Jim Atkinson - Hansons/Orwell '56 to '63
Peter Brown - Berners '55 to '63
Mike Bysh - Corners  '58 to '63
Chris Snuggs - Berners/Halls '58 to '63
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   Forty years .....

Forty years .... we kept saying it to ourselves as if we couldn't believe it. Forty years since we'd met either each other or the Old Masters, as we came to call them. So much had happened to us all since, yet in many ways it seemed like yesterday that we'd sat in Stretch's French class, gathered round Ben Turner's workbench or listened to Derek telling us a story as we gazed out of the window onto that glorious games field in front of the school.

Actually, it wasn't quite true, as Peter Brown had recently invited Michael & Marjorie Shakeshaft to dinner since buying a house in Nacton, and it was Peter's original idea to combine a sailing weekend with a reunion lunch for some of our old teachers. Some quick-fire mail and phoning ensued, and we ended up filling the Smoke Room at the Butt and Oyster with 16 old boys and masters.

After a delightful lunch in the once-out-of-bounds Butt we repaired to Derek's house nearby for coffee on the patio. For all of us, it was a very moving but also relaxed and enjoyable occasion, lots of anecdotes, lots of good will, expressions of regret that we hadn't done it before and ambitious plans to do it again on a bigger scale next year!

Peter's yacht - "Sirene"

And of course, Jim, Mike and I owe great thanks to Peter, both for the delightful weekend's sailing and for his initiative in arranging the reunion. Thanks, too, to Peter's wife Penny for making us feel so welcome - and for allowing us to borrow her husband for the weekend. (Chris Snuggs)