oa bulletin - spring 2004 edition

Old Albanian Club

May2004

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DIARY DATESPresidents’ Garden Party – Sunday 20th June 2004

OA Club Dinner – Friday 2nd July 2004Founders’ Day – Saturday 3rd July 2004

London Drinks Party (East India Club) – Wednesday 17th November 2004

Corps day, 1951 – the drums

Nick Chappin – EditorAndy Chappin – Design & ProductionRoger Cook – MembershipMike Highstead – Gazette

Printing - Herts & Beds Printing01923 234959

Address for correspondence:Nick Chappin18 The Pleasance, Harpenden,Herts AL5 3NATelephone: 01582 461674 (home)07980 565645 (mobile)e-mail: [email protected]

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OA CLUB www.oldalbanianclub.comPresident Andrew Mills-Baker

01582 764842020 7917 7241 (office)

07903 930990 (mobile)Secretary David Buxton

01727 [email protected]

Treasurer Brian Sullman01582 460317

Membership Secretary Roger Cook01727 836877

[email protected]

OA SPORTS www.oasport.comRUGBY www.oarugby.comPresident Ali Mills

01582 71598307974 414342 (mobile)

Chairman Richard Milnes01442 262750

Chairman of Playing Committee Tony Buchanan

01923 859324Club Captain Richard Walker

07931 734876 (mobile)Secretary Peter Lipscombe

01727 760466Sponsorship Secretary Adrian Tominey

01727 830226Treasurer Chris Walker

01727 822143Social Secretary Ed Knighton

01727 836764Ist XV Captain John Davy

07944 371570 (mobile)

Colts David Hughes01727 867075

Mini & Junior Rugby Chairman Rory Davis

01727 843538

FOOTBALL www.oasoccer.co.ukManager Simon Bates

01727 852418 / 0772 0383 600

CRICKET www.oacc.org.ukPresident John Josling

01296 632227Chairman Andrew McCree


1st XI Captain Robert Bee2nd XI Captain Julian Baines


Secretary Colin Bashford01707 395431

OTHERSRifle & Pistol Andrew Wilkie

01727 856857Angling Geoff Cannon

01582 792512Golf Royce Bryant

01727 863130

OA LODGEJohn Williams 01438 715679

SCHOOL WEB SITEwww.st-albans.herts.sch.uk

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Editorial

On paper or online It’s official: after a lengthy courtship,

the Old Albanian Club is fully

embracing the digital age with the

launch of a new Internet-based

members’ database and

communication facility. There’s been

much public debate on this subject in

recent issues of the Bulletin with

some trenchant views expressed, and

as the President confirms in his notes

on page 5, the Committee has taken

all these views into account in

commissioning this service. The

chosen system is already successfully

used by 35 former pupils clubs across

the UK, and according to

Membership Secretary

Roger Cook, “I think you

will find our new system

superior to

‘friendsreunited’ in every

way!” You can read more

about this new service,

run in conjunction with

the School, in Roger’s

report on page 14,

together with a

reassuring article on how

to get started on the

Internet.

“But what does this mean for the

Bulletin?” I hear you ask anxiously.

Fear not, loyal readers, there’s life in

this old organ yet. Although an

online version will be available as

part of this new members’ service

(which is absolutely free,

incidentally), the Bulletin will

continue to be distributed in printed

form for the foreseeable future, and a

nominal charge levied to subscribers

to cover production and postage

costs. So whether you’re a confirmed

technophobe or merely prefer not to

take your computer into the lavatory

when you’re in need of a quiet read,

the Bulletin will be available in a

handy printed version for many

years to come.

Talking of which, and much to the

irritation of my dear lady wife – who

is somewhat of a traditionalist in

these matters – I read my newspaper

from back to front, beginning with

the sport and progressing (or is it

regressing?) to other subjects as time

permits. Anyone who reads the

Bulletin in a similar fashion (in this

case to go straight to the

letters) will have noticed

a change in the usual

running order. In

response to pleas to

make the magazine less

sports-oriented, we’ve

moved all the OA Sports

reports to the rear and

moved the Gazette and

Letters section up the

pecking order. You may

also notice a significant

increase in the weight of

this issue, testament to

the marvellous response we’ve

received to our requests for more

OAs’ news and correspondence.

While one or two of the more epic

pieces have had to be edited,

wherever possible I’ve tried to

include as much of the original text

as possible and I apologise in

advance if my copy typing of hand-

written contributions has

misrepresented any names or other

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What does this

mean for the

Bulletin? Fear not,

loyal readers,

there’s life in this

old organ yet

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important details.

Once again it’s the wartime and

immediate post-war generations

which have proved to be the most

prolific writers, but I’m delighted to

note more and more despatches

coming from OAs of the 1960s. These

include a letter from Keith Atkinson,

whose younger brother Paul – a

founding member of legendary pop

group ‘The Zombies’ – recently lost

his long and courageous battle with

cancer (see Obituary on page 22).

Another of this vintage is Martin

Smith (OA 62), Chairman of English

National Opera and a classmate of

Stephen Hawking, who will be main

speaker at this year’s OA Club

Dinner on Friday 2nd July, the night

before Founders’ Day. Having

attended last year’s function with

several old schoolfriends, I would

heartily recommend this event to

everyone – see the President’s Notes

on page 6 for details of how to book.

Elsewhere in this issue you’ll also

find the Headmaster’s Notes – in

which Andrew Grant reports on a

hectic and successful couple of terms

for the School – the OA Lodge report,

and an important announcement

about a change to full charitable

status for the Old Albanian Sports

Association (see page 42). Finally, my

special thanks to Mike Highstead and

Betty Scammell for allowing us once

again to raid the School Archive and

reproduce a selection of photos from

The Albanian – this time from the

1950s – which we hope will trigger

some fond memories and encourage

further correspondence.

Nick ChappinEditor

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WHO TO CONTACTPlease address your correspondence to the following people – you’ll find their contact detailson page 2.OA Bulletin Nick Chappin, EditorComments, letters, photos Subscription/membership enquiries Roger Cook, Membership SecretaryChange of address, notification of deaths OA Gazette Mike Highstead, ArchivistMember news, obituaries, School archive and museum

New OA Club President Andrew Barnes

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President’s Notes

Moving on■ Newly elected Old Albanian Club PresidentAndrew Barnes looks forward to a new erain the Club’s history and pays tribute to hisillustrious predecessor

During my term as President, I hope to

consolidate the excellent, indeed,

outstanding work my predecessor did for

the Old Albanian Club. The Club is in fine

shape. Under our general manager, Neil

Dekker, our bar and catering functions run

well, our appointment book for the next few

months is filling up and we look forward to

a very busy summer. For a more detailed

update, read Andrew Mills-Baker’s OA

Sports report on page 42.

In the last issue there was a letter from

Chris Pope. Many of his comments were to

the point, and reflected discussions that the

OA committee had been having. If one

poses the question, what does the average

Old Albanian want from his or her former

pupils club, the responses will be varied but

with a common thread. It’s quite easy to

write a wish list:

● Membership of the OA Club for life,

subscription free, for all those who

have been educated at St Albans

School.

● Provide the means to contact friends

and acquaintances instantly and with

little expense.

● Provide an update service for members’

contact details and records, which are

changed or modified by the members

themselves.

● Disseminate information and news

provided by members.

● Provide extracts from The Albanianand provide news of School highlights,

give access to the School’s website

including a cross-section of the most

interesting activities and successes

within the School and recent

significant changes, concerning staff,

sport, the arts or any other activity.

● Report OA sports.

● Provide the OA Bulletin.

With all this in mind, it is intended to

fulfil all the above requirements. A decision

has been made to set up a members’

database and a club members’

communication facility on a web platform,

in conjunction with the School. The School

has agreed to fund a life membership

payment for the benefit of all School

leavers. This annual payment will cover

existing club expenditure and that which is

anticipated for the future.

Recent school-leavers and graduates

accept Internet-based ease of

communication and its immediacy as the

norm. On the other hand, some of the more

mature club members are entering the

Internet age tentatively.

For the foreseeable future, therefore, the

Club will continue to offer members the

option of postal delivery of the Bulletin. We

recognise that this is vital for those who do

not yet have convenient Internet access.

This service will be maintained for existing

subscription paying members. The Bulletinwill be made available by post at a reduced

cost after existing subscription membership

has expired. A broader range of articles will

be included with an expanded non-sporting

content.

In this edition our hard-working

Membership Secretary, Roger Cook, gives a

comprehensive description of the changes

that are to be made and the approximate

timing.

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Proposed change in legal status of the Old

Albanian Sports Association: conversion to

full charitable status

The Sports association is registered as a

company incorporated under the Industrial

and Friendly Society Act. It owns the

Woollams lease and assets. The OA Club is

the only significant shareholder in this

company. As controlling shareholder, the

committee of the OA Club have voted to

approve the change, and have indicated this

to the trustees of the OA Sports Association

– see the report on page 42.

OA Dinner: Friday July 2 2004

Following last year’s successful black tie

formula at Woollams, we intend to do the

same again and this year’s dinner is to be

held on the Friday of Founders’ Day

weekend. We intend to reduce the number

of speeches and limit the length to allow

more time for the most important part, that

is to give plenty of time to catch up with old

friends. The principal guest at the dinner

will be Martin Smith (OA 62), Chairman of

English National Opera. He was in the same

class as Stephen Hawking and we can

expect his address to include some nostalgic

reminiscences and be informative and

amusing, but with little sporting content.

The price will be £20. Shane Roberts has

finally retired as dinner secretary and on

behalf of the club I would like to thank him

for the seven years he fulfilled this role.

Samantha Patten will co-ordinate dinner

reservations this time. For your enjoyment

and for the success of the evening the effort

in gathering a table (10) of friends and

contemporaries will make a real difference.

Please phone round now. Cheques to Sam

Patten, OA Dinner Secretary, 359, Old

Bedford Road, Luton, LU2 7BL please, or e-

mail your booking to

[email protected]

I know that Dave Varty is co-ordinating

a big response from the class of 1982 and the

1964 leavers are marking ‘40 years on’ with

a Founders’ weekend reunion.

OA Directory

At the moment and until the autumn, the

Directory has been the only convenient way

of finding contact details for club members.

Many of us greatly value this reference.

This updated issue has once again been

sponsored by Agfa, through the

intervention of Dave Varty. I thank Dave

for this generous contribution to the OA

Club.

School Parents

After an approach from the Headmaster, the

club is to extend a welcome to School

parents with a view to introducing members

of the student body to the club, of which

they will become life members once they

leave School. A parent member category is

to be created which will allow parents to

become social members of the Old Albanian

Club. No other rights are to be conferred by

this form of membership.

Presidents’ Garden Party:

3.00pm, Sunday 20th June 2004

It has been recognised that some means

should be found by which the club and sports

OA Dinner guest speaker Martin Smith (62),Chairman of English National Opera

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clubs can say ‘thank you’ to those who,

throughout the year, have made an

exceptional contribution to the smooth

running or advancement of the Club. At the

same time, a social event where every

constituent part of OA Sport and the OA

Club is represented, would help build a

feeling of unity which sometimes is not

recognised within the individual sports clubs.

A limited but proportional number of

invitations for sports club members and

their partners will be sent to those chosen

by the sports club Presidents. There will be

a smaller number invited as guests of the

OA Club. This is to be a club event where

the OA Club President and OA Sport

Presidents are joint hosts .

The Garden Party is to be a bridge-

building, inclusive event, and as such we

welcome applications for tickets from all

members. The cost of a single ticket will be

£12.50. Champagne, fine wines and delicious

canapés will be served by the Woollams

staff.

I hope you would like to be part of this

club celebration, if so, please send a cheque

with a return address to The Presidents’

Garden Party at Woollams.

Andrew Mills-Baker

Once in a generation an organisation may

be blessed with a far-sighted decision maker

and achiever who makes the difference

between commonplace and exceptional.

Andrew Mills-Baker is unique in being the

only President to serve two terms, in fact

for a total of four years. The conditions for

his re-election for the first three-year term

as President were set: the move from Beech

Bottom had been identified as necessary

many years ago, to ensure that the sporting

facilities were of a suitable standard for the

future success of the Club. Years of work

under the guidance of Bryan Short and

David Culpitt and the far-sightedness of the

chairman of the school governors, Bob

Sharpe, and AM-B himself were finally

rewarded with success. After a public

inquiry with its inescapable squandering of

capital, provided by the School and to a

lesser extent, by the Club, permission was

granted to use part of the School’s asset,

Cheapside Farm, as sports grounds for the

School and the OA Club. The Woollams

name was chosen.

The development potential of Beech

Bottom was shown to be much more

valuable than the original consortium were

willing to pay. AM-B achieved a

significantly higher price. The consortium

took their share of profit, and Laing Homes

carried out the development. At Cheapside

farm, proposed designs for the OA

clubhouse were considered and a London

architect was chosen. Bickerton was

awarded the construction contract. The 63

acre joint School/OA playing fields were

prepared – the largest contract of its type

awarded in Europe in 1999. During the

clubhouse construction stage, the sheer

volume of decision making in this complex

project was huge, without the additional

problems associated with the main

contractor going into liquidation. With our

treasurer, Brian Sullman’s support and hard

work it is fair to say that AM-B decided on

or was consulted on every element of the

building, equipping, opening and running of

the OA Woollams clubhouse. Its success is

carried on his shoulders.

He has handed on the club presidency but

continues with almost daily involvement as

Chairman of the Woollams OA Sport

executive.

Andrew Barnes President

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Shooting ahead■ Headmaster Andrew Grant reports on abusy programme of activities, and thegrowing popularity of sports such asshooting, badminton and netball.

Looking back as far as the

autumn term, the rugby

season closed with our best-

ever ratio of wins to losses

across all ages overall;

unfortunately, injuries and illness to key

players meant that it was the First XV who

bucked this encouraging trend, though they

ended a disappointing season on a high note

with an emphatic win over Mill Hill in the

last fixture of the season.

The Senior cross-country squad, despite

looking more vulnerable than at any time

in the past five years, nevertheless survived

the autumn term undefeated and let rivals

know they would not be easily dislodged, by

successfully defending the first big six-man

team race of the year, the Dr Challenor’s

Relay, for the seventh time in a row.

Thereafter, however, illness and injury

afflicted them, too, and they were up

against it in the second half of the season.

There were some encouraging results in

badminton, which is growing in popularity

and the girls had a good start to the netball

season, winning more than 50% of their

matches.

At Christmas, the traditional end-of-term

programme included a fine School concert

and a spectacular, colourful and hugely

energetic production of Arabian Nights. The

last day of term saw record numbers at the

Carol Service, which we are having to

adapt, year-on-year to try to ensure we

involve those in the quire and crossing in

the service as much as we possibly can.

Once again, the choir was on splendid form,

and the readers, particularly the very

youngest, deserved congratulation, too, for

measuring up so well to what is a daunting

task.

Over the Christmas holiday, the

traditional winter CCF camp took place at

Thetford and I had good reports both from,

and of, the cadets.

Offers of places at either Oxford or

Cambridge were made to 12 of our students,

which constitutes a respectable year

relative to our long-term average.

At the end of the term, Head of

Economics and ace coach of the hockey 2nd

XI Hussein Modak

left to take up a

post as Deputy

Principal of the Al

Ruya Bilingual

School, Kuwait,

while Jeremy

Burrowes and

Lisa Bloomer both

moved out of

teaching, the one

to devote more

time to a business

and the other to

pursue her career

as an artist.

Recent OAs will

know our new Economist, Aniket Gocoldas,

himself an OA, who has recently completed

his degree and PGCE in Economics at

Warwick University and joined the staff at

the beginning of the summer term.

In the spring term, the First hockey XI

had a good season, winning over 60% of

their domestic matches among which they

put eight goals past Berkhamsted, seven

past Haberdashers’, Harrow and Bancroft’s,

and six past Aldenham. On the Easter

Headmaster’s Notes

Pride of place in

the spring term

went to shooting,

in which our team

won the Green

Howards / Country

Life competition

holiday tour in Germany, they had two wins

and a draw against the best of local

opposition, whilst the Mixed XI, benefiting

from a girls’ hockey season that included

their first win over Loreto, came back with

a win, a draw and a loss. After half-term,

the girls completed an excellent netball

season, rounded off by the traditional Old

Girls’ tournament that brought back the

largest-ever number of past year-groups, all

to be beaten, unprecedentedly, by the

current Lower Sixth.

After several years of extraordinary

national dominance at senior level, illness

and injury to several of our top cross-

country runners allowed The Judd School

(coached by OA Simon Fraser) to usurp our

crown in the three biggest events of the

season: The Knole Run, The King Henry

VIII relays and the South East Schools

Championship, though we beat them on

other occasions. These were our only losses,

and it is a measure of the standard we have

set ourselves that to have merely finished

among the medals in three national events

makes for a disappointing season.

Nonetheless, we had five runners selected to

represent the county in the English Schools

and two individual bronze medallists in the

South East Championships, whilst the

Intermediate squad successfully defended

the season-long Pat Bagnall League Trophy.

Other sports that continued to do well

included badminton, where, in Robert

Bagshaw, we have a county gold medallist

and a silver medal-winning U15 team, and

swimming, in which the juniors won the

Herts League.

Pride of place in the spring term,

however, went to shooting in which, for the

first time ever, our team won the Green

Howards/Country Life competition, the

oldest and most prestigious school

competition in the UK with an entry of

some 250 schools.

The spring term saw a huge amount of

dramatic activity in ‘New Place’ and a very

full musical programme, crowned by an

Easter holiday tour of Paris by the choir,

chamber orchestra, string ensemble, and

saxophone and clarinet quartets. They

performed to sizeable audiences in two of

the city’s finest buildings: Notre Dame and

Eglise Madeleine, where the pupils enjoyed

the grand settings and fine acoustics almost

as much as the opportunity of visiting

Disneyland Paris.

Things were equally busy in the CCF and

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Celebratedcosmologistand OAStephenHawking,subject of arecent BBC2drama, andformerclassmate ofMartin Smith(see page 6)

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Duke of Edinburgh’s Award over the term

and the holiday. There were Silver training

and assessment expeditions in wild country

including hostile farmers, tenacious peat

bogs and other obstacles surmounted by our

intrepid sixth formers. Meanwhile, the CCF

had seven Army cadets on the prestigious

and arduous UK Land Forces Cadet

Leadership Course and the RAF section on

camp at RAF Lyneham, whose

Commanding Officer wrote in very

complimentary terms about how they

acquitted themselves. In Exercise Combat

Cadet, a competition weekend which

Captain Ed Beavington describes as “testing

all cadet skills and paying little respect to

civilised working hours,” our team came

fourth from the 22 best CCF and ACF

contingents in the region.

The Easter holiday was, in fact,

frantically busy. 53 Classicists with nine

staff spent six days in Greece, during

which they took the opportunity to test

the world-renowned acoustics of the

theatre at Epidaurus with a rendition of

‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’, no doubt in

homage to English Rugby and in the cause

of European unity.

A party of 30 skiers and five staff

descended on Serre Chevalier in the French

Alps, where, thanks to excellent weather

and decent snow the beginners and

intermediates made remarkable progress, to

be descending red and black runs

respectively by the end of the week and

return with all limbs intact.

Meanwhile, the golfers toured in Dorset

before hosting the ‘home’ leg of their golf

exchange with Biarritz.

Grateful as I am to my colleagues for all

their hard work over the Easter break,

unfortunately, I cannot offer them a period

of rest and recuperation on return to School;

merely a brief interlude for intensive

revision before the onslaught of exams!

Founders’ Day, as you are no doubt

aware, is on Saturday 3rd July and the

preacher will be a former parent and

present neighbour, The Right Reverend

Chris Foster, Bishop of Hertford.

I look forward to renewing many an

acquaintance over the term.

Andrew GrantHeadmaster

Corps day 1951 – the drill squad

Crossing generations■ The OA Lodge celebrated its 75thAnniversary last May ‘compèred’ byGeoffrey Goodman, past secretary ofthe Lodge and Chairman of theFederation of School Lodges. SecretaryJohn Williams presents some extractsfrom Geoffrey’s notes

To start this Celebration of our 75th

Anniversary, please rise while Dickie

Davison recites the School Prayer.

Memories!

The school had been associated

with Freemasonry for many years

before the Lodge was consecrated in

1928. We have a record of the

Provincial Grand Master (PGM)

parading through St Albans in 1908

together with his Officers in full

regalia and top hats to lay the

Foundation Stone of the ‘new’ School

Hall. The event is recorded by an

inscription in Latin in the corner

stone.

The Lodge was sponsored by

Halsey Lodge and consecrated on our

Chaplain, Don Kiff’s 4th birthday,

Saturday 19th May at Freemasons’

Hall, London, by the PGM, Charles

Edward Keyser. No less than 14

candidates were initiated in the first

year! These included the Headmaster,

Major Montague Jones and Charles

Argent, well known to many of us as

Sgt Major Argent. Many will

remember his slipper ‘James’ which I

recall being burned at the stake with

due ceremony when he left in 1949.

Later in 1928, on 24th September, the

PGM again processed through St

Albans in full regalia to lay the

Foundation Stone for the new Junior

School with full masonic ceremony.

The Lodge flourished. The new

Headmaster, W T Marsh (known in

the war years as ‘Stoker Bill’ in view

of his part time job at the Admiralty,

when he took morning Assembly in

his naval uniform of a Commander)

joined and became Master in 1937. He

was responsible for the discreetly

chequered flooring and the dais still

in use today in the Lodge Room in

the Gateway.

In 1948 the City of St Albans, three

churches (St Michael’s, St Stephen’s

and St Peter’s), the Market and the

School celebrated the 1000th

Anniversary of the traditional date of

the Founding of the City by Abbot

Ulsinus, with a Pageant at

Verulamium. The Lodge held a

special Meeting on St John’s Day,

24th June, (231st anniversary of the

formation of Grand Lodge). The

brethren were reminded, in an

Oration by J C Mitchell that Alban is

the Patron Saint of Freemasonry,

something a ‘new bug’ learned on his

first day at school, for it was in R O

Sanders book presented to every boy.

Few will admit to remembering the

School Song ‘Domum Nostram’

(which the Worshipful Master forbids

me to demonstrate!) introduced at

that time, attributed to W T Marsh.

The first line read: “Quae per annos

mille stetit”, which for the classically

challenged, translates as “our school

that for a thousand years has stood”.

In 1949, the Lodge became a

Founder Member of The Federation

of School Lodges, and has played an

important part in its development to

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OA

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OA

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TEthis day. Very shortly before the

25th Anniversary Meeting, on 11th

April 1953 a youthful 39-year-old

organist was initiated into the Lodge:

At this point in the proceedings

Ray Hughes was presented with a

certificate from the PGM to

commemorate his 50 years in

masonry. Ray recalled that he had

been present at the Masonic

procession to lay the Foundation

stone in 1928 as a member of the OTC

and had fired a salute!

The Lodge has been fortunate to

number amongst its members

brethren who have achieved high

rank, notably Geoffrey Pryke, Deputy

PGM and ‘Dickie’ Hammond, PGM in

the Mark Degree.

(N.B. at this stage the appointment

of Colin Harris as PGM had not been

announced).

Many eminent citizens of St

Albans joined the Lodge, names

which recur over again. Indeed the

list of members is littered with

Giffens: one of the Founders,

Reginald, his brothers Lionel and

Frank, and Reginald’s sons John and

George and George’s son ‘young’

Jonathan, who are here today,

creating a link with the birth of the

Lodge.

Fathers and sons feature

throughout our history. Apart from

three generations of Giffens, we have

the late Cliff and Richard Wedgbury,

Brian and Matthew Ward, Peter and

Richard Johnson, and all being well

we hope to welcome the two sons of a

recently deceased member; the father

of an OA who we hope will be a

future member, and the son of one of

our Past Masters.

Richard Wedgbury then presented

an Honours Board to the Lodge,

recording the names of our Past

Masters and also donated his

Master’s Apron formerly the property

of W T Marsh.

Finally, may I ask your indulgence

for a moment while I make a

personal observation. I am a joining

member from a Lodge where

masonry was a very serious business.

Never a laugh or so much a smile

during a Meeting was acceptable. My

first and enduring impression of Old

Albanian Lodge was one of happiness

and fun. The atmosphere in this

Lodge brought an entirely new

dimension to my masonic life as I am

sure it has to others, and taught me

that while conducting the formal part

of our proceedings with precision and

dignity, we can also enjoy ourselves

to the full. Above all, I learned that

MASONRY IS FUN, and long may

this Lodge prosper to develop that

principle.

And so, in celebrating 75 successful

years, we look forward with

enthusiasm and anticipation to the

next landmark, our Centenary, which

is already booked for the first

Saturday in September 2028. On that

date we shall host the Annual

Festival of The Federation of School

Lodges.

As a peppery old 95-year old, I

hope to see you in September 2028, if

not in person, in spirit!

Those who know him are sure

Geoffrey will be there!

The Lodge meets only five times a

year on the second Saturdays in

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January, March, May and September

and the first Saturday in November.

All those connected with the School,

including fathers of past or present

pupils are welcome to apply for

membership, for which purpose the

first approach should be to any

Lodge member, the Secretary as

below, or Nigel WoodSmith or Alan

Smith at the School. Members of

other Lodges, be they OAs, parents of

past or present pupils, staff or

Governors are encouraged to visit the

Lodge whenever they wish, and the

Secretary will be delighted to hear

from them.

John WilliamsLodge Secretary

4 Rollswood

Road

Welwyn

Herts AL6 9TX

Telephone:

01438 715679

Top tableOAs at a reunion dinner in February 2004, organised by Don Higson (who was visiting the UK from his home inAustralia to celebrate his mother’s 100th birthday)Anti-clockwise from left: Philip Eden, Mike Kenningham, Peter Sherring, Alban Warwick, Graham Ledger, GeoffGoodman, Roger Austin, Don Higson, Charles Bloxham, Brian Waldron

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Membership Secretary’s Notes

Going online■ OA Club Membership SecretaryRoger Cook rounds up all the latestmembership news – including therevolutionary new OA Online service

The revolutionary changes planned

by your committee are introduced in

the President’s article. All will

benefit from the reduction of the club

subscription to zero! The system we,

together with the school, are

purchasing has already been

installed in 35 former pupils’ clubs.

Reports from those clubs that we

have contacted are all very positive.

In summary, the system offers all

OAs:

● a website providing personal

details of all members

● web access fully secure

● a unique e-mail address for life

● facilities to update your details

online

● ability to limit which of your

details shall be accessible to

other members

● ability to send e-mails to other

members

● a notice-board facility

● appropriate search facilities for

the web content

There was an article in the last

Bulletin about friendsreunited – I

think you will find our new system

superior to that site in every way!

What will change?

You will no longer be asked for any

renewal membership subscription

provided that you are willing to

receive all information from the club,

including the Bulletin, electronically.

The Bulletin and Directory will

continue to be available in hard copy

at an annual fee. The amount has not

yet been determined but it is likely to

be in the range of £5 – £10 pa.

We recognise that a significant

proportion of members do not, as yet,

have Internet access. They will, of

course, remain full members of the

club and will be invited to pay the

fee mentioned above to cover the

costs of the Bulletin. There is an

article on the Internet on page 17,

directed specifically to those without

Internet facilities.

Full details of the system and how

to enrol will appear in the autumn

Bulletin. I am certain many more

members have e-mail addresses than

are shown in my database; if you

have an e-mail address, please e-mail

me giving:

● your e-mail address

● an indication whether you are

likely to opt for the electronic

only system – (no commitment!)

I recommend that, if you have not

already done so, you look at the

online copy of the Bulletin.

We anticipate that the contract

will be signed in time to enable the

system to be live before the end of

the year. However, it will probably

take some six months after that

before the system becomes fully

operational. My target is to have a

live system, with limited facilities,

for Christmas.

Finally, please check the address

on your envelope and advise me if it

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is wrong, including the omission of

the postcode.

OA Website

The website has now expanded to

eight pages. I hope that you are

finding it useful. To date, I have had

little feedback from members – I

trust that this implies you have no

major concerns. It is difficult to

estimate the number of visits – our

ISP provides statistics indicating

about 300 visits per week, but this

may include random visits by

surfers!

You will have noticed that, to

reduce load time, I split the last

Bulletin into three sections. I propose

to do this with this edition and to

leave the password unchanged at

5718. In view of OA online there is no

longer any need to post the Directoryon our website.

OA Directory

We will shortly be reissuing the

Directory, and once again we are

indebted to Dave Varty and Agfa for

agreeing to sponsor this publication.

Finally, as usual, your address

label states the year when your

subscription expires. OA ties are still

available from me at £12.50 (silk) and

£15 (bow tie).

Roger CookMembership Secretary

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1 Pondwicks

Close

St Albans AL1

1DG

Telephone:

01727 836877

OA CLUB ACCOUNTS

Income & Expenditure for year to 30th September 2003

2003 2002

Subs/Donations 8,534 8,065

Social Events 1,308 (638)

Postage 1,060 1,775

Printing:

Albanian 527 544

Bulletin 1,848 1,830

Admin/Other (net) 246 3,681 489 4,638

Excess Income 6,161 2,789

Balance Sheet as at 30th September 2003

Bank 33,222 29,274

Debtors 2,245

Stock 594 36,061 922 30,196

Creditors 564 1,087

Subs in Advance 15,511 15,284

Equity 13,825 11,036

Excess Income 6,161 36,061 2,789 30,196

Shortened version of OAC accounts for year to 30th September 2003


16

Waifs and straysWe have lost contact with the

following OAs – can anyone help?

Year Name Last knownlocation

38 Buckingham, K M Harrow39 Wilkinson, A D Harpenden41 Wright, J A St Albans42 Powell, G H St Albans43 Bracewell, C M Leicester44 Hudson, P H F Cranbrook54 Dilley, N C High Wycombe55 Coombe, B J Brookmans Park55 Knight, J V Blackboys56 Ingram, P Glasgow57 Bishop, S C Shefford58 O’Sullivan, P J Harpenden59 Brierley, R J Totteridge59 Mills, K J Stoke-on-Trent60 Robertson, D M Herts62 Clarke, J Knebworth64 Bass, Stephen Danbury65 Kirk , D Walthamstow66 Thomas, R N Edgware67 Ansell, Paul Luton67 Cockbain, P A Redhill67 Marsh, A Borehamwood68 Craighead, R M Potters Bar68 Gingell, R R Bury St Edmunds70 Martin, I G Birmingham71 Barker, Mark Sutton Coldfield71 Duxbury, M J Hitchin71 Earl, G Newbury71 Lawrence, D J D St Albans71 Williams, D P L Harpenden72 Bayley, A R J Chesterfield72 Mattingley, R J Baldock72 Parker, S C Harpenden73 Thom, D K Stevenage74 Kingham, D R East Grinstead74 Marshall, J T J St Albans74 Warner, I C St Albans75 Forbes, I A Bristol75 Funnell, Stephen Barnet76 Bulsing, J M Welwyn Garden City76 Lavin, C N Attleborough76 Orange, C A London76 Turner S E Faversham76 Waygood-West, Kevin Hatfield77 Bayoumi, T A Welwyn Garden City77 Clitherow, P A Harpenden77 Granger, Andrew London77 Jones, A P R Keithley77 Lee, A P Gwynedd77 Marshall, N J St Albans

77 Stansbury, C J St Albans77 Welsh, David J St Albans78 Evans, N G Hemel Hempstead78 Parker, P E Harpenden78 Samuel, M G St Albans79 Albury, C D St Albans79 Armitage, Stephen London79 Cooper, R C Luton79 Dixon, C Harpenden79 Hall, M Rickmansworth79 Haysom, A J Harpenden79 Menzie, B Wheathampstead79 Riddle, J Wakefield79 Tynan, P Cockermouth80 George, A J Flamstead80 Warwick, Neil St Albans80 Woodrow, J C G Wheathampstead81 Hodge, R J W Peterborough81 Palmer, Andrew Bracknell82 Peters, Mike St Albans83 Norris, R G T St Albans83 Pryce, Tim Notting Hill Gate85 Andrews, David High Wycombe85 Finlay, Laurence Barnet85 Gresswell, A M Welwyn85* Smart, Adrian Brighton85 Somerville, D J Hemel Hempstead85 Turner, Andrew Swindon86 Bladen, John Luton86 Bending, Thomas Cambridge86 Cook, Adrian London86 Dewhirst, Martin Hatfield86 Newman, P L St Albans87 Meeson, Mark W St Albans87 Payne, Nicholas St Albans89 Hollingsworth, Damian St Albans89 Jones, Christopher St Albans91 Peters, David A Harpenden92 Carden, Richard E W Southhampton92 Harris, Daniel S Radlett92 James, Jonathan Wheathampstead92 Simmons, Jonathan E Totteridge92 Moss, Radley Radlett92 Wheeler, Seth Utica, USA93 Brian, Andrew J St Albans93 Clarke, Richard P St Albans93 King, Caroline St Albans93 Ives, Simon St Albans94 Clayton, Thomas St Albans94 Lester, Miles Hadley Wood94 Simmons, Matthew Flamstead95 Topper, Marc Stanmore96 Barclay, Mathew St Albans97 Morgan, Dean Watford97 Summers, Paul Harpenden99 Myers, Richard B P Barnet00 Stephens, Benjamin Enfield

*New entry

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Net gains■ Roger Cook describes the benefits ofjoining the Internet community

Only 11% of OA members have

admitted to having an e-mail address

and, hence, having access to the

Internet. I am certain that this

percentage is wrong. If you have an

e-mail address, please ensure that

you have informed me of it and

ignore the rest of this note! For the

remainder, I am writing a few words

on why you should consider joining

the Internet community.

First, let me remind you of the

meaning of e-mail and Internet. Any

individual or organisation with a

computer can apply for an e-mail

address and, thenceforward, can send

and receive messages (normally over

their telephone line) virtually

instantaneously to anyone else in the

world who has an e-mail address. The

cost will be a few seconds of local

telephone connection.

Similarly, any individual or

organisation with a computer can

construct a website containing

relevant information (text, pictures,

sound), register its address and allow

anyone in the world to access and

communicate with this information.

The government may post new

reports, cinemas their daily

programme, TV channels the latest

news and all is accessible throughout

the world within fractions of a

second (transmission of pictures or

the whole of the ‘Gone with the

Wind’ may take somewhat longer).

The terms world-wide web and

Internet are, to a large extent,

interchangeable.

We are all familiar now of being

exhorted to contact a website. BBC

announcers must be satiated with

saying “www.bbc.co.uk forward

slash…”. Every marketing

organisation attempts to get us to

purchase goods ‘online’ (it is much

cheaper for them), the government,

hospitals, churches, organisations

(including the OA club and the

School) have websites. During the

recent Hutton enquiry, all the

submissions for each day were put on

a website in the evening for public

viewing (a precedent for all future

enquiries?). The financial advantages

to organisations whose members all

have Internet access are significant.

If all OA club members had access,

we could post news, the Bulletin and

the Directory on our website and let

members access and read it in their

own time, thus saving several

hundred pounds in postage; the

downside is that every member

would need to spend a few minutes of

telephone time accessing the

documents and, if they required

‘hard copy’, to print the document.

Most school children in the UK are

taught and have access to the

Internet, all university students have

e-mail addresses via their university,

many children expect their parents to

provide home computer access, most

public libraries provide internet

access for a small fee. A large

growing band of new users in the UK

is those recently retired. In third

world countries farmers can, for the

first time, using e-mail and the

18


Internet, discover the market prices

of their goods without asking the

middlemen who buy their products.

Some repressive governments have,

unsuccessfully, tried to limit

electronic communication to the

wider world. In China there are 80

million regular Internet users, an

increase of 35% over 2002. The

Internet can provide for real-time

dialogue between users – although

the local time differences between

far-flung parts of the world may

make this difficult! A friend of mine

plays real-time bridge over the

Internet with partners in South

America and China.

The web has put unbelievable

amounts of information within the

reach of a computer system whether

it is in one’s home, office, school or,

with suitable communication links,

in a moving environment. Much of

the information is wrong, prejudiced

or libellous. We hear of websites that

have been created for pornography,

to spread religions and to foment

unrest. Despite these problems, all

branches of industry and commerce

as well as personal users are, today,

successfully and effectively using the

Internet. The total information out

there has not been measured but

must exceed that of the largest

library in the world. The initial

concept of the Internet was that it

should be freely accessible to

everyone in the world. and be

without a single controlling

organisation. My observation is that

Internet users expect all information

to be accessible to all without

payment. Efforts are being made by

governments to control its content

but, as yet, with little success. An

exception is the agreement regarding

Netscape, which was making

copyright music freely available over

the Internet.

Within the OA Club, we are

determined to utilise the Internet for

the benefit of our members. We are

actively implementing, in a joint

project with the School, a system

which will provide excellent inter-

communication and information

transfer between members, the club

and the School. This is more fully

described elsewhere in the Bulletin.

We recognise, however, that, for

many years, we must also satisfy the

needs of members without access to

electronic communication.

I think you will already be aware

of the general concepts of the

Internet that I have outlined above.

Why have you not yet taken the

plunge? Is it disinterestedness,

lethargy or fear of learning a new

technology? Most of us have

mastered the telephone, the TV, the

mobile phone and even the video

recorder.

Should you decide to invest in an

internet computer system you will

have, also, acquired an advanced

word processor, an essential adjunct

to your digital camera, an advanced

games console for your

children/grandchildren and a myriad

of other applications. Careful,

however – Internet surfing can be

addictive!

The steps I would suggest are: to

talk to a friend who has a computer

system; talk to the local high street

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retailer and then buy a low cost

second hand system from your local

computer maintenance shop

(computers are like fashions in

clothes – obsolete within a year but

still perfectly functional – you should

get a system a third to half of the

high street price). If your friend is

really helpful you can probably avoid

going on one of the many excellent

local computer introductory courses;

if you do opt for a formal course,

install your computer first. If your

eyesight is not the finest, get as large

a screen/console/VDU as possible and

avoid a laptop computer. After a few

months your confidence and

expertise will be such that you may

then wish to consider a brand new,

latest fashion computer system.

Society is now dependent on the

increasing facilities that the Internet

offers. Come along – dive in! Happy

surfing!

Roger CookMembership Secretary

Flying the flag Following the tradition established by Ray Buxton at Beech Bottom, his son David and family have donated anew OA Club flag, which carries the new style and motto of the school crest.This flies along side the Union Flag also presented. The third flagpole will fly flags such as OA Sport,St Georges or as appropriate to any occasion

20


● Malcolm Mitchell, having seen the

photos in the last OA Bulletin, writes

of his memory of ‘Beery’ Webster,

although, having been to so many

schools, he could not remember where

he met him! He mentions Alan Evans

who was on the staff for a short time

prior to going into the forces in 1939

and although they were not at the

School at the same time they met up

in Kingsbridge in 1970. Alan died in

about 1990 but Malcolm keeps in

contact with his widow, Nancy.

● Cyril Mobbs writes from Canada to

compliment the School and OA Club

on their excellent new sporting

facilities: “When I was in the UK last

July, I took the opportunity to drive

past and around the new sports

ground and was absolutely amazed.

Having played rugger – under

Charles Bloxham – at the Causeway

(mind the cowpats!) and cricket at

Belmont, the current boys do not

know how fortunate they are having

such a wonderful ground.”

● Tony Quance (64) writes from

Mississanga, Ontario: “I was not a

great student, but carried away from

the School a passion for rugby and

athletics and a love of the English

language, so my time at St Albans

was not completely mis-spent.” He

asks for his best wishes to be passed

to Andy Barnes, Dick Dunn, Chris

Harris (his Best Man), Tim Hunt,

Robin Johns, Charlie Lee, Andrew

Maslen, Mick Rogers, Gerry Steele,

Steve Taylor and John Williams –

stalwarts of the 1963 1st XV.

● Chris Duffield has recently been

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appointed Town Clerk to the City of

London.

● Edward Worthy (65) has been

appointed Parish Priest of

Wellingborough.

● Michael Watts (71) sends his

greetings from the West of Scotland.

“At the beginning of October, Angie

and I moved from Wind Ridge,

Lochgoilhead to Tigh-na-Cala – just

five miles down the road but also five

miles further from civilisation! ‘Cala’

is a Gaelic word that doesn’t really

have a direct counterpart in English

but means a hard or firm beach or

landing place. ‘Tigh’ means house, so

for brevity’s sake the easiest

translation of our house name is

simply ‘house by the beach’.”

● Julius Bryant (76), chief curator of

English Heritage (see press cutting

left), has recently completed a

massive 440 page catalogue of the

Iveagh Bequest at Kenwood, the first

new catalogue for over 50 years.

● Justin Pollard (86) writes that

since graduating from Cambridge he

has worked in the TV and film

business, running a small company

which produces documentaries and

provides historical consultancy for

movies. One recent project was a

seven hour documentary series for

Channel 4 called ‘Seven Ages of

Britain’, a social history from the

Mesolithic to the Early Modern

period. The book of the series was

published in October and Justin is

now working on his second book, a

biography of Alfred the Great, to be

published in early 2005. Married with

a young daughter, Justin (“like all

people in TV”) lives in Surrey.

● Edward Slade (90) tells of his

marriage to Jennifer Lake, a former

pupil at St Albans High School for

Girls, in September 2003. Many OAs

were present: Jennifer’s father John

Lake (59), her brothers Robert and

William Lake, Matthew Slade, Chris

Willis, Alex Belton, Julian Baines,

Matthew Newby, Paul Beresford,

Peter Sarris, Mark Pine, John

Cartwright and Nick Burrage. From

the High School: Lorna Bishop,

Elizabeth O’Flynn (Phistermuller),

Helen Stergios, Jenny Willis, Angela

Meakins (Jarrett), Nichole Slade and

Claire Horwell.

● Nigel Sellars (00) is currently

studying for an MSc in Computer

Science at University College London

and recently captained the University

of London Representative Hockey

side. When he has completed his

Masters degree he will begin

employment with KPMG.

● John Squares (02) has been elected

JCR President at Corpus Christi

College, Oxford.

Erratum

In the last issue of the OA Bulletin, it

was wrongly reported that Robert

Aghajanian had been awarded a 2:2

for his degree at Southampton

University, when in fact he gained a

2:1. Our apologies for the error.

21


22


Deaths

It is with regret that the following

deaths are announced:

● Brian Nelson (33)

● Gordon Weatherhead (33)

● Tom Bennett (39)

● Edward Sudell (39) died in

February 2003.

● Mike Bixby (46) died on the 20th

November 2003.

● Tom Bennett (39), who was one of

four brothers to attend the School,

died on 1st February in Broadstairs.

His brother Norman writes: “After

retiring from IBM, he became a

reader at All Saints Church,

Westbrook. He was a Freemason,

rising to high honours both in

London and East Kent Provinces as

well as the United Grand Lodge of

England. He became Chairman and

Chaplain of the Royal Marines

Association in the Isle of Thanet.”

● Harry Everett (46) died in 2002.

Anthony J Lane writes: “He had a

career in insurance, which took him

all over the country, until ill-health

forced his retirement. A St Albans

boy who was an Abbey chorister in

Mr ‘Bunny’ Warren’s School choir,

he married a local girl (a cousin to

Don Kiff, in fact) who survives him,

and three sons, four

granddaughters and two great-

grandchildren.”

● Ben Holloway (02) died in tragic

circumstances. After a gap year he

went to Warwick University. It was

whilst he was there that he died.

Obituary

● Paul Atkinson (64)

Respected music industry veteran

Paul Atkinson died peacefully in his

sleep shortly before midnight on

Thursday 1st April 2004 at the UCLA

Santa Monica Medical Center, after a

long battle with liver and kidney

disease.

Atkinson's career as a musician

and record executive has spanned

almost four decades. He started as a

guitarist for The Zombies, one of the

first and most original of the British

Invasion bands of the 1960s – widely

acknowledged as being both ahead of

their time and among the best of

their era with smash hits such as

‘She’s Not There,’ ‘Tell Her No’ and

‘Time of the Season.’

Atkinson made the rare transition

from artist to executive, ultimately

heading up A&R departments at

three of the five major multinational

record conglomerates. His

contributions range from artist

development and production, to

international marketing and

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catalogue development in the US and

Europe.

Born in Cuffley, England, Atkinson

resided in Los Angeles for the past 20

years. He is survived by his wife,

Helen, their two children, James and

Lucy, and son Matt by a previous

marriage.

Donations in Atkinson’s name may

be made to (UNOS) United Network

For Organ Sharing. There are no

plans for services at this time.

The Archives

● John Meulkens (35) has donated

two photographs. The one of the OTC

Corps of Drums in the Upper Yard

has many names appended including

the now Major General Mike Heath,

John Leggett and Len Druce. The

second is the Headmaster’s cricket

team naming Sam Webster, A J

Warren, Rogers, Hammy Hamilton,

Ernie Nightingale, Jean Garnier,

Hugh Wortley, Gordon Jarry, P I

Walker and Montague Jones himself.

● Robin Ollington (47) whilst rooting

about in his loft found a blazer with

an OA Club badge on it – he has

donated the badge.

Thanks for those items. Are there

any more lofts, sheds, garages or

wardrobes being emptied?

Honouring our blues

● John Meulkens has offered to help

with the funding of an Honours

Board to be mounted in the OA

Pavilion at Woollams. Many thanks

are due to him for this generous

offer. A design has been suggested by

Robin Ollington and he has had a

quotation for the board.

What we need to know are the

names of all those pupils and staff

who have been awarded Blues at

Oxford and Cambridge. It is

important that we do not omit any.

If you know of anyone awarded a

Blue, please send their names to

Mike Highstead at the address below.

An obsessive search

● Neil Rowland accompanied his son

Grant in 1974 on a visit to Pen

Arthur together with Bob Tanner

and Charles Bloxham. On the way

home they made a detour to

Gloucester Cathedral and the on to a

village in the Cotswolds to see some

particularly interesting architecture.

They then went on for a fish and

chip supper in Northleach. They

arrived back at school three hours

late.

Were you on this memorable trip?

Do you remember the diversion, and

more to the point, can you say where

the village is? Neil has been

searching for it ever since that visit.

Is there anyone who can help, or is

there a Bermuda Triangle somewhere

in the Cotswolds?

If you can help please contact Neil

Rowland on 020 8275 0018.

Wrong dates

As several eagle-eyed readers have

pointed out, the dates in the photo

caption on page 25 of the November

24


Bulletin were inadvertently

transposed. The photo of skaters on a

frozen Verulamium Lake (above) was

taken in 1936, and the Shooting VIII

picture was from 1948. One of the

skaters is regular contributor Len

Druce (’36), and he is particularly

keen to set the record straight as

many of those pictured were to lose

their lives in the Second World War.

Our apologies for the error, and my

thanks to everyone who took the

time to contact the Bulletin.

● Simon Stebbings writes via e-mail:

Very interested to see a picture of my

uncle (I N Stebbings) as part of the

shooting team on page 27 (repeated

right). I haven’t checked when he

was there but I very much doubt that

either he or my father (I B Stebbings

who was at School at the same time)

were there as early as 1936.

● Alan Richmond (45) writes: In the

November issue, the group

photograph of boys in army uniform

must be wrongly dated. It is given as

1936 yet battledress did not become

the Corps uniform until, I think, 1940.

Until then, we wore WWI uniform,

complete with peaked cap and

puttees. Furthermore, Ivor Stebbings,

who appears in the photograph, was

only about eight years old in 1936! By

1940, the Corps had changed its name

from the Officers Training Corps

(OTC) to the Junior Training Corps

(JTC). Subsequently it changed again

to, I believe, the Combined Cadet

Force (CCF).

● Gerald Batty (48) writes: The photo

of the Shooting VIII is certainly not

1936 but might have been 1946. I

probably took over from Ian

Stebbings in 1947 or 48 but as far as I

recall the post of captain of shooting

was a de facto one and not to be

mentioned in the same breath as

rugger or even cricket! It was the guy

who happened to be a decent shot

and was prepared to take some

interest in it.

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Maundy Money

The annual Royal Maundy Service

takes place at a cathedral selected by

the monarch, who then distributes

two small bags of specially minted

coins to the same number of men as

her age and a similar number of

women. The nominated recipients

must be over 70 years of age, have

spent many years in the service of

the church and be ‘of slender means’.

This year she went to Liverpool

and 78 men and 78 women were

chosen to receive the Royal Maundy

from her – including Old Albanian,

The Reverend James Pollard (41). “It

was my immense privilege to be one

of the recipients this year,” he says.

“I had met the Queen and Duke of

Edinburgh before and it was a true

honour to meet her again in this

role.” The Reverend Pollard was

accompanied to the ceremony on 8th

April by his younger daughter

Elisabeth.

Please send all

items for

inclusion in the

Gazette to:

Mike Highstead,

33, Cornwall

Road,

Harpenden,

Herts

AL5 4TQ.

26


Cut pricemembership?● Daniel Green (86) adds his

thoughts to the membership debate.

I received my recent OA Bulletin and

read your editorial with interest. The

forwarding letter enclosed reminded

me that it was the last edition before

my membership expired and asked

me for £15 p.a. to renew. I will not be

renewing and thought you would

appreciate this letter to explain why.

All I want is to keep in touch with

what my peers are up to and maybe

to understand any developments at

the School. £15 p.a. is far, far too

expensive for that. I am not

interested in your rugby club or your

masons or even your fishing. Within

that context I am really not sure why

the membership should be so

expensive.

If I were you, I would have a ‘cut

down’ membership – maybe £1 p.a. or

even free. For that you would get an

e-mail newsletter once a year. I think

friendsreunited is really good. You

talk about £5 membership fee, but

basically it is free (for those who

don’t wish to contact peers).

I hope this helps you explain why

not a lot of people are wanting to join

or renew their membership of the OAs.

Hopefully, the announcement of thenew (and entirely free) onlinemembers’ service will persuade Danielto reconsider. See the President’s Noteson page 5 and Membership Secretary’sNotes on page 14 to find out more –Editor

Esprit de Corps ● Andrew Firth (61) recalls his days

in the CCF and his continuing

interest in military matters.

I noticed Arthur Lewis’s letter in the

October 2003 Bulletin, wondering

what had happened to the OTC. I

enjoyed my time in the CCF (as it

was by then) at school between 1957

(I think) and 1961. It was one of the

few school activities where I felt I

achieved anything. I was very

pleased when Percy Pryke awarded

me a red lanyard. (How important

those sort of things were in those

days!)

I was appointed to be an

understudy in the Quartermaster’s

stores sited in a shack-like structure

in what I think was an old stable

block (was it called ‘The Stable

Block’? Wasn’t ‘Doc’ Coles rumoured

to have kept his horse there before

the war?). Across a pathway was the

Armoury which was at the side of

the school canteen on the ground

floor level of the old hat factory.

Teaching me useful things in the

QM’s stores, like the official way to

fold battledress blouses, were Paul

Lawrence and his ‘superior’ Rod

Wilson. I was followed by the rather

more colourful figure of Jon Cohen

who went on to become CQMS and

Cadet Sergeant Major.

I did volunteer to learn the bugle,

but lasted just two weeks at it,

because my parents banished me to

the garage for practice. Several of my

notes used to hit a harmonic with the

metal garage door, which annoyed

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the neighbours even more than the

wheezy notes I produced. In the

interests of neighbourliness, my folks

suggested I try something else.

As with most other topics for me

at school, I ran out of enthusiasm for

the CCF in the Upper Sixth achieving

merely my sergeant’s stripes.

I left school in July 1961, joining a

firm of solicitors local to me in

Welwyn Garden City, where I signed

Articles of Clerkship for a five year

term. The starting pay was a mere

£1.00 a week. (Fortunately the days of

your parents paying the solicitor to

take you on had passed!). I looked for

ways to increase my income and,

thinking back to my CCF sergeant’s

stripes, volunteered for the then St

Albans TA unit, 286th (Hertfordshire

& Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Field

Regiment, Royal Artillery. That’s a

story for another day, but I could

mention that among the local TA

Gunners I found a number of OAs

including Rich Hopkins, then a

sergeant, Lt Phil Brown and Capt Ian

Forsyth. A year or so later, three

more OAs signed on as Officer

Cadets: Neil McGregor, John Davies

and the ever enthusiastic Jon Cohen

(who, alone of us, went on to

command the successor sub-unit).

I retain my interest (from a short

distance) in military matters, and the

local TA units in particular. In the

last few years I have helped to

support the publication of the history

of the Hertfordshire Yeomanry and

Artillery, written by John Sainsbury,

a former colleague in the Regiment

and, as it happens, a close neighbour.

In answer to Arthur’s question, the

School Corps was founded in 1902 or

1903 by the Headmaster Captain E

Montague Jones, and in 1908 it joined

the Junior Division of the newly

formed Officers’ Training Corps

(OTC). Shortly after the outbreak of

the war in 1939, it was announced

that all candidates for commissions

in HM Forces would have to serve a

minimum period in the ranks, and

appointment direct to commissions

from the OTC ceased. The title of the

Corps was accordingly changed in

September 1940, when the Junior

Division of the OTC became the

Junior Training Corps (JTC). In 1948

JTC contingents became part of the

Combined Cadet Force (CCF).

Losing touch● Gerald Batty (48) writes via e-mail:

It is a matter of great regret for me

not to be nearer St Albans but that’s

just one of those things. I did manage

to get up to Founders’ Day three or

four years ago and had hoped to

come this year but something urgent

cropped up. You [Roger Cook] must

have been in the same year as Robert

Garnier and/or Bryan Straker and

Raymond Lait. We always used to

walk to school together via King

Harry Lane, weather permitting. I

was a year junior to the latter two

but have completely lost touch with

all three. I last saw Garnier at the Int

Corps Depot in 1950 when he was

newly commissioned and I was going

through the demob formalities. I saw

Bryan’s father George quite often

during the 1960s or 70s when family

28


affairs sometimes took me through

Petersfield whither he had retired. I

am in contact on and off with

Anthony Lane who has been a mine

of OA information. Sadly, he is now

increasingly troubled with arthritis

so he cannot easily write and has no

computer – or not when I last saw

him.

Fortunately, Anthony is still able tocontribute regularly to the OA Bulletin– see his letter below. Editor

Lost – and found● Anthony J Lane (48) successfully

tracks down a contemporary.

In the October 1999 Bulletin Ireminisced about some of the names

that appeared in the first OA

Directory – and some of those for

which we looked, but failed to find. J

H Knopf (49) was one of the latter, he

having been in the Athletics team

and unbeatable over a mile; and after

beating the School record two years

running, going on to compete for

Cambridge over that distance and in

the three miles (W T Marsh’s event).

In fact, he also broke the record for

two miles in one Varsity Match.

No one seemed to know anything

of him. It was only when I had cause

to contact Gerald Batty, another

contemporary, that he claimed to

have seen a notice-board somewhere

in Southampton, describing a J H

Knopf as Minister of the local

Unitarian Church. Recourse to the

Southampton phone directory soon

put me in touch with John, only for

me to find that he had had to retire

from his ministry, of all ironies being

pretty much disabled by something

like Motor Neurone Disease.

It must have been a couple of years

after that that I chanced to take

advantage of a break in the weather

one afternoon for a stroll. Literally

just round the corner I failed to mind

my own business and crossed the

road to look at a notice-board in

someone’s garden. Just then, by

another chance, the householder, on

whom I’d never before clapped eyes,

came into his front garden trundling

a wheelbarrow. It turned out in

conversation that a Unitarian

meeting was to be held that night in

his bungalow, addressed by the

Minister of the Southampton

Unitarian Church. I remarked

straight away that I had known his

predecessor in that office. To my

amazement I was informed that John,

in remission, was due to attend that

meeting, being driven there by his

wife Brenda, daughter of the master

who had taught us both history in

the Sixth Form, Mr H E Wortley.

We duly met for ten minutes, for

the first time since I’d seen him at

Selwyn College nearly fifty years

before. Being a rather enthusiastic

Trinitarian I declined a kind

invitation to attend the meeting, but

I was able to fill in the gaps in my

knowledge of John’s career in

athletics, having the opportunity

also, with Brenda there, to pay

tribute to Mr Wortley and his

teaching.

However, Mr Heather was the

greater influence in my Sixth Form

days, since I was going to read

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English. The OA Directory gave me

an address for his son, so I was able

to send him a similar tribute when I

saw his father’s death recorded. He

most kindly wrote back, sending me

a copy of Further Advanced English

Exercises by his father, which

Longmans had published. This

really gave Mr Heather deserved

status in his profession, with four

other of his textbooks getting into

print. All this has previously been

quite unknown to me. Others of my

generation will no doubt be as

delighted as I was to learn of this

accolade which came to Mr Heather

after our time. He later became

Second Master, so many OAs will

remember him as such.

Due to his droopy moustache and

rather lugubrious way of speaking,

Philip Heather had the alliterative

nickname ‘Happy’. Mr Ernest

Nightingale we knew as ‘Uncle Ernie’

because of the relaxed lesson he

always gave just before Christmas

every year and which he called

“Uncle Ernie’s Christmas Party.” He

had also produced a textbook, no

doubt long out-dated, but from which

he taught us physics. A neighbour of

mine, formerly a physics teacher

himself, well remembers learning the

subject from the book by E

Nightingale.

A final word about nicknames – I

was amused to discover from the

May 2003 Bulletin that Barry Phillips

had acquired one during his short

time back on the School staff. I say

this since I think he himself might

have been responsible for dubbing Mr

A J Coles ‘Doc-O-Doc’, and for

saddling Mr G E Pryke, a prefect in

our day, with the nickname ‘Percy’.

History repeated● Biddy Hodge congratulates the

School on its continuing excellence.

Last week I was delighted to receive

two copies of The Albanian 2003, one

of which I passed to Michael Hodge

(65). I do not know how I qualify for

receiving this, but I know how much

I enjoy reading it. Every word! I can

only add that I can only send you my

thanks and all our congratulations

on such a wonderful and continuing

record of such excellence.

I am hoping not to have to die just

yet, but when that does happen I

shall know that the School is greater

and more special than ever before.

And yet history does repeat itself. I

can remember when on Speech Day

the seniors acted a Greek play. In

Greek, of course, and I was probably

seven years old – not a real scholar

at that time, 80 years ago…

We lived at Monastery Close with

‘our’ boarders from September 1921

until 1932 when my father retired as

Housemaster. Regularly he took me

across to see Mrs Woollam at this

time, in her garden. Once I asked

him why we went to see her so often,

and he said “she’s very lonely,

because she has no children of her

own.” We did not ask “why?” in

those days, of course, and I have

often thought just how much the

Woollams couple contributed to the

children of the city. And it goes on

now – for ever.

30

Our Man in Basra● OA Committee Member Calvin

Man (91) announces his deployment

to Iraq.

Unfortunately, I will be unable to

play a full part in the OA Committee

until later in the year as I have been

called away for the next few months.

As some of you are aware, I was a

Regular Army Officer and still serve

in the Territorial Army. I have

recently been served compulsory

mobilisation papers by the Ministry

of Defence and will be deploying to

Iraq for six months from April.

I am being posted to Headquarters

1 Mechanised Brigade and will be the

Officer responsible for the restoration

and provision of essential services

(mainly power, water and fuel

supplies) for Basra and a large part

of south-east Iraq. Although the

details have yet to filter down, my

role is likely to involve co-ordinating

the activities of military engineers,

local contractors and the

international engineering firms

within the Brigade’s area of

responsibility as well as ensuring the

security of key infrastructure.

Although a major change from the

investment banking environment to

which I am now used, it will be an

exciting opportunity to play my part

in helping to improve the situation in

Iraq. I am sure that I will gain from

the experience.

I look forward to seeing you all on

my (safe) return in October and to

receiving news by e-mail from the

home front during my absence at

[email protected]

Drum role● D J Higson (51) has recently

rejoined the OA Club, and writes

from Australia.

In the October 2003 Bulletin I was

particularly interested in the latter

and photograph from Arthur Lewis,

one of my predecessors with the bass

drum. I have a photograph

somewhere of the Corps Band

marching down St Peter’s Street

behind drum major Titch (Basil,

Trevor?) Tyson, circa 1950. I well

remember Baumgartner and Argent

but I think they had moved on by the

time that I was performing.

I also liked the 1948 Pageant

photograph. I could easily be one of

the participants but could not

possibly recognise myself. Until

about a year ago, I had entirely lost

touch with contemporary OAs, apart

from a few casual encounters while

at university 50 years ago and when

wandering around St Peter’s Street

during visits to Wheathampstead. We

went to Australia in 1964, had two

years back in 1967-69 and have lived

in Sydney since then. My brother,

Mike, and his family moved to

Staffordshire and then (sometime

during the 1970s) my parents moved

to that part of the country too, so we

stopped going anywhere near St

Albans when we visited England.

Then, last year, Roger Seymour

telephoned out of the blue, having

seen my name in the Sydney

telephone directory. It turned out


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31

that he had spent a fair bit of time in

NSW and now lives a few hours’

drive up the coast. We haven’t

actually managed to get together yet

but he provided me with e-mail

contacts for half a dozen or so old

friends around the world. When I

announced that I would be in

England in February 2004, first of all

Bryan Waldron suggested that we

meet for lunch then Geoff Goodman

rallied all available contemporaries

around to join in. It was a bit of a

pity that no wives were included, as

several of them are also old friends.

However, Naomi could not be there

either, for health reasons.

Wartime memories● A barrister who spent 40 years as a

lawyer in the newspaper industry,

F L ‘Pat’ Tyler (41) remembers his

wartime School generation.

It is some time now since an updated

casualty list of OAs from the Second

World War was published but I want

to put on record my appreciation of

this document on behalf of my

generation who left School during

the war. My School years were 1932-

41, all under W T Marsh.

As Editor of The Albanian during

the last year I was involved with

casualty lists which were so heavy

among our young pilots. Army

casualties remained relatively light.

The School itself was directly

involved after the Dunkirk affair

when teams from the OTC unloaded

wounded soldiers from trains to

ambulances which took them to local

hospitals. We mounted night guards

in the Armoury expecting an

invasion!

The blackout and travelling

problems meant that most school

societies (apart from the OTC) had

curtailed activities and we all studied

‘Infantry Section Leading’ by a

certain Major B L Montgomery, of

whom more was to be heard!

My friend Paul Webster (son of the

master) was SCM of the OTC and we

were advised by the General during

the Corps inspection to go to

Cambridge for a year before actually

joining the Army. The result of this

was that the El Alamein battle was

almost over before we joined. Paul,

who was in the Tanks, eventually

found himself in charge of a mobile

unit looking after a huge territory in

Eritrea with camels and mules

instead of tanks! The effect of joining

up so late was that we had a much

shorter war than many! I went the

more conventional route in the

Signals: Arromanches (D + 7 landing

in perfect weather), Bayeaux, Caen,

Rouen, Brussels, Osnabruck. We

were bombed waiting in a huge

queue to land by the Mulberry

Harbour (not then complete) but once

landed I never saw another German

aeroplane until Christmas – although

there were a few V1s over Brussels.

How lucky can you get in an

invasion?

My wife and I have had a 15th

Century house in the Dordogne for 15

years but are in the process of

selling. We have visited the grave of

my mother’s first husband, killed on

the Somme on 1st July 1916. My


father fought in Afghanistan in 1918-

19. My wife’s war service was at

Bletchley Park and we have attended

various celebrations of ‘Anciens

Combatants’ in France on 11th

November at which we remember

our comrades – but we also reflect

that two of our children have

reached 50 without any involvement

in war. Long may that state of affairs

continue!

A dark secret● Ian Watson (’53) reveals a dark

sporting secret…

I noticed in the October 2003 Bulletinthat Tony Hedge’s letter concerning

the disastrous 1952 cricket season

was written from Canada. It is one of

the School’s dark secrets that many

of the 1952 XI were forced to flee the

country. As Johnny Holt’s letter was

written from New Zealand, I think

we might assume that the 1951

season wasn’t too good either.

Safe house● John Billington (55) has just joined

the OA Club after nearly 50 years!

I was sorry to read that such a small

percentage of old boys belong to the

Club: I had somehow assumed that I

was unusual in not belonging. I

looked – largely in vain – for

reference to contemporaries but

found few apart from Tony Hedge

(52) and Bloxham and Jarry (staff).

I joined Woollams as a boarder in

1949 and greatly enjoyed it under the

tenure of the hawk-like Geoffrey

Pryke and his sidekick, whose name

temporarily eludes me. There were

some fairly mad people in the house

at the time, including a Whittingham

and Cook whose first names escape

me (the former, in one of his mad

rushed along the corridor, put his

arm through a glass door and

severed a vein). There was a cellar

below stairs which contained a large

iron safe (is it still there?) which

myself and another maniac by the

name of Peter Ball adopted as a sort

of private study – you could just

squeeze in two people – until

Geoffrey in one of his forays to stoke

the boiler overheard us giggling

inside, which put an end to that

caper.

Woollams closed down in about

1952 and the boarders there were

transferred to School House under

the mildly irascible and autocratic

rule of W T Marsh. This period saw

my induction into the world of

traditional jazz under another

obsessive by the name of Harrison,

and I still enjoy listening to it – like

Philip Larkin, discounting all

progress since the mid-1950s! I left in

1955 for Oxford (Teddy Hall) but, of

course, remember many staff with

pleasure, including Bloxham (for the

First XV), ‘Happy’ Heather and

MacLellan as English teachers, and

others whose names escape me but

will no doubt return as your Bulletin

becomes more familiar.

In 1958 I went to India (Bombay) to

teach and took Salman Rushdie for

private tuition in Latin in 1961 –

something that would make W T

32


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laugh as I was hopeless at the

subject, as indeed Salman Rushdie

would soon discover. Later I moved

on to Darjeeling before returning to

the UK in 1965. I then taught at

Repton School in Derbyshire (as

Head of English) and remained there

until retiring in 1996. In retirement I

run a project for GAP Activity

(Reading) – Tibetans in India – and

make regular visits to India (I’ve just

come back) and to Tibet. My chief

leisure activity is tennis though I

have a large garden and a couple of

llamas here in mid-Wales.

In the 48 years since I left I have

met only one OA whom I recognised

(Ray Pahl, who left about 1952-53),

and oddly enough I met him twice:

once in London about 25 years ago,

and once earlier this year in nearby

Bishop’s Castle. Distance probably

precludes my joining you on

anything other than a rare occasion

but I’ll keep an eye open for a

suitable event.

An ex-pat life● Keith Atkinson (61) describes his

life abroad as an ex-pat.

I left the School in 1961. The one

event I still remember vividly was

playing Helen of Troy in Tiger at the

Gates, with Mick (‘Four Weddings’)

Newell and Martin Smith (now ENO

Chairman). I did the unthinkable and

went into chartered accountancy – “I

think we’ve had one of them before”

said WT Marsh at my so-called career

counselling. He hadn’t got a clue

about the non-academic world. My

most inspiring teacher? JMK Finley –

thanks so much.

After a spell in the UK I left for

Kuwait in the 1970s, mainly to escape

the horrors of Ted Heath’s three-day

weeks and union-run Britain. What

an eye-opener working as an ex-pat

for the first time; for a visionary

Kuwaiti entrepreneur unlimited by

taxes, exchange controls, unions or

other constraints.

But heat and dust were not

conducive to bringing up babies so

we returned to Europe, and I worked

as VP-Finance for a major Hollywood

international film distributor – well-

paid and great fun but raw, snarling

red-toothed capitalism at its most

scary. So when my mid-life crisis

struck (at about 42) we decided that

enough was enough and that

expatriate life was altogether more

amenable.

I joined Lonrho under the

infamous Tiny Rowlands and soon

found myself in Nairobi, Kenya,

where we stayed for 16 years.

Wonderful experiences: game parks,

scenery, lovely people and a really

challenging business environment.

Our three kids still say the Banda,

Nairobi was the best school they ever

attended. By the time I retired three

years ago at 58, I found myself (to my

own great surprise) as CEO of a

London-listed PLC.

And then the real fun began! We

had bought an old property in

Provence and decided to retire there.

Numerous euros later it is liveable

and surprise, surprise, we found

Andy and Rosie Barnes living a few

miles to the north. We found we had

33


34


both married on exactly the same

day in 1970.

But the climate in Provence is

harsh – hot summers (last year,

forest fires came to within four miles

of our house) and cold boring

winters. So we bought a golf condo at

Naples, Florida to pass the winters –

very agreeably! Recently on a short

cruise in the Caribbean we met up

with Richard Lee (67), who is now

firmly settled in San Francisco.

Andy Barnes was more a

contemporary of my brother Paul (64)

who some of you may remember as a

Zombie. A St Albans group, they had

great success in the 1960s – especially

in the US – with ‘She’s not there’,

‘Tell her no’ and ‘Time of the season’.

He went on to become a highly

successful record executive – an A&R

man – en route discovering and

signing ABBA among many others.

He moved to the States about 20

years ago but recently times have not

been so good for him. First a liver

transplant that went wrong,

necessitating a second transplant, the

kidney failure for which he needs

regular dialysis and finally

inoperable cancer which he is

bravely bearing.

In recognition of his contribution

to the music business his colleagues

and many of the artistes he signed up

recently held a benefit concert for

him at the House of Blues, Sunset

Boulevard, Los Angeles. He received

a special industry award, and

plaudits from many well-known

names. The Zombies (including Paul)

got back on stage in the US for the

first time in 30 years and the evening

finished with a 30 minute session

from Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys

playing many of their greatest hits –

“for you, Paul.” I was proud to be

there for my little brother.

Sadly, Paul recently lost his bravefight against cancer and passed awayon 1st April 2004. See the obituary onpage 22 – Editor

Big Tuckers● Mike Walker (39) identifies some of

the 1936 Athletics team (pictured

right)

Thanks for recent Bulletin – as

enjoyable as ever. I notice there are

no names on the photo of the 1936

Athletic team on page 27. Too little

space or lack of data? I can do a few

for you (the figure after each shows

the percentage certainty):

Back row from left: GF Taylor

(85); No bid; ‘Little’ Tucker (100); No

bid; JG (John) Hartley (100); “On the

tip of my tongue but no bid.”

Front row: No bid; Ian Harrison

(75); Ken Bréhaut (75); ? Seager (40);

‘Big’ Tucker (100).

Comments: I’d be pretty sure of

Kenny Bréhaut except that I cannot

recall any athletic prowess on his

part at all.

The Tucker brothers were in

School House. One was large, the

other was enormous. So big, in fact,

that he couldn’t usefully bind in the

scrum (where all big lads went

automatically) but was converted to

being a centre-threequarter and was

very fast and difficult to stop. He was

nearly as fast as John Hartley who

OA

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was good at everything except long

distance running, so his younger

brother David Hartley took care of

that. One year the brothers Hartley

(from Welyn GC) came first in every

senior event, with John doing the

weight and high jump as well. He

also won a big Public schools event

at the White City doing the hundred

yards (the quaint old unmetric soul

that he was) in (I think) 10.4 secs.

They are both now (if still alive) in

Australia.

History repeated● O M A Butler (40) writes from

Australia, recalling another long

unbeaten run for the School 1st XV

over 60 years ago.

May I refer to Headmaster Andrew

Grant’s ‘Notes’ in your May 2003

issue and – with congratulations to

the undefeated School XVs of 2002

(almost!) and with all due deference

to Mr Grant – delve into pre-history?

This is simply to record that

during the seasons 1939-40, 1940-41

and 1941-42 the School 1st XV lost

one match only. For the first and last

of these years they were undefeated.

With the onset of war and evacuation

of schools from London we lost the

Rutlish and Emmanuel fixtures but

these were more than replaced by

four Hertfordshire schools to give us

a full fixture list.

The single match lost was,

coincidentally – and I can quote

verbatim from the Headmaster’s

Notes – “perhaps significantly, an

away fixture at Merchant Taylors.”

Thus history, surprisingly, repeats

itself. All the old enemies – one of

them for the first time in history –

and all but MT of the new ones lost

their scalps.

35


I would like to have named names,

anyway for the year I captained the

side, but that could be an invidious

exercise since, I confess, a few names

have slipped beyond memory. Still,

possibly (and hopefully) some team-

mates will read this and respond.

As a personal footnote: I took my

1st XV shirt, shorts and socks with

me into the Royal Navy, hoping there

might be a game somewhere, some

time. But opportunities proved few –

too much sea-time in the ‘Med’

during those years! – and before an

opportunity arose I lost the lot to an

army nurse whom we pulled from

the sea when her hospital ship lying

next to us – fully lit and emblazoned

– was bombed and sunk one night off

Sicily. I never saw them again.

Back in touch● Peter Riley (’41) sends us a

treasured snapshot from his

schooldays.

I am a new member of the OA Club

but by now longish in the tooth. I left

the School in 1941 and have many

happy memories. I was a boarder and

the Headmaster was, of course, W T

Marsh. I expect many things have

changed since I was there. I enclose a

snap (below) I have kept for 62 years,

of four happy rugby supporters on

the way to a key game. On the left is

David Marsh (the Headmaster’s son),

and next to him is Garret, although I

can’t remember his initial. The third

was my best friend John Hancock,

who was killed in a car accident in

South Africa in 1951, and the last is

yours truly – although I looked

younger then! I would be interested

to hear any news of the first two

names, and am happy to have re-

established contact.

French leave● Roger Bradshaw (56) writes from

France via e-mail:

Oui, c’est moi – Roger Bradshaw!

Learning French fast after moving to

France this year. Only very dim

memories of failing French four

times at O Level. I have given up

sprinting down the wing but have

very happy memories of my time

with OARFC and am getting fitter on

36


OA

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Four amigos:left to right,David Marsh,Garret, JohnHancock,Peter Riley

red wine, good food and plenty of

activity so who knows?

A bit about myself: I left School in

1956 and went to Imperial College

with Robert Aubrey – one of the few

OAs I still meet, the other being

Tony West (55) and Nick Holmes

(57?). My closest friend Richard

Chaplin (‘Charlie’) died in a tractor

accident in 1957 – I still miss his

sparkling fun. Mechanical

Engineering gave way rapidly to

working with George Roberts and

Bruce Duncan with Displaced

Persons in Germany and the setting

up of the Eastern Ravens in Teesside

in 1960 – for which I was

undeservedly awarded an MBE.

In ICI I moved on from engineering

to management training and

consultancy and then left to set up

my own private practice leading to

my working with many large

companies. I have a good collection

of photos of the 1955-56 era which I

shall look out – they are somewhere

in all the boxes waiting to be

unpacked. I would welcome meeting

old friends or hearing from them!

News from the Cape● Mrs Antoinette Gibbons writes on

behalf of her father Stanley Reece

(30).

I am writing on behalf of my father S

G Reece, who has come to live with

my family (his eldest daughter and

two grandsons) on a Karoo sheep

farm since the death of my mother,

Mrs Patricia Alice Reece, last year.

Dad turned 89 this in May this year

and his short-term memory is not

good, but he talks a lot about his

youth in St Albans, his years of

actively playing soccer and the war

years which he served in the South

African Air Force, having been

advised by the British Air Ministry

that in view of his age at the time

they would not need him to enlist

with the British Armed Services. He

was sent out to South Africa by John

Dickensons, who trained him in the

paper business, but his heart was

finally with the growth and

development of the South African

paper industry (SAPPI) after the war.

Dad was a meticulous record

keeper and annotated scrapbooks,

writing names and details beside

photographs. He therefore has

photographs of the St Albans Scouts

Football Club for 1932 and the St

Albans City Football Club 1934 and

1935. On one of those photographs he

wrote: “Winners Amateur FA Cup at

Newbury Park, Ilford, 1934, when I

was 20 years old and the youngest

player in the team.” After he retired

to Natures Valley, Dad made two

summaries of phases in his life, in

beautifully neat longhand writing.

One was about his post-war business

experiences with SAPPI, and the

other about his love of sport. Not

long ago someone asked him what he

thought of the big sporting spectacles

of today, and he commented

reflectively: “Of course, when I

played, we paid to play, it cost us,

but that was our pleasure. Now, they

are paid to play.” I am sure his old

school had much t do with the adult

he became – a true gentleman,

37


always well mannered, kind,

considerate and humorous. He still

has two little black books with

‘Mediocria Firma’ on the cover, and a

certificate pasted inside the cover,

completed in beautiful copperplate

writing by E Montague-Jones. The

books were published in 1925 and the

Foreword states: “Privileges bring

responsibilities.”

Dad grew up at 44 Brampton Road,

St Albans, and was a babe in arms

when the First World War broke out.

His oldest brother, Horace E Reece,

died of gas poisoning in the Battle of

Loos on 25th September 1916 and is

recorded in the St Albans Roll of

Honour and the Old Albanian Roll of

Service. His father, Walter Reece, had

a business based in Hamilton,

Bermuda, where he died after a short

illness on 3rd September 1941, around

four years after my father had been

sent out to South Africa in March

1937. His fatherly letters of advice to

his son Stanley are concerned and

caring, and it was possible fortunate

for Walter that he never learned that

another of the Reece boys, my

father’s favourite brother who had

gone to New Zealand in 1928, died in

the Military Hospital, Altamura, Italy

on 29th July 1942, having gone

missing in Libya in December 1941

and the being located as a prisoner of

war. His letters home, pleading for

food to be sent to the prisoners, were

kept in St Albans by another brother,

Sydney, and apparently the family

and the Red Cross were sending food

parcels but they never arrived. When

his brother died my father was in

North Africa, serving with the South

African Air Force, 12 Bomber

Squadron, where he received a

telegram. The news must have been

doubly sad because he had missed

seeing his brother in Cairo before the

New Zealand forces were moved out.

After the war Dad visited St

Albans in 1948, and attended the

annual dinner dance of the St Albans

Football Club, from which he kept a

menu with many autographs and a

photograph signed by ‘B Butcher’. In

1959 Dad took us all to visit his

family in England, and when he

visited his old school during the

Masters’ mid-morning tea break,

‘Beery’ Webster apparently

instructed him to state the years that

he had attended the school and then

commented: “You must be Reece, the

footballer.” Dad’s reply was “Yes, but

you disappoint me, Sir.” “No, no, no,

don’t ‘Sir’ me, but why do I

disappoint you?” “Well, Ihad hoped

to be remembered more for academic

achievement than sporting ability.”

“Oh, well, you haven’t done too

badly, have you?” replied Beery

Webster. This has been one of Dad’s

favourite anecdotes, linked to the fact

that he played soccer at a rugby

playing school. Dad says that a

Sergeant Major Charles Argent, who

organised the PT classes, the school

boxing contests and also trained the

OTC, was an ardent soccer

enthusiast. With the full approval of

the Headmaster, Major Montague-

Jones, Charlie Argent organised the

soccer games at school even though

the ‘soccerites’ as they were called,

were hardly tolerated. After dad

retired from SAPPI my parents

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visited England fairly often, and on

one occasion, I think in 1976, Dad

visited Beery Webster in his own

home. Dad was upset after that visit

because he was told that the old

fellow had kept his garden

immaculate, but that he had

neighbours who were constantly

throwing their rubbish over the fence

or garden wall, and littering Mr

Webster’s property. I think I have

written because of comments in past

magazines about dear old Beery

Webster – but also because Dad has

such fond memories of St Albans,

though never about the English

weather! I hope that he will continue

to enjoy your OA Bulletins for a good

few more years.

Royal approval● Stephen Neal (53) recalls his role in

the 1948 Millenary Pageant in front of

the King and Queen.

The letters from Tony Hedge and

John Holt have prompted me in turn

to record one or two memories of the

same era.

Tony Hedge may feel ashamed of

the record of the 1952 Cricket First XI

but I can assure him that it was

capped by that of the Rugby First XV

during the following season. We were

certainly handicapped by having no

players with any previous First XV

experience. Our first match against

Haberdashers set the pattern for the

whole season – a comfortable defeat.

I can still picture WTM striding away

from Belmont in disgust having

endured the first 20 minutes or so,

never to be seen again on the

touchline that season!

My enduring recollection of John

Holt was his habit of biting off

chunks of flesh from the callouses on

his hands during English lessons –

these caused by all that cricket

practice with Peter Lord. An

exasperated Mr ‘Happy’ Heather was

driven countless times to ask

“Hungry, Holt?” with measured

sarcasm.

I took part in the Millenary

Pageant in 1948. The School was

responsible for one episode

portraying the visit to the School in

1626 of King Charles (L G Walker). A

brief history of the School was

enacted in mime by the boys. I

played the part of a small Saxon

schoolboy (with sacks on!) who was

not at all keen on attending his

lessons. I can remember my cue to

this day, delivered by the Chronicler,

Jo Barnett, in his cut-glass accent:

“In the year nine hundred and

forty-eight,

A school was set up at the Abbey

Gate.

Boys came from far, they came

from near,

Some came willingly, some, I fear,

Had to be coaxed, or goaded or led,

To hear the lessons the master

said.”

My ‘father’, Ron Simon, dragged

me unwillingly to my fate, but at an

opportune moment I tried,

unsuccessfully, to make a dash for it.

He grabbed me by the arm and gave

me a hefty boot up the backside. I am

39


sure I heard the Queen (later Queen

Mother) chuckle at my misfortune on

the day she attended! At the end of

the Pageant a cast of over 1,000

paraded into the arena to the stirring

music of William Walton’s march

‘Crown Imperial’. To this day, I get a

certain tingle every time I hear it!

I still have in my possession my

souvenir programme for the Pageant,

together with the special Herts

Advertiser supplement which gives a

fascinating descriptive and pictorial

account of the Pageant and includes

a record of everyone who took part. I

also have a copy of the latter from

the Queen to the organisers

expressing her appreciation. The

School is welcome to add these to the

archives if they are of interest.

A confession● Trevor Forecast (50) owns up to his

part in a near-miss at the 1948

Pageant.

I would like to add to the memories

of Peter Lord who lived for cricket in

those happy Junior School days, and

talked of nothing else on our

journeys to School from Radlett on

the 355 bus. I had the pleasure of

playing with Peter and John Holt in

the Junior School XI and invariably,

when I timidly made my way to the

wicket at Number Seven, there would

be Peter with his permanent grin at

the other end or John fluently laying

about him.

I also have a confession to make to

John Holt following his description of

the 1948 Pageant (OA Bulletin

October 2003). I was a mounted page,

John, and I was in the group of

horses that charged out of the arena,

somewhat out of control, and nearly

ran you down! Glad to hear you are

enjoying Marlborough, we enjoy their

wines!

Community spirit● Gerald Wallington-Hayes MBE (48)

recalls a long career of public service.

I left School in 1948 after being a

dismal academic failure (although

just managing to scrape through

School Certificate at the second

attempt) and did my National Service

stint like everyone else at that time,

dismally and disappointingly failing

to pass out of Sandhurst and thence

leaving the Army with nothing to

show for my time under the colours –

except for having had a wonderful

period of exhilarating sport and

outdoor activities.

However, I then went into the

Merchant Navy, joining the P&O

Steam Navigation Company in May

1952 as an Assistant Purser,

marrying in August 1952 and leaving

that company to join The Ellerman

Lines to become a Purser. For the

next 12 years I travelled the world

visiting exotic (and not so exotic)

places, savouring the tastes and

smells of the Middle and Far East,

the Antipodes, the USA and various

European ports of call, as well as

studying for my catering exams

which I passed at sea under the hot

Persian Gulf sun, supervised by the

Master of the ship in which I was

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OA

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then sailing. A few years later, young

Dick Thrale supported my election to

Fellow of the Association, for which I

thank him for his generosity.

Due to family reasons, among

them being that my wife was having

to raise our family on her own, I left

the sea to swallow the anchor in 1968

and found myself as Catering Bursar

in an ILEA Teacher Training College

at Egham, Surrey. Fortunately, after

only 12 months I was appointed by

Trinity House to set up a Catering

Establishment based at Harwich in

Essex, and as their Catering

Superintendant established a

network of suppliers to the

Lighthouse Authority covering the

whole of England and Wales, which

meant years travelling the length

and breadth of the country.

Unfortunately, due to the reduction

of the Tender Fleet (maintenance

vessels for navigational aids – buoys

and lighthouses) the Catering

Department was closed down in 1985,

and I was made redundant, as was

my staff.

From the time that my family and

I had moved to Harwich in 1969, I

had become very involved with the

local community in all sorts of ways

(apart from carrying out my work

with Trinity House) as one does! My

involvement with Local Government

was my main interest and as a

District and Town Councillor I

eventually became Vice Chairman of

the District Council (I lost my seat in

the Election Year that I should have

been Chairman) and then became

Mayor of Harwich in 1988 for one

year, remaining on the Town Council

until 1992.

Meantime, my work with the

District Council meant, among other

nominations, that I had been

nominated to serve on the North

Essex Area Health Authority and the

North East Essex District Health

Authority from 1975 and on their

dissolution I was appointed to the

North East Essex Mental Health

Trust. When that Trust was dissolved

I was appointed to the North Essex

Mental Health Partnership Trust as

an Associate Mental Health Act

Hospital Manager. Last year I wrote

a ‘Hospital Manager’s Handbook’

(Mental Health Act 1983) which I am

pleased to say has been generally

accepted as a primary book on the

subject.

Apart from these activities I am

actively involved as a Trustee,

President, Vice President, Chairman

or Vice Chairman of many and

various Associations, Clubs and

Groups in and around the area,

mainly concerned with youth and the

elderly. The consequence of this

frenetic activity is that I have been

appointed a Member of the British

Empire in the 2004 New Year’s

Honours List. Unfortunately, the

Queen did not appoint me ‘Baron’ as

WTM had given me that sobriquet

during my years at School!

In August 2002, my wife Peggy and

I celebrated our 50th Wedding

Anniversary, a very happy event not

celebrated too often these days – and

one has to bear in mind that we have

not spent too much time together

over the years. Perhaps that’s why

our marriage has lasted so long…

41


Sporting success■ Chairman of OA Sport AndrewMills-Baker reviews the growing rangeof sporting activities at Woollams

OA Sport has just completed 18

months of operation at Woollams.

Under the management of Neil

Dekker, utilisation of the facilities

continues to grow and our reputation

for the quality of facilities and the

excellence of our hospitality is now

second to none.

Over the winter months OA Rugby

continued to grow its membership,

particularly in the Minis and Juniors

section. The new women’s team, OA

Saints, quickly established

themselves and, at the time of

writing, are running second in their

league. OA Football has enjoyed a

successful second season at

Woollams, once again challenging for

league honours and boosting

membership.

Rugby was given a terrific boost in

the autumn months with England’s

success in the Rugby World Cup. All

England’s games were shown live on

the big screen in the pavilion bar,

with overall attendances running

into many hundreds.

In the early autumn, the new

floodlights on the main competition

and training pitches were brought

into operation. This meant that

Saturday home league fixtures could

continue to start at 3.00 pm. As well

as proving very popular with

spectators, it greatly facilitates the

logistics on the day, particularly

where visiting sides are travelling a

considerable distance. It was agreed

that Saracens 2nd Team would play

its home games at Woollams and

between December and March there

were regular Monday night visits

from top Premiership sides, enabling

members to see rising stars and

established internationals in exciting

fast flowing matches.

Rugby League was established as a

summer sport last season and in

March a floodlit warm-up match was

played between a London Broncos

side and the London Barbarians. St

Albans Centurions continue to

attract new members and their

National League fixtures dovetail

well with OA Cricket’s Hertfordshire

League matches.

OAs and their guests are very

welcome to visit Woollams at any

time. Over the summer, cricket and

rugby league will be played every

weekend, and OA Tennis will be

fielding two teams in the mid week

Watford League. On Monday 10th

May the Rugby World Cup was on

display at Woollams, as part of the

Sweet Chariot Tour.

Details of the activities taking

place at Woollams can be viewed on

the website, www.oasport.com or

telephone enquiries to Neil Dekker

on 01727 864476.

Proposal to convert the Old Albanian

Sports Association into a charity

In recent years the Government has

introduced a number of measures

designed to improve the tax

treatment of sports clubs. This is

because it is acknowledged that

community sports clubs provide an

42


OA

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important social benefit to the local

community and they should receive

equivalent benefits to registered

charities.

The route offered for the majority

of sports clubs is registration with

the Inland Revenue as a Community

Amateur Sports Club (‘CASC’). The

principal benefits of registration, for

most clubs, is mandatory relief from

business rates at a rate of 80% and

the ability to receive donations under

the arrangements of Gift Aid.

The Old Albanian Sports

Association (‘OASA’) (which is

marketed as ‘OA Sport’) is an

Industrial and Provident Society

which owns and manages the

facilities at Woollams. The

management of OASA has taken

professional advice to establish

whether it can be registered as a

CASC, unfortunately, for a number of

technical difficulties, this is not easy

to do and therefore a proposal is

currently being taken forward to

convert OASA to a sports charity.

The effect of this conversion will

provide equivalent benefits of CASC

status and also additional benefits

that are not available to CASCs.

A detailed paper setting out in

detail the results of the review and

the reasoning behind conversion to

charitable status has been presented

to the Old Albanian Club Committee

43


The 1954School 1stXV. Howmany canyou name?

and approved by them, as the

majority shareholder in OASA.

One of the most significant

impacts of achieving charitable

status is that once registered, it

cannot be reversed. This means that

on any winding up, the assets of the

charity must be distributed for the

public benefit. This, in effect, is no

different with the present

constitution of OASA which requires

assets on winding up to be

distributed to St Albans School.

This proposal is subject to

approval of the Members of OASA in

an Extraordinary General Meeting to

be held later in the summer. If any

OA would like more information,

please contact me using the

Woollams address.

The 948 Sports Foundation

OASA established The 948 Sports

Foundation as a sports charity with a

donation of £500,000 made under Gift

Aid arrangements. The Foundation

has been established to make grants

to young people participating in sport

in the St Albans district.

The Foundation was launched at a

reception attended by the Mayor in

February 2003 and began making

awards from April onwards. This

February the Foundation held its

first Annual Review and, at a

presentation again attended by the

Mayor, it reported that over £25,000

had been donated to over 25 local

schools, sports clubs and individuals.

The Chairman of the Trustees is

Nigel Seale, a former President of OA

Rugby and the Trustees include a

number of OAs and other individuals

who have been involved over the

years with the OA Sporting Clubs.

The Foundation would be

delighted to receive a donation from

OAs under the Gift Aid Scheme and

a letter setting out a request is

included with the Bulletin.

This could be done in the form of a

one-off amount or by regular

standing order, if an individual

would prefer.

Andrew Mills-BakerChairman, OA Sport

OA RUGBY

Blank Czech■ OA Rugby Club President Ali Millslooks back on an up and downcampaign for the First XV but a goodseason for the Club overall – includinga fantastic tour to Prague

Since my last report, so much has

happened during the historic

2003/2004 season, that it is difficult to

know where to start. However, I shall

try to bring back to mind the various

highs and lows of a roller-coaster

season for the Club which saw the

1st XV dive into the abyss of

threatened relegation in our first

season in London One before the

New Year, only to produce an

outstanding run of wins in the last

third of the season to finish a

respectable eighth position in the

League.

We lost to Bishop's Stortford

heavily, then Havant twice, once in

the League and once in the National

Cup. Defeats followed against

Staines, Sutton and Epsom,

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Worthing, Canterbury and Hertford.

Our wins were against fellow

strugglers, Camberley and Harlow.

The simple fact of life was that we

had lost most of the front five from

last season for a variety of reasons,

thus we were trying to compete in a

higher league with a weaker pack.

Harry Harrison, Tony Buchanan and

Mike Peters did a sterling job on

crucial recruitment which

undoubtedly helped turn the corner.

During November, of course, we

had the wonderful distraction of the

World Cup and for all those who

were not able to be there, it seemed

that the only place to be was

Woollams. On the day of the final,

between four and five hundred of us

gathered for breakfast to watch on

the big screen and there we stayed

for the rest of the day!

Back to the rugby, and the great

New Year comeback. A win against

Camberley, but losses against Havant

and Sutton and Epsom. Then it all

happened: wins against Harlow,

Bishop’s Stortford, London Nigerians

(away), Staines and then the scalp of

Hertford, the League leaders, whom

we smashed 3-0! Then down to

Canterbury for a ferocious game

which ended with honours even. It

was Mike Peters’ last game, a

poignant occasion, and he played, as

always, as if his life depended on it,

the end of a long and illustrious

career. Mike Walker has been out for

most of this season, and we hope he

is on the road to recovery after a

nasty shoulder injury. Chris Eke has

had another fine season.

During the ups and downs, we also

lost our Coach, Phil Moyle, but we

have been very fortunate to secure

the services of Bruce Millar, former

player and ex-Director of Rugby at

Saracens, whom I am delighted to

inform you, is committed to us for

next season.

The Club has once more fielded

five sides this season and the 2nd XV

has had an outstanding season,

skippered once more by Ian

Haywood. Honours have been even

for the rest of the sides who have all

taken on higher opposition, as

reflecting our new league status. We

have also welcomed OA Saints

Women’s Rugby who have had a

storming season and are now

running two sides. OA Saints are to

become fully affiliated with the Club

from next season. They have

contributed to a most successful

social season at the Club, one of the

highlights of which was the firework

display at Woollams, which has

proved to be a magnificent ambience

for such an event. Our pre-match

luncheons are proving to be very

popular with VPs and opposition

alike – pity about the speakers!

We have been holding the

Saracens 2nd XV home games at

Woollams on Monday nights and

even welcomed the London Broncos

Rugby League team in a floodlit

match against the Centurions. So, as

always, the answer is, to get on down

to Woollams and get involved with

OA Rugby.

The season ended with our

traditional tour which this year was

to Prague. A scratch side played

some wonderful rugby to get to the

45


final of the Prague International

Invitation fifteen-a-side tournament.

On the way, we defeated a Dutch side

and the much fancied host team,

Slavia Prague. However, in the final

a strong Blackheath side proved too

much for the OAs who had been on

the pop all the previous day! Once

more, your President felt obliged to

attend. I am told that Prague is a

beautiful city. I can’t remember.

The Mini and Junior Sections

continue to flourish and the Club is

represented by the U11s at

Twickenham, playing in a curtain-

raiser game on the hallowed turf

before the England v Barbarians

game, and the U16s who lost by just

3-0 to Stortford in the final of the

County Cup. The Club also hosted

the County Mini Festival for the first

time in its history over the weekend

of 24th and 25th April.

In conclusion, you can see that it

is all happening at OA Rugby. It has

been a season which has been a steep

learning curve, and one of which we

can be very proud. I look forward to

seeing you all next season and to

meeting new members from the

ranks of leavers from the School

Ali MillsPresident OA Rugby Club

OA CRICKET

Worthington best■ David Rourke welcomes a newoverseas player and looks forward toa successful 2004 season

As April arrives, daylight hours

extend, warmer weather prevails and

the rugby players leave the cricket

outfield for a few months, so

thoughts turn to cricket. England’s

thrashing of the West Indies has

whetted the appetite for the 2004

season, OACC’s third at Woollams,

which promises a good deal after the

much-needed consolidation of 2003.

Robert Bee’s first season as captain

in 2003 saw the 1st XI finish in tenth

position in the League, but the

closing run of four wins, two draws

and a single defeat epitomised the

development of the side – and Rob’s

captaincy – during 2003. A nice mix

of youth and experience contributed

to a genuine team effort, and success

echoed throughout the club. Julian

Baines’s 2nd XI finished the season

even more strongly, while the 3rd XI

under David Goodier were promoted

as runners-up from Division 13 at the

first attempt. Perhaps even more

significantly, the new Colts section

proved to be a great success under

the dedicated management of

Richard Morgan, Paul Richardson

and Nigel Woodsmith. Under 11,

Under 13 and Under 15 teams will

each contest around 10 fixtures in

2004, a long-awaited development

which augurs well for the club’s

future.

The team captains have,

unsurprisingly, all been re-appointed

for 2004, and they look as if they will

be selecting from a strong roster of

players. With Shane Worthington

replacing his fellow Victorian,

Marcus ‘Wally’ Hill, as overseas

player, and a number of potential

new ‘domestic’ signings to augment

the 2003 squad, it seems that

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numbers won’t be a problem –

always an important consideration.

The superb facilities at Woollams are

starting to improve the quality of

player at OACC, either from the

existing squad or from the potential

signings. Membership of the OA Gym

remains disappointingly low,

however Andrew McCree, Robert

Bee, David Rourke and Anthony

Goodin are regular users of the

machines after Andy Mills-Baker has

finished pounding out records on

them.

New developments for 2004 will

include a brand new, electronically

controlled scoreboard on the main

pitch. Planning permission has been

granted and construction will

hopefully take place during mid-

April. This means that the scorers

can use the box next to the pavilion,

rather than trekking across the

ground, and that the conventional

scoreboard will be used on the

second pitch. Installation of plug

sockets by the nets will mean that

the automatic bowling machines –

beset by battery problems in 2003 –

should come into their own this

season, particularly as the OA Club

has invested in a trailer to ease

transportation of them from the shed

to the nets. A greater amount of

cricket-related material will be put

up in the clubhouse over the coming

months, as club archive material is

unearthed and displayed. Finally,

2004 promises to be the year of the

left-hander at Woollams, as a number

of left-arm batsmen and, especially,

bowlers will be playing. A 1st XI

featuring an all left-arm pace attack

of Shane Worthington, John

Bateman, Alf Rehman and Pascal

Culverhouse is possible, with Tom

Preest possibly rolling back the years

and gritting his teeth off his longer

run, for some ‘Rick Preestly’ military

medium pace – or some left arm spin

in normal circumstances.

Matt Newby has planned a new

four-day club tour to Brighton, which

is already well subscribed and

promises to be an enjoyable few days.

President’s Day takes place relatively

late this season, on 22nd August,

with Daniel Barlow again leading

John Josling’s side. One week later,

club legend Mike Thomas returns

from the USA for two matches over

the August Bank Holiday weekend –

one game featuring Mike’s XI against

the 1st XI, and the other being a

‘veterans’ fixture.

Optimism is rife at this time of

year, and probably rightly so for the

2004 season. If the necessary

determination needs reinforcing, one

only has to consider how close the

1st XI came to relegation in the first

season at Woollams, and think about

how much further away that would

have left OAs from where we would

like to get to in the league structure.

From that perspective, Simon Wood’s

match-winning and relegation-

preventing innings of 83 not out

against Hatfield in the final game of

2002, compiled from a near-hopeless

position, acquires greater lustre as

time goes on – the type of

performance that, if attained by most

of us, week after week, will see OAs

through to successful times.

David Rourke

47


OA FOOTBALL

Going up ■ Manager Simon Bates looks back ata successful second season atWoollams for the OA Football Club

The Old Albanian Football Club

ended its second season at Woollams,

finishing mid-table in the Observer

Review Sunday Football League

Division Three. This was a good

performance following promotion last

year. There were also two strong cup

runs, the club reaching the later

stages of both competitions.

The league season was dominated

by injuries. Manager Simon Bates,

and Assistants David Goodier and

John Mansell managed to field a

competitive side for every game, as

the team battled hard through the

winter mornings. Lack of player

availability made consistent selection

difficult, and hampered the club’s bid

for a successive promotion. A number

of players picked up injuries during

the season, almost on a weekly basis.

With holidays over the Christmas

period causing further difficulties,

Simon and his team were forced to

begin building a larger and stronger

squad in the hope that this will pay

dividends next season. This approach

proved successful with the squad

growing in numbers, and increasing

standards becoming apparent.

The Player’s Player of the Season,

Daniel Webster-Smith (Goalkeeper),

and Most Improved Player, David

Burrows (central defender), played a

major part in maintaining the

standards the club has set itself

during its short existence. It can only

be hoped that the club continues to

improve, allowing the focus to shift

to creating and scoring goals rather

than stopping them. Other club

awards this went to the Manager’s

Player of the Year Nic Christy and

Clubman of the Year Adam Osmond.

Dave Goodier was top goal scorer

with 19 goals.

The prospects for next season are

already looking bright. A number of

players from higher divisions have

expressed an interest in joining the

squad, attracted by the great

facilities at Woollams. Any additions

to the current squad already

containing players of the calibre of

Andrew Douglas, James Rourke and

Daniel Seeby, to name but three, will

ensure that the club is pushing for

success in all competitions next year.

Sadly, two players are leaving the

club as they move with their careers

to towns too far away to travel for a

10am start. James Moore and Charlie

Whinnee have both served the club

with distinction over the past two

seasons. So as we bid them farewell

and wish them good luck in their

new roles, we also thank them for all

their efforts.

The Football Club could not have

been better supported this year and

great thanks go to those behind the

scenes at Woollams and the OA Club.

Special mentions should go to Ian

Smith and his ground staff for

preparing the pitch and Andrew

Mills-Baker and Neil Dekker for their

support throughout the season.

Simon Bates Manager, OAFC

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OA ANGLING

International waters■ OA Angling Society HonorarySecretary Geoff Cannon reviews avaried and enjoyable year’s fishing

With the trout fishing season

finishing in the autumn, the club

outings focused on sea and coarse

fishing. Trips during the autumn and

winter saw members visiting

Scotland, the bi-annual visit to

Strumpshaw in Norfolk, the levels in

Huntingdonshire, and the Berkshire

Kennett.

David Morgan and Geoff Cannon

have just returned from a trip to the

Florida Keys catching tarpon up to

160 lbs and shark up to 350 lbs.

The coarse fishing season has now

closed and members are looking

forward to the new trout and salmon

season.

The annual fishwives supper took

place in November, which was well

attended. Also the club members

visited France in February for a

French repast followed by a visit to

the Boulogne Aquarium.

Any Old Albanians who are

attracted by our activities are

welcome to join us and should

contact Geoff Cannon, the Secretary

at the address below.

Geoff L. CannonHon. Secretary

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14-16 Church End, Redbourn, AL3 7DU

Tel: 01727 861622 (daytime) 01582 792512 (evening)

Fax: 01727 861623

E-mail: [email protected]

OA SHOOTING

Shooting stars■ Old Albanian Rifle and Pistol ClubSecretary David Buxton applauds theClub’s recent successes – and looksforward to attracting more newmembers

At the recent AGM, the Club

Secretary Owen Simmons reported

the continuing problem of low

membership and this is reflected in

the reduced amount of activity in

league shooting. Honorary Members

now exceed active shooting members!

So whilst the small shooting

members are still presenting good

results, we do need new members to

increase our presence in county and

national leagues. As ever – please do

not hesitate to contact any of the

Committee if you are interested in

getting back into shooting.

Recent results: Small Bore

The Club Captain reports that for the

Winter League 2003/04, Div 4 Team 3

results were Won 9, Lost 1 – so we

won the Division! A ‘handicapped

shoot off’ will now take place around

the time of the Bulletin being

published. The team consisted of

Owen Simmons, Andy Wilkie, Andy

Moore and welcomed new-comer

Giles Harlow (Captain of Shooting at

School). Unfortunately, due to the

low numbers at present and as

schoolboys will be involved in exams,

we are unable to enter a team in the

2004 Summer League. However, we

will try and enter a team in next

Winter League – made easier

following the recent return to

shooting of that renowned shot

Moray McMillin.

And on the subject of Giles

Harlow, the Club Captain is also

pleased to report that Giles came

second in the Juniors section of the

Herts Special Competition Rifle

Championship with a score of

550/600. The winning Junior was K

Baldwin (Dacorum) with 573/600. A

splendid result for which Giles

deserves congratulations and he gets

a gilt medal for his efforts from the

County.

In terms of county representation,

despite our low membership,

standards are still high and we

continue to provide representatives

in the county teams – notably Owen

Simmons, Andy Wilkie and Prucilla

Simmons. Put another way, over 50%

of club members shoot in county

teams – not a feat matched by many

clubs!

Recent results: Full Bore

We lost the opening match of the

season to Old Lawretians 460.29 to

444.24 at Bisley on 27th March 2004,

but the plan is for more full bore

shooting this summer at Bisley to

compensate for loss of small bore

competition. Competions will include

the annual match against the Old

Alleynians with whom we share our

annual dinner at Bisley. So let’s hope

for another dry summer and calm

winds at 1200 yards! On the subject of

full-bore, we were pleased to be asked

to help the School set up their three

new cadet rifles at Bisley in March

which Nigel Wood Smith brought

down from the School. We met two

schoolboys new to full bore and hope

to see more of them in the coming

season. Our next visit to Bisley is on

24th April.

And a final plea – if there are any

out there who wish to re-acquaint

themselves with a rifle, or whose

sons/daughters/wives or significant

others may be interested in

shooting, please contact us. For those

who no longer shoot but wish to see

the club thrive in other ways, the

Treasurer (Andy Moore) reminds you

all that County Membership is only

£25. We look forward to hearing from

you – see page 2 for contact details.

Finally – as ever, we thank the

School again for the ‘Orchard’ range

so crucial now to our existence.

David BuxtonRepresentative to the OA Club

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A picture provided by David Buxton ofsomeone who does not enjoy the usual targetfacilities of Bisley or the School range

oa bulletin - spring 2004 edition

Documents

oa club dinner

new service

ukoacontactoa bulletin

new systemsuperior

captain john davy07944

chairman andrew mccree01727

new members servicewhich

old organ