Master in Charge of Antiques

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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!