Haileyburiana

Last Post

2011-11-13T22:56:00.001Z

The AGM is over and Chris Darnell (M 1965) has been duly elected as President and the medal handed over. He will be a great President for the school's 150th anniversary and we all wish him well. Meanwhile hearty congratulations are due also to Catherine MacLeod-Smith (Alb & L 1979), who has become the Chairman of the Trustees of the Society, the first woman to hold this office, as she was the first woman President. The President Elect for 2013 is Jane Everard (Alb & L 1976). Joe Davis, the Master, was elected an honorary member of the Society, as was Paul Wilkinson, the Bursar. Both have been great supporters.

This will be the last regular post on the blog now that the Presidency has been handed on. I hope you have enjoyed the miscellany of things. There are some posts which never quite made it, and I still have ideas, but 301 posts (including this one) in sixteen months has been quite busy. Of course the quality has been variable, and sometimes just a picture has had to do. The original idea was to post once a month or so, but I got enthusiastic and it has been much more than that. Sometimes I have had time to post daily, whereas over last summer the rate dropped down to less than once a week for a while.

Readers have come from all the continents except Antarctica, and at the time of writing there have been just under 25,000 page views. The busiest month was February 2011 with 1,645 page views from 1,020 unique visitors. People have stayed on the site too. At any one time according to the tracking software about 15% of my readers stay on the blog for more than 20 minutes, which is a long time for a website.

My family will be pleased that will not be forever taking pictures of Haileybury related things to put up on the blog. I have a set of pictures which did not get used for a series on 'nooks and crannies,' which was rather scorned by a friend who, seeing a photo of the urinal at the back of the pavilion on Lower Pavilion on my phone wondered whether people really want posts on 'places where I urinated when I was a teenager.'

Thank you all for reading. I shall leave the blog on the internet, and you can use the links on the right of the page to read the old posts. I am investigating how to make Haileyburiana available as a book using Print on Demand and will put up a notice if that can be done.

Finally, the Master said in his address to the AGM that in the 150th year he would ask the Director of Music to teach the school the Vivat, which has not, I think been sung at Haileybury for 20 years (the hymn Lift up Your Hearts, having largley taken its place). Here is an attempt at a Sesquicentennial verse:

Now we've been here thrice fifty years

Vivat Haileyburia!

Living out our hopes and fears

Vivat Haileyburia!

Girls have come to join the boys,

In other lands they share our joys,

And still this song our tongue employs

Vivat Haileyburia!

I fear it is not as good as AG Butler's original:

Then close your ranks and lift your song!

Vivat Haileyburia!

That life is short, but love is long;

Vivat Haileyburia!

And all through life, where'er we be

School of our hearts, we'll think of thee

And drink the toast with three times three

Vivat Haileyburia!

Handing Over

2011-11-12T08:51:00.000Z

The AGM is later this morning and Chris Darnell (M 1965) will take over as President. For the last few years the AGM has included a ceremony, the handing on of the President's medal.

The medal was made by James Thompson (C 1953) when he was President in 2007, the Society's fiftieth year. The obverse of the medal shows the family tree of the alumni societies which came together to form the Haileybury Society.

I have worn the medal a lot as I seldom wear a tie. The Dean of S Paul's gave me permission to wear it during the liturgy for my installation as a Canon of the Cathedral last January.

It has been a huge honour to be the President of the Society and to wear the medal. I wish Chris great blessings in his year.

11.11.11

2011-11-11T08:39:00.000Z

The ninety third Armistice Day. Last Sunday we went off to church in Frankfurt. The Alter S Nikolaus Kirche in the Lutheran town centre parish had a service at 1115 which seemed like a good time to those who were having a weekend off. We were in for a bit of a surprise as the service took the form of hymns and prayers surrounding a talk and a discussion. The parish calls this sort of service a Gesprachsgottesdienst - 'a conversation-liturgy' and was in many ways what we would think of as a Christian study group. It was a bit of a challenge for our German language skills!

Frankfurt Old Town before WW2

The talk was given by a visitor from a charity called Zeichen der Hoffnung which works in Germany to foster better relations and understanding between Poles and Germans, healing the wounds which remain after the Second World War. The work began in a practical way, sending money and help to survivors of outrages, but now it seeks to work to foster good relations and understanding.

The discussion in church was in many ways courageous, raising issues of reconciliation in the light of the siting of concentration camps in Poland and the other horrors of the war.

In the small group present the four of us from England were noticeable, and the Pastor was kind to translate for us some of what was going on. Frankfurt was the subject of a massive raid by the RAF on March 22nd 1944 which destroyed the medieval old town and in which over 1,000 people died.

Wartime destruction

Sitting in a church which had, along with many other medieval buildings been subsequently restored or rebuilt, one was acutely thankful for the work of reconciliation. We prayed together for that to continue also between our countries. Thanks to my teachers that I was able to respond to the Pastor's graciousness in praying in English with a word of prayer in German.

How much those who gave their lives for freedom, and suffered so much in the European wars of the last century, would rejoice to think that Haileyburians, German and English, had met over the weekend and celebrated together their common roots in the school and the society, and that things are now so much changed.

Haileyburians of today continue to play their part in the conflicts of the world. The tragic roll of those who have paid for their commitment with their lives has grown in our time. Our prayer must be that the conflicts of today will similarly come in the end to the triumph of peace and reconciliation over the forces of hatred and violence.

The Cloister tablets have recently been cleaned and restored
partly with a grant from the Society

In the first 100 years of Haileybury, ISC and USC, 9% of Old Boys
lost their lives on active service

Alumni Treffen

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000Z

The Frankfurt Dinner was a splendid way to spend the last weekend before handing on the baton. Thirty two gathered at the Hotel Intercontinental by the river Main just outside the old city center. It was a young gathering. Four OHs only left the school this August; the oldest German present left Haileybury in 1997.

My German has had thirty years of disuetude, but the company was delightfully generous in speaking in English, and conversations flowed between languages.

The pictures tell the story more than thousands of words.

The General Secretary first thing on Saturday with the OH umbrella which had been specially ordered and had to come in the 'bulky luggage'. He got it safely to the person who had ordered it!

Haileybury Reunion Alumni Treffen

How to say "Old Haileyburian Dinner" in German. The welcome board at the Hotel Intercontinental.

Dinner was a buffet - lots of different things to try and each one beautifully presented. Wine and conversation flowed.

The function room was high up on the top floor of the hotel and had a balcony from which were stunning views over the city. My camera was not up to a picture to do justice to what could be seen. Frankfurt is a delightful mixture of old and new, Medieval and Modern.

Homeward bound on Sunday.

Interim Report

2011-11-08T19:38:00.000Z

The last couple of days have been wall to wall and no time until now even for a brief post. Germany was wonderful and I shall report properly either late tonight or in the morning. Frankfurt was bathed in Autumn sunshine.

View of the Main from the hotel window

Travelling Tomorrow

2011-11-04T20:28:00.000Z

I have not been to Frankfurt before, but tomorrow we are off to the OH German Dinner there, the last engagement before the AGM and the end of my year as President. It seems extraordinary that the time should have flown past already. We are due back late on Sunday and I may or may not manage to report on the events of the weekend before then.

Remember Remember the 12th of November

2011-11-03T11:39:00.000Z

The notices for the AGM have been dispatched and members will have had their Haileybury Society News for a little while. It is beautifully produced, and thanks to those who do a lot of work to get to all together and sent off. I have just found my booking form under a pile of things on my desk. I expect they know I am coming, but don't forget to send yours.

Seem Familiar?

2011-11-01T11:55:00.000Z

The Haileybury half term is two weeks, so yesterday I took the boys to Portsmouth to go round the historic dockyard.

This is the gun deck of HMS Warrior.

Seem familiar?

Changing Fashions

2011-10-30T22:10:00.000Z

The HM of Lawrence has sorted out some new House strip for Rugby and Soccer. The difference of the new shirts is pretty striking.

Here are the old ones

And this is the new model.

This is not the first time that the strip has changed. Trawling for a picture from the past I found the online Museum of Rugby with a picture of Jim Unwin (L 1926) in a Lawrence team in 1930. It may be copyright so I have not pasted it into the blog, but you can see it here. The rest of his story with a section on his time at Haileybury is here.

Meanwhile at the end of half term the girls house hockey tournament was going on and there were some shirts which gave me a double take. The blue and magenta quarters of the old Hailey rugby shirt have become blue and pink.

Not as pink as the athletics tops mind. Here is a picture plundered from Haileybury's own website of a competitor in the House athletics in 2010. Quid Forteous Leone!

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-10-29T18:50:00.000+01:00

The news this week has been full of the sorry business at S Paul's Cathedral. That our economic system brings great benefit is true, as is the fact of terrible inequalities. Yesterday evening the Bishop collated and I inducted the new vicar of S Paul's church in north Tottenham, serving the Northumberland Park ward where youth unemployment is higher than nearly anywhere else in the country. It is less than sixteen miles from Haileybury.

Writing in 1908 Lionel Milford (L 1867; Staff 1879 - 1919) quoted a speech made by Thomas Hughes in Big School in 1880. Hughes was the author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and was a friend of Dr Bradby's. Hughes sent his own sons to Haileybury. After making mention of the upheavals in Europe in 1848, Hughes went on:

England has come grandly through that shaking of the nations. But, by all the signs of the time, another great crisis is upon us in these days. How will our country come through it? For myself, I am more and more convinced that that question must be answered in these great Schools. If they are sending out a constant stream of young men, not only of high intelligence because that goes without saying but simple in habits, strong in principle, who have learned that lesson, so hard to learn in this luxurious and self-indulgent time, to say the words 'No' and 'I can't afford,' then I have little fear of our country losing her great place among the nations. If, on the other hand, they are sending out a stream of young men of many wants, hungry for enjoyment of all kinds, greedy of change, without simplicity, without true manliness, then indeed, for my part, I have little hope that the sceptre will not pass as so many say it is already passing from English hands. On which side is Haileybury going to stand ? I hope and believe it will be on that which she has held so staunchly hitherto, during her short life of eighteen years. And how is it to be done ? How is this ground, so well won in the past, to be held well in the future ? Only in one way, only by the old method. Read your grand motto, which faces you there at the end of this room ' Sursum Corda.' Boys ! Up with your hearts ! Act up to that, be true to that. Lift up your hearts for the strength and help which never fails them who will lift them up honestly and humbly, and you will answer that question in a way which will do honour to your School, and make your country glad and grateful that it has risen up in our midst.

Sunset

2011-10-25T08:09:00.000+01:00

This picture seemed to come out well.

It Is Not Just The Houses

2011-10-21T21:41:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I attended a conference for those who work in community ministry projects in the inner city parts of London. Titled 'A Passion for the City,' the conference took place at the church of Basil Jellicoe (BFr 1912), S Mary's Somers Town. The work and example of Fr Jellicoe was very often adduced by all the participants as we considered how we work in the inner city today.

Jellicoe insisted the new flats in Somers Town should have community spaces where neighbours could meet and talk, and public art. These coloumns are for clothes lines. These principls inform puplic housing design to this day.

There are many themes. Internally, the focus on the inner city and its needs which was so much part of the life of the church in the 1980s in the wake of the Faith in the City report, has somewhat waned. The Bishop of Stepney reflected on the reasons for this and what we should be doing about it.

Fr Caster and the tour of the S Pancras Housing Association blocks materminded by Jellicoe

One of the fruits of that report was the Church Urban Fund, which is 25 this year, moving to renew its grant making capability and continuing to work to provide start up funding for innumerable community projects run from and by our churches. Tim Bissett, Cheif Executive of CUF was there.

The Diocese of London, whose churches are growing in attendance and in number has over 700 community projects running in our 400 parishes. Jellicoe recognised the pressing urgent need to do something about the physical condition of his parishioners who lived in some of the worst slums of the day. But he would say 'it is not just the houses.' The physical needs were only a part of the needs of the whole person and Jellicoe was at least if not more concerned with souls. The Bishop of London preached at the Mass in the middle of the day, celebrated where Fr Jellicoe himself brought the physical and spiritual needs of his people together in the simple meal in which body and soul are fed.

The Magdalene Club at S Mary's, home of a drop-in lunch club replaing a provision which has been cut by the local authority. Fr Jellicoe's portrait looks on

Over lunch there were walking tours in which Fr John Caster, Fr Jellicoe's successor as priest in charge of S Mary's showed us the results of the work of slum clearance by his predecessor.

Today government is taking the church seriously as a partner, but the 'Big Society' is, no more than any other political system, entirely without challenge for the church or subject to questions from us. Jellicoe looked to the building of the New Jerusalem, and that is not, ultimately, a Kingdom of this world, though it requires us to work to make this world a better reflection of the Kingdom of God. A panel in the afternoon helped us to reflect on the Government's agenda and our response to it. Chaired by Fran Beckett OBE, it featured Paul Goodman of Conservative Home, Francis Davis fellow of Blackfriars in Oxford, The Rev'd Dr James Walters , chaplain of the LSE, and the Bishop of Stepney.

Man of the Match

2011-10-19T22:51:00.000+01:00

What a splendid surprise to be given an envelope yesterday with a note from Nick Courtney (M 1960). Robin Bishop (Staff 1985 -) (General Secretary) passed it, still sealed and with the contents a mystery, to John Palmer (E 1962) (Chairman of the Trustees) with the instruction to shake my hand and offer congratulations. John did so, both he and I mystified. When I opened the envelope there was a note and a medal, announcing that the Haileybury Veterans' Rifle Club have made me Man of the Match for the shooting at Bisley in July.

Thank you Nick - I am not sure I have ever been Man of the Match for anything before, and I am honoured and chuffed. Everyone else shot straighter than I did, but it was great fun to be included. Thanks also to Humphrey Nye (Staff 1961 - 1994) who guided me to Bisley and showed me round.

There are some pictures of the day here, and in the Haileybury Society News 2011, my copy of which arrived today.

Thanksgiving for Rodney

2011-10-18T21:00:00.000+01:00

There was a fine Haileybury turn out for the Thanksgiving service for Rodney Galpin (M 1945, President OHS 1987-88) this afternoon. Past Presidents Michael Freegard (BF1947), John Palmer (E 1962) and Donald McLeod (A 1950) were there, as was Edward Walker-Arnott (B 1952). Jean Ross, Chairman of the Education Committee of Council (and Donald's wife), was also present, as were the General Secretary, Robin Bishop (Staff 1985 - ) and the Assistant General Sceretary, Roger Woodburn (Staff 1978 -). The Rev'd Chris Briggs, (Chaplain 2000-), was with us, together with Paul Wilkinson, the Bursar, Debbie Wright his deputy, and Pauline Cassidy from the Haileybury Society Office. (I hope I have not missed anyone.)

S Peter's Church Knowle

Edward Walker Arnott and John Palmer both wore the 'town' OH tie which was Rodney's choice. He never, apparently, wore the bright magenta or the Hearts and Wings ties.

It was a fine thanksgiving and the church, of which Rodney had been both churchwarden and treasurer in his time, was packed. The balcony where many of us ended up gave a good view, but while the seats were beautifully designed to kneel to pray, they were a bit cramped for sitting.

Our prayers for Syliva and the family and for all those who mourn Rodney.

Haileybury was mentioned as just one of a great number of Rodney's interests and commitments, but on the back of the service paper were printed the words from The Pilgrim's Progress which are round the dome in Hall:

"My sword I give to him who shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles, who will now be my rewarder." So he passed over, and the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.

Best Shooting Ever?

2011-10-17T21:22:00.000+01:00

Mr Massey worked at Haileybury for a couple of years on a scheme from the University of Virginia. He was a House Tutor in Highfield so I knew him a bit. Rooting around on the web I found this video. He is very good at basketball!

(For older OHs this is all going on in the Sports Hall on the end of XX Acre)

For those who feel this is a rugby term (correct) here is a clip of a Junior House rugby final on Terrace. It says 'unfinished,' which it is - the annoying music goes on for some time after all the Rugby has finished. I should turn the sound off if I were you!

We Know The Answer, But What Was The Question?

2011-10-16T16:39:00.000+01:00

Yesterday at match tea after the Saturday games there was quite a Hailey reunion. Peter Ansell (Ha 1976) was there with his sister and nephew who is at Merchat Taylors and who had been playing in the matches against Haileybury. Also there was Peter's father, John, (Ha 1945). We showed the chaps from Merchant Taylors that, yes, you can speak into the corners of the Hall and be heard by someone standing in the diagonally opposite niche, and reminisced about the New Guv's test.

Pete remembered a question about the obelisk. Something about 'where will you find a needle?' Neither of us could remember what the question was, but were sure the answer was the Boer War memorial. Can anyone remember the question?

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-10-15T21:21:00.000+01:00

The four roundels or tondi in the pendentives of the chapel dome represent Government, Industry, Learning and the Fine Arts. They are by Sir Charles Wheeler who worked with Sir Herbert Baker on other projects, including the Bank of England and South Africa House.

Government

This Sunday's lectionary readings give as the Gospel Matthew 22, the trap set by the Pharisees and Herodians: is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? It is the great dilemma of all those who would live according to God's Law, or any other set of principles for that matter. Does one follow the Herodians, those who supported the Roman puppet ruler Herod Antipas, and accommodate to the world, follow the dictates of realpolitik and sacrifice one's principles in detail in order to follow them in general? Or is the answer to be scrupulous like the Pharisee: refuse to do anything which compromises the Truth as we understand it, but at the cost of real engagement with the world and the separation into a sect?

It is a constant struggle to get this right, and the church is guided by her Lord to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." That is, neither to retreat to the false certainties of pure sectarianism, nor to cease to care about the means in the cause of the ends.

Industry

Haileyburians are influential in Government, Industry, Learning and the Arts. Where they engage in the struggle to balance the demands of Caesar and God they do well; to stand on either extreme of the dilemma posed by the opponents of Christ is to risk ruin: not perhaps material ruin, but spiritual ruin.

2011-10-14T20:42:00.000+01:00

A lovely email from John Homan (ISC E 1941 & K) and Past President (1995 - 1996) who has found the blog. John writes:

I was particularly surprised and pleased when you posted so much about the Imperial Service College. It was well timed to put this on record while still a few of us OISCs are about and able to get nostalgic about 'The Coll'.

I was at Windsor for just two terms before the two schools amalgamated at Haileybury, so I have little that I can add to your Blog accounts. I will try shortly to put together and post a few personal recollections but for the moment I just want to write that I found the description of the demolition of the school buildings and re-development of the site very sad but enlightening. [That of course is not my work, but from a Windsor Historical Society website - L] Almost total obliteration, just one building remaining, Camperdown House, and that of no architectural distinction! Visiting the site about ten years ago after a long gap I found it quite unrecognisable and could not even work out where the old buildings had stood. Was it not a shame that, presumably to balance the books in 1942, the whole site had to be sold at its wartime value. That was a small fraction of what could have been achieved if delay had been possible. The sale of the much smaller Clewer Manor site when the Junior School moved to join up with Lambrook showed this and, I believe produced a more substantial, if belated, dowry for the 1942 amalgamation.

Indeed the 'dowry' from the amalgamation helped to pay for the building of the new Houses required when the school went co-educational. Lawrence, which recievd the boys from the ISC House of the same name, and Kipling, John's Haileybury House, once Le Bas, but renamed for Rudyard Kipling (USC 1878) remained in their original Haileybury buildings. Melvill and Edmonstone moved to new sites.

Former members of Kipling may like to visit the House Website here. I pinched from it the 1942 - 2011 house photo montage at the top of this post.

Comfy!

2011-10-11T23:10:00.000+01:00

You are supposed to call it 'The Health Centre,' but as we all know it is the San. The modern San is pretty much unchanged from when I was at school - even the fading school photos in the waiting area are the same. I rather like that! Of course we all know that Albans was originally the San, and that is a much nicer building (if you happen to like Victorian red brick, which I do) than the low flat roofed modern San built onto the side of Highfield.

That building is still there, but it has now been improved by being obscured. For ages it has been clear that the Lower School girls' boarding facilities were not up to it, and an extension has been built onto the side of Highfield to provide dormitories, a common room and a Tutor's flat. The new building wraps round the San and hides it from view.

The result is a first for Haileybury: a House with accommodation - suitably segregated - for boys and girls. I gather that when the school went fully coeducational it was decided that separate Houses would be necessary. That has always seemed to me a shame. Maybe the new Highfield points the way to a more thorough integration of boys and girls in one school.

Just enough to annoy

2011-10-10T20:55:00.000+01:00

On my travels around the archdeaconry there are sometimes links with Haileybury.

I have noted before the (pre amalgamation) Haileybury arms in one of the stained glass windows of S James's church Muswell Hill.

Goodenough College is a hall of residence for graduates in the University of London on my patch. The building is by Sir Herbert Baker who was the designer of the Hall at Haileybury. The tables and benches in the dining hall at Goodenough are by Robert Thompson, signed with the carved mouse, just as at school. It is a strange experience to be in a place which is so similar, but so different.

Baker also worked at Downing College Cambridge where he completed the North Range of the college buildings, which were by William Wilkins, who was responsible for the Quad and Terrace at Haileybury. I know Wikipedia is a dangerous thing, but the article there on Baker reports the unattributed remark that Baker's work at Downing 'changed the original design just enough to annoy.'

All this allows me to quote from what remains my favourite book about Haileybury, Wilfred Blunt's Haileybury Buildings. Blunt tells us that Baker's first plan for the Memorial Dining Hall was for

"a Hall at right angles to the Terrace block at the corner opposite Bradby Hall. His design, although it continued in the Portland stone ionic character of the facade, and performed a useful function by obscuring the Bradby [which Blunt hated], proclaimed its superiority to Wilkins too loudly, and it was wisely decided to use the site behind Clock House."

HYT

2011-10-08T12:20:00.000+01:00

The Haileybury Youth Trust is the successor to the Haileybury Club in Stepney.

Russell Matcham (HM of Kipling) is the link at Haileybury for the HYT, and writes:

Trev helps HYT

The work in KIZIGO, the second beneficiary of our 'One Village at a Time' project, was completed on time and in budget. I hope you agree the results are impressive. Increasing numbers of poor Ugandans have their lives improved by HYT, with Haileyburians and Ugandans working in partnership. There are now dozens of young HYT-trained Ugandans who have construction skills that will improve both opportunity and prospects. HYT's work is sustainable and life-enhancing for Ugandans; life-enriching for Haileyburians.

The third of our 'One Villages', Namaganda, lies deep in the Ugandan bush. Even by Ugandan standards it is very poor indeed. Although its school buildings were condemned as unsafe some years ago, children are still taught here. Namaganda really is off the beaten track but its people are determined to help themselves out of the poverty trap into which they were born.

With your wonderful support, HYT will transform this impoverished village, its schools and the lives of its people.

Children aged 7 at Kizigo primary school in the new school room

Russell has also forwarded news of Sam Edwards, a current gap year student whose work has been highly commended, describing him as 'a wonderful ambassador for his old school and the [Haileybury] Society'

You can donate to the HYT here:

www.justgiving.com/hyt

Or use one of the methods described here.

Rodney Galpin RIP

2011-10-07T20:51:00.001+01:00

Rodney Galpin
President OH Society 1987-88

Rodney Galpin (M 45) has died at the age of 79. He was chairman of Standard Chartered 'the bankers to the Raj,' after having been a senior regulator at the Bank of England. When I was on the General Committee in the early 90s as a representative of recent Haileyburians he was incredibly kind and thoughtful to one who knew nothing about money. Others have said how he thought of them and have spoken of his kindness. He was President of the Society in 1987 - 1988.

In 2007 Rodney commissioned a centenary artwork for the Scout HQ at Gilwell Park in memory of his father, Sir Albert Galpin KCVO.

May he rest in peace.

Cars

2011-10-06T09:19:00.000+01:00

I still walk quickly because there were only five minutes to get from, for instance, the Art School or the Whatton Block to the Science Labs or Bradby. I have never been good in the mornings either, and the payback for maximising time in bed was the rush to get to breakfast on time from Hailey.

We have learned this week that visionaries are thinking about rocket - planes to cut the travel time from London to Sydney to two hours.

It is noticeable how many cars there are nowadays around Haileybury. There are many more day pupils than once there were, and many of those who, like my boys, board, go home most weekends. Parents come to watch games in large numbers and attend things at school much more than in the days when we were dropped off for eleven weeks of no contact except by post. Many senior pupils have cars. Car parks are springing up: on the corner of XX Acre; on the lawn outside the Batten entrance to the KBM block; by the mini range on the edge of Hailey Field, and anywhere people can park a car.

With the cars come notices and yellow lines and so on. I suppose it is inevitable, but it does seem a shame.

Reading

2011-10-04T18:01:00.000+01:00

Returning to the 'Proud Father' theme from Sunday evening's post, seeing No3 reading in chapel as the youngest boy in the school (he will not be 12 until next August), I was put in mind of the reading I did as one of the youngest (my birthday falls in June) in my first term at Haileybury.

London Weekend Television broadcasted the Remembrance Sunday service from the Chapel in November 1979, and I was asked to read the scripture passage (it was the Beatitudes in Matthew Ch5). It was all a very last minute arrangement and I was whisked out of lessons to be drilled in getting it right. I remember the Chaplains (Peter Lewis and Jim Pullen) were pretty stressed.

I decided not to tell anyone in House that I was doing the reading; not sure why, I suppose I thought I might not be believed and that I might be thought to be showing off - a sure way to get taken down a peg or two. I remember sprucing myself up to be all neat and then having to help tidy up the VI From corridor kitchen ready for Sunday House inspection, and getting all messy in the process.

When the moment finally came I was put on the end of the row in Chapel, and the prefect sitting next to me thought I had gone mad when I got up to go and read.

It was the days before video recording was common. I seem to remember seeing a recording once some years later, but I don't know if it is anywhere preserved.

Harvest

2011-10-03T16:48:00.001+01:00

The Indian Summer is keeping the grounds staff busy. The whole place looks immaculate as always, but it has a feel of Summer about it even as the leaves turn on the trees.

On Saturday they were mowing the grass.

Harvest

2011-10-02T21:48:00.000+01:00

In my new peripatetic life going from one church to another and not having a specific parish of my own, I have missed any Harvest Festival this year. So singing "We plough the fields and scatter," in Chapel tonight at the new pupils' chapel service was a joy, where in previous years I might have thought 'Oh no, not again!'

I was playing proud father as No3 son shared reading the prayers, and also proud President as the other Lower School reader is also the child of an OH, the daughter of Andrew Hine (Tr 1979), who was an exact contemporary of mine. I don't think I had seen Andrew since we left Haileybury in 1984 until he greeted me in the meleé of parents dropping their children on the first day of term. One of the extraordinary things about my year as President and just being around Haileybury again, has been to meet people again after a lifetime.

Indian Summer

2011-10-01T19:13:00.001+01:00

At Haileybury today I had my summer hat out in the sunshine on XX Acre to watch the Junior Colts team in which No 1 son plays win against Kings Canterbury. It was more cricket weather than rugby.

Rare picture of the Archdeacon not in clericals!

The school is in Summer uniform and there is talk of having to cancel next week's games if there is no rain. That in turn led to a conversation on the touch line about when conditions ever cause the rugby to have to be cancelled. Frost - which is of course the same problem as heat: the ground gets too hard; but anything else? No1 Son tells me that there was a match last season which had to be stopped when the fog became so thick that they could not see from one end to the other, and the ball (and the chap carrying it) would come out of the murk unexpectedly. Otherwise, rain, snow, wind they play through it all. After all, as we all know, when you stand on XX Acre there is nothing between us and the Ural mountains.

Just like Home?

2011-09-28T09:24:00.002+01:00

I am away at the moment so blogging is light, but you migt enjoy this link to another group of Old Haieyburians.

http://oha.org.au/index.php?id=2

The Grubber

2011-09-26T07:07:00.000+01:00

The Grubber has changed a bit since the days of scrambled egg sandwiches.

Here are some pictures of the swish interior as it is now.

But what they have not got is the pizza making machine I saw in the new student accommodation at Tottenham Hale last week. You pout £3 in at one end and a stone baked pizza comes out at the other!

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-09-24T22:32:00.000+01:00

Tempus fugit! I preached today at the golden jubilee in the priesthood of my training incumbent to whom I went 20 years ago last June. Fr John seems not to have changed at all since then.

Time sometimes seems to have flown. Then again it can go so slowly. Waiting behind Big School for the team coaches to get back from Rugby with the teams - including no 2 son - it seems very slow.

Maybe time really does go at different speeds. However that may be, what we do with the time we have is the important thing.

Trevelyan c1987

2011-09-23T21:56:00.001+01:00

Sandy Rich (Tr 84) sent me this picture of the Trevelyan Dormitory in about 1987.

Sandy wrote: I rarely reminisce with OH's and thought you might also be interested in another picture from Mark Draisley's "Public School Photographs" - which you blogged about on July 7 2010. I've not been able to decipher exactly who is who (especially those in the distance) but I'm pretty sure the main people in the foreground are as follows:-

Rupert Edmundson (extreme left in black tee-shirt in compart), Victor Manning? (walking up house), Piers Chapman? (doing up Green Flash), Sandy Rich [me] (doing up tie in compart), Paul Dansie (head only visible), James Nodder (leaning on compart wall).

I remember Mark Draisley spending a week-or-so at Haileybury towards the end of a summer term. I think that I was in the Vths so it may have been 1987. I recognise so many faces from his images but only recall about 1/2 the names now!

Master in Charge of Antiques

2011-09-21T13:19:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Sandy Rich (Tr 1987) on winning the Antiques Master BBC series in the final screened last night. It was by all accounts a nail biting finish.

He writes

Since leaving University I've been in insurance, but have always had an interest in art, antiques and history. My wife spotted a call for contestants for the series, which was billed as “a cross between Mastermind and Masterchef... but for antiques”, and she and our children encouraged me to apply. My "Chosen Specialised Subject" in the heats was "British Commemorative Objects 1750-1900" (a nice, concise period) which saw me through as highest-scoring-runner-up to this week's Semi-Final and from there to the Final. Unfortunately, we now have to drop specialities, so it's wits alone (Eric Knowles seems to take great pleasure in throwing googlies into the mix so expect the unexpected).

Of course the OH blazer is at the cutting edge of modern fashion, so not sure how the BBC let that into the publicity shot along with all the old fashioned stuff.

Family Album

2011-09-20T09:20:00.000+01:00

FCO Shaw (Th 1903) was a photographer whose album has been posted on Flikr. There are some splendid pictures of Haileybury both from 1905 when he was a boy but also from the 1930s. According to the Register, during the Great War Shaw served with the Honourable Artillery Company and with the RAF, before becoming a wholesale drug supplier.

There are pictures of the OTC at Summer camp in Aldershot in 1933, and a splendid shot across Terrace towards the Bradby showing the water tower. There is a picture of Shaw himself taken in 1912 in Buenos Aires here and here.

This is not from the Shaw Album, but gives a flavour of the period.

There is a picture of a very well scrubbed 'prep school boy' taken in about 1928, which is thought to be of FOJ (John) Shaw (H 1931), FCO's son, who became a doctor and a Lt Colonel in the RAMC.

Flikr does not allow one to download other people's photographs, so do follow the links.

These are pictures from the same period to give a flavour.

Gamma

2011-09-18T12:36:00.002+01:00

They call it "The Uniform Shop," but the Gamma is still in the same place next to the Rackets Court. We went in on Saturday to sort out some studs and a spare pair of rugby socks.

Most of the business of buying uniform is done on line these days, and the trip to John Lewis on Oxford Street (who are anyway no longer the uniform provider) is no longer part of the rites of passage of joining Haileybury.

I seem to remember that the Gamma used also to do dry cleaning and that trousers and jackets put into hags were sent there to be cleaned with an extra on the school bill. None of that seems to be the case today. Polycotton has much to answer for!

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-09-17T20:36:00.000+01:00

The winter of 1981 was very wet. There were forty rainy days in a row in the south east of England. This led to a correspondence in the Times, and someone from a girls school (I forget which) wrote in asking whether anyone could suggest a place to build an ark.

I wrote a note to the effect that the promise given in Genesis 9:15 meant that even the current wet spell would not necessitate an ark. It was published, my address given as Hailey House, Haileybury. It caused quite a stir in those long gone days before online comments were possible.

I was reminded of that little schoolboy triumph today when the sunshine and showers produced a rainbow whose end appeared to be in Goldings Wood.

For Christians the certitude that whatever happens the God of love is caring for the world, and that beyond the clouds the stars continue to shine allows us to live in joyful hope even in the midst of the suffering of the world. This is not fools' gold at the end of a rainbow, but the living experience of millions.

Autumn Leaves

2011-09-15T22:15:00.000+01:00

The September sunshine is making the arboretum lovely as the leaves begin to turn. At least speaking for myself I have not been terribly aware of the arboretum, which lies behind the Lightning Oak on the gound beyond Terrace Field. I took some pictures in the Summer which must do for now, though when I go to Haileybury at the weekend I shall try and get some more autumnal images.

Going Back in Time?

2011-09-12T07:50:00.000+01:00

Number one son now has a study overlooking Quad. It has been carved out of the old Lawrence dormitory. Of course, as a Hailey boy I had little to do with the Quad Houses, but I did once or twice go into the long dorms, and those with sharp eyes can see in the new arrangements the columns which still support the roof. Originally Wilkins' East India Company College provided university style rooms. I guess one can get an impression of what they were like from Downing College Cambridge, also by Wilkins in the Grecian style, where the students live in almost square high ceilinged rooms with large windows.

That's pretty much what the Lawrence study is like - though it is shared for two. The more senior boys have smaller rooms; but at least some modern Haileyburians live in spaces like those of the Guv'nors of old.

9/11

2011-09-11T16:59:00.001+01:00

The editors of The Haileyburian had to wait until the Summer of 2002 to comment on the events of 9/11. The (unsigned) Editorial took the form of a reflection on the passing of time and the preparation of the writer for leaving school and taking up the responsibilities of adult life. Read in the light of the decade which has passed, it still has much to say.

IN these days of carriage-less horses, one can easily forget the simpler things in life. The rush of anticipation on receiving a letter from Mama and a package of crimble cake from the stable boy's mother. But how soon 1995 sluices like a wet jelly into 2002 - in the blink of seven years, peppered only with achievement and cries of Vivat Haileyburia. How soon we forget that our end is another's beginning.

Some of us may take the King's Shilling; some will call the City 'home'; others may yet turn to the Cloth. Whatsoever path we choose the shadow of our past will follow us like a beggar in Picadilly.

On the wider scale it has of course been a hugely difficult year for many people. A sense of change, of fragility, of transience, is all too inevitable in the aftermath of terrorist attacks, in the state of heightening tensions in the Sub Continent and the Middle East and nearer home. The rise of the Right, the acceptance of intolerance and bigotry must be resisted. So our little lives pale against this backdrop. it has nonetheless been cheering to see the sense of camaraderie that infused the Jubilee celebrations and so far, as we go to press, the progress of the England team.

So, how will we leave Haileybury? For myself I am more and more convinced that that question must be answered in these great schools. If they are sending out a constant stream of young men and women, not only of high intelligence (because that goes without saying) but also in habits strong in principle, who have learned that lesson so hard to learn in this luxuriant and self-indulgent time, to say the words "no," and "I can't afford," then I have little fear of our Country losing her great place among the nations. Sursum Corda! Up With Your Hearts!

Conversations

2011-09-10T00:30:00.000+01:00

Lots of conversations over dinner tonight in Common Room for a group of OHs of many different generations asked to contribute to the sequicentennial book.

Hopefully from the reminiscences will come some anecdotes for what looks as if it will be a hansom and entertaining volume.

It's late so no more now, but here is a picture.

Streets Called Haileybury 8

2011-09-08T22:38:00.000+01:00

This Haileybury Road is in Orpington, Kent.

Streets round about are named for Charterhouse, Abingdon, Malvern, Stowe, Eton and Repton, and also for Sandhurst, and Magdalene

Annexed

2011-09-06T22:35:00.000+01:00

Many former inhabitants of Albans will remember the Annex, which we blokes always believed to have been the morgue when Albans was the San. A couple of years ago the Council were shown round and I was amazed by the incredibly narrow first floor passageway which linked the two sides of the building.

The middle of the Annex - and the narrow passage - has now been demolished and the whole thing is going to be linked to the main building to provide for a resident House Tutor. As term began it was still a building site.

If you once lived in the Annex you may or may not recognise the place now.

Is this the best view in the school?

2011-09-05T21:09:00.001+01:00

Some older OHs will remember the third verse of the Vivat! (It is like the National Anthem - even those who know the first verse seldom remember the second or third).

And sweet was then the victor's crown,

Vivat Haileyburia!

But friendship's joy struck deeper down,

Vivat Haileyburia!

And though our distant feet may roam

Our hearts will ne'er forget the home

The dear old school beneath the dome

Vivat Haileyburia!

The one is not new this term No 1 son, who has moved into a room looking out from Lawrence over the Quad, with a fine view of the 'school beneath the dome.'

Is this the best view in the school?

Speech Day at This Time of Year?

2011-09-04T21:08:00.001+01:00

The Master has to give six speeches on the Induction Day as he speaks to new pupils entering the Lower School, the Removes and the VIth, and separately, to their parents. It was like Speech Day in another respect as well - it poured with rain in the afternoon. Having one to join LS and one to go into the Removes we were flitting from one end of the school to the other. (Though we only went to one of the speeches!)

Parents of new Removes have lunch in Big School

In the speech we heard, the Master spoke of how the new pupils may well find themselves forging life long friendships and associations. The day is largely put together by the Haileybury Parents Association, whose reps put in a vast amount of work; but the Haileybury Society's role is to help to foster those life long links for those who have moved on.

Names

2011-09-03T21:46:00.000+01:00

Borders return tomorrow and the house has been a whirl of name tapes and packing lists.

The names work differently now. we found a towel of mine which is still labeled H MILLER LJ. I got the initials because there was another Miller in Hailey at the time. For the girls the labels were the other way round, initials first then surname then House. So my sister was AF MILLER A. She took my old tuckbox (which tomorrow is off with number three to join Lower School 1), and so both patterns are painted on it.

I was foolish enough to order labels with full Christian names. It just makes them longer and mor work to sow. Imagine then the consternation to discover from number 1, who has been in Lawrence for a year that in the hags they have a pigeon hole and his is simply Lawrence 33 and all his clothes really need is L33. That's what he says anyway....

Whistling

2011-09-01T22:03:00.001+01:00

Returning to the great work of Rex Whistler (Hi 1919) here is the self portrait he put into the great mural in the dining room at Plas Newydd.

It is an extraordianry piece full of references to the Anglesey family and places associated with them. The tromp l'oile effects are stupendous, mountains which change their aspect as you walk down the room and footprints which seem to change their direction depending where one views them from. There are all sorts of places from London to Venice to Brighton in the painting, but not Haileybury I think.

Lift up Your Hearts

2011-08-27T21:46:00.001+01:00

It is well known that the derivation of 'Holiday' is Holy Day, for it was the Kalendar of celebrations of the Saints which determined the rest days of the labourers of Medieval England. August has now its Bank Holiday at the end of the month, but in former years the celebration of 'Our Lady of the Harvest,' the Assumption, on the 15th of the month was the day off from the back breaking labour of bringing in the grain.

The Country Round Haileybury - Walking Map

Bank holidays never seem to mean much to me since at school we just worked on through them. Twas not ever thus. FW Headley (Staff 1880 - 1919) and W Kennedy (1883 - 1919) published The Country Round Haileybury in 1920 to provide botanical, geological and historical information for excursions on Half and Quarter Holidays. Maps of the area in about a fifteen mile radius were provided for cyclists and walkers. Ascension Day was the main annual holiday within the school term.

Measuring time, and time off in our busy world has moved away from the rhythm of the church's year, though not as much as maybe we think, for of course, the school year still revolves around Christmas and Easter. The quarter days are still marked by the feasts of Christmas, Lady Day, S John he Baptist and Michaelmas. I am not sure I would ride a bicycle from Haileybury to Luton (one of the routes Headly and Kennedy suggest) to mark a holiday. But happy Holy Day, however you keep it.

Jabberochum

2011-08-25T22:06:00.000+01:00

You know the poem.

LS Milford (L 1867) records part, but not all, of a Latin version by FB Butler. (Staff 1868 - 1883)

Torva videns, sifflata sonans, curritque volatque
Per nemus obscuviam*, burbuleransque furit

Et caput abscissum prostratae in pulvere pestis
Rettulit, exclamans, Triumphe! Galumphe! domum.
Quid? tu Jabberochum, monstrum fatale, necasti?
(Sic pater amplexus), 'lustrigerate puer!'
'O jubilosa dies,' reboat, 'Calloque calaeque!'
Laetitiaque satur chortulat ore senex."

*"Obscuviam' = obscuram, invium

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Anonymity

2011-08-24T23:27:00.000+01:00

Discussing blogging at dinner tonight there was a question of anonymity. Some write, as I do, under their own names. Other bloggers are anonymous - or pseudonymous. There was quite a tradition of Pseudonymous writing in the Haileyburian. Letters from 'our corespondent' at one or other of the Universities were signed "Cantab" or "Oxon" or "Londin" and there were the famous letters from 'Praeteritus'. Praeteritus was LS Milford (L 1867 and staff 1879 - 1919), Haileybury's first historian. These letters were written from memories of old boys sent to Milford, which he recast for publication. It seems to have been an open secret that he was the author, so maybe that pseudonym does not count.

Anonymity was frowned upon in the letters column, though some early editions allowed a few unsigned letters; anonymous editorials were common until fairly recently. Today this is all less the case. I cannot find a single piece (or picture) in the current issue without a by-line or accreditation.

So - is it good to say who we are? or does the hidden or alternative persona help?

Tromp l'oeil

2011-08-22T23:02:00.000+01:00

Being the father of sons one tries to make history interesting and the anecdote of Lord Anglesey (Then still Lord Uxbridge) at Waterloo fits the bill. As the last shots of the battle were fired a stray shot smashed his leg. Turning to Wellington who was just next to him he commented with immense sang froid, "By God sir, I've lost my leg," to which the Iron Duke replied, 'By God sir, so you have." There is a story that he went on the anniversary of the battle to dine with his sons at the table on which the amputation was performed.

He had the first fully articulate wooden leg made and would walk eight miles a day on it round his estate at Plas Newydd on Anglesy.

So on holiday we went to visit Lord Anglsey's wooden leg. The gracious House at Pals Newydd is in the care of the National Trust. One of its glories is the dining room, decorated with a superb and enormous tromp l'oeil mural by Rex Whistler (Hi 1919). In an adjoining room there is a small Whistler Museum featuring a number of his sketches, letters and designs for stage sets. There is a page of characatures similar to those he made of Haileybury beaks which you can see in Imogen Thomas's Haileybury 1806 - 1987.

Whistler's time at Prep school is mentioned and his training at the Slade, but not Haileybury.

Back after a Long Time

2011-08-20T22:11:00.000+01:00

It has been an extended time in which I have not posted. Holidays have been one thing, and then the riots, which started in my former parish. The carpet store with the block of flats above which became the symbol of the rioting was just opposite the church and Vicarage where I lived until February. I have been incredibly proud of S Mary's. The faithful had the church open 16 hours a day, and the positive way in which the whole community has responded has been fantastic. Enfield Town and Ponders End are also in the Archdeaconry as is Chalk Farm where there was extensive looting of shops.

The rioters are a tiny minority of the population, but what damage they have done to the prospects and reputation of whole sections of the communities. Young people in Tottenham have said to me that they now feel much less likely to find jobs and are angry with those who have made life so much more difficult for them.

Police and young people in Tottenham - the real story

A century and a bit ago there were fears, sparked by Chartism, of revolution in Britain. Part of the response then was the Public School Mission movement in which the great schools set up work in the poorest parts of the great cities. Marlborough founded S Mary's Tottenham; Haileybury had the Boys' Club in Stepney; others had their parishes and initiatives. In fact most of the work was initiated and led by those who felt not so much a social need as a spiritual call, but it was certainly supported by many whose motives were socio-political rather than religious.

Visiting the Tottenham Rest Centre last week and seeing the generosity which has provided material help for those who have been burned out I was moved. Medium term help is being provided by the local authority whose advice and help is being praised by the shop keepers and others who are in need. There will be a need for the long term staying power which only commitment to living and working in the communities affected can bring about. I pray that among those whose A Level results come out this week will be some who will make that commitment for the good of us all.

Lest we Forget

2011-07-28T23:40:00.000+01:00

When we went to the National Memorial Arboretum earlier in the year I had a conversation with Charles Bagott Jewitt (Tr 78) about how remembering and memorialising has changed over the years.

Now the NMA has published a book, Lest We Forget on just this theme. The 'blurb' explains:

Remembering is part of the human condition. The spontaneous and entirely unorganised honouring of coffins brought back from Afghanistan by the people of Wootton Bassett is testament that many people have a deep concern for the memory of those who have died in recent conflict. Over the past decade, the British Remembrance season has grown once more in significance, but popular outpourings of grief also include the mass response to the death of Princess Diana and the Hillsborough disaster.

Lest We Forget chronicles the depth and variety of forms of Remembrance both nationally in Britain and across the world, ranging from the traditional ceremony of Armistice Day, to the more contested narratives of conflicts in Iraq or Rwanda. Also included in the 34 case studies:

Remembrance after World War One; Slavery memorials; Memorials in the US Landscape; War Widows and Remembrance; ‘Commemorating animals, glorifying humans?’; The National Memorial Arboretum; Artists of Twentieth Century Remembrance; Pacifist war memorial in Western France; Web-remembrance.

You can order the book from the History Press, here.

IB Congratulations

2011-07-26T08:24:00.000+01:00

Mulberries

2011-07-21T22:51:00.000+01:00

Haileybury of course has much longer holidays than the primary schools and tomorrow is the last day of term for them. I have been looking back as I finish tomorrow after nine years as Chair of Governors of the Mulberry Primary School in Tottenham. It is a non-church school in my former parish and I have been a community governor there since 1995. All three of my sons were there before going to Haileybury and my wife teaches there.

The Mulberry serves a wonderful community which has extraordinary challenges. The population mobility is very high and more than a third of the children leave and come each year. About three quarters have English as an Additional Language; over half qualify for free school meals; the 650 pupils speak upwards of 60 languages. Everyone has the experience of being in a minority. At the Year 6 leavers' assembly this morning a child who entered the school just over a year ago with no previous experience of formal education and no English spoke - with good grammar - of his memories. The nationally recognised provision for children on the Autistic Spectrum is also on site. It is a school well below national levels in attainment: but the progress the children make from their starting point is extraordinary, and much better than most schools in the country.

I know it is blue, but Allenby hooded tops are blue! Green and black remain the colours!

My boys have not been the only Haileyburians educated at the Mulberry; an Allenby hoodie was to be seen in the school today as the teenagers come to help out in their old school in the last week of term. There was a chap now at S Edmund's Ware in school yesterday. it is wonderful that the Attlee Fund at Haileybury and similar schemes in other schools helps children from Tottenham to come to Haileybury. if you have contributed thank you for helping our Mulberries and others like them.

Bisley

2011-07-18T23:27:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday I spent the day with Humphrey Nye (staff 1961 -94) at Bisley. We arrived early enough to see the end of the Public School cadet shooting, and for Humphrey to show me round. The collection of silver trophies is amazing. Haileybury no longer sends a team since the closure of the Range preculdes full bore practice. There were a good number of schools represented, however, and Haileybury was remembered with fondness.

The veterans are convened by Nick Courtney (M 1960). There are a number of good shots, but Nick says he can never gather enough at once to put out a properly competitive team. I was roped in, and coached by Keith Trowbridge (E 1964), managed to hit the target a few times, which I was happy about as it must be 30 years since I last shot.

Afterwards we all retired to the Fox, a local hostelry, for dinner. It was a splndid afternoon, and if you are in Surrey this time next year I am sure Nick would welcome you (especially if you can shoot).

Haileybury and Hogwarts 4

2011-07-12T23:46:00.001+01:00

It has been another busy week and the blog has been neglected. I am off to Bisley the day after tomorrow with Humphrey Nye, so it is really time to finish the Haileybury and Hogwarts saga.

In reply to my letter, a few months later, a silver envelope arrived.

inside was a letter

It has meant that for the last three books I have read with baited breath to see whether Haileybury would ever appear in the Harry Potter Books. Alas not.

So far!

Haileybury and Hogwarts 3

2011-07-07T23:19:00.000+01:00

Having given the background in the preceding posts, what follows is the text of a letter I wrote one mad afternoon and sent to JK Rowling care of her publishers. I posted it and waited…

I used a stamp, not an owl

In your Comic Relief book about the History of Quidditch, one of the teams (from Canada) is the Haileybury Hammers. (p43)

Haileybury Ontario was named after his old school (Haileybury, near Hertford) by its founder, Charles Cobbold Farr in 1889, and has as its coat of arms the bearings of Haileybury College. This features three winged hearts (from the school motto, which Farr also transferred to the town: Sursum Corda).

Of course winged hearts look like Golden Snitches. It struck me that if ever you have cause to describe the colours and robes of the Haileybury Hammers it might lend authenticity to know about the winged hearts, and also that the local hockey team plays in a red strip because the house colours of Farr's boarding House were red. [Trevelyan]

If you don't just bin this letter as the foolishness of a fan, you can follow up the details in Imogen Thomas, Haileybury 1806 - 1987 pp 42 - 43 ISBN 0 9512393 0 9

ISC

2011-07-05T09:20:00.000+01:00

A fascinating comment has come from 'Kris' to add to the post on the statue 'Spirit of Youth"

You will find it in the comments on the original post, but here it is to save you having to trawl through. Thank you Kris for this.

(Meanwhile I am so sorry that there has been hardly any posting over the last week. I plan a post on what I have been up to and then to finish the story of Haileybury and Hogwarts, which has a fascinating ending!)

The Spirit of Youth (post war version) in Dover

Pre war version in Dunfermline

The Spirit of Youth was created by Richard Reginald Goulden in 1908 for the Carnegie fountain in Dunfermline. A local schoolboy, Wiliam Galbraith, was one of the two models. In 1999 it was renovated and presented to Carnegie College. A (recent?) copy is in the foyer of the renovated Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline. The ISC 1936 copy is apparently still owned by Haileybury - but it is not on public display. [Does anyone know where it is? L]

In 1924 Goulden reworked the figure slightly for the Dover War Memorial - and a modified copy also graces the Newhaven Cemetery where he is buried.

The significant difference is that the pre-war optimism of the figure stretching for "winged victory laurels" - was replaced by it poignantly reaching for a small blazing crucifix. It is not currently known if the schoolboy models from 1908 survived the war.

All these variations can be found on the web. The foyer of the Alhambra is a 360 degree shot that can zoom into the sculpture's detail.

Haileybury and Hogwarts 2

2011-06-29T17:58:00.000+01:00

I said there was more to the link between Haileybury and Hogwarts and there is.

When CC Farr founded Haileybury on the shores of lake Temiskaming he named the newspaper The Haileyburian and took the motto 'Sursum Corda.' For some reason the town seems to translate this 'be of good courage.'

Originally the Town's logo was the familiar Hearts and Wings, and Imogen Thomas tells us that the hockey team played in Black and Red for Trevelyan.

The strip for Rowling's imaginary Haileybury Hammers Quidditch Team is not described. The similarity between a winged heart and Golden Snitch is noteworthy.

Now I am aware that by now those who have not read Harry Potter may be utterly lost, so here is an explanation of Quidditch. (You may need to skip the advert.) Keep the similarity between the snitch and the winged heart in mind, and I will post some more on this another day to draw all these strands together.

Haileybury and Hogwarts

2011-06-27T20:31:00.002+01:00

JK Rowling is to launch a new Harry Potter Website, Pottermore. In it she will make available the full text of her books and also unpublished material. There is a Haileybury link.

Aficionados of the oeuvre may remember that alongside the main novels Rowling published two small books in aid of comic relief in 2001. One of these was called 'Quidditch Through the Ages' and is supposed to be a book from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry library all about Quidditch, the game Rowling's characters play.

For those who are unfamiliar with the books, Quidditch is a cross between lacrosse, rugby and hockey and is played while flying on a broomstick.

The Haileybury link comes in the list of international teams. On page 43, there is a mention of the Haileybury Hammers, a Quidditch team from Canada, clearly from the town founded by Charles Cobbold Farr (Tr 1864) in Ontario.

There is more to this - for another post.

Strawberries

2011-06-26T23:30:00.000+01:00

It was Sydney Smith who asked What is real piety? What is true attachment to the church? How are fine feelings best evinced? The answer is plain - by sending strawberries to a clergyman. The joke is enhanced by comparing the remark to James 1:27

My mother has a story about strawberries. Roy Sinker (BF 1922) was Archdeacon of Stow in the diocese of Lincoln when he and his wife came to the clergy wives' meeting which Mother was hosting. She was nursing me and when I yelled for a feed she was ushered away by the Archdeacon's wife, who also took her strawberries away with the remark that they are no good for the baby's milk.

In reparation I almost always had strawberries on my birthday. When I was 18 my parents brought strawberries and cream up to school and we ate them in my study. I am not sure if I will get any strawberries tomorrow, but of course that is not the point - I ought to send some to Mother.

They Built a Road Down to this Place 2

2011-06-21T23:40:00.000+01:00

What a contrast life can be. This afternoon I was in Tottenham and took this picture of the other end of Ermine Street as it makes its way to Hertford Heath.

This morning was the 300th anniversary of S Paul's Cathedral. I am there for about half a second 23 seconds in. What a difference a few miles and a few hours can make.

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-06-18T19:12:00.000+01:00

The General Committee met on Wednesday and the Council (for three hours!) on Thursday, so I have had a Haileybury week.

Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday. The following quotes are from John Burnaby's (BFr 1905) The Belief of Christendom (London 1959).

To acknowledge with the creed that our Lord is of one substance with the Father, is to acknowledged that what God gave in the giving of His Son was himself - and that nothing less than God's giving of Himself could bring into this world of change, sin and death, the power of His own endless life.

The Spirit does not suppress or replace the individuality of the man in whom His presence is shown. His power is active in the measure in which the chosen individual responds to His promptings. Only in the Elect One who appears in the fullness of time, only in Jesus, is the Spirit present "without measure", because the response is full and absolute. In this one Man, God and man through the Spirit are completely one.

The doctrine of the Trinity is no superfluous piece of theologizing, but an expression of what is most fundamental in the revelation of God in Christ. If love means a personal relationship, and if love is the very being of God, we cannot think of God as existing in unrelated loneliness, realizing Himself only in His acts of creation and redemption. The glory of the Love of God is a glory that belongs to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.

Broken Bough

2011-06-15T23:53:00.000+01:00

At Haileybury last week I saw that the Lightning Oak had shed a bough. I thought at the time that I should get onto the Bursar to suggest that the timber was made into coasters and so on, but then I didn't and now it has all been cleared.

Can you spot the hole?

Annexed

2011-06-13T23:08:00.000+01:00

First of all, apologies for the long gap in posting. All I can do is plead pressure of other commitments. There is a meeting of the General Committee tomorrow and of the Council on Friday, so I have a Haileybury week, but posting has been light.

On Saturday I went was at school watching number one son and his team being thrashed in a cricket match on Hailey Field. I went up to Highfield to collect number two and took these pictures of the Alban's Annex. Or rather, of where the annex was.

A new boarding block for the Lower School girls is being built on what was the (new) San carpark and the annex is being converted to provide for a House Tutor's flat and to link the building with Alban's.

I gather that the annex was the place to live in the VI in Alban's. Mythology said that it was the morgue of the old San.

Last year as a member of Council we went on a tour to inspect the annex. There was an incredibly narrow corridor along the top floor of the part now demolished in the middle.

Motto?

2011-06-08T00:05:00.000+01:00

I have had an email from Peter Fowkes (H 1957), Father of Chris (H 1987) and Pen (H & Alb 1988) and uncle of George (H 1982) asking whether Thomason has a House Motto.

He writes

I looked up the blog trying to find Thomason’s motto; Helen Tranter [Director of Development] provided me with Edmonstone’s (Nil nisi bonum) – odd as it usually applied to the dead (de mortuis) - but no one can provide Thomason – not even Bob Eastwood (Th 1957) who is coming to a reunion (which is why I want the motto). Can you help?

In similar vein, does Hailey have a new and more ladylike motto? Quid fortius leone (what is braver than a lion?) was fine when we were a bunch of thugs; we won the boxing cup almost every year between about 1956 and 1962, partly by entering 9/10^th of the House, and Cock House rugger I think four times between 1954 and 1961, though we drew with Allenby after extra time in 1961.

I do have one other claim – the XXX in 1961 not only won all its matches, but did not have its line crossed. I wonder if any other side can match that! Again we were more a bunch of thugs than skilled players – our impressively large outsides came right up at every lineout – if we won the ball I, as scrum half, kicked it further up the line or gave it to the fly-half to do the same. The rules did not prevent this gaining ground in those days. If the other side won the ball our outsides tackled them very hard, so they knocked on and we had the scrum – which we almost certainly won as our pack weighed a ton!

I wasn’t the second best fly half – the younger Sibcy (E 1958) was – but Basil Edwards (bless him) (Staff 1955 - 1972) wanted a thug who could kick with both feet. Sibcy was a very elegant boxer; I don’t know how good his chin was as he was almost impossible to hit – I never succeeded! As to kicking with both feet, “Killer” Cook insisted we practice with the “wrong” foot, which improved the “right” foot as well. As a former All Black we respected his opinion; his walking stick on the field was much respected too!

Imogen Thomas says in Haileybury 1806 - 1987 that the badges were adopted in 1868 to identify teams on the football field. She says that the origin of all the badges is not known, and Thomason is among those. It appears without a motto. Neither Lawrence nor Highfield have a motto.

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-06-04T21:07:00.000+01:00

A happy day today presiding at the Wedding of Ben Tett (Th 1994) and Kate in the Haileybury Chapel. I was standing in for the Chaplain, Rev Chris Briggs. There were loads of other OHs there including Suellen Bartlett (Alb & Ha 1995) who sang beautifully during the signing of the registers, and best man Luke Bretherton (L 1994).

In order to get into the safe and to have the key to Chapel I was lent a Haileybury pass key. That really is the key to all doors in the place. I recognized it at once as I once had one to be able to get in and out of Lock Up as a Prefect on duty.

Pass Key

When I was a curate I moaned once to the Vicar about the number of keys we had to cope with. He remarked that there are no keys in heaven; I always thought that S Peter had the keys, but I see what he meant. Once in, there is no stealing or need to lock up for all is shared and there is in John Donne's beautiful phrase, one equal possession.

Depending on which calendar you use, tomorrow or last Thursday is the celebration of Ascension Day. An excuse then to re read John Donne's poem from Sermon XX on Heaven.

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening
into the house and gate of heaven
to enter into that gate and dwell in that house,
where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light;
no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity;
in the habitations of thy glory and dominion,
world without end.

They Built A Road Down To This Place

2011-06-03T20:00:00.000+01:00

I am not sure I had ever been to the Roman Road before. It is now called Elbow Lane. Strange to think that Ermine Street has not changed in a couple of thousand years.

You Raise Me Up

2011-05-29T15:25:00.002+01:00

At Speech Day yesterday Henry Olonga received a standing ovation for singing "You Raise Me Up" by Secret Garden.

Here it is:

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-05-28T20:16:00.000+01:00

Are you a past person or a future person? John Irvine, (E 62) Dean of Coventry, suggested that there are those with regrets, guilt, a sense of missed opportunity, for whom life is dominated by the past and its sorrows. Most of those in the Chapel for the Commemoration, he went on to surmise, are future people, looking forward to something that is to come, hopeful for the future, though possibly also a bit fearful of what it might bring. Christ calls us to live for today. Do not put off the moment of responding to the call which the Lord has for us all. Do not say that there are exams at the moment or the pressures of work or a young family or tasks. Nor, if you are a past person say that the opportunity is passed. The Good Shepherd offers us his help and support now.

Henry Olonga, who said at speech day: It does not matter how smooth the road,
if your car has square wheels you will have a bumpy ride

Going on from Chapel to the Sports Hall for the speeches we settled down to listen to Henry Olonga. Henry was a Zimbabwean international cricketer who protested against Robert Mugabe's regime by wearing a black armband in a test against England. That gesture cost him everything. Henry now lives in exile in London. He inspired the hall with his wit and wisdom, encouraging the young to respect their teachers, to work hard, to keep uo their sport and present themselves well, and to make the Choice. Having said a lot about what makes a person successful he then put it all in perspective. There is no point in being successful unless you have chosen to live not for yourself but for others, not for selfish aims but for what is right, in the end not for the world, but for God.

The Master had earlier said that education is a never ending process which is reminiscent of a man who runs always to reach the horizon; nobility lies not in reaching the end but in the journey and in the way we travel. When a man like Henry Olonga tells you to be strong to stand up for what is right, without directly referring to his own stand, his moral courage gives huge weight to his words. he speaks not simply from theory but from the cost of his own sacrifice. When he points to the source of strength which enabled that sacrifice, the one sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world which Christ made on the cross and to which the Dean had pointed us, we sit up and listen.

The Heads of School, Rebecca Simmons and Harry Hughes-D'Aeth rounded things off. Harry reminded us of the Hearts on the coat of arms. Haileyburians should have open hearts for others; expansive hearts open to new things; hearts full of love. Rebecca spoke of the wings, the support of those around us; the lifting up which we all need.

Lift up your hearts; we lift them to the Lord; for He stoops down and raises us up to glory.

Diligentiae Praemium

2011-05-27T22:28:00.000+01:00

It is Speech Day tomorrow. Let's hope it does not rain.

The Prizes are of course books. What would you choose? Something which reflects the interest of the moment and the subject for which the prize was awarded, but a volume that can be carried through life. A book to treasure, but one also to use and enjoy. It should be hard back so that it can be embossed.

Not an easy call. The most felicitous of my choices was the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations which I still use from time time, even in these days of Google.

We were given book tokens to take to the bookshop in Hertford. Today Hertford is out of bounds, another sign that with the increase of efficiency of transport the actual distances we are prepared to travel day to day and to allow our children to travel are shrinking. The system is that the value of the prize is docked from the school bill and the parent works with the child to buy the book.

Prizes from Amazon are the acme of individual choice. I have some evidence that once there was no choice. Some time ago in a second hand book shop I picked up a volume called 'Britain Long Ago,' a series of of Anglo Saxon and Norman legends, historical stories and poems edited by EM Wilmon-Buxton. It is stamped with the school crest, and has a label inside signed by Wynne Wilson; but there is no name of the prize winner and I can only surmise that it was never awarded.

The mystery deepens in that the label is dated 1900 (mdcccc), but the book was published in 1908.

Stained Glass

2011-05-26T23:33:00.000+01:00

Part of my new work involves visits to churches. This morning I went to S James's church in Muswell Hill to look round and meet the vicar. I thought I had, on a visit some years ago, seen the Haileybury Arms (before the amalgamation) in one of the windows, and there it was.

The window shows S James with his pilgrim's staff on the left and S John the Evangelist on the right with his attributes of the scripture and a chalice with a snake in it. The latter reflects the story in the Apocryphal Acts of John that John once drank poison to prove the power of God. S James has a pilgrim staff (and sometimes a cockleshell pilgrim badge) because the Medieval pilgrimage to his shrine at Compostella was so big that the saint who was at the focus of the pilgrimage became associated with pilgrims.

The window is a memorial to Walter John Vezey. (B 1915)

The inscription reads:

To the Glory of God and in loving memory of Walter John Vezey, Lieutenant in the corps of Royal Engineers attached the Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners, who was killed while flying on duty at Arawali, North West Frontier Province, India on Easter Sunday 4 April 1926 ages 25 years

Qui procul hinc anti diem perui sed miles sed pro Patria

Apart from the list that he was in the XI, the XXX and the VIII in 1918 the Register has little more about him than the window. His cricket averages are to be found here.

The notice of his death in the Straits Times is on this page (free registration required). It reads:

Death of Lt V J Vezey
Information has been received in Bombay of the death of Lt V J Vezey Royal Engineers attached to the Bombay Sappers and Miners. It appears Lt Vezey was flying in an aeroplane belonging to the Royal Air Force at Kohat which crashed resulting in his death. Lt Vezey was a popular figure both at Poona and Bombay and was an all round sportsman. He scored a century in cricket on more than one occasion in the Poona Gymkhana, and took part in the last Quadrangular Cricket Tournament in Bombay. He also assisted the European side in quadrangular cricket in Lahore. He was an excellent Rugby player. His death occurred on Monday in the vicinity of Kohat.

Either the window dedication or the last line of the obituary must be an error as Easter always falls on a Sunday.

Horseshoe

2011-05-25T23:40:00.000+01:00

You Have Got to See This

2011-05-23T23:13:00.000+01:00

The internet is an amazing place! browsing for a film to put up on the blog, I found the Movitone website. You can register for free and look at Movitone newsreels. There is a film of the opening of the Memorial Hall by the Duke and Duchess of York. The film is one of a small number recording the Duke speaking in public before he became King which, since the release of The King's Speech, are being much viewed by those interested in the real life struggle King George VI had with speaking in public.

It is Story No 102. If you search for it you have to misspell Haileybury as Haileyburgh.

The Duke says:

"Dedicated as it will be to the memory of those who fell, may the [indistinct words maybe: fair few] who come after them follow the example of fellowship and duty which they kept and may Haileybury and her sons prosper through the years to come."

You can see the grandsatnd erected around the south of the Memorial Quad, the buglers on the roof of Hall, the Archbishop of Canterbury sitting next to the Duke as he speaks and the Master, wearing his medal, preparing to make his speech.

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-05-21T22:31:00.001+01:00

I am drafting this waiting on the Heath outside highfield for the Lower School team coach to get back from Kimbolton. No 1 son wants to know 'how long does it take for a Lower School match?'

Waiting

None of us like to wait. Maybe thats why so many people want to claim that the waiting for the second coming is nearly over. Today someone was expecting the rapture. It has now turned 6pm and I can report Haileybury is still here. I seem to remember that when I was a boy someone predicted the end of the world in the middle of what was for me a French lesson. French lessons sometimes felt like the end of the world, but we went on to maths or whatever it was next.

Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour. Only the Father knows. This does not mean that we should not care about the end of the world, but that on the contrary we should be ready at any moment.

That is really what makes setting a date so dangerous. It is not so much that people are led astray to think it may be soon. It is rather that looking to some man made date in the near future they may miss being ready for the advent when it comes. You do not know the day nor the hour.

Here is the coach!

The coach arrives at last - just gone 7pm

What A Day

2011-05-20T00:23:00.000+01:00

A few months ago I posted on a not untypical day in the life of a parish priest. In my new role things are equally varied but in very different ways. Here is my day today.

0650 reveille

0745 we send an email to console no1 son in Lawrence who has broken his mobile - hit by a cricket ball when it was on his pocket when he was in the nets.

0800 Mrs M and no3 son leave for school

I review my speech for later

0815 depart to visit the Anglican chaplain at S Pancras station whom I am to supervise. (Morning Prayer said on the tube.)

0855 finally find national rail reception on the station. Conversation about pastoral work on the station; work with homeless; ministry to the staff and shopkeepers; funding the chaplaincy; looking after the Eurostar queue when the snow strands hundreds; planning for terrorist and other emergencies.

1040 taxi to House of Lords. An expensive mistake. It would have been quicker to have gone by tube or Boris Bike; I was under strict orders to arrive on time and followed advice to get a cab. It did at least give me a moment to copy up my speech a bit more legibly.

1110 Delighted and relieved to bump into my Area Bishop at Palace of Westminster security as it meant I was not late.

1130 Through security and on to House of Lords Committee room for launch of a report on the work we are doing to support the community and build new church work at Tottenham Hale. This is a massive student and housing development - we are asserting that here and elsewhere in London new developments need to have a community heart if they are not to become the slums of the future, and saying that the Church of England is ideally placed to be the lead partner in making sure this happens.

1210 Following the Bishop of London. speak to assembled company of Lords, MPs, business, charity and community leaders on the project. Unusually nervous about it.

1220 The diocesan strategic development officer speaks making reference to Basil Jellicoe. (BF 1912)

1320 Lunch in a local sandwich bar with the Area Bishop to catch up over a number of things we are dealing with in the Archdeaconry.

1440 Set off on a pleasant walk across Green Park to the offices of Korn Ferry for the Haileybury Society Trustees meeting at 1500. Budget for next year; the work of the Society; risk management among other things on the agenda.

1640 Leave the meeting early to get to the Edmonton Area Council.

1700 Arrive at Diocesan House in Pimlico just in time - having used the tube - for Evening Prayer and the meeting.

1845 The meeting over, we gathered to say farewell to my PA who is retiring after serving three archdeacons over the last 17 years.

1930 Arrive back home to grab my Sea Cadet uniform cap and cycle to the Sea Cadet unit.

2000 Arrive at Sea Cadet Unit half way through the annual inspection evening. Delighted to see the Rep Deputy Lieutenant there - she is very good company.

2245 Back home again. Desk

2350 Write this post and off to bed.

Keep off the Grass

2011-05-18T19:20:00.000+01:00

It will soon be Speech Day. It is one of the rare days when I walk on the grass, making the journey from the Master's Lodge to the Sports Hall where the speeches now take place. It still gives quite a frisson as walking on the grass is Not Done.

We always think of Quad as having manicured lawns. There is some work going on at the moment to sort out the edges of the Blades which are in a bit of a bad way.

As the picture shows there was a time when the grass was not kept as short as it is now.

Before the days of modern lawn mowers short cropped grass required a great deal of labour. Or sheep.

Dardanelles

2011-05-17T21:16:00.000+01:00

It has been nearly a week since I posted, for which I am sorry. A busy patch has kept me away from the blog.

Gerald Wilson said that he had heard of a ghost of the Lower Dardanelles. It is a bit of a spooky corner I suppose. I confess that I had forgotten the name given to the passages between Quad and Little Quad. I am told by my spies that it is yet another bit of Haileybury nomenclature which has faded away.

To my mind the Upper Dardanelles is a more atmospheric corner.

Lower Dardanelles

Upper Dardanelles

Haileyburians Round the World

2011-05-12T09:02:00.000+01:00

It is increasingly the case that current Haileyburians live in and around Hertfordshire. Even as modern transport becomes more sophisticated and longer journeys are possible in shorter times the catchment area contracts. One of the reasons for the severance of formal links with Lambrook Haileybury (the last incarnation of the Junior School) is that Windsor parents think Haileybury is just too far away. This is as true of boarders (still about two thirds of the senior school population) as day pupils.

The exceptions are the numbers of German pupils who come to study IB in the VI form and Khzakhs throughout the school thanks to our strong links in Kazakhstan. Of course there are also individuals from many nations. By and large, however, your modern Haileyburian lives in Hertfordshire.

All the more pleasing then to see that Haileyburians, and people with an interest in Haileybury continue to spread round the world. The map shows the places in which this bog was read in the last month.

The Boy Who Was Late

2011-05-10T20:02:00.000+01:00

Late as in delayed or late as in dead? In one of his Random Recollections RL Ashcroft mentions the myth of 'The Boy Who Was Late," whose ghostly footsteps were sometimes to be heard running across the Quad to the Chapel.

Terrace in the dark

At the weekend I was told that Colin Cobb (staff 1940 - 84) was once outside the chapel on an empty Quad when his dog became very disturbed and Mr Cobb thought he heard running feet on the supposed route of the 'Late' boy, down the centre of the Quad and off to the cloisters.

I have theological views about ghosts (or the lack of them), but there is an interesting theory of 'place memory,' which I found in a small pamphlet about his work written by one of the Cowley Fathers who was an exorcist.

Place Memory is a fairly common experience as when we go into a church and say 'this feels prayed-in,' or less spiritually, 'it is peaceful,' a remark written countless times in church visitor books. Similarly a place which has known bad things can have a lingering 'atmosphere.' I remember the sense of emptiness I felt when I visited Dachau concentration camp many years ago. Place memory can be redeemed, as seems to be the case in many of the cemeteries over which Sir Reginald Blomfiled's (E 1869) Cross of Sacrifice stands.

Maybe the Boy who is Late is a form of place memory, and one I guess that has faded with the decline in seriousness of punishment for those who are late. There is another possible example of this associated with Haileybury. More soon.

So it Begins

2011-05-09T10:02:00.000+01:00

The first public examinations are today. A Level orals for linguists. They are always the very first ones.

Meanwhile the children who are not yet Haileyburians but will be going to Lower School in September, and who are in state Primaries start their SATs.

Good Luck to everyone (including the teachers!)

Music

2011-05-08T22:39:00.000+01:00

I did not make it in time to hear any of the music at tonight's Society concert, but at the reception afterwards which I was able to attend there was quite a buzz. The performers had clearly had a great time and the audience were delighted. 'Even better than last time,' was one comment, and the consensus was that the quality was very high. Congratulations to Quentin Thomas, the Haileybury Director of Music and his team.

Music School

It was not just OHs present, but also some non OH parents of former pupils. That the Society can reach beyond simply alumni is surely a good thing.

How remarkable that such great results can be gained from a disparate group of people who had only begun to rehearse together that afternoon. Music is like that I suppose, different from a football team, which seemingly needs to work together for some time to obtain tip top results or a group of managers or the crew of a ship need to 'bond' for the highest results. Or maybe music is not different at all in that respect and the empathy which comes from being Haileyburians allows the choir and orchestra to come together in short order.

National Memorial Arboretum

2011-05-07T22:45:00.000+01:00

Just a brief post after a happy but quite long day at the National Memorial Arboretum. Thanks to Charles Bagott-Jewitt, (Tr 1979), Cheif Executive Officer of the Arboretum for his welcome and for the work he and his staff put into the event. Also to Robin Bishop and Roger Woodburn for their work. The school Chaplain, Rev Chris Briggs put together a splendid memorial service which was held in the chapel at the Arboretum before we made our way to the memorials. First to the Basra Wall where John Palmer (E 1962) laid a wreath in memory of his son Richard (E 1992) who is commemorated there, and then on to the Armed Forces Memorial for an act of remembrance, the last post, and reveille. I was privileged to lay a wreath on behalf of the Society. There was a chance to gather together over a glass of wine, and some then stayed to explore the Arboretum further while others made their way home.

Running Late

2011-05-05T23:07:00.000+01:00

Arriving late for Chapel was, in the early days of the school, the subject of a number of rules now defunct. One was not late provided one could get through the doors before they were shut, and this led to what LS Milford describes as a deliberate 'scrummmage' at the door as the press of those arriving sought to hold the door open against the prefects inside.

No cloisters yet in this view

Then once the cloisters were built a boy was held to be in time if the clock had not yet struck by the time he reached their sanctuary. In order to make sure that everyone heard the clock a hand bell was rung in the cloisters to mark the time.

Milford goes on: 'For a long while after the bell was abolished the habitual sluggards, or those who are professionally nearly as late as they can be for all their engagements, or those who enjoyed a sprint, expected some earlier arrival in the Quadrangle to shout "running," and then they ran. This dangerous practice has been stopped. It is natural perhaps, to like the run, but after all it is hardly a good preparation for public worship.'

He does not make it clear whether those "running' were allowed to run over the grass.

Tartan

2011-05-03T23:26:00.000+01:00

The girls' uniform comprises (for girls below the VIth) a tartan kilt. It is worn in both England and Kazakhstan. But there is also a Haileybury Tartan in Altera Terra. The Scottish Register of Tartans website explains:

The Haileybury tartan was designed to recognise the existence of Haileybury Pipes and Drums within Haileybury College, Melbourne, Australia, for some 53 years. It also acknowledges Haileybury Pipes and Drums as Victorian Champions for 25 consecutive years in 2008. It marks the unification of Haileybury College and Haileybury Girls College bands, which warranted a new, unique design that reflected the school colours.

Tartan in Altera Terra

There is a picture of a piper in Haileybury tartan here.

Haileybury tartan UK style

Holiday?

2011-05-02T19:48:00.000+01:00

Not at Haileybury; at least not today. No holiday for the Royal Wedding either. To this day I am not up to speed with Bank Holidays as we did not have them at school nor at university unless they fell into the vacation anyway. In the church one manages one's own time pretty much (at least I did as a Vicar; now things are a bit different), so I never really took much notice of Bank Holidays until I had children at Primary School and they had the day off. Haileybury even made the parents work on Friday as, hot foot from the Mall, I went up to school with my wife for the Lower School II Parents' Evening.

As I said to the grumbling young on the way back to the beginning of term, they do get much longer school holidays. Of course they were swift to point out that they have to work on Saturday mornings. We did some rough sums and it all seems to add up to much the same teaching time in the end.

While I was at school we had a half holiday for the birth of the Master's daughter. There is of course also the famous Haileybury story of the 'rebellion' when the end of the Boer War was not marked by a holiday. No rebellion for the lack of Royal Wedding holiday. Are we less patriotic, or more obedient?

Haileyburia

2011-05-01T22:29:00.000+01:00

These scans are from the Centenary Number of the Haileyburian, a copy of which was given to me by Humphrey Nye (Staff 61 - 94) when I visited him recently.

1962

Nowadays Haileybury is coeducational and among the teachers (as they are now known) there are as many Mistresses and Masters, and among the families there are as many husbands as wives, if you see what I mean.

1899

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-04-30T22:40:00.000+01:00

Thge iconography of the stained glass in the apse of Chapel was lost on me until recently. The subjects of the windows by Herbert Hendrie are clear enough: Noah holds his ark, Moses strikes the rock at Meribah with his staff, S John holds the text of his Gospel and S Christopher wades across the stream. I had never worked out what links them. The clue is the text round the apse: Esto fidelis usque ad mortuam et dabo tibi coronam vitae, Apocalypse (Revelation) 2:10, Be faithful unto death and I will give a crown of life.

In the central light Christ holds the crown of life which He offers to the faithful. The figures in the other lights represent Faith (Noah), Hope (Moses), Love (S. John) and Service (S Christopher).

Fath, hope, love and service. A programme of virtues to cultivate through life.

Transitive or Intransitive?

2011-04-29T00:07:00.000+01:00

Did you ever do parsing at school? It is important for the clergy (and registrars) to know the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. As in "I am going to marry you in the morning." Done intransitively one has made binding oaths. Transitively one can marry dozens of people without affecting ones own status.

I was surprised to read that when RL Ashcroft wrote his history of Haileybury to 1961 he could note that there had only been to that date, two weddings in the Chapel. (Correctly they were by Archbishop's Special Licence.) There are now a few weddings each year I think. Some years ago I married a contemporary of mine in the chapel. (Transitively!)

Tomorrow I have been persuaded by the youngest one to brave the crowds in town for the Royal Wedding. The two Haileyburians are moaning that the school is working through the bank holiday. In 1983 the Royal Wedding was in the holidays so the problem did not arise.

God Bless the Royal Couple and all those others preparing for Holy Matrimony.

Film Noir

2011-04-27T22:57:00.000+01:00

Christopher Nolan (M 1984) is one of the most successful directors in the modern film industry. He directed the Batman film, The Dark Knight, and more recently Inception. He began filming after Haileybury when he was at University College London. This short film, Doodlebug, is one of the ones he made there. It stars Jeremy Theobald who collaborated on another of Nolan's projects, Following. Nolan has been described as a major exponent of 'Neo Noir' filming.

Whether this represents life in the Melvill Dormitory in the late 1980s I leave to you to decide.

Hair Cut!

2011-04-27T00:04:00.000+01:00

It was off to school again today for the young. The last thing to do before setting off was get a hair cut. There were some protests (though not from the young man in the picture who went resignedly to his fate)!

I once went into Hertford to get a 'trim' and was greeted by the barber with the words, "College boy? I know what you will need." He took a razor to my head, and in those days of 80s 'big hair' I was shorn.

LS Milford states that from the foundation of the College to the time of his writing (37 years) Mr Dickins the hairdresser came twice a week. I think there was someone who came in my days in the 80s, but I seem to think that was only for those whose hair had grown beyond the limits tolerated by the rules. I wonder what your recollections are?

The rules now are for boys that your hair must be off the collar and the ears. Girls in the Vths and below must wear their hair tied back. Boys must be clean shaven. That may seem obvious, but the local secondary schools here in London seem to allow their young men to be barbarous if they so choose, as did, of course, the East India College.

Lift up Your Hearts

2011-04-24T00:10:00.000+01:00

Just back from the Easter Vigil. Happy Easter to you all.

Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed Alleluia!

Sursum Corda!

Lift High The Cross

2011-04-22T16:47:00.000+01:00

On Good Friday - Haileybury Crosses

This photograph was given to me by Rev PH Rogers (staff 36 -50),
and was taken shortly after the rededication in 1936

RL Ashcroft wrote: Sir Herbert Baker designed the Cross at the same time as he designed the altar. I was myself present in his office in London when he took out a box of crayons and quickly sketched in colours the effect he wished to produce.

The Cross of Sacrifice

The Cross of Glory

Calix Sanguinis Christi

2011-04-22T00:37:00.000+01:00

Maundy Thursday is the day on which the church commemorates the Last Supper. It was with great pleasure that I saw the school newsletter Hearts and Wings today, and a piece in it announcing formally that the East India Communion Silver has been returned to the school.

Picture from Hearts and Wings
Archivist Toby Parker and Chaplain Rev Chris Briggs

The set was made by Rundell and Bridge in London in 1815, William Pitts being the craftsman who did the work. After the closure of the Esat India College the plate was passed to Coopers Hill Engineering College.

In his history of Haileybury up to 1909, Haileybury College Past and Present LS Milford tells the story of the set coming to the school.

On February 9, 1907, Mr. Croslegh (a great-grandson of Dr. Batten), whose father was formerly Chaplain at Cooper's Hill, came up to see the Master and suggested to him that he should put in a claim for the Communion Plate which had formerly belonged to the H.E.I.C. at Haileybury, and had been removed to the India Office on the closing of Cooper's Hill. The Master accordingly wrote direct to Mr. John Morley, who most kindly, without any delay, acknowledged the justice of the claim, and sent down the plate. An admirable photograph of it was published in the Haileyburian. Sir John Ottley records on the box that the plate was " made in 1816." 

The vessels were carried in and used for the first time at the Choral Celebration on Easter Day.

Largest House?

2011-04-21T00:23:00.000+01:00

They are trying to sell the largest house in Canada. It is in Haileybury Ontario. The full story is here. Yours for $25million!

Diary is too Full

2011-04-19T23:45:00.000+01:00

There is to be another of the enjoyable and successful pub events, this time here in London on 19th May. Alas I shall not be able to be there. It is a complicated evening for me as I have a meeting of the Area Bishop's Council at which we shall be saying farewell to the Archdeacon's PA who has worked with me for the last couple of months, but who has worked for my predecessors over many years. The I shall be hot foot up to the Haringey Sea Cadets (SCC). I am their chaplain and it is the evening of the annual inspection of the Unit. The date was changed so I am not feeling too guilty about not being there for the opening parade, but must get there for the end.

As we were in 1983.

I was a keen member of the RN Section of the CCF at school. By and large CCF and SCC do not mix. CCF has a 'wardroom ethos,' while the Sea Cadet Corps, while not a recruiting agency, does great work among young people who, should they join, would be more likely to enter the Navy as Ratings. I have often said that had God not got me, then the Navy would and thought for a long time that I might end up as a Naval Chaplain. That never happened either, but when the opportunity to become SCC Chaplain came up I jumped at it. Here in Haringey SCC is an organization doing some significant youth work, helping young people to gain more qualifications than they would otherwise, from Duke of Edinburgh awards to NVQs, as well as teaching discipline, outward bound and many life skills, respect and loyalty.

In 1984 there was a confusion about orders for uniform for the photo.
It was very hot and those in pullovers were not pleased with those of us
in shirtsleeve order!

Anyway, if you go to the pub event, raise a toast to the CCF and the SCC; and if you have some time to give to youth work why not consider what you could do?

New Guv's Test and Random Recollections

2011-04-18T23:00:00.000+01:00

Gerald Wilson (M 1962) sent an email with some more memories of the New Guv's Test, as follows. Note his last paragraph about the memorial service at the National Memorial Arboretum on 7th May. If you can come then do be in touch with the Society. I'll write a note about it maybe tomorrow, but you can follow the tag on the bottom of this post to earlier posts about the NMA.

Gerald writes:

Your blog item on graces struck a chord. I was asked to say grace for my wife's aunt's 90th birthday a couple of weeks ago. I decided against the well remembered Latin grace from school and went for the more familiar English translation. The Haileybury version was somewhat shorter than the one trotted out from memory by Sir Richard at the Foundress' Feast last week.

Looking back at the blog items about New Guv Tests I wonder whether beaks are "ticked" any more (a sort of diminutive Hitlergruess!) Other questions I remember from the New Guvs test were on house colours, heads of houses, housemasters and beak's nicknames. I remember Hiker (WG) Thompson, Blimp (BG Wennink), "Dick" Richards, "Pussy (EW) Williams, "Dangers" Daltry (pronounced with a hard G), "Bogue" Manning (apparently bogus was a favourite word), "Hanc" Nurden (Latin & Greek beak), Harry Hotplate (Hargreaves, chemistry beak), Herr Mueller (Mr Miller, who may have had a slight speech defect and sounded a bit German), RJ (for Mr Rhodes-James, also occasionally Rhodeo-Joe but not, I was told, in his house Melvill).

The Boot?

Of course there was also the Boot for the Master, which was originally the nickname for Canon Bonhote. Imogen Thomas's book records this as a corruption of his surname, though it was always said amongst the boys that it related to a predilection for corporal punishment. The nickname was transferred to his successor Christopher Smith, who I experienced for 12 months. Though a distant figure I remember him with affection and respect. He knew the name of every single boy in the school and their parents. My parents & I had met him once when I sat the scholarship at Haileybury in November 1961. On entering Quad in September 1962 he instantly greeted us by name. When William Stewart became Master in 1963 he was known as "The Boot", though due to his loud voice and custom of addressing any boy within 50 yards (a stark contract to his predecessor's unassuming manner) "The Boot" was often transmuted into "The Boom".

I wonder if you will be attending the Haileybury memorial service at the National Arboretum on 7th May. I am about to put in a late booking. I haven't been to the National Arboretum yet, but my first alma mater was St Christopher's School in Alrewas (long since closed, but the buildings were still there when I visited 10-15 years ago) so it seems an appropriate opportunity.

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-04-16T23:25:00.000+01:00

I was unaware until Humphrey Nye gave me a copy this week that RL Ashcroft wrote, in addition to Random Recollections of Haileybury, a book for those who had been confirmed. It is not a confirmation course, but a call to a deeper religion for those who have grown up in other ways but not found any deeper religious instruction. The following paragraphs are from the foreword.

I am sure that our chief need today is to get back to the vitality of the first Christian message - to a vivid belief that God is Love; that Christ, by virtue of His Cross and Resurrection, can save us from our lovelessness; that the Holy Spirit can thrill us and warm the dying embers of our love - we want to get hold of a message which will give us confidence and strength and enthusiasm, which will create in us a sense of fellowship one with another, which will make our personal lives sweet and holy and inspiring, and will finally send us out into the workaday world with a compelling song in our hearts so that others shall take notice of us that we have been with Jesus.

...

With Christ it is all or nothing. There is no such man as a nominal Christian. "The Christian life is the life of the First Christian, Jesus Christ, continued in the members of His mystical Body, the Catholic Church." [Bede Frost, The Art of Mental Prayer.] And the basis of such a life is the conviction that there lived on this earth One who was divine as well as human, that some day, some how, we shall meet Him, and meanwhile we shall adore Him, and pray to Him, and allow His Spirit to move in us, and try to live like Him.

How Many Were You Allowed?

2011-04-14T10:10:00.000+01:00

Ties that is. In conversation yesterday with Humphrey Nye (staff 61 - 94) we wondered how many ties one could be entitled to. He remembered the genesis of the athletics tie - invented by Rev P Ll Morgan. There still seem to be lots - even in these simpler days.

Lift Up Your Hearts

2011-04-09T23:17:00.000+01:00

At the Albans Trev and Lawrence dinner last Saturday I was asked to say grace. In these days of self service (which have made the food so much better) formal grace in Hall is a rarity. We were sitting down to a meal served to the tables so grace was said.

As a CP I remember trying on the first occasion I said grace to inject meaning into the prayer with disastrous results. The duty Master - who was one if the chaplains - told me in future just to get it over with, which I duly did. "All on one breath!" was the rule.

So last Saturday night I duly said grace all in one breath as of old. Someone asked me if I shouldn't gave given it more meaning...

There is a view in church circles that one should try and reduce ones own influence on a text by striving to remove too much meaning from the reading of a text. But even in a sung liturgy some of the inflexion of the celebrant will come through. While a reading should not be a performance, I don't think reading in a monotone helps understanding. Most churches have a better acoustic and a more forgiving audience than Hall at lunchtime, and since the Holy Spirit allows our voices to carry the Word of the Lord, He also gives grace that it may be heard. Despite our voices - or because of them.

Congratulations!

2011-04-08T23:37:00.000+01:00

The Old Haileyburians have won the First Division of the Arthurian Football League and are promoted to the Premier Division.

Meanwhile the Old Haileyburians in Altera Terra also have a Football Club - in a diferent code of course - in the Premier Division of its league. Their video is as much a moral statement on the attitude one should bring to competitive sport as an advert for the club.