Thanksgiving for Rodney

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.

Cars

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.

Stained Glass

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.

Lift Up Your Hearts

The picture is from an illuminated Bible owned by Ripon Cathedral. It shows Moses leading the Israelites. The horns represent the rays of light which shone from the face of Moses who, alone before the coming of Christ, "spoke with the Lord face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." Since Moses did not veil his face when he spoke with God, when he came out of the Tent of Meeting the people observed that his face shone. In statues and then in pictures the rays were represented with horns. The joys of iconography!! Christians believe that in Jesus we are given the privilege of speaking with the Lord 'face to face' a point made both by S Paul and S John.

Illuminated MS from Ripon Cathedral

Since 1980 the Ripon manuscripts have been deposited rather more safely in the Leeds University Library. That is partly because of Donald Bartlett (B 1887), who was Archdeacon of Ripon and then as canon of the Cathedral responsible for the library. The editor of Bartlett's reminiscences says he was an 'unsuspicious person' and would put the key to the safe away in a cupboard without concealment. This resulted in a theft in 1964 of a Book of Hours (prayer book) and one of only six copies of a very rare Caxton printing. He remarked only that like a lady lost a pearl necklace "I may have lost my necklace, but I do not intend to lose my peace of mind." The books proved to be so rare as to be unsaleable and were returned in the post a few months later.

Misidentification

A correspondent tells me that the picture I put on my earlier post about Simon Mccorkindale (B 1965) was not of him. He is in the video at 2.07 to 2.53. There are some other pictures of him in Jesus of Nazareth on a fan site dedicated to him here. The internet is an amazing thing!

By the way, my correspondent told me that she was having trouble leaving a comment on the blog. I have tried to enable comments, but if you have had trouble do e-mail (link on the right) to let me know and I'll see if I can work out what to do about it.

Why do you seek for the Living among the Dead?

Simon McCorkindale (B 1965) died over the weekend. According to the biographies, one of his first roles was in Franco Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth. He was the centurion, Lucius. It was not a big part and has not been simple to find, but I think this is him, hidden under a fluffy black beard, in charge of the party set to guard the tomb of Jesus. There is a YouTube clip of only this scene here, but it will not embed, so to view it directly you will have to scroll to 2:54 2.07 - 2.53 on the video below. I hope I might be excused two religious posts this weekend, but it seemed a very appropriate clip of Simon's work to offer in the face of death.

Bi?

When I was a CP I had a duty for a little while making sure that the school mini busses were kept clean.

Smart modern minibus on the new car park outside Batten

But what is the plural of bus? The Master i/c in those days said that it should not be busses.

His logic was impeccable. 'Bus is a contraction of Omnibus. The plural of omnibus would be omnibi. The Plural of minibus should therefore be minibi and the plural of 'bus? 'Bi.

Bye…

Top Gear

Having a house full of boys means that Top Gear is on quite a lot. Secretly I really quite enjoy all the sillyness and jolly japery which makes the otherwise rather tedious subject of cars rather fun. But even so I found it difficult to take quite seriously the assertion that the Range Rover has an 'inspirational shape' which I saw in today's paper in the obituary of Spen King (B 1939.1). Together with a colleague, Gordon Bashford, King was responsible for the Range Rover and, after being in charge of Triumph after it was swallowed by British Leyland, King oversaw the concepts of the Metro and the Maestro. They are gone (my first car was a Maestro), but the Range Rover is very much around. On the last day of term they were all over Haileybury like a rash as luggage was packed into the cavernous air conditioned voids of their boots. Good design is not noticeable. Whether it be Routemaster busses or Gilbert Scott phone boxes or Perpendicular windows in Mediaeval wool churches, a good design is the sort of thing we only notice when it is not there. Maybe we will miss the Range Rovers when they are gone.