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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 7 1940 and services were held in the London Welsh Hall until a new Chapel was completed shortly after the end of his tenure. *** Marj Laundon, a retired Macmillan Nurse. She tells of an occasion last year when Geraint, in hospital, detected ‘something a bit Welsh about one of the Registrars. You’ve got it. Blow the investigation and bring on the interrogation’. He established that this doctor’s grandfather had preceded his own at Jewin and as soon as he got home studied the ancient Jewin books to see where he fitted in. **** Old Stationers present at Geraint’s funeral service were: Ian Blackmore, Tony Eade, Michael Ttofi, Mike Howell, Tim Westbrook, Peter Thomas, Peter Sandell, Liam Gallagher, Richard Jenkins, Peter Jarvis, Mike Hasler, Peter Winter (President), John Rowlands, Bob Harris, Geoff Holmes, Roger Engledow, Roger Melling and Richard Phillippo. Also, Honorary Stationer, Ian Moore. ge IN HIS OWN BACK YARD: A FIELD TRIP IN NORTH WALES Geraint Pritchard (GP) was rightly famed for the field trips that he organised on an annual basis to the Malham area of North Yorkshire, giving the opportunity for those who attended to complete the ‘Three Peaks’, a 24-mile day walk climbing Peny-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough, all within a target time of twelve hours. However, in addition to these trips, which were for A-Level geographers, he also ran a field trip, less frequently, to North Wales, where he had spent large parts of his childhood and for which he retained a deep love throughout his life. As a scientist with no room for geography amongst A-Levels in the three sciences and maths, I did have the opportunity to attend one of these Welsh field trips as an O-Level student of the subject. The trip took place during the summer term of the fourth form, and was for a week. Geraint was the organiser of the trip, assisted by a junior colleague, but inexplicably at first, he travelled independently of us boys, who made our own way to Euston station to board the Irish Mail bound for Holyhead, staying on board all the way to Bangor. The latter part of the route was outstanding, passing as it does along the North Welsh coast, through Conwy Castle and past the glorious sands of Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan. At Bangor we were met by Geraint, along with a locally hired coach and driver. Having loaded our Sean Leonard, Ian Blackmore, Dave Fuller, Richard Comerford on Geography field trip luggage (we were not expert packers, being adorned with a motley collection of suitcases, holdalls and carrier bags) onto the coach, we were then walked to our home for the next week, which was the Youth Hostel on the outskirts of the town. Our first exertion was a game of football on the fields adjoining the hostel, a chance to blow away the cobwebs of our five-hour train journey. Then it was back to the hostel. Geraint had, in his own inimitable style, brokered a special arrangement with the warden of the hostel, with the warden providing us with massive quantities of food that we then had to plan meals from, prepare, cook and eat. We generated our own rosters of food planners, galley hands, chefs and washer-uppers, and this was only one way that we all matured during that week, which would stand us in good stead when we went off to university or otherwise moved out from our homes. It will not surprise any readers of this to know that this was exactly what Geraint had intended. GP didn’t eat with us but seemed to have a mysterious better offer! Every moment of every day was planned, to keep us busy, to stimulate us, and, perhaps most importantly, to tire us out! Our first night saw all of us awake most of the night, singing and fooling around, but we were too exhausted for a repeat of these antics on any of the other nights! My detailed memories are sketchy this many years on (my trip was in June 1977), but I can recall the following day trips: - Nant Ffrancon Valley. This is possibly the best example in the British Isles, if not the world, of a typical U-shaped glacial valley, carved out by the passage of a glacier. GP, over about ten miles, brought to life all the classical physical features of a glacial area, including cwms, arêtes, pyramidal peaks, lateral and terminal Walking in North Wales, - A family geology lesson 24
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 7 moraines, and my own personal favourite, a roche moutonnée, which is a rock shaped like a sheep’s rear end, made thus by a glacier passing over it. I have since impressed many with my obscure knowledge! - Mount Snowdon. We climbed Snowdon by the notorious Crib Goch ascent, made famous by those who have used this route to practice for Everest. Indeed, this route up the highest point in England or Wales has recently been voted the UK’s second favourite walk (Malham, with its cove, tarn and a Gordale Scar, came third, with Helvellyn in the Lake District being the winner, with Striding Edge being its arête equivalent of Crib Goch; the power of glacial landscapes!) It was a gloriously sunny day and we were dehydrated by the time that we made the summit, but were all hugely grateful for the homemade lemonade stall halfway down, intriguingly run by somebody who knew and recognised GP! - Power Stations. We were taken, as part of the industrial and social geography part of our learning, to the Trawsfynydd nuclear power station (now decommissioned) and the Ffestiniog hydroelectric power station. The latter was Britain’s first major pumped storage facility, with upper and lower lakes. We were given intimate access to the workings of these amazing structures, which I found hugely interesting. I have since subjected my family to power station tours, but have been unable to match the enthusiasm imparted by Geraint. - Llechwedd Slate Caverns. Geraint had organised a tunnel tour conducted by a genuine slate miner, and this proved to be an outstanding trip. We were all convinced of the virtues of slate roofs and persuaded never to allow a builder to fit tiles to any house that we lived in! - Holyhead port and the railway station in the middle of Anglesey with the longest name: Llanfair¬pwllgwyngyll¬gogery¬ch wyrn¬drobwll¬llan-tysilio¬gogo¬goch (it means ‘Parish church of St Mary in the hollow of the White Hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the parish church of St Tysilio with a red cave’), shortened to Llanfair PG. - The Pritchard Family Farm in Anglesey. This is where the penny dropped about where Geraint had been spending his nights while we were in the youth hostel: he had been staying on his uncle’s farm, where he had spent many happy childhood summers. Ever the comedian, he advised the less rurally aware schoolboys to use the ‘stepping stones’ to traverse the muddy fields, bursting into laughter when those who were unwise enough to take his advice disappeared knee-deep into cow pats! All in all it was an amazing trip. We all made new friends, cemented old friendships, and learnt a huge amount about the subject (geography in all its elements), each other, and ourselves, including our resilience under physical and other pressures. It was certainly a week that I will never forget and I even won first prize in the London Borough of Haringey photographic competition for a slide that I took of a waterfall in the Nant Ffrancon Valley. I was personally hugely honoured to have my own field trip folder, with diagrams, explanations and photos, ‘confiscated’ by Geraint and never returned, for the purposes of planning future trips. The field trip to North Wales provided solid evidence of what an outstanding teacher Geraint Pritchard was, able to teach and positively influence his pupils through his example and humour. I will certainly carry the knowledge of glaciation with me for the rest of my days, never mind the life lessons that were picked up on the journey through that week. Mike Howell 1973-80 ge It was Geraint that got me to join the OSA. Some years after I had left Stationers’, he visited my mother’s house looking for me. My mother told him that I was living near Cambridge and he subsequently contacted me suggesting that I join the OSA. I did so, and renewed our friendship. Geraint and I were in the same school year and, although we studied different subjects in the sixth form, we played “fives” together during break times. I remember that he was an admirable school prefect and took his duties very seriously. We had lost contact when we left Stationers’ and I did not know that he had become a geography master at Stationers’ and then its last deputy Head. He became a frequent visitor to Cambridge and we used to go out to lunch, a different pub each time. He particularly liked the Plough in Fen Ditton by the River Cam where we could sit outside on a bench and watch the boats motoring by. He only ever drank Appletize – with ice during the summer months. As the editor of The Old Stationer, he was excellent in encouraging potential contributors to pick up their pens and provide some interesting text and photographs to inform other Old Stationers of their interests and travels. Geraint and I together joined the Stationers’ Company’s Fund Raising Committee for the new school that the Company was going to sponsor. It was in its early days when the particular school had not yet been chosen. He was a real source of energy and useful information as he had intimate knowledge of the workings of a secondary school. When I visited him in his new house in Harewood in February with my wife and granddaughter, he seemed in good spirits. However, he was unable to take us to the nearby Royal Horticultural Society Garden Harlow Carr, where he had organized lunch, as Marj’s furniture was being delivered that day. He instead, suggested some other attractions around the Harrogate area for us to take our granddaughter to visit – his geography knowledge had not diminished. My granddaughter particularly remembers his kindness to her – he gave her many chocolate biscuits. I was saddened to hear of his death in April. We have all lost a good school chum, colleague, traveler and editor. Tony Moffat 1954-61 ge My life was changed entirely by Geraint Pritchard: Geraint arrived at St. Albans Grammar School for Boys in the first year of my ‘O’ Levels and became our geography teacher. Before him, we had a terrifying geography teacher; Geraint was a breath of fresh air, and young (being only ten years older than us). ‘Graff ’, as he was affectionately named by us, taught us physical geography with such a passion it gave me, and many of my classmates, a love of the subject. When he gave our class the opportunity to learn geology as an extra-curriculum subject, we jumped at the chance. I am sure there would not be many pupils who would so willingly give up their lunchtimes and after school time to study – but Geraint had that charisma. I had wanted to study A Level geography, as well as maths and physics, as I had an intention to study geophysics at university. However, the school curriculum meant that I had to give up geography, for my combination of maths and physics. Not to be deterred, I continued with Geraint’s geology class beyond ‘O’ Level into my Lower Sixth, progressing to AS Level 25
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Page 47 and 48: Digging out a cross from the cabbag

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