Vivat!

No one in the Lower or Middle Schools can be without his or her Prep Diary for very long. Ring bound A5 size books they contain the time table and a daily diaru in which preps are noted and from which they are ticked off. They don't quite serve the purpose of the termly Red Book known to older generations of Haileyburians, but now abolished. The red book had the class lists and the phone numbers of the Housemasters and other such information. Some of this is now printed in the first pages of the school calendar. 

The Red Book also had the verses of the Vivat printed in the back. No one sings it any more at school - at least in England. In Kazakhstan it is very much alive. 

For those who do not know it here are the words:

The Romans were a knowig race

Vivat Haileyburia!

They made a road down to this place

Vivat Haileyburia!

Romans came and passed away

Normans followed; where are they?

But we are here and here we stay!

Vivat Haileyburia!

Then shout five hundred voices all,

Vivat Haileyburia!

Our days of old we first recall,

Vivat Haileyburia!

But whatsoe'er their fame of yore

We've yet a mind to make it more

Our age of god still lies before

Vivat Haileyburia!

Then vivat, vivat round the board,
Vivat Haileyburia!
And yet once more with louder chord
Vivat Haileyburia!
For we've been boys and men together,
Have weilded bat and hunted leather,
When life was bliss in summer weather.
Vivat Haileyburia!

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!

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'ere we be,

School of our hearts we'll think of thee,

And drink the toast to three times three,

Vivat Haileyburia!

Options, Options

We were at Haileybury late on Sunday evening for the Removes options evening. The young people have to choose which subjects to do at GCSE and iGCSE. Since many universities use the results at this level to determine the offers they make of places the choices made now at 13 and 14 years old can have a bearing on the whole life of the children. No pressure then.

Everyone does the following:

English Language
Mathematics
A Modern foreign language, which may be their mother tongue if not English; French; Spanish; Italian
Religious Studies
Science

Science can be studied as a course in Biology, Physics and Chemistry leading to two GCSEs or as three separate subjects, which uses up one of the options.

The options require one to choose one subject from each of the groups:

What would you do?

Lift Up Your Hearts

Blogger has a 'stat counter,' so that one can see how many people come to read the blog, and which posts are the most popular. They cannot be perfectly accurate, but they give a good idea. According to the stat counter for this blog the all time most read post is the one on Commonplace books.

For this Saturday night / Sunday morning then, another dip into the common place book I started when at school. In my VI Form year I was directed to the author RC Hutchinson and read a number of his books including 'Testament,' a great work set in the Russian revolution.

Sometime in 1984 I noted this scrap of dialogue from the book into my commonplace book. The Christian and the Bolshevik debate their actions and the difference that the former will not agree that the ends justify the means. The Christian explains:

"Our difference is not a matter of mere politics, it is a difference in attitude towards truth, towards the purpose of man's existence. It is only this. I believe that every surrender to cruelty makes the battle harder for those who follow."

Hutchinson's last novel, 'Rising' (which I seem to have read in 1982) was a haunting tale of redemption achieved through the sacrificial self offering of one man for another. I noted this passage:

"Sometimes when Sabino was small he did helpful things for me. Oh, only little things. But without my asking. Then he'd do something heartless and drive me to despair again. No, not quite despair. I kept remembering the other things, the times when we he'd thought of people's feelings. It meant there was a spring of goodness in him, out of sight - something which would come to life again. It's in him still - it doesn't die to nothing, it can't, that part of a person which has once made us love him. We accept the fact of evil, which we can't explain. Surely we've got to accept the mystery of goodness too."

Allenby and Tutankhamun

I went searching for a picture of Lord Allenby at the tomb of Tutankahmun. I found one, but it is licensed and the website seemed to want $675 to use it. So I shan't post it, but you can see it here.

Meanwhile here is a picture of Sir Henry McMahon, (Th 1876) High Commissioner of Egypt 1914 - 17 President of the OH Society 1915 - 1919.

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.

Who do you thnk you are?

The famous story of the policeman who stopped a speeding motorist and asked sarcastically "Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?" to get the reply, "Well, yes I am actually," has done the rounds many times.

Sir Stirling (L 1943) is in the news today. He gave a trophy to be awarded as the Sir Stirling Moss Trophy at the Motor Racing Legends Awards Dinner. The trophy itself is very green, being a recyled object: the trophy he was awarded for his very first Grand Prix win.

The full story is here.

The Stirling Moss Trophy race

Arbori In Altera Terra

There are two exchange students from Haileybury Melbourne at College at the moment. Their distinctive piped blazers and badges make them stand out. Ailsa Wallace and Ryuun Fujihara are blogging aboiut their experiences and you can read the first post here.

Ailsa notes the differences of the physical enviornment.

I was struck by this picture of a tree at the Austrailian Haileybury when I had a hunt about on their website.

Similar - but different!