the monthly prize draw to win four prizes of £120, £100, £70 & £60 with an annual star prize of £2,000 drawn and announced at the EAC Annual Dinner. If you are interested in going on the waiting list, please contact Chris Heayberd ciheayberd@sky.com Many thanks to those who are currently members and welcome to those of you who are considering becoming members.
Club News 43
The Edward Alleyn Golf Society
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he Golf Society is on course to complete its full schedule of events this year with only the Annual Dinner and AGM to come in December. The only set-back was the postponement in June of a major event, the Society’s 250th meeting. Such milestone occasions have always been celebrated at our ‘home’ club, Dulwich & Sydenham Hill GC. The build-up had gone well, with 48 players signed up and tee times allocated for them all by the Club, until it was realised that this contravened Covid regulations. A few days before it was due to go ahead the event was cancelled. Eventually it was rescheduled for October and, just like the 2020 Olympics were held in 2021, the 250th was observed as the 253rd! The winner of the special prize of a Claret Jug was David Strong (Spurgeon’s 1997) The actual 250th meeting was the Guest Day at Mitcham GC in July and was won by Justin Naish (Dutton’s 1990). Other meetings were the 249th at Pedham Place GC in May, the 251st at Cooden
Beach GC in August and the 252nd at Bletchingley GC in September. This year’s Captain, Justin Sutton, (Spurgeon’s 1982) has had an outstanding year with wins at the 249th and 251st meetings
after having the best score on his Captain’s Day at Richmond Park GC in April, conceding the win to Dave Slaney (Tyson’s 1979). The other winners were Justin Naish (250th) and Tim Wareham (Cribb’s 1986) (252nd). We’ve welcomed a number of new members this year, some thanks to David Strong, stalwarts of the football section. The Society looks confidently forward to another successful year in 2022. If you would like information about the Society, please contact me by email at eagsgolf@virginmedia.com or by mail at 4 Bell Meadow, London SE19 1HP George Thorne (Cribb’s 1960), Honorary Secretary, Edward Alleyn Golf Society
Club Merchandise All prices listed include UK postage. (Please note that international P&P may be extra) To order, please send a cheque, made payable to Alleyn’s School, to The Alumni Office, Alleyn’s School, Townley Road, London SE22 8SU. Alternatively, to purchase online with a credit or debit card, please click on the Events and Merchandise booking page on the website. We will fulfil your order at the next earliest opportunity, but there may be unforeseen delays, for which we apologise.
Print of School
Framed £50 Mounted £30
Cufflinks £25
Edward Alleyn Club Tie £25
Edward Alleyn Scarf £31.50
Go Greener Would you like your magazine online instead? Simply email alumni@alleyns.org.uk
Diary Dates Ideas@Alleyn’s Lent Lecture: Emma Bartnett Tuesday 25 January 2022 Bear Pit Upper School Thursday 27 January Ideas@Alleyn’s: RV Jones Science Lecture Monday 7 March TBC Dance Show 21 & 22 March Jazz Night Thursday 24 March Decades Reunion Saturday 18 June Founder’s Day Saturday 2 July
Alleyn’s School Development and Alumni Office, Alleyn’s School, Townley Road, London SE22 8SU Tel: 020 8557 1545 Email: alumni@alleyns.org.uk www.alleyns.org.uk @EdwardAlleynC /EdwardAlleynClub www.linkedin.com/school/alleynsschool/
If undelivered please return to: Alleyn’s School, Development and Alumni Office, Alleyn’s School, Townley Road, London SE22 8SU