Q news 48 Trinity 2015

No. 48 Trinity Term 2015
NEW S FOR FORMER PUPILS
Our Foundation Director, Mrs
Joanna Lavelle put her thespian
talent on show at Buxton Festival
Fringe in a new play by Alan
Charnley entitled ‘Write Yourself
Free: Female Facts or Male Fiction?’
Best known for her tribute show
‘Choice Joyce’, an appreciation of
the life and work of comedian
Joyce Grenfell, and for her portrayal of Shirley in Shirley Valentine,
Joanna appeared as Belinda Gold in this new play. Adapted from a new
book with the same title Joanna’s character is one that she really
enjoys. “My character is fascinating. She comes across at first as a hard
self-assured woman. But, she reveals herself during the course of the
play to be not as she appears at all.”
The play was performed at the Old Clubhouse, in Buxton in July, before
relocating to the Edinburgh Fringe at The Eerie in the Jekyll and Hyde
Public House.
It's official - Jordan Griffith is one in ten thousand. After graduating from
the University of Northumbria with a First Class degree in Business
Studies Jordan has been joined Marks and Spencer as a graduate
trainee. More than 10,000 hopefuls applied for the coveted trainee roles
of which only 100 were selected. Beating the odds of 100-1. A great
success. Well done, Jordan!
BBC North West Tonight
Sports Reporter, Richard
Askam, is the chief guest at
this year’s Old Blackburnians’
Annual Dinner. After university
in Birmingham, Richard
worked in Japan, and back in
the UK joined the team at
Radio Lancashire before
moving to North West Tonight. He’s covered several major
sporting events including the Olympic Games in Athens and
Ricky Hatton’s world title fight in Las Vegas. Richard is married
to QEGS Psychology teacher, Wendy Askam.
The toast to the school will be made by former pupil, John Leigh
who until his retirement was a well-known local solicitor in
Blackburn. A regular attendee at the Annual Dinner, John is
looking forward to sharing his memories of life at QEGS.
The Annual Dinner takes place in Big School and is open to
former pupils and staff. For the fifth year running the ticket
prices have been held. For those who left school in 2015 there
is a special discount ticket price of just £15.00 for those who left
school between the years 2011 and 2014 the cost is £25.00 all
other tickets cost £30. The tickets are available from the
Foundation Office and a booking form is available to download.
We have searched high and low but the DVD of the 2008 school
production of the Crucible remains lost. Does anyone have a copy
they can lend or donate to the school? Some of the cast members
want to get together and watch it again.
Congratulations to Samuel Tranter (24) who has married fellow Aberdeen
University student, Alexandra McKay from Ireland.
Both Alexandra and Samuel were studying Theology. Samuel's brother
Jonathan another Old Blackburnian was his best man and his father
the Reverend Stephen Tranter helped to take the service (Stephen is
another Old Blackburnian) and when someone needed to step in at the
last minute to take the photographs Samuel's uncle Ian was on hand
and Ian is yet another Old Blackburnian. A real QEGS wedding.
Samuel and Alexandra are living in Durham.
● Gordon Fordyce (1949-2015) Gordon was a pupil at QEGS
from 1958 – 1969.
● Kenneth Bretherton has died at the age of 90 (1925-2015)
● We have been advised of the death, at the age of 101, of
Lewis Harry Roberts (1914-2015)
Congratulations to OB Chris Baldwin who has been awarded a
City and Guilds Medal of Excellence for his Level 5 NVQ on
Occupational Health and Safety.
Chris has recently left the Royal
Navy where his role was MOD
Superintendent of Diving and he
has now joined the International
Marine Contractors Association
(IMCA) as one of their Technical
Advisers. IMCA is an international
trade association comprising
of over 1000 companies
working in the offshore oil and
gas, and renewable sectors.
Chris works as an all – round
adviser but has specific responsibility
for marine security, vessel safety inspection, helicopter
operations, Dynamic Positioning training and remote and ROV
systems. The job involves a fair bit of travelling to the regions
where the members operate, so in Chris's words, "I've clocked
up a few air miles on trips to Brazil, Singapore and the Far East,
Middle East and of course Europe." However, Chris has not
entirely left the navy as he has joined the Royal Navy Reserve
as a Commander in a role as the capability manager for the
Maritime Reserves diving specialisation.
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