Motto?

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.

Allenby in Egypt

As we watch events unfold in Egypt we remember that two of the British administrators of Egypt were OHs. Sir Henry McMahon (Th 1876) was British High Commissioner in Egypt, 1914 - 1917. (He was at the same time President of the Haileybury Society, for four years 1915 - 1919.) McMahon was succeeded in Egypt a few years later by Field Marshall Allenby (BF 1875).

Lord Allenby with his pet stork in the Residency Garden, Cairo

Allenby arrived in Egypt at a time of seething unrest. He took firm action, though action which was much criticized, for he saw that the disaffection could not simply be defeated and acceded to some of the demands made by the rioters. This was seen as an outrageous climb-down. A Foreign-Office spokesman concluded "thus a fortnight of violence has achieved what four months of persuasion failed to accomplish. The object lesson will not be lost in Egypt and throughout the East." However by the end of his tenure it was said of him (in The Times, July 1925) "His personality alone did much to restore the name and word of an Englishman to the high profile on which they had stood in the East before the war."

Allenby managed to achieve peace of a sort. General Wavell's biography of Allenby sums up his time in Egypt as follows; "In a most difficult period in the  relations between the two countries he upheld essential British interests without causing bitterness; he secured for Egypt independence from a reluctant British government and a liberal constitution from a reactionary monarch [King Fuad]."

We must hope and pray for Egypt (and the Middle East) the establishment in the modern world of a suitably liberal constitution.

Just a final note. Allenby, as High Commissioner was one of the very few present when Howard Carter opened the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Lift Up Your Hearts

Bishop NS Talbot (Th 1893) wrote a book on suffering called "The Riddle of Life." In the first chapter he argues that suffering can and does sometimes bring good, and that there is a nobility which comes to some souls through bearing suffering. 

The Christmas story is packed round with tinsel and fairy lights, but despite all that it is the same story. The joy which comes to a mother suffering in child birth; the happiness granted to a family who are homeless and destitute, the vision of angels granted to poor mean shepherds on the look out for wolves and afraid for their lives. 

Here is Talbot's first chapter's closing paragraph, and the opening of the Gospel for Midnight Mass. 

We have reached no 'explanation' of why there is a problem of evil. That a night of darkness can come upon men remains still and inexplicable mystery. Yet it is true that light does spring up in the darkness, welling up from within it, spreading through and suffusing it, making it to glow. And this is real light, not a false light or ignis fatuus of self-deception or make-believe. It is light deeper than the darkness, un-overwhelmed by it. It makes, so to say, the very darkness to serve for its fuel.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Lots of Shouting!

Peter Blair is the Master i/c debating at Haileybury. He writes:

Intense pre-season… 1^st team success… Yearlings A, B, C and D in action… call-up for England trials… Haileybury Debating Society!

Not sure this image is really right for genteel ordered debate, but it is fun! LJM

At the moment I am researching the history of debating at Haileybury for a section of Haileybury: A 150 Anniversary Portrait and I would love to hear from OHs about their memories. For the sake of comparison with the past (always a fun thing to do), here's what we do now. We have fortnightly public debates, very much along the lines of the House of Commons (lots of shouting) where the President takes the role of Speaker of the House; recent motions have included This House demands a mixed-sex boarding house at Haileybury (the motion fell). On alternate weeks we train teams for competitive debating competitions, including the Mace, Oxford Schools, Cambridge Schools and Durham Schools. Last year we were East of England Mace finalists and this year we hope to go further in all competitions. We have pre-season training and are planning a tour to Scotland (including a debate against my old school!) in February 2012. However, the House debating competition is still the highlight of the year; the competition is fierce and the new trophies (donated by the Haileybury Society) can only add to this. We would love to see OHs at the junior (Tuesday 16^th November) and senior (Wednesday 17^th November) House finals to see if Bartle Frere and Thomason, respectively, can defend their titles.

We are taking Haileybury debating forward based on the great traditions of Haileyburians over the years. I would be delighted to hear about their memories of debating at Haileybury over the years and from anyone who would like to support cups and prizes for our Maiden Speakers' Competition (for Removes) and Founder's Cup (Open Pairs).

Peter Blair

Master i/c Debating

You can contact Peter by following this link. 

Flying People?

"An ambassador is an honest man who is sent to lie abroad for his country." The famous pun was that of Henry Wotton who was in later life a friend of Izaak Walton who, in addition to being a great fisherman, was also a writer of biography and wrote Wotton's Life. Walton links Tottenham and Great Amwell, where he is buried in the churchyard since he fished the Lea in both parishes, but my excuse for writing about ambassadors is the communique I received today from James Dauris (Th 78) who has just presented his Credentials to the President of Peru and is our Ambassador in Lima. There are some splendid pictures on the Embassy website of the occasion. Of Lima he writes:

Lima stands beside the Pacific Ocean and from my office up on the 23rd floor of one of the tallest buildings along the coast I can look down to the breakers rolling onto the beach at the foot of the cliffs below.  There are almost always surfers out enjoying the waves.  From high up they look like seals in their black wetsuits– although we’re comfortably inside the Tropics here, the water is too cold to stay in for long without protection.  The updrafts off the cliffs draw paragliders every afternoon.  For the first few days it was slightly disconcerting to have people flying past my office window, some of them almost close enough to reach out to, but I’m now more used to seeing locals and tourists floating by.


Flying people: he tells not a word of a lie!

The Evolution of Dormitories 4

The movement over the last twenty years has been to smaller and smaller dormitories for younger pupils and to bed sits for the more senior. The pattern has been to have a 'dormitory' for Removes and Middles and study bedrooms for Vths and above. When the school became co-educational the new Bartle Frere and Edmonstone were set up in this way. Colvin and Melvill meanwhile were equipped with single rooms throughout. Hailey has a dormitory (the old Upper) but the Lower was divided into rooms for four girls each. This is similar to what was done in Allenby when the conversion was made. That pattern has recently been replicated in Trevelyan and Thomason where the Removes and Middles live and work in rooms of four. (Four is a pastorally good number as it reduces the chances of a two on one division happening in a room.)

Meanwhile the new Lower School boys' accommodation in Highfield is in Dormitories of eight.  The Lower School girls' dormitory is in Alban's and while it has great character it is not as swish as the boys' rooms.

Many of the boys' houses have clever bunks in a "T" shape where the top bunk is at right angles to the bottom one and supported at either end by wardrobes.

What's in a Name?

One of the lines that has to appear in the Policies that every school now has to have is the statement 'every child has the right to be called by the name he or she chooses.' Many of my contemporaries called me Norman at school because a bloke in the Vth thought that I looked like Norman Wisdom. it was quite a decision when after five years of answering to 'Luke' at home and 'Miller' (at least before entering the LVIth) to adults at school, I had to decide what I wanted new friends at University to call me. Most of my contemporaries seem to have done what I did and drop their school nicknames on leaving.

There were two Millers (we are not related) in Hailey in my year and so I had the privilege - as I thought it - of having initials after my name: Miller LJ. My spies in Lower School tell me that despite the universal use of Christian names, and even of nicknames (provided chosen by the child and not imposed) some of the young (at least the males of the species) still call one another by their Surnames. This raises for brothers the age old problem of having the same name. Nicknames and epithets come into play, but they sometimes resort to Mega and Minor (mixing Greek and Latin in a way that would once have attracted considerable opprobrium).

At first 'Major' and 'Minor' was the official way of distinguishing between brothers at Haileybury. One was Miller MA or Miller MI. The business of having initials came in around 1928 with the advent of two sets of brothers named Serjeant to Thomason (FRM 1923.3 and J 1924.3) and a pair named Minor to Trevelyan (R 1925.1 and B 1927.1). It was felt Sergeant Major and Minor Minor was just all too much to manage.

The younger Minor in fact became a Major, so in the end he was Major Minor. Sadly he was killed in action in the Middle East in 1942.