The Newsletter of the Woolverstone Hall Old Boys Association
The cost of sending mail electronically would reduce our postage costs and cut the need to produce so many hard copies of "Janus". However before going ahead and signing on, I would like to hear from any OWs that could give me information on service providers, the operating costs and those potential pitfalls to avoid. As there are many OW hi tec literate entrepreneurs it would not come as a surprise if there were services owned or run by them. If so I would be particularly interested in hearing from you. In the meantime, if you have an E-mail address please let me know what it is, so that I can start to compile a list. Jill Richardson, headmaster's widow, wrote saying that she loves receiving "Janus", not because she remembers many of the names other than Neil Pearson and Martin Offiah, but because it reminds her so much of the Woolvo humour - "cheeky and delightfully self mocking with hints of Faginism." Best of all she says is "that knock-kneed nag (or is it knock-kneed knag?), Woolverstone Hall. Please, please can we have more of her." Would it be a good idea, she went on to ask, for OWs to sponsor her and any of her offspring in future? Jill then offered to launch the first instalment! (I think you had better see matron for some medication, Jill - Ed) If anybody wishes to offer the second and/or subsequent installments, the syndicate secretary would love to hear from you. John Martin (Berners 65/72) is director of a chemical distribution company in Basingstoke. He did a variety of commercial jobs until 1990 at ICI, which he joined after getting a history degree at St Andrews. He and his wife Gilly, also a history graduate from St Andrews, have two daughters. He is in contact with Patrick Rayner and Nigel Rice and would be delighted to hear from Jeremy Page, Phil Oxlade, Nick Lovell and Gary Taylor. Peter Fishwick (Orwell 63/70) lives in Hong Kong, where he is the managing Director of a systems integration and outsourcing Canadian company, which operates throughout Asia. He moved to Hong Kong in January 1975 and joined the Royal Hong Kong Police, where he reached the rank of superintendent prior to his resignation in 1983. In 1980 he played rugby for Hong Kong in the Asian Rugby Tournament in Taiwan. He now relaxes playing golf off of a 9 handicap. Peter, did you come across any other OW policemen in HK? Eric Crowter (Johnstons 55/61) joined the force after leaving Woolverstone. Nigel Rice (65/72) is an equity salesman with BZW. He took a year off after leaving Woolverstone to play and gain his private pilots licence, after which he read law and accounting at Kent University at Canterbury. On graduating he joined the Civil Service, before moving into stockbroking, which included a period at "pre Nick Leeson" Barings. He lives in Surrey with his wife and three sons and is keen to catch up with news of all those who passed through the portals of Woolverstone Hall. Fred Moughton (Hansons 51/57) wrote with information on Paul McMaster (Hansons 51/56). He joined the merchant navy after leaving and according to reports in "Janus" he managed to see quite a bit of the world. The 1963 edition of "Janus" reported that he was in the Metropolitan Police and living in East Ham. Who has more up to date information? Paul Ferris (Halls 62/70), who is a musician, managed to track down Neil "Noddy" Clayton, by a series of coincidences. Six years ago Paul was given a lift by a fellow player to a performance of Verdi's Requiem at Ely Cathedral. In conversation he said that having worked at HMS Ganges he knew the school well by sight from the main road and had been inside once and knew someone that taught English there. Neil had issued an invitation to him to attend a Woolverstone production of Carmina Burana in 1969, and it transpired that they were still in occasional touch. Nick Collins (Berners 62/69) has promised £ 50 to WHOBA in exchange for his address. Your cheque is awaited. John Dawlings (64/71) wrote to say that there was a David Brooks in Orwell, who may have been the boy that Keith Farley-Pettman was trying to remember. John, who does not know what happened to him, said "the usual progression was borstal, unemployment and finally jail - an interesting variation on Eton, Cambridge and the Guards!" QUESTIONS ASKED Fred Moughton (Hansons 51/57) watched the Wasps v Wigan final of the Middlesex Sevens and noticed that Martin Offiah played for the eventual winners and that there was an Adrian Thompson playing for Wasps. Was it our own Adrian? Meanwhile Martin Offiah recently appeared in a cameo role in television soap opera, Emmerdale, and has since featured in the news because of his signings to London Broncos and Bedford. Tony Meager (50s) sent a photocopy of an article from a publication, which looks like "Janus". Tony said the article was written about the 1975/76 season, which included a picture of the Under 13s playing at Holbrook. The team included, according to the team notes written by AW, "the twin colossi of Jones and Stanton that scored forty tries that season." "What opposition these two were unable to batter aside, Offiah would run round at great speed." He also mentioned hooker Volpe, flanker Callow and full back Young, who starred in a season that saw seven wins from seven games, conceding only 24 points while amassing 318 points. The photograph shows the ball in the possession of a Michael Jackson lookalike during his afro haircut days. Can anyone put a name to him and supply the names of other team members? Charles Fisher, who left Woolverstone in July 1951 at the end of the London Nautical School period and now lives in Canada, has not seen the names of any OWs that he knew then. However he does feel close to all those that shared the Woolverstone Hall experience and his memories are still fresh and vibrant. Charles was glad to hear about the permanent display and sends his congratulations to those who made it happen. He still has a few of his reports on very cheap spirit duplicated forms and still chuckles at some the comments made. Do you want to share any of them with us, Charles? Angela Bailey recalls that her first meeting with some boys "as these enormous young men were called" was at a 6th form tutorial in her parents sitting room. A group was sitting round drinking milky coffee and eating LCC tea biscuits (were the boys rations highjacked by the Head? - Ed) and listening to Dave Coe (Johnstons 55/62) relating his mother's exploits in winning an enormous prize at bingo. A shy Angela had just returned from boarding school in Belgium and could only understand one word in five but London sounded ncredibly glamorous and exciting to a fascinated and at the same time terrified 13 year old. What happened to Dave Coe and where is he now? John Dawlings (64/71) writing from Oz, reminiscing about multiple sets of brothers, mentioned the Howells, who he thought had the distinction of having names that nobody could pronounce and which read like a Welsh rugby team. He went on to say that there was also "a small army of Templetons, all of whom broke every law known to mankind. The youngest, Dougal (Johnstons 62/69), was once described by George Bailey as having all the vices of his elder brothers and none of their virtues. Dougal went on to found a very popular magazine in Bristol by the name of Venue and is doing quite well. (Man or mag? - Ed) It just shows that crime does pay." Would a Templeton like to comment on this? John also entered the Roman accent debate, saying that he had no doubt that half of them spoke with a broad Scots accent and the other half with an equally broad accent from "well north of Watford." Bob Cromarty and Bryan Middlebrook could do the accents erfectly! Bob Cromarty once translated the whole of Daisy, Daisy (hardly Homer - Ed) into Latin for John who still wonders how many Romans would have known that "birotae" was Latin for bicycle! On various drunken occasions John is still called upon to to do a rendition of it. It must be more cost effective than a bouncer at closing time! The uniform collection is growing, thanks to Ken, Richard Davies and several others. Fred has become a little confused over ties because during his time, there were two ties; a knitted one with horizontal stripes for juniors and a standard shaped tie with diagonal tripes for seniors. Fred believes there was a plain blue tie with a wolf's head for blues and has been told there were "half blues" who had another design. He went on to ask which tie prefects wore and whether there had been changes in tie styles during the life of the school. Does anyone care to write a definitive history on Woolverstone ties? Graham Lassiter (Hansons 50s) has sent a parcel donated by Colin Burton (Johnstons 62/68). Amongst the goodies were school diaries from 1962 to 1966, a school address list from 1967 and programmes from musical and drama productions. Eric Coates (Corners 58/64) has donated his colours cap and Colin Ferris (Halls 62/70) has sent a 1969 school photo for copying. A 1956 photo has still not been traced. Jim Glanville (Hansons 50s) believes that the school copy was taken by an OW. Does anyone know who has the original or have you got a copy hidden away somewhere? Reports have come in that some OWs have not been receiving all copies of "Janus" and have only realised this, when mention is made of items from previous issues. As "Janus" has no planned copy date it is sent on an irregular basis. The more recent copies have produced in February and May. If you have not received both of them, please send details. The Cement Garden written by Ian McEwan (Johnstons 59/66) was shown on Channel 4 in May. Peter Alexander (nee Carlile) is currently appearing in Buddy. Harvey Angel (Hansons 64/71) is remembered by John Dawlings as the boy who "once kept a poppy from one Remembrance Day to the next to save forking out any more money. John can't believe he is unable to pay his subs! Harvey do you still have the poppy? IN MEMORIAM EVELYN BAILEY He also had a fine sense of humour. Bryan Middlebrook, along with several others, shared with Michael the hilarity of those Whitehall farces directed by Neil Clayton. When asked if he would like to help with cricket, he volunteered for the 1st form non cricketers, saying "I'll have some fun with them." He did and so did they. At a staff v school chess match, he said, on seeing chess clocks and pads on which to record moves, "Crikey! I didn't think it was going to be a professional do." It was no surprise that he was appointed to a headship but perhaps unexpected that it was "up north." He settled there and retired in 1980, from his second headship appointment at William Conyers Comprehensive, after which he trained for the ordained ministry in the Church of England. He was ordained deacon in 1982, priest in 1983 by the Bishop of Durham, John Habgood, and served the whole of his ministry in his home parish of St Peter, Stockton. He was noted for his caring pastoral ministry, his total giving of himself to the people of his parish, regardless of their religious affiliation. The size of the congregation in St Peter's at his funeral mass on 8 July spoke of the love and respect in which he and his family are held and Bryan Middlebrook, who represented the "Woolverstone bit" of Michael's life, was proud to have been present. Michael died, fittingly surrounded by his wife Gill and their family, in the comforting knowledge that his eldest son David is to begin training for the ordained ministry in Durham. During his retirement he has kept up his work as a magistrate and maintained his interest in education by holding governorships of two schools. He also busied himself with local activities - Dorset Relate, Blandford Choral Society, church organist, National Trust Educational volunteer and distributing Meals on Wheels. He is survived by his wife Bridget and three children. OPEN LETTER It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that my father, Roy Hanson, died on 1 June 1996 aged 85 years having battled on with a normal life for the past year despite weekly blood transfusions and a blood count that many younger men would have succumbed to long ago. It says much of his character that, through sheer determination and grit to say nothing of mind over matter, he defied his doctors who thought he had only days to live last September. I was proud my father was a Founding Father and original House Master of Woolverstone Hall and having a House named after him always gave me a great sense of belonging. While running Hanson's House he designed his own house for his retirement, "The Wick", another of his proudest achievements - along with his ascent of Snowdon when he was 80! I was four years old when we moved to Woolverstone Hall and have many fond and happy memories as a small child growing up among so many older "brothers" - the huge bonfire on Guy Fawkes night; the constant stream of wounded birds being brought to our front door to recover overnight by our boiler; the magical outdoor staging of "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" down on the Masters' Terraces with boys appearing and disappearing into the bushes; being allowed to watch some of you wood-working in Dad's original workshop down by the inspection pit; waiting for the convoy of coaches to arrive from London; learning to ride my bike round and round the Courtyard; and being lifted to stand on a chair at St Michael's Church so I could see above the sea of boys as we sang the carols at Christmas. But then my memories are probably so different from yours, after all mine are from "the inside"! My recollections also change radically when I became a teenager. It was decided that it would be more suitable for me to leave such male-dominated surroundings so, from 1957, as you all arrived on the first day of each term, my brother, David, and I were packed off with our trunks to a co-educational Quaker boarding school, returning home as you were all departing for the holidays. If we were lucky we sometimes managed to catch the end of term dance. In the hope of gathering more information about my father's long association with the school I would be delighted if those of you with recollections of him and a few minutes to spare could send them to "Janus" e.g. was his nickname "Sandy"? And for my own patchy memory can anyone remember anything about a place on the extreme right of the main building, behind the Headmaster's house, called (I think) the Orangery?? I have vivid flashes of an enchanted and secret garden. Finally, thank you from all the family to those who joined us at Dad's funeral and wrote such comforting letters to us. Best wishes Jill (Hanson) Mayer EPILOGUE |