OSAmag93

No 93 / July 2021
The Old Stationer
Number 93 - July 2021

The transformation of Stationers’ HalL
2023 marks the 350th anniversary of the rebuilding of
Stationers’ Hall after the Great Fire of London. Over
this period, successive generations of Stationers have
enhanced and improved this historic building, the
third oldest Livery Hall in the City of London;
including re-facing the Hall in stone in 1800,
completely rebuilding the eastern wing and creating a
new entrance in 1885 and reconstructing the Court
Room in 1957 after war damage.
However, early in the 21st century, it became apparent
that further work needs to be done to make this grade
1 ancient building fit for purpose in a very different
world. As the focal point for the UK Communications
and Content industries, the Hall needs to be more
accessible, more flexible in its use and more environmentally
sustainable.
After extensive research, planning and negotiation, the
Court of the Stationers’ Company recently took an
historic, once-in-a-generation, decision to go ahead
with a transformational project at a total cost of £7.5
million. The Hall was therefore closed for redevelopment
from November 2020 with an expected
completion date of Spring 2022. This will be the most
important refurbishment of Stationers’ Hall, since it
was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London and will
ensure that a transformed Stationers’ Hall will be open
for business well before its 350th anniversary and for
many years thereafter.
For those who know the Hall layout well, a second
entrance in the garden will provide step-free access to a
new reception and cloakroom area and a lift that will stop
at all the major function rooms, revolutionising access in
a building that contains some 16 different levels.
This second entrance will also allow two separate events
to take place in the Hall simultaneously, making its use
much more flexible for visitors, members and commercial
clients. A modernised kitchen will provide the capacity
for multiple events and events in the adjoining church.
The space above the Court Room, now vacant after the
creation of the state-of-the-archive storage and reading
rooms in the Tokefield Centre, will be available for use
as three separate meeting/break-out rooms or as one
much larger function room.
All the major function rooms will be fitted with air
cooling, a pre-requisite in the hotter summers that we
have been experiencing recently; creating greater
comfort for those attending events and better protecting
the fabric of the Hall and its contents. At the same time,
improved insulation and proper temperature control
will significantly reduce the Hall’s carbon footprint.
The school archives held currently in the basement of
the Hall and the portraits of our past headmasters
currently on display on the library staircase will be
moved to other premises while the building work is
proceeding. The early painting of the school building
currently in the lobby of the Hall will also be removed
for safe keeping. Space will be made available for the
return of the archives to the Hall in 2022 should the
OSA so wish it, and the paintings will find new homes
elsewhere in the transformed Hall complex.
Sadly, it will not be possible for the OSA to hold its
AGM and annual dinner in the Hall in 2021 and it
would probably be better to postpone the 2022 AGM
and Dinner to April 2022. In any event, the Stationers’
Company looks forward to welcoming the OSA back
to the Hall in 2023 to remind us all of the strong bonds
that exist between the Company and the Old Stationers’
Association.
Any members of the OSA who would like to make a
donation to the Stationers' Hall Charity to help fund
the Hall transformation are invited to contact Pamela
Butler at hallcharity@stationers.org for further details.
William Alden
Tony Mash

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
The Old Stationer
Number 93 - jULY 2021
OLD STATIONERS’ ASSOCIATION
LIST OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS 2021/2022
President
Stephen P Collins
85 Love Lane, Pinner,
Middx. HA5 3EY
✆ 07802 157044
: spc@woodhaven.me.uk
Vice-President
Daniel Bone
56 Union Street, High Barnet,
EN5 4HZ ✆ 07770 431060
: dan.bone@civix.org.uk
Honorary Secretary & Past President
Peter R Thomas
107 Jackdaw Close, Stevenage,
Herts. SG2 9DB ✆ 01438 722870
: peterthomas561@outlook.com
Honorary Treasurer
Peter Winter
5 Oakways, Warrington, WA4 5HD
07795 450863
: prcwinter1@btinternet.com
Membership Secretary
Roger Engledow
118 Hertswood Court,
Hillside Gardens, Barnet, EN5 4AU
07817 111642
: osamembers@gmail.com
Honorary Editor
Tim Westbrook
7 Goodyers Avenue, Radlett,
Herts. WD7 8AY ✆ 0845 8724001
: tim@timwestbrook.co.uk
Website Off icer
Peter Gotham
Cambridge
: peter.gotham@gmail.com
Honorary Archivist
David D Turner
63 Brookmans Avenue, Brookmans
Park, Herts. AL9 7QG
✆ 01707 656414
: daviddanielturner63@gmail.com
Event Managers
Roger Melling
43 Holyrood Road, New Barnet,
Herts. EN5 1DQ ✆ 020 8449 2283
: rmelling76@gmail.com
Peter A Sandell
11 Maplecroft Lane, Nazeing, Essex,
EN9 2NR ✆ 07917 693523
: peter.sandell@hotmail.co.uk
Honorary Auditors
Chris Langford, Dave Cox
Ordinary Members
Andreas H Christou
22 Woodgrange Avenue, Bush Hill
Park, Enfield EN1 1EW
07722 117481
: andreashchristou@yahoo.com
Peter Bothwick
52 Hither Green Lane, Abbey Park,
Redditch, Worcs. B98 9BW
✆ 01527 62059
: pedrotres@hotmail.co.uk
Tony C Hemmings
5 The Mount, Cheshunt,
Herts. EN7 6RF
01992 638535
: hemmingsac@hotmail.com
Clubs & Societies
Football Club
Ian Meyrick
: ian.meyrick1@gmail.com
Golf Society
Roger Rufey
07780 450369
: rrufey@gmail.com
Apostles Club
Stuart H Behn
l67 Hempstead Road, Watford,
Herts. WD17 3HF
✆ 023 243546
: stuartbehn@hotmail.com
Luncheon Club
Roger Melling
Details as previous column
SC School Lodge no. 7460
Michael D Pinfield
63 Lynton Road, Harrow,
Middx. HA2 9NJ
✆ 020 8422 4699 07956 931174
: secretary7460ugle@gmail.com
Magazine
Publishing Adviser
Tim Westbrook
Details as above
Design & Production Manager
Ian Moore
Homecroft, Princes Gate,
Pembs. SA67 8TG
✆ 01834 831 272
: ian@outhaus.biz
Printed by
Stephens and George
Contents
Regular features
Editorial 4
Dates for the Diary 4
Correspondence 14
Special features
Annual Lunch at Cutlers Hall 5
Website update 13
Far as you roam
Drumnadrochit David Maclean 23
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway 23
Keith Knight address 27
Conducting Paul Bateman 31
Princess Diana's funeral -
Northants involvement 33
Me and my motors
David Turner 35
Neil Adkins 36
Peter Armstrong 37
David Hudson 37
My brush with the law
Neil Adkins 39
Peter Miller 39
My life in print Alan Cleps 40
Big guns Gibraltar Ray & Tony 42
Gerry Trew Bio 44
Clubs & Societies
Golf Society 11
OSFC 12
Reunions
Class of 1965 - Zoom reunion 12
Class of 1960 - Zoom reunion 13
Varia
Puzzle Corner 43
Membership Report 43
Minutes of the AGM 59
Financial Reports 60
OSA Photographic Competition 63
Obituaries
Tributes to Gordon Rose 45
John Brackley 55
Keith Ranger 55
John Dickens 56
Peter Holden 56
Robert Coulter 57
Tony Hughes 58
Donald Smith 58
Ken Rickards 58
Richard Hudson 58
Supplying items for publication
Text: Please supply as Word or typed documents if
possible. Images: Supply as original images or hi-res
(300dpi) digital files in tiff, jpeg or eps format.
Post or email to the Honorary Editor, Tim
Westbrook. See Committee list for address details.
3

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
EDITORIAL
As I write, we are
well into the second
year of Covid
restrictions to our
social activity which
of course impacts on
the heart of our
Association.
Thankfully, due to
the combined efforts
of Roger Melling,
Peter Sandell and
Peter Thomas we
were able to hold a lunch time gathering on Friday 25th June,
originally booked as our AGM and Annual dinner in March.
The AGM reverted to a zoom meeting and our dinner
turned into a lunch at Cutlers’ Hall while our premises are
being refurbished. Our new host venue accommodated 58
OSA guests in very congenial surroundings with excellent
service and a beautifully presented meal of Shallot Tart,
Gressingham Duck and Crème Brulee. Our MC for the
event was the ever entertaining Peter Bothwick presenting a
perfect balance of humour and discipline to ensure a glitch
free experience for all. Immediately after lunch an engraved
goblet was presented to departing Company Clerk, William
Alden for his many years of service and support for the OSA.
Guest speaker Lord Triesman regaled us with a number of
anecdotes from his illustrious past in government, football
and business then, Master of the Company, Old Stationer,
The Rt. Reverend Dr Stephen Platten delivered the Company
response. President, Stephen Collins concluded the official
responses before being emblazered by Peter Thomas, our past
President. As we were leaving Cutlers’ Hall for our pilgrimage
to the Cockpit I was reassured that in the event of a terrorist
attack there was an abundance of ceremonial scimitars
hanging on the wall which would serve as a substitute
Narwhal tusk if required.
Sadly, a couple of weeks before the lunch we learned of the
death of Gordon Rose after an extended period of ill health.
His funeral on June 16th was attended by a socially distanced
capacity crowd at West Herts Crematorium and the cortege
was accompanied by the Botany Bay jazz band. There were
eulogies from his daughter Pauline, son Andrew and good
friend Peter Jarvis. Afterwards, many family, friends and
OSA members gathered at Botany Bay Cricket Club for the
wake. Gordon contributed more than any other individual to
the well-being and success of the OSA and will be missed by
all who knew him. A multitude of members have written
personal tributes which are included in this issue of the
magazine.
I feel I should also mention the death of Richard Hudson. I
have been collaborating with him for over a year to produce
and publish his excellent article on the North Yorkshire
Moors Railway and I am saddened that he will not now see
the fruits of his labour which appear in this magazine.
Please note below the provisional dates we have booked for
forthcoming OSA events when hopefully we will be free to
socialise, which after all is what our membership is rather
good at!
Tim
DATES for the DIARY
PRESIDENT’S DAY LUNCH and
CRICKET MATCH
Sunday 29th August 2021 - 12.30pm
See President's invitation on page 5.
SEPTEMBER LUNCH
Wednesday 15th September 2021 at The Royal National
Hotel. Booking details to be emailed to members
Online magazine archive
Every school and OSA magazine since 1884 is accessible in the
Library on the OSA web site. Have a look and see what was
happening in your school days. Password: 0335OS-wwwOSA
CHRISTMAS LUNCH
Friday 3rd December 2021 at Cutlers’ Hall
AGM Lunch/Dinner 2022
The date and venue are yet to be confirmed but will not be
held at Stationers' Hall due to the building works which will
extend until June.
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
ANNUAL LUNCH at cutlers hall - June 2021
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
Lord Triesman, Master, other distinguished guests, gentlemen...
First, I wish to thank Lord Triesman for proposing the toast to
the OSA. We are honoured to have hosted an Old Stationer
who is in the House of Lords – who knows, maybe the first?
Your OSA membership form will be in the post, David.
And today is indeed one of firsts. It is the first time we have had
an Annual Lunch rather than Dinner. It is the first time that we
have been addressed by a Master of the Company who is also an
Old Stationer – thank you, Bishop Stephen, for your kind words.
And I should take this opportunity to thank the Company,
through you, for its support in renting Cutlers’ Hall for us. In
that connection, it is the first time that we have had our
celebration outside Stationers’ Hall. And it is the first time since
the end of the War that a President has served more than one
year. And only the last of these firsts has anything to do with
Covid.
So let me begin with a few words about myself. I joined the
School in 1962 -- and our cohort, I am pleased to say, remains
among the most numerous among the membership of the OSA,
amounting to about 6% of the total. After school and Cambridge,
I entered the Bank of England where I spent my entire career,
including two spells on secondment to the International
Monetary Fund in Washington DC. I am married to Lindsay,
with three grown-up children, and I live in Pinner.
I joined the OSA very shortly after leaving school, but, as I am
not much of a sportsman, did not enjoy the camaraderie of the
football and cricket clubs where many bonds of friendship will
have been formed among those present today. But I kept in
touch with a few contemporaries, attended the occasional
Annual Dinner, and was an enthusiastic participant in the 50th
and 55th anniversary reunions that we organised. It nonetheless
came as a surprise to be invited to join the OSA Committee,
initially as Vice President and now as President. It is an honour
that I greatly appreciate.
And I have to say that the sheer professionalism with which the
Committee operates has enormously impressed me. I do not
have time to mention all individuals by name, but I should
particularly like to thank Peter Thomas who works like a
Stakhanovite as Secretary in succession to the redoubtable Tony
Hemmings, and who was denied the send-off he deserved as
outgoing President because of Covid. I would also like to pay
tribute to our retired Treasurer, Michael Hasler, who has made a
remarkable recovery from serious illness and is here with us
today.
5

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
So what has happened over the past year? Not a lot, but not
nothing either. My Presidency more-or-less coincided with the
start of the lockdowns, which meant that meetings in person
were generally not possible. All our Committee meetings have
therefore been conducted over Zoom without noticeable loss of
efficiency. And Zoom has enabled the innovation of a series of
talks by Old Stationers about their careers and interests which
have proved deservedly popular. So far we have heard from the
Master, Keith Knight, Tony Moffat and Peter Bothwick, as well
as an update on the Hall refurbishment by Giles Fagan following
our Zoom AGM. This is an innovation with which I firmly
believe we should continue even when normality is restored, not
least because it enables members scattered throughout the
country and abroad to be connected with the Association.
In an interval between lockdowns we were able to stage the
promised guided walks around Bolt Court and environs exploring
the origins of the School. As with the walks around Crouch End
the previous year, they were very well received, and we hope to
repeat them in the future (and we hope to reinstate the
Derbyshire Dales walk that had to be postponed). And if you
were to go on the Crouch End walk, you would now be able to
see the plaque which we unveiled last year on one of the
remaining external walls of the School site in Mayfield Road
commemorating the existence of the School. Until the erection
of that plaque, there was no indication as to why Stationers Park,
which lies between Mayfield and Denton Roads, is so-called.
Credit for that achievement is due to Tim Westbrook for his
persistence with Haringey Council. I might add that I went to
check on the plaque a couple of weeks ago and it still hasn’t been
vandalised! And, of course, you don’t need to go on a formal walk
to see it, so do have a stroll down memory lane.
Inevitably with an ageing membership, it is a struggle to keep
numbers around the 500 mark that has been the norm for a
number of years. Nonetheless, we could still maintain or enhance
numbers if we were able the attract the large number of Old
Stationers in the 50-60 age bracket who have not joined. We
hope that more active use of social media may help to engage the
interest of many OS who are connected with each other through,
for example, year-group Facebook pages but are not members of
the OSA. The annual fee of £15 is hardly excessive.
And we would expect to be able to keep the fee at that level for
many years to come because of our healthy financial position.
President emblazered
President's speech
PRESIDENT’S DAY
SUNDAY 29th AUGUST 2021
I would like to invite you, your partners, your family and
friends to a special day on Sunday 29th August, when, all
being well, I will have the pleasure of hosting the traditional
Old Stationers’ President’s Cricket Match in the beautiful
setting of the Botany Bay Cricket Club, East Lodge Lane,
Enfield. Middx. EN2 8HS.You do not have to like Cricket
for this to be a great bank holiday Sunday with friends!
I am grateful to Richard Slatford for selecting the
President’s Team to represent the OSA to play a team from
Botany Bay Cricket Club. The match will commence at
2.00pm, finishing at around 7.30pm.
The bar will be open from 11.45am and lunch will be
served at 12.30pm. If you wish to have lunch, the cost will
be £27 per head. Please send your cheque to Peter Sandell
(made payable to P Sandell) at the earliest opportunity and
certainly no later than 16th August. Peter`s address is 11
Maplecroft Lane, Nazeing. Essex. EN9 2NR. Alternatively,
you can pay on line; Account: P Sandell. Sort code: 20-29-
81, account no: 93600653.
I do hope you will join and me for this special occasion.
We will also use the occasion to pay further tribute to
Gordon Rose who was not only “Mr Old Stationer” but a
long-standing member of Botany Bay Cricket club, so it
seems fitting to use the occasion in this way. We will be
inviting some of Gordon`s family as our guests & hopefully
his son, Andy will bowl the first ball in the same way as
Gordon did in 2012 at the 40th anniversary match and
indeed in the inaugural President`s match.
Kind regards
Stephen Collins
President 2020/22
6

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
This has been greatly enhanced over the past year by bequests
from two late Presidents -- £10,000 from Sir John Sparrow and
£5,000 from Peter Sargent. The Committee is currently
discussing how best to benefit from their generosity.
Turning to the future, assuming that terminus date is truly on
19th July, we will resume normal activities with President’s Day
on Sunday, 29th August at the Botany Bay Cricket Club. We
then hope to have our regular autumn luncheon, now fixed for
Wednesday, 15th September; and the Christmas Lunch will be
held here at Cutlers’ Hall on Friday, 3rd December. Next year’s
AGM and Annual Lunch is provisionally booked for Friday, 8th
April. I say ‘provisionally’, because we very much hope that it
will be able to take place at the newly refurbished Stationers’
Hall, but we will have to see whether that date will hold in light
of possible delays to the completion of the works.
I will conclude now. I do have some further thank-you’s to make,
but will reserve them for my closing words following the School
Song. Speaking of which, it will not be possible to sing out loud,
so I encourage you all to hum along with the piano. But I do not
want the words of the song to go completely unspoken, so I have
adapted a grace which I composed for a pre-lockdown lunch to
balance, in a rather inferior way, William’s pre-lunch versification:
Old Boys and Older Boys
We’re proud to be Stationers
Bolt Court and Hornsey have taught us our trade
All round the world, as workers or vacationers,
We’ve travelled far, in sunshine and in shade.
We’ve followed good advice
Been jabbed not once but twice
So Covid hasn’t stymied us
And we are still undaunted
Distance doesn’t sever us
Our hearts remain united.
And far as we may roam, all around this planet,
East and west and north and south, we also love to meet.
So let us thank the Lord, who in aeternum manet,
For friendship, friendship, and what we’ve had to eat.
Thanks are due, finally, to Roger Melling and Peter Sandell for
arranging today’s complex event so efficiently; to Cutlers’ Hall
for their welcome and catering; and to Peter Bothwick for acting
with his usual aplomb as Master of Ceremonies. And we also
welcome Daniel Bone in his first appearance as Vice President.
The master's speech
Aliens become Friends…
It’s an enormous honour to be addressing you today as Master of
the Company. I know that one of the people who would love to
have been alive to see this was Robert Baynes, or R D Baynes as
he was more prosaically described in our day. Bob greatly loved
not only the school but also the Company. He was the person
who most frequently tried to persuade me to join the livery. To
have seen not me, but rather the first Old Stationer to be Master
of the Company would, I know, have delighted him. I’m
profoundly honoured and grateful to have that privilege. It’s very
good to be here and to see here some who were there at the
school with me. Thank you for inviting me to speak and now let
me shift gear, significantly!
I want to take you back for a moment to the first meal of the day.
Doubtless we all have our own regular breakfast menus. My all
time favourite is toast, spread very thickly with Marmite with
which I always eat a fresh banana. It’s that combination, highly
abhorrent to my eldest granddaughter, which led to her describing
me as ‘an alien’. Isuppose that means, in modern parlance, a
creature from outer space?
Now, reading Robert Baynes’ excellent history of the school I
discovered that all of us here would, in the very earliest days, have
been catalogued as aliens. For, the aim, first and foremost. was to
educate sons of freemen and liverymen. Only after that, could
they fill up the roll with others. Records note that ‘these lesser
breeds be referred to as aliens’.
So, welcome to you all - a room full of former aliens!
Interestingly enough, the beginnings of the school don’t feel
hugely encouraging. Who, for example, was Andrew Isbister, the
first Headmaster? Well, we know little about him, but his name
suggests an Orcadian parentage. At some point he was parachuted
into central London from the remote north. The only description
we have says ‘…he was…a great man….over six feet high, his
gown, mortar board and person reeking with tobacco, his pipe
had a hookah, and an large one at that, with en suite tubing as
large as could be seen outside the tales of the Arabian Nights….’
Then there was the location. First offer was ‘The Freehold Burial
Ground for Irish Vagrants, in the rear of a disused iron foundry
in Golden Lane…’ Finally, the aspirations of the school - on
account of shortage of cash, they chose to establish a ‘Lower Class
School’ as it was designated - that too was much regretted later.
It was only the generosity of later liverymen and freemen of the
Company that rescued it from incipient ‘sink status’. Even the
Bolt Court site just up the road from here - cheek by jowl with
Dr Johnson’s House - was utterly inadequate. That led to the
move to Hornsey only thirty years on. It was the Company, with
the vision and generosity of its members in those early days, that
transformed Stationers’ into a school that produced such talented
alumni - people like Franklin Engelmann - Radio journalist,
Stanford Robinson - conductor, Barry Took - comedy writer,
Colin Chapman - founder of Lotus Cars, and David Triesman
- Life Peer and former Chairman of the Football Association.
Mentioning David is a great work of self-sacrifice on my part
since he’s a Spurs supporter!
But where are we all now? My first encounter with Stationers’
Hall was in 1961 singing in the choir for the Cakes and Ale
service. The Hall looked then exactly as it looked exactly as it did
until a few months ago when work started in earnest. It looked
tired and ready for new life. Soon. we shall have the best Hall in
London - historic and noble, accessible for all, properly ventilated
throughout and marketable for four events at a time. That
ensures not just survival but the future of a great historic building
and the prospering of a dynamic Company.
Then, as you all know, there’s a new school at Crown Woods -
directly related to our industries and in a less affluent part of
London. So my message today to all of us members of the OSA
is twofold. Let’s really engage with the school - it’s the
continuance and fulfilment of our inheritance. Second, if you can,
do contribute to the new Hall - you’ll have read my earlier
appeals - it belongs to us Old Stationers in a very special way.
Let’s help both our Hall and the life of our very active Company
prosper in this infant century.
7

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
We may have begun as declared aliens, but as the Composite
Verse of the School Song reminds us - friendship is now what
binds us together.
Stephen Platten
Master Stationer 2020-2021
Past President's Address
Lord Triesman, Master, Clerk, Guests, and fellow Old Stationers’...
It may seem a long time ago that I served you as your President,
but as we are all aware, the first wave of the pandemic and
subsequent lockdown wreaked havoc on our programme of
events, forcing us to abandon plans for last year’s Annual Lunch
and preventing me from concluding my Presidency by thanking
you all for your support.
But first, I would like to express my gratitude to your committee
for their hard work and dedication, and for their support and
encouragement to me throughout my Presidency. I would also
like to make special mention to Tony Hemmings by paying
tribute to his many years of service, as our secretary, and for
stepping in to fill the role during my President’s year.
I am honoured to have been invited to take over the role of
Honorary Secretary. Tony has set the bar high and will be a hard
act to follow!
Also, my thanks go to our President, Stephen Collins, who has
led us extremely well over the past year, despite the challenges of
lockdowns and I wish him continued success for the coming
months and hope we can now have some events for him to enjoy.
I have missed not having our regular programme of lunches and
reunions to share memories and recall athletic prowess on the
Grace
Today, Lord God, driven by Covid to this foreign place, not
severed by distance, we stand together to offer you this Grace.
Old Stationers travelling far from Caxton, Rivington and
Hodgson, from Bishop, Meredith and Norton; long and fruitful
journeys; to them these house names are so important.
So, with hearts united, we give you thanks for our food and for
our wine; for the Stationers’ Company’s School and the friends
with whom we dine; for those, who are now mainly pensioners
but once were probationers, and, most of all, for those who will
for ever be proud to be Stationers.
For all our countless blessings, Lord, how many we really cannot
say; and especially, Lord, this afternoon we give you thanks for
the OSA.
Lastly, Lord, let’s end this Grace in harmony together, as the
Covid restrictions no singing can condone, giving thanks for the
Word that endureth for ever: friendship, friendship, till time shall
bring all of us home!
Amen.
William Alden
sports field – although, to repeat the words of Her Majesty the
Queen in another context, “some recollections may vary".
Finally, I would like to thank you, our members, for your support
throughout my Presidency and beyond. It has been an honour
and a privilege to have served you.
Thank you, Gentlemen.
Peter Thomas
William Alden receives his decanter and honorary tie.
8

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Members enjoying the ambiance of Cutlers Hall
9

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
10

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
osa golf society
Dyrham Park
Our first golfing event of the year was a match against “Old
Tollingtonians” at Dyrham Park which turned out to be a rather
strange affair.
The weather was diabolical with monsoon-like rain sweeping in
to the temporary marquee erected to meet Covid safety rules.
There was a strong feeling on both teams that we should abandon
the fixture and go home but just before the vote was taken, the
rain subsided and we agreed to give it a go. This fixture has
traditionally been played in four-balls with two from each side
making up the groups but Tollingtonians insisted they would play
in their own groups of 4 and compete for their own cup! The
surface water made putting a lottery and retrieving wayward shots
off the fairway ran the risk of contracting “trench foot”.
Most of us completed the round and gathered in the sodden tent
for beers and prize giving with Tollingtonians declaring UDI by
sitting up one end and running their own private prize giving
ceremony awarding their own prizes to themselves. We retaliated
by allocating the official cup and all the other prizes to ourselves
which ironically was a blessing in disguise as the soggy score
cards had disintegrated and were unreadable . For the record,
Peter Russell, Peter Bennett, Tim Westbrook and Colin Watkins
were all awarded individual prizes and of course the Cup is now
retained by Old Stationers in perpetuity as we unanimously
agreed there is little point in continuing with the fixture .
Peter Russel
Tim
Peter Bennett & Roger Rufey
Aldenham Golf Club
Our second fixture was the pairs cup played in fabulous sunshine
at Aldenham Golf Club on June 11th. In line with Roger’s new
commitment to democratic process the pairings were made on
the day by drawing names out of a hat from each of two ranked
groupings.
The course was in very good condition but the mix of sun and
rain had enabled pampas grass to encroach to the edge of the
fairways so any ball straying marginally off course was virtually a
lost cause. We were able to have drinks on the terrace and then
ate dinner inside the new club house extension on tables of 6.
The winning pair were
Peter Russel & John Taylor Pairs Winners
Peter Russell and John
Taylor with 40 points. Best
individual score was Peter
Russell with 33, second was
Ian Meyrick 31. Peter
Russell and Peter Bennett
won the nearest the pin
prizes.
Our next fixture is on July
23rd playing against the
Stationer’s Company at
Abridge. Other fixtures
include Letchworth on
August 12th, Millbrook on
September 3rd and Mill
Green on October 8th.
Any Old Stationers who
wish to join us should
contact Roger Rufey (see
contact details on page 3).
TJW
The winning team at Dyrham Park.
Ian Meyrick
11

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
OSFC 2020/21 Season Report
Unfortunately for the second year running the league season was
abandoned because of Covid restrictions. Initially games were
suspended in mid-December with only about a third of the
League programme completed, and in late March the season was
finally declared null and void.
However, to give the players some game time before the summer,
the League did arrange a series of local friendly mini-leagues
with games taking place late April/early May.
So we now look forward to the 2021/22 season which will kickoff
in September, by which time, fingers crossed, things will be
back to as near normal as possible and we can finally complete a
full season in SAL Senior Division 2.
Recently there have been some changes behind the scenes at the
Club. As we continue to run only a 1st XI, it was decided that it
would seem sensible for the 'older' brigade who have run the
Club for many years to step aside and hand the baton on to the
playing members....the theory being that now our one team is
the Club and the Club is the team.
The 'oldies' will no doubt continue to support the club, but now
as social members.
So the following changes have been announced:
Perry Langley, will continue as Match Secretary and will also
become Secretary.
James Keenan will continue as Club Captain (overseeing all
football and team matters) as well as taking on the Registration
Secretary role.
Ciaran Power will become Treasurer.
William Cottrill will be Chairman (responsible for social and
non-footballing matters)
Also Ian Meyrick will succeed Gordon Rose, who sadly passed
away in May, as the Club's Honorary President.
Here's hoping for a successful 2021/22 season and finally a note
for the diary... Saturday 9th October 2021...
All being well, it is hoped that we can resume our Annual
Ex-Players Reunion Day on what is the normal International
weekend in October. Nearer the time please watch out for
confirmation and further details which will appear on the OSFC
website at www.oldstationersfc.co.uk.
If you require any information about OSFC please contact Ian
Meyrick at ian.meyrick1@gmail.com
REUNIONS
Class of 1965 - zoom reunion
On Wednesday 24th February, 21 from the 1965 intake
miraculously navigated their way onto the great heights of Zoom
and chatted away from 7 -9.45pm about everything from school
days to vaccinations (& someone dared to mention BREXIT!!).
A screen shot as proof is there for all to see. It was a great
evening.
A register was taken and those present were from Form 1
-Bateman, Berwick, Blackmore, Clarke J, Ellis, Fry. Form 1a
-Halliday, Harman, Hendle, Knight, Maybanks, McHanwell,
Orros, Parker. and Form 1b - Presland, Sandell, Slatford, Smith
J, Streater, Wells T, and Young T.
Berwick bunked off early claiming computer problems (a likely
story!) and has been given 100 lines - "I must do better at
12

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
computer studies and ask my 4-year-old grandson for help"
Those playing truant with no agreement for absence were
Dawoodi, Forty, Griffin, Grubb, McStay and Powell and they
will receive detention!
There was a general consensus that we should repeat the event
again.
In terms of a proper lunchtime gathering, it might be possible in
October and if so, the same venue as in 2015, Ye Olde Cheshire
Cheese in Fleet Street would seem ideal.
In the interim, for those not too far from Hertford, a gathering
at Pete Clark`s pub, The Millstream in the Summer is also a
possibility.
A WhatsApp group has been set up with 23 participants so far.
Peter Sandell
Class of 1960 - Zoom reunion
I thought you might be interested in my research into the School
Song. Remember the line that goes "Still you are Stationers, far
as you roam" Well our little group of 1960-1967 Stationers have
been Zooming over the last few months and accumulating a
bigger audience with every showing. There were eight of us on
the last call today: Left to right starting at the top Row Bob
Bird, Simon Westbrook, John Marson, John Aanonson, Robert
Coulter, Richard Smith, Paul Westley, Simon Kusseff. Since
Covid (and Zoom) we have seen more of each other than in the
previous 30 years. That's partly due to the Roaming bit.
Estimated distances from Hornsey in the same order as
appearance< Cambridge 50 miles, San Francisco 5360 miles,
Auckland NZ 11,388 miles, Uxbridge 20 miles, Phoenix AZ
5267 miles, Highbury 2 miles, Nerja Spain 1036 miles, Epping
20 miles. We have well and truly roamed Tidlely om pom pom!
Simon Westbrook 1961-1968
website update
Old Stationers may have noticed that the website has
been undergoing a revamp…
In the course of this I am afraid there were periods
when very old posts appeared, but hopefully we are
now on the path to a more flexible and user friendly
site. Ian Moore has been working hard to make the
site more robust and flexible. For the techies amongst
you the ”Wordpress” engine driving the site now has an
overlay of “Elementor” tools. I hope that those looking
at the site on phone screens will see that this has also
been better allowed for…
One thing you will notice is that posts often have a
“read more” button that opens a longer document than
can be easily included on the front page. One example
is the MEMORIES OF DEPARTED FRIENDS
entry. I show a screen shot of what opens on your PC
if you press that button (slightly differently on a small
screen). As you can see I now need to built on Ian’s
groundwork and add more recent obituary entries to
the list on the right hand side.
I will also now need to do my homework to fully realise
Ian’s vision for our site fit for the 2020s. Meantime
please do not hesitate to let me
know if you spot any error, or
have any suggestions..
Peter Gotham
peter.gotham@outlook.com
13

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
CORRESPONDENCE
Good morning All,
And to those of you who, like me, got
absolutely soaked at Dyrham Park
yesterday; we must be mad. However,
whilst we were not able to use the showers,
or have a meal or drink indoors, a handful
of us did discuss the past in the outside
marquee over a post-round beer.
As requested yesterday, I attach a photo
(right) of the victorious OSFC Third XI
who beat Old Monovians to win the Old
Boys Minor Cup in 1971. Back Row L>R:
Steve Presland, Terry Carroll, Peter Jarvis,
Michael Mote, Dave Lincoln, Pete Bonner
& Bob Nelson. Front Row L>R: Tim
Westbrook, Dave Matthews, Jim Dietman
& Dave Deane.
So three of this side played yesterday -
Tim W, Dave L and Peter B - whilst Steve
P, who frequently plays OSGS events,
made one of his better decisions to stay
dry; and he also claims that the Cup Final
was his Third XI debut!!
Here’s to the next OSGS event on Friday
11-June at Aldenham.
Geoff Blackmore
Reply to Geoff Blackmore:
Many thanks Geoff for fishing out this photo
from the archive. This was undoubtedly the
best OSA team in living memory. I can vouch
for that as I have a contemporaneous note in
my 1971 diary confirming it!!!
Tim.
Hi Tim
In conversation with an old work colleague
he mentioned that his uncle attended
Stationers School from 1925 to 1930.
The attached group photo would be of the
fifth form in 1930 and John Howard is
front row, third from the right.
I realise that they have now all passed away
but there may be descendants who could
recognise a father or uncle.
John was born on 12/4/14 and died on
27/5/83.
Before the war he worked in London for
the Liverpool and Victoria Insurance Co.
where he met his wife, Barbara.
In World War II he served with the 7th
Armoured Division, Royal Artillery
(Desert Rats) and was “mentioned in
despatches”1946
After the war he became a Civil Servant
and eventually ran the Dept of Works and
Pensions in Guildford.
In 1978 he received an MBE from the
Queen for his record of public service,
Having settled in Surrey John became an
active member of the East Horsley
Bowling Club.
Barbara died in 2013. There were no
children.
Keep well, see you soon.
John Taylor
5th Form ,1930
John Howard
14

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Tim,
I’ve just received the new OS Magazine,
and am most impressed by the greatly
enhanced standard of the publication: an
excellent indication of the OS’s healthy
survival, despite the lack of successive
generations!
An article that particularly interested me
was the excellent piece about Josh Nunn,
written by Clive Farmer. We were in the
same year, and did have dealings with each
other which have kept him in my memory
and even affection (one can get a little
sentimental in old age!)
I should like to send him a note, preferably
by email. Are you able to help by providing
contact information? If you didn’t feel able
to pass that on without his permission, I’d
be quite happy for you to forward this note
to him, and let him email me himself, if he
is happy so to do!
So glad that you and your colleagues are
willing to work to keep the Magazine alive
and kicking!
(I used to commute to school by train from
Grange Park to Haringey station, and well
remember seeing the Tees-Tyne Pullman
gliding past, still at a good pace, en route
Kings Cross, as I wait for my ‘local’ back
home after school!)
Derek Stevens
Good morning Tim,
Congratulations on the latest magazine, as
ever full of interesting news from OS.
Mike Geering sent you a photo of the
1961 Struer Party (Issue 92, p15) and asked
if anyone could identify one of those
present. I believe the chap, between Barry
Groves and Alfie Elliot, to be Keith
Nicholls.
Keith was one of the 1956 entry, along
with myself from Coldfall School. That
school, which is still going strong today,
has been mentioned in these pages before,
as one of a small number of the local
primary schools which acted as a feeder to
Stationers. Others from the 1956 entry
were I recall the Manton twins, Marcus
and Oliver, still incidentally as
indistinguishable from each other today as
they were then, Richard Jones, Peter
Armstrong, Roy Debney and Geoff
Bottom. There may have been others, but
after sixty one years I can't honestly
remember them.
Possible other readers may be able to assist.
Take care and keep safe,
Keith Mullender
Keith, thanks for your email. I remember as a
first former in 1962 being very impressed
with the racing bike that one of the Manton
twins always parked in the cloisters by the top
terrace. Regards Tim
Hi
It was good to see some of the guys the
other evening. My links with the UK are
few and far between courtesy of the Covid
situation. We drove out in October 2019
and, apart from a very brief trip back last
October to deal with some matters relating
to the house in Sussex, we have been in
Spain ever since. Our big problem comes
from the fact that we drive here with our
two dogs so can't just hop on a flight back.
Unfortunately, travelling through France
to the tunnel is currently not an option for
us as UK passport holders and our attempts
to get a car ferry booking from Northern
Spain have been unsuccessful (sailing
cancelled three times now...).
Luckily, we are authorised to stay in Spain,
certainly for the foreseeable future, so
aren't under any pressure to leave but it
would be nice to get back to England and
it is likely that we will attempt a 2 month
visit in the latter part of this year. We want
to get back next year as we want to sell our
place in Haywards Heath as it is too big
for the two of us but we've got to find
another house there so we can't do it
remotely.
To all intents and purposes, we will have
been away for 2 years, assuming that we
can actually return later this year. We've
never lived abroad before and even our
friends here, many long-time residents in
Spain, agree that it has been a strange
experience.
I have got back into the habit of writing on
a regular basis and now contribute to a
couple of local "freebie" mags each month.
Having got used to recording local events,
along with photos, I decided to type up an
account of our time as "Exiles" as I guess
that we won't go through something
similar in our lifetimes unless we find
ourselves confined to our homes in a few
years courtesy of the Chipping Sodbury
variant... I'm not rushing to complete this
but it occurred to me that an abbreviated
version might be useful as a page filler in a
future edition of the Stationer mag. If you
are interested (??), I can try and work on
two versions in tandem with one complying
with a specified word total.
I'll await your comments in due course and
trust that you have all kept well and I do
look forward seeing everybody again
"don't know where, don't know when".
Cheers
Geoff Dent 1962-1969
Tim
Just spent an excellent lockdown afternoon
reading the magazine.
Thank you very much. Happy New Year
and all the best.
Alan Green
15

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Dear Tim
Herewith another contribution to the
OSA mag together with congratulations
on your achievement with the recent issue.
I had not thought it appropriate before to
forward too much autobiography but some
of those I read in your recent edition were
very interesting so I thought some of my
experiences might be of similar quality.
Much of what I have written would have
come under the old heading “As far as you
roam”.
I had a pic of the harvest camp I refer to
with Beaky Davis in it for years but cannot
find it. If I come across it I will send it on.
Good health for the coming year. I had my
first vaccination last Friday.
Best wishes
Brian Cranwell
Rev Brian Cranwell
I gained a place at Stationers when I
passed the 11 plus in 1943 at St Mary’s
Hornsey but did not actually join the
school until 1945. This was because at the
same time I won a choral scholarship for
the Quirister School at Winchester
College. When I reached 13 my voice
started to break so I came back home to
Hornsey and started at Stationers. The
school did not know what to do with me
at first and put me temporarily into a Form
labelled ‘2Remove’. I gathered later that
this was considered a deposit for boys
whose performances at the school to date
had not been up to expectations.
Although I found myself streets ahead of
most of the class in such subjects as French,
English and Geography, the syllabus at
Winchester had not included any physics
or chemistry so I was eventually moved to
the class of ’44, a year behind my
contemporaries from St Mary’s but where
I was surrounded by some familiar faces
such as Fisher, Kelly, and Grewcock and
Field, but I never caught up on the science
subjects. I was regarded with some
amazement at first as I had followed the
school habit at Winchester of raising my
hat when passing a “don” (teacher) but was
soon corrected on that one!
(In February 1945 Field Marshall
Montgomery came to Winchester College,
where his son was a student, and gave us all
a lecture in his distinctive nasal tones on
“How we’re beating Jerry” He had only
been speaking a few minutes when he
suddenly stopped and said “Now I am fed
up with hearing all this sneezing, coughing
and spluttering that’s going on while I am
talking. I’m going to give you 2-3 minutes
to blow your noses, and clear your throats,
then I don’t want to hear another sound”
When he resumed his talk I was sure that
had I coughed or sneezed I would have
been taken out and shot by one of the
Military Police that escorted him.
After the lecture as we quiristers waited in
our classroom, in walked the Head – with
Monty! I don’t recall what he said but
before he left he shook hands with each of
the 16 of us.
Just before leaving Winchester the College
Head, Dr Leeson, asked me where I was
going. When I told him Stationers he was
very impressed and said he knew the head,
Major Huck, who was Chairman of the
Headmasters' Conference. When I joined
Stationers in the Autumn I discovered that
the Head was ‘Josh’ Nunn, the Major
having retired.
The only music at Stationers was a weekly
choral singing class in the school hall. Still
having some voice I was a member of the
school choir that went to St Paul’s crypt to
sing at the first post-war Company Shrove
Tuesday Service in 1946.
Seventy years later I was having a
conversation with a clergy member, retired
like myself, Rev John Collie , after a service
in our parish church in Sheffield. He
mentioned that he had attended Highgate
School, and when I mentioned Stationers
he commented “Oh my father taught
music at Stationers”. I realised that this
was the teacher who had taken us to St
Paul’s in 1946. When John died two years
later his grandchildren played a piano/
violin duet composed by their great
grandfather. Later when I told them I
knew him they must have thought I was as
old as Methusala!
The reminiscences in the last OS mag
about Beaky Davies brought to mind the
two harvest camps I attended which he
organised. He was always out of pocket
from them and complained that no parents
offered to help. As I never told my parents
of this it was not surprising and although
we worked long hours farmers seldom gave
us more than a penny an hour on top of
the minimum of 11 pence that had to go
for our keep.
After leaving Stationers, followed by three
years in the RAF I spent 19 years in Kenya
and Malawi, first in the Police, then in
various management posts involving some
community development work, schools
supervision, industrial relations, and
recruitment and training of young Africans
to replace the expatriate managers as these
countries were changing after
Independence.
Although I had little more than a General
Schools Certificate and evidence of having
attended specialist courses connected with
my work I was given the status of Associate
Lecturer at Malawi University. But by 1972
I realised that to continue carrying out
such work and independent consultancy in
the Third World I would need a recognised
qualification. I was interviewed and on the
strength of my experience gained a place
on a Masters course in Management at
Sheffield Polytechnic, later to become
Sheffield Hallam University. Stationer’s
Company awarded me £15 in book
vouchers, and I spent £7.50 on a train fare
to London to collect them!
I had completely forgotten the existence of
the OSA until around the year 1996 I
went to have my elder brother’s ashes
buried in the churchyard of the parish
church at the foot of Muswell Hill. After
the burial, I was having a snack and drink
in a place on Tottenham Lane when I
began talking to a total stranger. When I
mentioned I had been to Stationers he said
he was a member of the OSA and would I
be going to the Annual Dinner at the end
of March? So I found out the contact,
wrote and duly went but knew only one or
two people.
I went once more a year or two later but
because of delays in getting to St Pancras
missed the last train back to Sheffield, so it
proved an expensive trip. I have since
visited Stationers’ Hall, become a
16

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Liveryman and attended the St Bride’s
Carol Service. I also attended a Shrove
Tuesday service but as there was no loop
system for the sound amplifier in the crypt
at that time did not hear a word! My most
memorable visit to Stationers Hall was to
the exhibition put on from the archives to
celebrate 400 years of the publication of
the King James Bible. I was for three years
a volunteer Director of a small publishing
company in Malawi whose main purpose,
apart from enabling the distribution of
scriptures subsidised by the Bible Society,
was to produce Christian literature in
indigenous languages at a price Malawians
could afford, in a country where the
average income is less than a dollar a day
Around 1980, I finally was kicked into
answering what I had felt was a call for
some years, I attended Durham University
for clergy training , was ordained and was
a parish priest in Sheffield for 15 years. I
chaired Christian Aid Sheffield for two
years, trustee of a charity for teaching craft
skills to unemployed youngsters, then
getting them jobs, and was heavily involved
in the immediate aftermath of the
Hillsborough tragedy in 1989, as a result of
which I was invited to serve on various
County and City committees and involved
in other Major Incidents.. I was pleased
that Superintendent Duckenfield did not
carry the can for Hillsborough. The real
culprits were the FA who ignored the
recommendation of St John’s Ambulance
that the ground was not up to standard
and the club directors who refused on the
grounds of cost, to implement the safety
measures recommended by the committee
that investigated a similar incident at
Bolton in 1947 that left Stanley Matthews
in a state of trauma for the second half of
a game.
While in parish work I had also become
very involved in grief counselling, then
specialising in working with bereaved
children. I had frequently been upset and
annoyed at the way some adults assumed
their children would not be able to cope
with the funeral of someone they .loved
and would not let then attend their funeral.
I discovered that although several books
had been written on child grief none were
child centred, so on retirement I registered
at Sheffield Hallam again and researched
Helps and Hindrances to Children’s Grief
(from the children’s view points) This was
duly published (cover picture attached). I
later wrote and published another book on
my work as a priest in an urban
industrialised setting.
I met my late wife Hazel in Kenya in the
late 50s and we married in 1960. She
enabled me to go to university twice by
being the main breadwinner. Our first son
was born in Kenya and the second nine
years later in Malawi, and I am now
blessed with four granddaughters and one
great granddaughter, with a great grandson
expected in March.
I have been saddened to read of my
contemporaries dying off and others like
myself in my 90th year unable to attend
the reunion lunch provided so generously
each July by an anonymous donor at the
RAF club in Piccadilly. So to Frank Field,
Ernie Stone, Bill Croydon, Stanley Ward
John Miles and Brian Kill (whose sister I
used to dance with at Hornsey Town Hall
on Saturday night) and any others who
have not yet popped their clogs as they say
in this part of the world, very best wishes
and safety for the coming year, and thanks
for your years of friendship.
Dear Brian,
Many thanks for your interesting biography
which I hope to find space for in the July
magazine.
Did you know that the School War Memorial
stained glass window is now sited at St
Mary’s Church at the foot of Muswell Hill
where your brother’s funeral service was held.
As a matter of interest, I did not know there is
a cemetery at that church unless it is located
elsewhere?
Incidentally, I plan to include our membership
database sorted by year of entry to school so you
can see if there are other members of your era.
Best regards, Tim
Thanks Tim, yes it was on my visit to St
Mary’s that I saw the stained glass window.
There is no graveyard at St Mary’s but the
vicar arranged for my brother’s ashes to be
buried in a small garden at the back with a
plaque which was cast by one of the
youngsters I mention in the training
workshop. The training workshop was
specifically for youngsters with learning
difficulties or special needs.
I’m pleased you found the bio of interest. I
feel I have had a rich and fortunate life.
My experiences in Africa often leads me to
reflect that while black lives matter to most
blacks they don’t seem to matter much to
black leaders once they gain power. Only
people like Mandela and the first president
of Zambia, Kaunda, have left reputations
of integrity. Uganda is now yet another
victim.
Best wishes and good health!
Brian
Hello Tim
Congratulations on a bumper edition. I'm
still not through all of it yet but what I
have read has prompted some thought:
Mention of scouting activities evokes
memories of good times spent with the
57th North London at St Mary's Parish
Hall, starting with the Wolf Cubs in '48
running through to '59 with the Rovers.
There were many Stationers pupils in that
troop. Names that come to mind are my
brother Ray, (the late)John Harris, Bob
Harris, Jeff Dawes David Kaye, Dick
17

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Martin, Peter Glynn, Ray Stavrou, Colin
Taylor and Roy Such.
Of the many scout camps I attended, the
last came recently to mind when I was
going back through some old diaries. It
was an Easter Camp which took place
April 4th - 7th, 1958.
Along with Ray, Bob Harris, Jeff Dawes
and 7 others, we took a trek cart loaded
with camping supplies on a train from
Wood Green to Welwyn North, hauling
our cart to a campsite on a farm near
Harmer Green. The trek cart was sturdy,
heavy and excellent on rough terrain but
somewhat unwieldy when it came to
loading it on an off a train, so we had to go
via Wood Green rather than Hornsey, as
the latter station had no on ramps for large
carts.
The weather was typically early April,
complete with rain, sleet, snow and
occasional sunshine. With porridge, eggs
& bacon for breakfast, sausages for lunch
and stewed beef for dinner, we survived
well. Over and above just surviving, our
only outing was a hike to Tewin Church
for a non existent Easter Sunday service.
The service was a bust but a subsequent
stop for a tea at the Burnham Green cafe
more than compensated for the effort.
We froze for two nights but by Sunday,
inured to the cold, we were nonetheless,
more than ready to return home. Getting
back after breakfast on Monday involved
a change of trains in Hatfield, but by now,
the crew was used to locating the guard's
van and dismantling and reassembling
the cart to get it in and out of the station
yard.
That Easter camp was the last of many
scout camps with the 57th. The internet
offers no clues as to what happened to the
troop after St Mary's Parish Church was
demolished in 1966. In fact, its is rather
sad to note that the majority of references
that came up featured abuse cases.
Troop Photo
I have attached also a shot of the 57th
taken at St Mary's Church in 1950 or 51.
Stationers is represented by Roy Such,
holding the banner with what I believe is
an 11 yr old Richard Martin front row,
2nd left. There are probably other
Stationers in the group, ones I do not but
others may recognise. Mick Strange, 5th,
second row, not a Stationer was one who
accompanied us at the Easter camp.
Best regards,
Les Humphreys
Class of 52
Tim,
Great mag again as always but why is there
a picture of Gandalf underneath the
editorial. Did he really go to Stationers?
David Hudson
How very rude!
Thanks, this was a mammoth effort sorting so
many contributions from members. I just had
a thought for a new theme, Me and my
number plate. You can kick off with the story
behind HUD50N including your battle to get
it accepted by the police.
Regards Tim
landobbie906@icloud.com
Dear Tim,
Having seen the latest magazine with the
front cover picture, this Old Stationer
decided to roam not that far.
So on this chilly Sunday morning I got on
the W3 bus from Wood Green for the
journey to see the plaque.
Getting off at the bottom of Ferme Park
Road brought the memories back especially
as I walked down Weston Park and to the
left on Inderwick Road I could see
Hornsey Girls School before reaching
Mayfield Road and walking up past the
“community centre” (which was the old
school dinner hall and changing rooms
when I was there). As I walked up I didn’t
realise that the old tennis courts were still
there and then there’s the plaque!!
Obviously then came the obligatory selfie.
As a little treat I walked into Crouch End
afterwards for a nice jam doughnut from
Dunn’s reminiscing about the school days
and thinking to myself that now local
residents who’ve moved into the area will
now know that the park and housing
complex used to house a wonderful school
- it seems so sad that the upper building
which would now be a listed building is
gone along with the history of it, but now
people will know and we will remember.
Alan Dobbie 1978-1983
Well done Alan the first reported visit to see
the plaque and photographic evidence too.
Regards, Tim
Dear Tim,
Having just had a quick look through the
above mentioned publication with great
interest I noted a small error in John
Leeming’s article, Staff remembered - “The
old and bold”. On page 19 is a photo of
Maggie Butterfield and not Jackie Maynard.
It was nice to see the names of so many
people I worked with and sad to note those
whom I knew no longer with us.
I still remember my four years teaching
Geology and Geography at Stationers’
with great fondness. I had wonderful
mentors in Geraint Pritchard and Stan
Read and being based at the lower school
a real gent in John Young.
Names I remember are John Young, Brian
Burchell, Francis Evans, Mr Williams,
Caroline Scott, a good old Norfolk girl, so
sad to hear of her death, Nava Jahans,
Brian Rainer (still in touch), Godfrey
Cremer, Dr Koka (sp), Diane Dibsdall,
Micky Fitch in whose company I had
some memorable times, Geoff Perry,
whom I remember biking home to
Cheshunt on his racing bike the same day
he had a vasectomy, funny the things that
stick in your head. John Bath, Richard
Quarshie, Diane Dungate, Wilney
Cochrane, Ian Steele, Dave Radcliffe,
Micky Dingwall (sadly no longer with us),
Peter Bennet, Ronnie Rook and Marsden
Hubbard. I also remember working with
Mary Pryor, Martin Roots, Monica Lazaro
and Maggi Butterfield. Also based at the
lower school were Jenny Steele and Sean
Wilkinson.
Ian Keast was present in my first year at
the school and I took over looking after
the Audio Visual aids dept after Ian left. I
seldom visited the upper school, but
remember quite a few names, Robert
Baynes our illustrious head, Stan Read as
already mentioned and also another deputy
head Simon Hensby. Adrian Constable
and Roy Court, Mr Ahmed, Ian Patterson,
I will never forget dancing the Nutcracker
with Micky Fitch and pupils Harrison and
Broadbent at one of Ian’s productions.
Chris Murray who is the only person I
knew who managed to drink two glasses of
18

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
an awful bottle of drink that Brian Rainer,
Kevin Bolton and I took to parties and
always came back with (at that time we
shared a flat together in Bounds Green).
Other characters I remember are Henry
Grant, Dave Green (maths), Charles Zarb
and Charles Yessayan, and of course John
Leeming.
I also remember Tony Hudson, a
historian,Fred Gibbons and Mike Holly. A
name many will remember was John
Watson whom I took over from teaching
Geology and Geography. There were also
two other Christines who taught
Geography, but I cannot remember their
surnames. Also Max ?, who taught
woodwork.
After leaving Stationers’ I went to work at
Wood Green School as Head of Geography
for a year before all the mergers started and
I ended teaching Geography for a further
3 years at the then White Hart Lane
School at which stage I decided to leave
teaching, not because I no longer enjoyed
teaching but due to the politics that was
ruining education in Haringey.
I continued to play football and cricket for
the Old Boys until I managed to get a
cartilage injury whilst guesting for Charlie
Webster-Smith’s 9th Xl in a cup game. I
remember your right arm over medium
pace Tim and your varied after match bar
games, including bottle walking and spoof,
the loser having to do the shutters.
I left teaching to take up a position with
Pearl Assurance as an agent covering the
Bicester area with an office in Banbury. I
was also at the same time offered a job
with the Pru covering the Shipton on
Stour area again with an office in Banbury.
The interviews for both jobs were on the
same day as we were still living at Enfield
Lock. I was surprised I was offered the
Pearl job as the Pru interview over ran and
I was late for the Pearl appointment.
After 6 years as an agent in Bicester I had
an in-house move with Pearl back to
Norfolk in my new role as an Commercial
Insurance Consultant. This was a lovely
move as it meant I was back home in
Norfolk. I continued in the position for 8
years living in small village near
Attleborough before moving back to life
assurance with the Co-op covering Diss
and surrounding villages.
Once again in my insurance career goal
posts were moved and what had been
enjoyable became anything but.
I left to Co-op to join some old colleagues
as an IFA, the first year was brilliant and
then came the recession, I hadn’t been in
the job long enough to get a big enough
client base to continue so it was back to
education.
I gained a position in Swaffham at a
secondary school as a Cover Supervisor,
what I thought would be a lovely quiet
rural school turned out to be anything but.
it was hard work but the staff I worked
with were brilliant, everybody supported
everyone else with no back biting.
I then had a chance to to the same job at
Wayland Prison, what a pleasure it was to
teach there after the school I left. I enjoyed
this position for 2 1/2 years until once
again a change of management meant
from things running very well and
successfully it lead to massive upheaval and
disruption.
It was at this time that Di and I sat down
to consider our options and finances
carefully. The decision we reached was to
retire at 58 and 57 respectively, as long as
we were reasonably careful we knew we
would be OK and chose quality of life over
money.
Five and half years ago we moved to
Sheringham on the North Norfolk coast
where I was born, raised and educated. My
parents both remained in Sheringham
until they died and I always considered it
home.
Until COVID 19 struck we lived an idyllic
life, 200m from the coast path and a 5
minute walk to the sea front and the town.
Luckily we live where we can enjoy our
daily walks away from the hordes who
descended in the Summer and have a nice
big garden with lovely views over the
Cromer-Holt ridge (a terminal moraine
from the last ice age) I am also able to
indulge in my hobbies of bird watching
and photography.
Should anyone whom I know read this and
wish to get in touch my email is
richardf5530@yahoo.com.
Hoping everyone can stay safe and well
Richard Farrow
Hello Tim,
Thanks for the password and the magazine
that landed on my doormat yesterday.
I was surprised and pleased to see my face
had been fitted in to this month's edition
as a new member! Thank you.
I looked into the website library and was
delighted to discover that all the old school
magazines were there, alongside the OSA
magazines. My best subject at school was
sport! So it is really good to be able to see
all the records especially my antics on the
19

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
athletic track back in the sixties. Lots of
names there that were in the successful
Meredith team.
Best wishes
Graham Eldridge
Thanks Graham. How come Langford got 43
points and you won the Victor Ludorum?
Tim
Tim, you ask a good question!
I cannot explain it... After 60 years I am
beginning to doubt my memory, but I
always thought I won it, but the evidence
is against me.
I have other photos (attached) which show
me with my trophy, and with other
members of the Meredith team that were
very successful that year. The school
magazine mentions several "team" trophies
but not the Victor Ludorum trophy
winner.
So, without contacting Chris Langford, I
can only speculate that I got a runners up
trophy, or maybe there was a trophy for
each year, in which case we both got a
trophy... (doubtful!)
If you do decide to publish anything,
perhaps it would be best not to mention
"Victor Ludorum". As an aside - do you
know where the school trophies are stored?
Maybe someone would recognise the one
in my photos.
All the best
Graham Eldridge
8th January 2021
aloomomo43@gmail.com
The mention of Beakie Davis made me
recall the large inadvertent effect he had
on me I joined the school in September
1954 and had a very unsuccessful career
there My first few years were flawed by the
fact that I had terrible asthma and
bronchitis and spent much of the time at
home in bed between visits to Westminster
Children’s Hospital for ‘’ Sun Ray
‘’treatment ,this involved sitting in a room
with some very bright lights shining on
you, you could not make it up.The school
had little or no pastoral care then and
therefore I was not offered any extra
teaching time or homework to cover my
long absences and was left floundering and
trying to catch up.
At the end of the fourth year it was
decided that because of my problems I
should delay taking the GCE for a year
thus I am a boy of 54 and of 55. This was
a great blow to my confidence and it was
decided that I should leave school in the
summer of 1960.
I was then handed over to Beaky Davis,
who had never taught me, and was running
the fledging careers advice department I
told him that I was interested in getting
into journalism he was very negative about
my prospects in that field and suggested
along with several other boys that I contact
Commander Cutler the School Secretary
to get an interview with CT Bowring a
very large Lloyds insurance broker whose
own Secretary was an old naval pal
apparently this had been going on for a
few years I enjoyed four years working in a
good but not testing clerical environment.
In those days Lloyds brokers were drawn
almost exclusively from the public schools
and when asking if I could get a chance as
a broker was put in my place by my
manager I then found a job with a more
progressive Company CE Heath and
became a broker in their North American
division I then spent the rest of my career
with various companies in the Lloyds
market travelling widely in the USA
eventually selling our company to Aon.
My sporting interest was always very
strong and I played briefly for OSCC at
Underhill whereas having lost touch with
OSFC I played football for many years for
one of their rivals Norsemen FC not
forgetting supporting THFC
Nigel Chamberlain
Tim,
johntmiles18@gmail.com
13th January 2021
My submission for "Me and my motors"
was wrongly attributed to John Miller.
Could you please publish a correction in
the next issue.
You did not publish my letter regarding
the Stationer's VE day celebration. Did
you not receive it or did you lack space to
publish it?
Regards
John Miles
John, My apologies for the wrong attribution
for your car article. I can only assume that the
similarity in surname between Miller and
Miles consecutive articles caused some
confusion.
I will note this in the next issue.
I have no record of your VE Day submission.
Please resend.
Regards, Tim
cecil@cecilnewton.plus.com
Hello Tim
Very many thanks for including Cecil
Newton War memories.
If anyone would like a copy of "A Trooper's
Tale" mentioned in the article, if they
could email me I would be pleased to send
them a copy.
With best wishes
Cecil Newton
Dear Tim,
Thank you for putting together another
splendid issue, received this morning. I am
steadily working my way through it and
have already come across a number of
interesting articles of direct relevance to
20

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
telling me and then announced that she
was ready to join me on the course. With
some trepidation I signed her in at BP and
quickly realised that she had a genuine
natural ability for the game especially as
she was able from a very early stage to
drive straight at a reasonable distance.
Mind you her putting was a bit the same
and I frequently stood long stop to prevent
loss of ball.
I rashly said at one point that if her
handicap ever got less than mine I would
give it up. She did get to 14 and luckily at
the time I was off 13.
Where it really did change our lives is that
every time we went on holiday we both
wanted to play golf and because of this we
have each played over 300 courses on every
single continent of the World.
School Rugby Team 1972
Apologies, but I found this photo in my Issue 93 magazine content file and there is
no evidence of who sent it. Declare yourself and I will give you a credit in issue 94.
Maybe someone can supply names in due course. Tim
my very enjoyable years at the school
(1960-67).
The only positive contribution I can make
is to add another name to the photo of the
Meredith House Athletics team on page
13. Bottom row, far right, is Alun Owen.
We were great friends throughout our
years at Stationers, both with a keen
interest in Athletics and generally evenly
matched in most events. Built for speed
rather than endurance we distinguished
ourselves by taking the last two places in
the annual Cross-Country.
Alun was Geraint Pritchard's cousin and
lived with Geraint's parents at their
medical/dental/vets suppliers, Hatrix.
Alun and I exchange Christmas cards so I
have an address if anyone is anxious to
make contact.
Keep up the great work and I look forward
to receiving many more issues of 'The Old
Stationer'.
Best Wishes,
Tony Innes
daviddanielturner63@gmail.com
13th January 2021
Tim I was mindful on Monday evening
that I was not able to join the others in
their praise of the mag because I didn’t get
my copy until Tuesday lunchtime. It was
indeed a great copy and so I am now able
to say well done.
I don’t suppose the following is really
grand enough for future inclusion unless
you need something to fill a bit of space.
There is a theme of life changing
happenings and one that occurred to us is
that I had a client about 40 years ago who
was a radio commentator for golf and he
gave to me a spare press pass for a big
European tournament at Wentworth. I
had to put a notice on my car which said I
was a member of the press corps and
which entitled me to drive in the main
gates. I asked if I could take Mrs. T who up
to that point had shown no interest in golf
whatever. Anyhow unbeknown to me she
fell in love with the game to such a degree
that she had some private lessons without
21

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
I was recently invited to go to the Spurs
home game versus Leeds by private limo,
have lunch in the directors dining room
and see the game from their box which
have heated seats. Anyhow the point of the
tale is that when the driver came he had a
long wheelbase Mercedes S class which
apparently costs £110K but I had great
trouble getting into it which was hugely
embarrassing as I was a guest. The problem
was that the roof line is quite low at the
back and I have lost a lot of flexibility due
to arthritis. I really don’t know how taller
people cope with it
Keep well
DT
David, Thanks for your kind comments on the
magazine which are appreciated.
I will include your golf story in issue 93 but
send me a photo showing Mrs Turner’s golf
swing. Regards, Tim
Hi Tim
As promised here is the school report of
Dad in 1933.
Obviously proud that I followed Dad to
Stationers'..... and yes.... his grades were
way above me....
but.....
Look closely......
Huck at the bottom signed and checked all
reports so he must have done 500 or so
each time......
But look at this one..... where it gives
grades A Good – B – Satisfactory – C –
Weak – D – Unsatisfactory
The printer had spelt Weak..... Week.......
I can see him sitting there (as he has done)
changing the mistake on each Report....
cursing everytime he had to scratch out the
“E” and replacing it with a “A”....
He must have gone mad at the person who
printed it.
Luv it....
Charlie Webster-Smith
22

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
FAR AS you roam
Drumnadrochit
Forty something years ago, my wife, Rosemary and I were
enjoying a holiday in the Highlands of Scotland. We were
travelling from place to place leaving the hotel after breakfast
and planning to stop around 2pm to find a place for the night
thus giving ourselves time to move on to the next town or
village if there was no room at the inn.
We had enjoyed a couple of days in Inverness and we planned
that our next port of call would be somewhere on Loch Ness
on a southern track towards Fort William. At 2pm we were
in the vicinity of two villages Lewiston and Drumnadrochit.
We turned off the main road and surveyed these two hamlets
looking for a suitable spot to spend the night. In
Drumnadrochit, we found a beautiful inn called the Lewiston
Arms and decided that this would suit our needs very well if
we were able to book a room.
I left Rosemary in the car and ventured into the inn. I found
a very pleasant lounge with comfortable settees and blazing
log fire in front of which reclined the pub’s cat fully enjoying
the warmth. I went into the bar and a couple of other public
rooms all of which were empty – there was no sign of any
staff. I returned to the car and reported my progress or rather
the lack of it. We both returned to the inn and once gain we
were no able to find any person to assist us. Then I espied a
pay phone in the vestibule together with a local telephone
directory. I looked up the telephone number of the Lewiston
Arms and having found it, I dialled the number. I heard the
ringing for a spot nearby and after some seconds it was
answered by a male voice whom I took to be the landlord.
“Good afternoon, this is the Lewiston Arms Hotel.”
I responded, “Good afternoon, my wife and I are hoping that
you might have a room for tonight.”
“Aye” came the reply “You would be most welcome.”
Then he went on without a pause.
“We are off the beaten track and very hard to find. But if you
will give me your current location, I will give you precise
directions.”
My reply came as some surprise to him.
“Thank you, I am presently in your vestibule!!”
He laughed and said that he would be with us very soon. He
lived in a cottage behind the inn with a direct extension to the
hotel’s phone.
David Maclean
1952-1959
THE NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS RAILWAY
This article, first published in Equilibrium Magazine Haringey
(2018/19), is about one of Britain's many heritage steam railways:
the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (www.nymr.co.uk), which
runs from Pickering to Whitby on the Yorkshire coast.
In 2017, it celebrated the 50th anniversary of when it was
founded in 1967, two years after the closing of the line by British
Railways as part of the infamous 'Beeching Axe'. Known then as
the North Yorkshire Moors Railway Preservation Society, it is
now the premier heritage railway in Britain and, quite likely, the
world, with over 350,000 passenger journeys a year up to 2020.
It is now a registered charity.
History, Geography and Scenery
But what of its history, geography, scenery and development? I
don't know much about the area around the beginning of time,
but a lot is known, as taught in A-level Geography, about the
forming of the Newtondale Gorge, through which much of the
railway runs.
Ice Age
Go back 10,000 years to the last ice age. The North Sea was full
of ice, which meant that surface water on the moors was not able
to flow into it. As a consequence, Lake Eskdale and Lake
Wheeldale were formed. Water from these lakes then gouged out
Newtondale Gorge and formed Lake Pickering. Water from that
carved out Kirkham Abbey Gorge and continued south-west
towards York. Kirkham Abbey Gorge is used by the York to
Scarborough railway line to this day. Newtondale and Kirkham
Abbey Gorges are known as 'glacial overspill channels'.
Early 1800s
Let's skip forward to the early 1800s and the coming of the
railway. Apparently, Whitby was worried.Whaling and shipbuilding
were in abrupt decline, and mineral workings on the cliffs
had fallen on hard times. Frustration was increased as local forests
were very productive, stone quarrying had begun at Goathland
and limestone was worked at Pickering, but, in all three cases,
development was hindered by the lack of direct communication
needed to transport the materials. In this era of uncertainty, there
was a significant meeting in railway history when my namesake,
George Hudson 'the Railway King' (no known relation), came to
Whitby in 1834 and, by chance, met 'the Father of Railways',
George Stephenson, and they became firm friends. George
Stephenson was asked for his comments on building a simple
horse-drawn line, and he came down in favour of it.
Passes through Newtondale
23

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1833 without opposition,
and a survey went ahead. The first sod was cut on the 10th
September 1833 at Whitby, and construction proceeded rapidly.
The River Esk was crossed nine times by bridges between
Whitby and Grosmont, and at Grosmont there was a tunnel. Fen
Bog, 20 feet deep, near the present Fylingdales Early Warning
Station, was conquered by pile-driving Baltic fir, heather stuffed
in sheepskins and whole trees and hurdles covered in moss to
secure a firm foundation. There was an inclined plane of 1 in 10
or 10% (as steep as Muswell Hill, here in Haringey) ropeworked
at Beck Hole near Goathland. Traffic exceeded expectations
from the outset, but there were also financial difficulties due to
the actual cost of construction being grossly in excess of the
estimate. (Things haven't changed, have they?) Hudson declared
that the best way of rejuvenating the railway was to turn Whitby
into a holiday resort, and rows of terraced boarding houses were
built on the West Cliff, where George Street and Hudson Street
remain to this day.
In 1845, the line was re-built for steam locomotive haulage
rather than horses, and a larger tunnel was constructed at
Grostmont, the original one now being a footpath to the North
Yorkshire Moors Railway's locomotive repair sheds. Whitby got
a new lease of life due to the local mining of jet, which leapt into
popularity when Queen Victoria selected it in mourning for her
late husband, Prince Albert. In October 1861, the rope on the
incline broke, and, although there were no fatalities then, worse
happened in 1864 when the rope snapped again, and two people
were killed. A four-and-a-half-mile deviation was built at a steep
gradient for a railway of 1 in 49.
The line had been linked to the York to Scarborough railway in
1845 by a branch from Malton to Pickering, and, with the
opening of the deviation, there were through coaches from
London King's Cross in the summer. In the First World War, six
miles of the track from Levisham to Pickering were reduced
from a double-track to a single-track, the rails being destined for
the war effort in France. Unfortunately, the ship carrying the rails
was sunk in the English Channel, so they never arrived.
1945 and after
After the Second World War, excursions, scenic rail tours and
through coaches to and from London all reappeared in the
summer months, but the upsurge in private motoring led to a
considerable drop in passengers. The branch to the foot of the
incline at Beck Hole was closed, and the track bed is now a
footpath called the Heritage Rail Trail. There is a lovely,
convenient, unspoilt pub at Beck Hole, a few yards from the foot
of the incline and, personally, well recommended!
Diesel multiple units (two or three carriages joined together with
a diesel engine under one of them) were introduced in 1958 and
seemed to be a lifeline, but, although packed on summer
weekends, there were all too many empty seats, midweek and
midwinter.
Beeching
The Beeching plan proposed that all rail routes to Whitby be
withdrawn, but, after a local outcry, the line from Middlesborough
via the Esk Valley and Grosmont was spared and is still in
existence. Harold Wilson, in opposition, said he would save the
Grosmont to Pickering line, but, when he became Prime
Minister, he changed his mind, and the line was closed.
Formation of the North Yorkshire
Moors Railway Preservation Society
Rather than give up, a few local people held a meeting in Tom
Salmon's house in Ruswarp, near Whitby, in June 1967, and the
North Yorkshire Moors Railway Preservation Society was born.
Tom Salmon was a local individual who was keen on saving the
line; he and his wife, Erica, died just a few years ago. The new
society proposed to buy six miles of track from Grosmont to the
summit of the line near Fylingales Early
Warning Station and the track bed for the remaining twelve
miles to Pickering, with the idea of re-laying it when funds
permitted. The price they agreed with British Railways was
£42,500. However, just days before British Railways were due to
lift the other twelve miles of track, the North Riding County
Council (the predecessor of the present North Yorkshire County
Council) stepped in and bought it, and then leased it to the
NYMR, who paid it off after a number of years.
The reason behind the County Council's decision to purchase
was that they took the enlightened view that while people were
on trains looking at the scenery, they weren't in their cars
clogging up the moorland roads. Membership and volunteers
for the railway grew rapidly, and steam locos and a diesel multiple
unit were purchased. Associations were made with the Hull and
Barnsley Coach Stock Fund and the North Eastern Locomotive
Preservation Group for the provision of coaches and more steam
locomotives. The line was opened for public services on the 22nd
April 1973, and HRH The Duchess of Kent officially opened
the railway on the 1st May 1973.
Passenger and visitor numbers increased and now amount to
about 350,000 a year.
It became a registered charity called the North Yorkshire Moors
Repton passes Beck Hole
Under viaduct from Whitby
24

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Scenery
Regarding the scenery, it varies: green fields at the north and
south ends of the line; forestry plantations in Newtondale Gorge;
and moorland, purple with heather out in late August, in the
central section. Fylingdales Early Warning Station can be seen at
the summit of the line near Fenbog Nature Reserve, but the
famous 'golf balls' were replaced by a pyramid a few years ago.
Me
80136 Heads north
Historical Railway Trust on the 14th February 1972. In April
2007, steam services were extended to Whitby over the six miles
of British Rail (Network Rail) track from Grosmont, the NYMR
being the first heritage railway to get such running rights over
the National Rail network. They also have rights to run to
Battersby over the Esk Valley line towards Middlesbrough.
In the drought of 1976, a diesel locomotive was hired, which
saved the day due to the fire risk from steam locomotives.
Everyone was surprised to find there were, in fact, enthusiasts for
diesels. The overall roof at Pickering Station, removed by British
Railways in 1952, was reinstated in 2011 with a Heritage Lottery
Fund grant, and the second platform at Whitby Station was
reinstated in 2014. This allowed more trains to run there and
more flexibility, paid with grants from the Coastal Communities
Fund (money given to coastal projects from the royalties to the
Crown from wind farms on the seashore), Network Rail and a
local fund called Yorkshire Forward. The entire Whitby and
Pickering Railway is, therefore, running again, and with steam!
Goathland features as Aidensfield in the ITV police program,
Heartbeat, and as Hogsmeade Station in the first Harry Potter
film.There are now well over five hundred volunteers and a
nucleus of paid staff, because there are not enough volunteers.
Another Lottery grant was confirmed in March 2019; stage one
was approved in June 2017. This is to pay for three replacement
bridges at Goathland, a carriage shed at Pickering, accommodation
for volunteers, lineside nature management and educational
facilities. The railway has an appeal called 'Yorkshire's Magnificent
Journey' to raise £4.5 million to help match the Lottery grant. In
years to come, the link may be re-laid between Pickering and the
York to Scarborough line at Malton, but it is not on the cards at
the moment, as the railway has enough on its plate with
maintaining and improving facilities on its existing eighteen miles.
Goathland Station
How did I get involved with this heritage railway, and why did I
join? Several reasons, all coming together! I joined the
Preservation Society in 1969, just two years after it had been
formed when I was at the Stationers' Company's School in
Hornsey, I saw some photographs of the first steam loco and
diesel rail-bus on their way to the line in the Railway Magazine
I used to look at in Stroud Green Library near Harringay
Station, up the road from the school. It seemed good to join a
heritage line that had just started; a friend of mine, and another
NYMR in Autumn
Newtondale Halt
Old Stationer, Nigel Dant, was a volunteer fireman on the
Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales, and I thought it would be
nice to be different. I'd completed the Lyke Wake Walk three
times with the Barnet local group of the Youth Hostels
Association; this is a forty-mile endurance walk across the moors
that crosses the railway at its summit at Fylingdales. The idea is
to do the walk in twenty-four hours.
Another reason was that my father's family came from Yorkshire
(Leeds), and they had been going to the North York Moors for
holidays since the late 1800s, so there was a family connection. I
joined, therefore, not just for one reason but for all those coming
together. I also, of course, liked railways. I've backed a winner!
25

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
My Voluntary Work
I was a volunteer at the start, going up regularly on bank holidays
and other holidays, mainly by hitchhiking - don't tell Mum and
Dad! Initially, I helped with track-work (called the permanent
way or PW in railway terminology), which involved digging
holes for signals, points and signal wires; opening and closing
level crossing gates before they were operated from signal boxes,
thereby saving drivers from having to get out of their engines to
do it. One driver was so appreciative he gave me a lift in the cab
of his diesel loco!
For many years after that, I pushed a trolley through trains,
selling refreshments, and I never got tired of looking at the view
and scenery through the windows. At Easter and early in the
season, passengers used to queue up for a cup of tea or coffee so
they could put their hands round something warm! In more
recent years, I was based at Levisham, the first small station up
the line, doing anything and everything such as gardening,
painting, washing windows and cleaning.
I now distribute the railway's timetable and information leaflet
at mainline and suburban stations around north London, various
libraries and cafes and the London Transport Museum in
Covent Garden: almost 3500 a year until Lock Down in 2020,
and I like to think that at least some of the people who pick them
up, or to whom they are passed, go up to the North York Moors
for a holiday and a ride on the line. Senior people on the railway
tell me most passengers come from the south east, albeit staying
on the moors, so there's a good chance some are visiting as a
result of the leaflets I've distributed.
There is an art and craft to doing the job, believe it or not, the
principal one of which is being on good terms with the staff at
the different locations, as they are under no obligation whatsoever
to allow my timetables at their workplaces. As a “thank you”, I
give them boxes of chocolates at Christmas! I also sell the
railway's raffle tickets and guidebook to people I know.If you
would like to donate, you can do so on-line at www.nymr.co.uk
or by post to the Railway at Pickering Station, YO18 7AJ or if
you would like to buy raffle tickets you can get in touch with me
at: rghudson10@yahoo.co.uk
Last but not least...
I hope you are able to go to the North York Moors some time for
a visit and also a ride on the railway. You won't be disappointed!
Richard Hudson
1964-71
Departing Levisham Station
Hornsey's Model Railway
Do any of you older lads recall the model railway layout in a shop
in Crouch End?
It was the project of Mr Arthur Beach, who had previously
constructed an 0 gauge garden railway and 00 gauge indoor
railway at his home in East Finchley. This was number 16, The
Bishops Avenue on the corner with Deansway and had limited
days and times of admission . It was called the Ken View Railway
because his house had a distant view towards Ken Wood. Having
retired and wanting to make use of his extra time, he took on
premises in Crouch End in 1946 and created a solely indoor 00
gauge railway layout open daily to the public. This was at 27
Broadway Parade, currently a launderette, which is on the corner
of Elder Avenue opposite The Queens pub. Entrance to the
previous layout was free, though there was a charity box for the
local hospital. The new shop location needed to be on a more
financially assured basis and so an admission charge of sixpence
was instituted, with any profits being split between the Hornsey
Memorial Hospital and the Railway Benevolent Fund.
There was over seven hundred feet of track and a station loosely
based on Hornsey, plus various tunnels and bridges, arranged in
five circuits: two mainline, two suburban and a London
Underground. Electric points and signals kept the system
running smoothly. The Underground section ran partly at
surface level, then descended to a station, which was visible from
outside the shop window. There was an engine shed, coach
sidings and a small marshalling yard.
The Meccano Magazine reported on the new shop layout shortly
after its opening. Reading it reminded me of what a wonderful
magazine it was, covering engineering, philately, transport, nature
and of course Meccano and HornbyDublo.
Rolling stock was a mixture of LNER and Southern steam locos,
plus a Southern electric train, District and Northern Line Tube
sets. A miniature double-decker bus system was a new feature
adding atmosphere to the scene.
The operation was staffed by volunteers of the Ken View
Railway Club and Best of British magazine has this photograph
of some of them. Do you recognise anybody?
It seems that in latter years,as volunteers drifted away or were
called up for National Service, it was mainly Arthur running the
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
shop day-to-day. This and dwindling income resulted in closure
on 25th March 1952. Arthur Beach later retired to Worthing,
where he died in 1986.
A comment on an LNER website fondly recalls:
After paying the admission charge of about sixpence you could
stay as long as you wanted to watch the trains go round. The
layout was 00 gauge on a decent sized scenic baseboard which
you could walk right round and view from all angles. Below the
main surface of the layout there was a separate track on which a
model London Transport tube train went round and round all
the time.
The owner/operator was an elderly gent who seemed to be
smoking cigarettes most of the time. I can't remember much
about the model locos and rolling stock which ran on his layout
except for one vivid memory of a LNER B17 'Footballer' 4-6-0
which once became derailed at a fair speed, prompting one
observer to come out with the unforgettable comment " Arsenal
has ceased to function".
The first of Rev W Awdrey's 'Thomas the Tank Engine' books
was published in 1945 and it wasn't long after moving to Crouch
End that a duly repainted Hornby Dublo loco sat outside Ken
View's engine shed.
In his memoirs, the illustrious scientist Stephen Hawking
referred to spending hours as a child watching a model railway
club layout in Crouch End, when living in nearby Highgate. He
was born 1942 and moved to St Albans in 1950.
Ken Stevens
Sources:
The Hornby Collector Magazine November 2015. Article by Mark Bailey.
The Meccano Magazine November 1946. Article by H F Howson.
Best of British magazine January 2013. Article by David Brown.
Train Collectors Society magazine, issue 32. Recollections by Gwilym Evans and
David Gill.
and various internet mentions, notably
https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1308
keith knight address
I was born on St George’s Day 1944 in Barnet. My parents
named me Keith after my mother’s brother. Together with my
older brother Peter (53 – 57) we moved into a ground floor flat
at 20 Crescent Road N8 in 1946 and I have not moved far away
from there since.
When I was 13, I was lured into the theatre by the lady who ran
the first coffee shop in Crouch End with a cappuccino machine.
It was just a couple of doors along Weston Park from the Clock
Tower.
The Mountview Theatre Club needed a young boy to play the
role of Ronnie Winslow in Terence Rattigan’s “The Winslow
Boy”. The café lady suggested I audition - I don’t know for
certain but I suspect I was the only one they could find - and I
was offered the part.
For those of you unfamiliar with the plot I played a naval cadet
who is cashiered, appropriately enough, for stealing and cashing
a postal order. Insanely, his father believes him when he tells him
he didn’t steal it, and spends the family fortune, including his
only daughter’s dowry, on legal representation in an attempt to
clear his son’s name.
There is a scene at the end of the play in which Ronnie’s sister
demands to know of the ageing and now quite unwell Queens
Counsel, who was instructed from the very beginning, why he
said he would take the case to which the ageing silk replies that
he had set a trap into which Ronnie did not fall and gave him an
escape route which Ronnie did not take.
I thought that was absolutely wonderful and told my parents in
no uncertain terms that I wanted to become a barrister. Tens of
thousands of pounds of my parents’ money and 12 years later, I
finally made it!
Only then did I realise that this device of Rattigan’s was pure
theatrical licence! In 51 years in practice I only once thought I
might have the opportunity of attempting a similar piece of cross
examination, only to realise its futility - and baling out!!
I studied law at University College Dublin and there followed
more acting in the UCD Dramsoc with the likes of Henry Kelly
and Patrick Cosgrave, sometime editor of The Spectator and an
adviser and speechwriter for
Mrs Thatcher.
I also had the great pleasure of
being the Registrar of the
Literary and Historical Society
[UCD’s debating society] – a
sort of combination of
Secretary and Treasurer - when
the late Professor Anthony
Clare [best known for the
BBC Radio series “In the
Psychiatrist’s Chair”] was the
Auditor [a posh name for
Chairman].
I joined the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in 1966 in no little
part thanks to a letter of recommendation from John Gore and
was finally called to the Bar in November 1969. It turned out
that my Bachelor of Civil Law degree counted for nothing in
terms of exemptions from the eight Part One exams, all of which
I had to do and one of which - contract and tort - I managed to
fail three times in a row.
After that third failure I was summoned to a meeting with a
High Court Judge who, by reason of a stroke, had been obliged
to retire at the age of 52 and was given the sinecure of Director
of the Council of Legal Education.
Sir Fred Eills [yes Eills not Ellis] Pritchard pointed out that by
virtue of Consolidated Regulation 41, if I failed either part of
this examination - which by now had morphed into two separate
exams, contract and tort – I would never be able to qualify as a
barrister.
For the three years after I came down from University I was
maintained largely by my late wife Sonya whom I had married in
October 1966 and by a contribution of £10 a week from my
generous dad.
In reality we lived a very comfortable life, particularly in my case
being able to check out on a very regular basis, the watering holes
in the general vicinity of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane to which
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
I would gravitate at the end of each performance of “Hello
Dolly” to collect Sonya who played the part of Ermengarde to
Dora Bryan’s Dolly for 3 years.
In fact, the awful warning of Sir Fred Pritchard had clearly
concentrated my mind because I finally passed contract and tort
in the summer of 1969 and I sat the Bar Finals that autumn.
Sonya was by now “resting” so we decided to take a week’s
holiday, the first of very many holidays in Majorca, specifically in
Puerto Pollensa, at £69 per person all in!
Thus it was that we returned from Majorca to discover my fate.
Apart from being gazetted at the Inns of Court School of Law
the Bar Final results were also printed in The Times and still are
to this day. We arrived back late but I persuaded Sonya that we
could get a copy of the Times from Printing House Square so as
not to have to wait until the morning!!
By what miracle I do not know but I passed the Finals at the first
attempt. That created a very difficult situation if I wanted to
practice at the Bar since I needed to find a pupillage, a
compulsory 12 months of learning the ropes, during the first six
of which one was not entitled to be heard [in court].
More formally, I needed to be proposed for call to the Bar by a
bencher of my Inn. I did not know anybody from anybody except
that I had huge admiration for Sir Elwyn Jones QC who at that
stage was member of Parliament for Newham South and
Attorney General in Harold Wilson’s second administration and,
more significantly from my point of view, a bencher of Gray’s
Inn.
I asked one of the lecturers at Gibson & Weldon, the Bar
crammer where I had finally polished off contract and tort and
the Bar Finals, what he thought I should do and he wrote to
Elwyn Jones whom he knew.
Totally out of the blue I had a telephone call from the Attorney’s
clerk, Eric Cooper OBE, summoning me to a meeting in the
Attorney General’s room in the Royal Courts of Justice at
4.45pm, a few days hence.
On the pupillage front, a good friend of mine, Michael Brooke,
who later took silk and became a highly respected circuit judge
and gloried in having Eccles as one of his middle names, was
finishing his pupillage and had mentioned my position to his
pupil master. As a result and without me ever speaking to the
gentleman in question, Michael informed me that he had agreed
to take me on as a pupil on the usual terms, namely the payment
of 100 guineas plus 10 guineas for the clerk!!!
Early on the day of my meeting with Sir Elwyn I had had a
phone call from Michael Brooke’s pupil master explaining that a
[by definition impecunious] clergyman friend of his had asked if
he would take that prelate’s son as a pupil and that in the
circumstances he was very sorry that he would have to cancel the
arrangements which he had agreed to.
As anybody who has ever met him will confirm, Elwyn Jones was
the most affable of characters, as well as being incredibly bright.
Apparently, before becoming Attorney General he did a lot of
prosecuting work on the Wales and Chester circuit and he would
regularly read the briefs that he was going to deal with that day
on the milk train leaving Paddington at 5 o’clock in the morning!!
The interview went extremely well and having indicated his
willingness to sponsor me for call, asked if I had sorted out
pupillage. I explained the events which I have just related [no
Sir Frederick Elwyn Jones QC
names, no pack drill]. He said he would have a word with his
clerk to see what he could do.
What he could do turned out to be the best thing that ever
happened to me professionally. I was offered a pupillage in the
Attorney’s Chambers, at Lamb Building in Middle Temple.
My pupil master was a most engaging man by the name of Julian
Priest, ironically the son of a vicar. He taught me all I needed to
know about the Bar in addition to plying myself and my fellow
pupil with drink and sandwiches in the Cheshire Cheese after
5.30 every afternoon. That was still okay because by now Sonya
was in the chorus of Neville Coghill’s musical version of the
Canterbury Tales at the Phoenix Theatre.
Work was plentiful in Lamb Building but seats in Chambers
were hard to come by and eventually I found a tenancy at
Number 1 Dr Johnson’s Buildings just opposite the Temple
Church. One of the tenants there was Sir John Mortimer QC,
known to all as the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey and to many
as the successful defender of the publishers of “Oz”.
Work was not so plentiful at Number 1, but thanks to the
generosity of one of our number, work began to flow. Many of
you will know the saintly Bob Patten; in 1972 he was the
chairman of OSFC and was in great need of a team secretary.
The rest, as they say, is history.
I went on to become secretary of OSFC and included amongst
my achievements was agreeing with the Southern Amateur
League to the cancellation of promotion from the second
division of the fifth league which we had won that season. I
countered all protestations from the membership with the
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
observation that they could make history by winning the second
division two years in a row!! Much to my relief they did just that
the following season!
Early on in my time at Dr Johnson’s Buildings I was asked by the
clerks, late on a Friday afternoon, to go to Thames Magistrates
Court on the Saturday morning. Thames was the second most
unsanitary court in the whole of London (the worst was North
London Mags which smelt like a urinal). Both have long since
been replaced I am pleased to say.
The purpose of my visit to Thames was to make an application
for bail in respect of a man charged with murder. Normally that
is a thankless task but the defendant had already been granted
bail on the application of his solicitor. The prosecution were now
alleging that he was in breach of the terms of his bail and had
arrested him once more.
I was quite happy to go to court in any event, needing all the
work I could get because Sonya had had our first child Abigail in
January 1972. But an additional carrot was held out that if I
would do that job for him, Mr John Blackburn Gittings – the
Defendant’s solicitor - would show his gratitude for saving him
the effort of going to court on a Saturday by affording me the
junior brief at the upcoming trial.
The prosecution application for bail to be withdrawn was refused
and so in the fullness of time the Defendant attended the
Chambers of Richard du Cann QC at Queen Elizabeth Building
in Middle Temple for a pre-trial conference. The solicitor and I
were already ensconced in du Cann’s room when the Defendant
was ushered in by the clerk.
“Do sit down” said du Cann “You know these gentlemen don’t
you” pointing to JBG and myself. Then, addressing the Defendant,
he uttered these most unexpected and spine-chilling words:-
“There are five reasons why you are going to be found guilty of
murder!!”
I don’t believe I have ever seen anybody’s jaw drop quite so fast
and so far. I was pretty taken aback myself but as the learned silk
explained, it was going to be very difficult for a jury to understand
why the defendant had given five different versions of his
involvement with the murder weapon to the police!
In due course, the trial commenced in front of Mr Justice
O’Connor at the Central Criminal Court [old hacks would never
call it the Bailey!!] and the first thing he did was to withdraw
bail. Pat O’Connor was subsequently elevated to the Court of
Appeal where he continued to like a drink at lunchtime.
In our trial, the jury had come back on the last afternoon with a
footling question which made it clear to the judge and to both
prosecuting and defence counsel [du Cann that is – not me!!]
that they really had not understood the directions which they
had been given. As a result the jury was discharged and bail was
granted once more, not least because it was anticipated that the
matter would not return to the Central Criminal Court for three
months or more, given the state of the lists.
Imagine the horror therefore when the case was listed 6 days
later in St Albans. It turned out that it suited du Cann’s diary!!
Needless to say bail was once more revoked and after a five-day
trial the jury returned with a verdict of guilty of manslaughter for
which the Defendant was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.
When we went down to the cells the Defendant thanked du
Cann for his efforts and seemed perfectly happy to do his time.
However, du Cann told him that there was a cast-iron ground of
appeal and that he should instruct me to settle those grounds of
appeal and at the same time make an application for bail which
would be granted. The Defendant, however, made it clear that he
had had enough of a cat and mouse existence and would prefer
to stay incarcerated.
As we walked up the steps from the cells I asked du Cann what
this cast-iron ground of appeal might be, since I had not spotted
it. All that du Cann said was “Read the transcript - if you have
not spotted it after 24 hours then give me a ring.”
I did read the transcript and I did spot it within 24 hours, namely
a misdirection by the judge in relation to self-defence being a
defence not only to murder but also to manslaughter.
I alerted the solicitor to the point and urged him to contact the
Defendant to instruct me make an application for bail. In the
result the Defendant was quite happy for the appeal to go ahead
but declined to instruct me to apply for bail. Thus it was that, 11
months after he had been sentenced and told by du Cann that he
had a cast-iron ground of appeal, that we appeared in the Court
of Appeal.
On any kind of appeal the form is for the appellant to go first. In
this case barely, had their Lords Justices backsides struck their
seats than the presiding Lord Justice called upon prosecuting
counsel, Kenneth Richardson, with whom the following
conversation ensued:
“Mr Richardson”
Richardson rises slightly bemused, “yes my Lord”
“Mr Richardson you cannot possibly uphold this conviction can
you?”
Richardson “No My Lord”
Appeal allowed with du Cann never saying a word!!
Surprisingly that was my one and only murder case!!
In my early years I concentrated mainly on personal injury and
what is now called clinical negligence claims. Mostly they
involved me being instructed on Legal Aid so, when that was
abolished in 1998, I had to look for other work whilst still doing
the odd RTA on a CFA.
So it was that I revisited employment law. The first and for a long
time the ONLY such case I had ever done was in about 1972 for
Bob Patten’s partner at Adlers & Aberstones, Martin Mendelson,
in Baldock or somewhere equally obscure. The only thing I
remember about it, apart from feeling singularly underprepared,
was feeling car sick as a result of being driven erratically in
Martin’s Jaguar!
Gray's Inn Walks
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
In the meantime I had made a couple of visits to the House of
Lords. On the first occasion, not long after the birth of my
second daughter Natasha, I was representing an American lady
who had been caught smuggling drugs into Heathrow. The
prosecution, in the form of HM Customs and Excise, realised
three months after she had been sentenced to 5 years
imprisonment, that they still had some Canadian $8000 found
on her at the time of her arrest.
So they now made application for those funds to be forfeit as
potentially the proceeds of drugs. Unfortunately for the
prosecution, if a sentence is to be altered by the original judge, he
or she has to do so within 28 days of the original sentence.
I made the point to His Honour Judge Oliver Martin QC who
was sitting in the old Middlesex Guildhall then a Crown Court
which is now the building in which the Supreme Court sits in
Parliament Square. However, like a good ex-prosecutor, he was
having none of it and ordered the forfeiture of the money.
So it was that an appeal was taken to the Court of Appeal who
in short order rejected it.
Feeling that the position was clear, i.e. when a statute says
something is to be done within 28 days it means 28 days not 3½
months, I advised my solicitor that we should petition the House
of Lords for permission to appeal.
That was duly done and in due course I appeared in front of a
committee of 3 Law Lords to outline my application for
permission which was opposed by HM Customs and Excise who
were represented by counsel named Michael Wilkinson.
All Law Lords (and now Supreme Court Justices) are extremely
bright people but some of them have brains like planets. I was in
front of one such and found to my consternation when called
forward to the lectern that my tongue was stuck to the roof of
my mouth. The noble Lord said “It’s all right Mr Knight - we
have your arguments here in writing. We want to hear from your
opponent.”
So - much earlier than he was expecting - Wilkinson found
himself in the same position but, being considerably senior, was
able to start on his submissions which had all to do with the
ancient concept of deodand whose origins can be traced back to
the 11th century but which was abolished by Parliament in 1846!
After suffering nearly 10 minutes of this drivel Lord Diplock
pulled up Mr Wilkinson thus:-
“Mr Wilkinson”
Wilkinson “yes my Lord?”
“Mr Wilkinson don’t you want to appear in the House of Lords?”
Wilkinson “Oh yes my Lord”
Ld Diplock –“Then sit down!”
And permission was granted!
Both my solicitor and I realised that it might be advisable if I was
led in the House of Lords on the full hearing of the Appeal by
Queen’s Counsel. My old pupil master Julian Priest had taken
silk three years earlier and was happy to lead me.
Needless to say the appeal was a piece of cake but it was quite
amusing to see the very experienced silk for HMC&E being
kicked from pillar to post by their Lordships!
A decade later, by which time Sonya and I had a son named
Nicholas, I was asked to go to Bromley Magistrates Court to
represent a Defendant who had been charged with driving with
excess alcohol in his breath and failing to supply a specimen.
Counsel who should have gone to this afternoon appointment
had been held up in the morning and so I was deputising.
Bromley Magistrates are no more willing to acquit a Defendant
than any other Magistrates’ Court. However, on this occasion
they excelled themselves by convicting the Defendant of both
offences. Since for an excess alcohol conviction you require two
specimens of breath so that you can throw away the higher of the
two readings as required by the statute, it came as something of
a surprise to me that he was convicted of that offence because the
evidence on the other offence was that he had not supplied a
second specimen!!!
The conviction for failing to supply was more understandable
but the [legally qualified] clerk had advised the magistrates that
I was not entitled to adduce evidence which might tend to
suggest that the Lion Intoximeter was not working properly.
I had advised the Defendant of the existence of authorities which
said precisely that - but that I thought they were wrong, so we
appealed to the Divisional Court of the Queen’s Bench Division
of the High Court. I had a most benign hearing from Lord
Justice Peter Gibson and Mr Justice McNeill but in the end they
were not prepared to override the two cases which were against
me.
When the associate turned round and gave them each a sheet of
paper upon which I had written what I suggested was a point of
law of general public importance, having overcome their surprise
that it was already typed up, indicated that it was such a case and
as a result I was halfway back to the House of Lords!
This time on the application for permission I was more than
ready but was told by the presiding Law Lord that they did not
wish to hear from me. Instead my old friend Hylton Harrop
Griffiths [Tony to his friends], appearing for the prosecution and
was given the run-around for 10 minutes before being put out of
his misery.
This time I had no doubt that I was perfectly capable of
expressing to their Lordships the simple proposition that when a
statute says you need to have 2 of something you need 2 – not 1
or 3!!!
The issues on the admissibility of evidence were made somewhat
more difficult by the fact that the judge who had presided in the
two cases which were against me had since been elevated to the
House of Lords and was now sitting on the five-man panel!!
Mercifully, Lord Goff of Chieveley, not a criminal lawyer by any
stretch of the imagination, was able to follow the logic of Lord
Griffiths who famously said of a Defendant who claims, at all
material times, to have been in the company of 2 bishops:-
“Is he to be convicted without the opportunity of calling the two
bishops as witnesses to the fact that he had drunk nothing that
evening and inviting the magistrates to draw the inference that
the machine must have been unreliable?”
Lord Goff was good enough to say in his speech that my
arguments had persuaded him that his approach in the two
earlier cases had been too narrow!!
51 years after I started I am still just about in practice ready, to
accept instructions from anybody, as long as it’s in an area that I
know something about!
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
paul bateman conducting
In the late 90s I conducted an open air concert on a beautiful
estate in Oxfordshire and after the rehearsal I was asked to
mingle in the promoter’s tent. At that stage I hadn’t yet changed
into my white tie and tails so was perhaps more casually dressed
than the assembled guests.
After choosing a canapé and a drink I drifted towards a group of
people and was approached by two elegantly dressed ladies of
seemingly intellectual character. The first question I received was
‘What do you do?” I replied that I would be conducting the
concert that evening. However the next question took me back a
little, which was: “Do you have to be a musician to do that?” I
don’t remember the exact answer I gave but on the way home
that night I thought of the answer that I wished I had given,
which was “Ideally yes, but a lot of us get away with it!”.
The first question from the other lady was “When you are
waving your arms around like that are you actually playing
notes?” Again I don’t remember my answer but what struck me
strongly about the whole conversation is that many seemingly
well educated people often have absolutely no idea of what a
conductor is doing, even though it appeals to them as quite a
romantic thing to do.
Those of you who have played musical instruments or who have
sung in choirs will have a much better idea of what a conductor
is there for. I will therefore direct my thoughts toward those of
you, who, like the ladies mentioned above, really don’t know what
the function of the conductor is.
There are actually several things happening simultaneously but I
will start with the practical matters. Let’s analyse what happens
when we sing “Happy Birthday”. Someone in the room, either
consciously or unconsciously, starts singing and everyone else
instantly joins in (often in different keys but that’s another
matter). If this were actually organised in advance an individual
could be assigned the task of starting and everyone else could be
told to watch that person in order for all to start together. The
assigned person would take a big and obvious breath which
would show everyone else when the first note should be sung.
It’s this breath that’s the crucial thing. When a conductor raises his
or her baton or hand (called the ‘up-beat’), it is the same as taking
a breath for all the players, many of whom have to take a breath
anyway, so that they all start together. Bear in mind that an
orchestra of 70-90 players is spread out over a large area and it takes
a very visible action to enable them all to start precisely together.
This ‘up-beat’ also has to show the orchestra two other things.
Firstly the speed of the hand movement shows the speed of the
music that is about to be played (the ‘tempo’) so that everyone
will be playing at the same speed. Directions on the printed
music such as ‘Allegro’ (fast) can be interpreted to cover quite a
large range of speeds and indeed the acoustic of the building will
be an additional factor for the conductor to consider when
deciding upon the exact speed for that performance (a building
with a large echo will produce jumbled up sounds if played too
fast).
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Secondly the ‘up-beat’ has to show the character of the music to
be played, so a vigorous, sharp movement will encourage the
players to play the notes strongly and a gentle movement will
encourage a softly played tone. The conductor then has to judge
exactly how loud or soft it should be so that the different sections
of the orchestra are well balanced and that all the written details
can be heard. I’m often told that the players don’t seem to be
watching the conductor but are just playing what’s written on the
music in front of them, which tells them roughly what speed to
play and whether to play loud, soft or somewhere in between. In
fact they are watching the conductor in their width of vision - a
bit like driving whilst being able to see the movement of other
motorists and pedestrians on both sides of the road without
looking directly at them.
There are times when they need to look more directly, for
example when accompanying a singer or instrumental soloist
where the speed can fluctuate considerably and some notes will
be held longer than others. Here the conductor will respond to
what the soloist is doing and move the hands at varying speeds
that will enable the orchestra to remain in sync with the soloist.
Technically this is one of the hardest parts of the conductor’s job
and entails prior rehearsal with the soloist so that most of what
they are going to do can be anticipated and conveyed to the
orchestra. It also greatly helps when the players are encouraged
to listen carefully to the soloist as well, which they generally do
very well but of course the further away they are, the more
difficult that is to do.
Some conductors use a baton and some do not and I’m often
asked ‘why?’ A baton is not essential as hand movements can
convey the same information but a baton can be a clearer
communication if a large orchestra (and perhaps choir) are spread
over a large area. It is also clearer in the theatre or opera house
situation where the lighting can be darker and constantly
changing and where the performers on stage and in the orchestra
pit need to be able to see clearly in order for them to be well
synchronised.
So much for the technical requirements of conducting. The other
side of it is less obvious and more difficult to analyse but is
probably the most important aspect. It is absolutely true that
every conductor will make the same orchestra sound different in
the same way that every pianist will make the same piano sound
like a different instrument. Exactly how or why this happens is
rather mysterious but I will offer some pointers.
Take the analogy of a manager of a football team. He has
prepared his tactics, has hopefully gained the players’ respect and
their desire to work hard for him so his personality will have
inspired them to do their very best, both individually and for the
team. An orchestra is also a team that has to work closely
together in order to produce the best results. The main difference
is that the conductor is on the pitch playing with them!
Despite the very different types of instruments involved with
very different techniques of playing, (the strings bowing, the
woodwind and brass blowing and the percussion hitting), at
every performance an orchestra has to play as one. If you were to
canvas the players individually about their thoughts on the speed
and interpretation of any piece of music you will receive many
different variations of opinion. As individuals they might not
agree with the conductor but in order to produce a performance
they have to put those thoughts to one side and play as a team,
so on any given night the conductor is the final arbiter of how
the piece will be played.
Conductors have to study every piece of music for a long period
of time in order to be able to communicate and convey the style
and spirit of the composer’s intentions to the audience via the
orchestra. A conductor has to know every note that is to be
played by every player and should instantly know if anything is
not right in any department.
I have found that my work as an arranger and orchestrator has
helped hugely in this regard. I spend most of my days writing for
orchestra and when you have started with a blank page that has
to be gradually filled with every note to be played, you get to
know how and why an orchestra works and how the characteristics
of each very different type of instrument will combine and
balance with each other. The conductor is standing in the perfect
place to judge the balance of the orchestra, making sure that
everything the composer wrote can be clearly heard and that
details are not obscured by one section of the orchestra drowning
out another.
Those who have every attended a recording session of an
orchestra will have seen that there is a group of three microphones
(left, centre and right, called the ‘Decca tree’) on a stand that is a
few feet above the conductor’s head. Although there are other
microphones dotted all around the orchestra these three receive
the majority of the sound that will be eventually heard. They are
placed there so that the balance achieved by the conductor is
what is heard. When I’ve been asked “why did you become a
conductor”? I usually answer “business class flights” and “if you
like listening to music there’s no better place to stand!”
I mentioned earlier that each conductor produces a different
sound from the same orchestra. When one is standing up there
doing it it’s not possible to analyse what you are doing that might
affect the sound but on one occasion this was pointed out to me
after a concert by a sound engineer. I was conducting a gala
concert in Moscow for Sarah Brightman and she was one of
several artists performing so there was a different conductor for
each artist. The sound engineer, a fine musician himself who I
knew well, told me afterwards that when the orchestra played for
me they played almost twice as loud! He could physically see that
on his sound desk where the dials were showing the decibel
levels. To him it was clear that all the other conductors had in the
rehearsal put the fear of God into the players which tensed them
up. I simply made them feel free to play as they would normally
want to, which apparently made the huge difference. Some
would argue that you get better results from people by injecting
fear but I think this proved that the opposite is the case. Either
way, you can only be yourself, whether they like it or not.
Not long after I first started conducting I found myself working
with fellow Old Stationer and fellow ex school organist John
Alley who asked me why on earth I wanted to become the enemy!
His long standing career as pianist for the London Symphony
Orchestra had given him this view and although I don’t remember
my precise reply it certainly made me think more about it. My
own view is that I am a musician and all the members of the
orchestra are musicians and we have to work together to produce
the best possible performance. I have therefore always seen it as a
collaboration rather than a battle of wills and don’t ever see that
changing. Having said that, I can understand where John is
coming from as one of my initial reasons for becoming a
conductor was due to the frustration of having played (in the
same capacity as John) for so many incompetent ones.
In my 20s I was pianist for the Advanced Conductor’s Course at
the Royal Academy of Music. I did this job every Monday
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
morning for ten years and this was before I started conducting
myself. The job entailed playing orchestral music on the piano
for the student conductors to practise their craft before facing the
orchestra. I therefore got very used to telling the students
whether or not what they were doing was going to work or be
correctly interpreted. Later, when I started to play in orchestras I
would have the same desire to speak up but was not in a position
to do so, hence the frustration and the thought that actually I
could do a better job myself.
A big pointer for me in the direction of my career came when I
was guest working as a repetiteur (rehearsal pianist) at the Opera
de la Monnaie in Brussels and I conducted a rehearsal of the
whole of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande with all the
singers on stage but just a piano in the orchestra pit. Many of the
opera singers (all well-known and very experienced) came up to
me afterwards and said “Well, you’ve obviously done that before!”
Actually I hadn’t but it gave me the confidence to give it a try.
At the beginning of my career as a freelance pianist I would
never have dreamed that I would one day have the good fortune
to conduct many of the world’s greatest orchestras and I am now
honoured to hold the position of Principal Conductor of the
National Symphony Orchestra.
Retirement is not an option. You can’t stop being a musician. I
will continue for as long as physically possible.
Paul Bateman
PRINCESS diana's funeral - Northants involvement
When the sad death of Princess Diana was announced there was
great shock and sadness as she was regarded as a ‘local girl’ as her
home was the Spencer family home on the Althorp estate just
north of Northampton.
She could often be seen shopping in Northampton even when
rumours were abounding that she was ‘seeing’ Prince Charles.
Following their marriage, the Prince and Princess were granted
the Freedom of Northampton on 8th June 1989. This was the
first event for Princess Diana in the town that I was involved in,
with the organisation in my role at Northampton Borough
Council this time assisting the Mayor’s Secretary to organise the
day from catering, military guard of honour through to the
security arrangements with the Police and Special Branch.
I got more involved in organising public events and started the
Northampton Balloon Festival in 1990, which by the mid 90’s
was attracting 250,000 people to the centre of Northampton over
the Festival weekend. This led to the council forming an Events
Team which I became manager of to organise all the council’s
public events from street entertainment, Freedom ceremonies and
military parades through to the shows and the balloon festival.
On the Monday following the death of Princess Diana, myself and
a colleague were out of town at an events supplier. Mid-morning
the telephone started ringing from various departments of the
council asking where we could get various things as they were
thinking of events when the funeral cortège would leave the
motorway at junction 16 and travel through the borough to within
a couple of miles of Althorp. We returned to the office and started
to plan for the funeral with other departments of the council.
With the outpouring of grief that was being shown in London
during this period it was thought that on the day of the funeral
large crowds from the north of the country may descend on
Northampton when the cortège left the motorway. A Planning
Management meeting was set up with the local authorities,
Police, other emergency services, highways and voluntary
organisations.
Along with the Events team the council depot and especially
their Director started planning the event. We contacted farmers
along the route to see if we could use their fields for parking and
arranged staff to operate these make shift car parks. Again the
outpouring of grief in London started to spread to Althorp with
tremendous volumes of flowers being laid at the gates of the
Althorp estate.
Large crowds need servicing particularly if they have travelled
some distance, toilets, food, crowd control, the route, security first
aid etc. So how were we going to get a large number of marshals
to line the 5 mile route through the borough and how do we hold
back the crowds?
Well trying to hire mobile toilets proved very difficult as large
numbers of units had been booked for London, the nearest we
could get were from Manchester so some 10-12 trailers were
ordered. Then, where can they be stationed along the route as
several parts of the route did not have verges etc. this took some
surveying with the hire company until all the locations were found.
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
We contacted some local caterers to have a few trailer units
supplying hot drinks etc. at strategic points along the route.
The crowd control along the route was going to be a problem, as
due to the length of the route the Police could only provide
officers to line the route at long intervals between them. It was
agreed that we try and recruit 500 civilian marshals along the
route. We contacted all the uniformed youth groups Cadet
Forces, Scouts, Boys Brigade etc. and also advertised for
volunteers to come forward and we got all the marshals by end
of play on Friday. Then, how do they hold the crowd back as they
would be 20-30 yards apart. It was decided to lay a rope both
sides of the road from the motorway to the barriered area close
to Althorp gates. Should the crowds get large the marshals
would pick up the rope to hold the crowds back. There would
also be sector managers (of which I was one) to control
approximately a mile of the route. All the carpenters had to
empty their Daihatsu vans for the sector marshals to use.
Now we have all the marshals, they need some refreshments for
their stint out on the route so how do you get over 500 goody
bags together in a very short space of time? Well at that time the
Marks & Spencer sandwiches were produced in the town so they
sponsored the sandwiches and local supermarkets supported
with drinks, bottles of water, fruit and crisps and the depot staff
making up the packs on Friday afternoon. So each marshal was
issued with a pack containing a drink, bottle of water, sandwich,
bag of crisps and a piece of fruit.
Taking into account the grief that the public felt at this time it
was also important that medical facilities were provided. The
Ambulance service put vehicles at strategic points along the
route not only to serve the event but in some cases the local area
due to the road closures for the funeral. They also augmented
their resources by using St John Ambulance and Northampton
Emergency Aid Team to provided First Aid facilities.
One also has to bear in mind that all this planning and
arrangements were taking place in 5 days Monday – Friday ready
for the funeral on the Saturday.
With all this now in place we were set for the Saturday morning,
we hoped!
Bright and early on Saturday morning we all met at the
Borough’s Westbridge Depot for a management briefing, then a
briefing to all the marshals who had been allocated their
positions along the route and issued with their goody bags.
We deployed to the route somewhere around 10am from
memory. Checking all the resources were in place
and then waited and waited and waited.
There was no large influx of people from outside
the Northamptonshire area and there was an eerie
quiet and lack of people anywhere. Once the
cortège passed Milton Keynes on the motorway
people appeared, with the crowds building during
the half hour it took the procession to travel to
Northampton. People had been watching the
proceedings on the television and as it approached
Northampton, came out onto the route 3-6 people
deep along most of the town streets.
As the cortège approached the gates of Althorp
the crowds got thicker and the road was barriered.
The car was covered in flowers and it was very
difficult for the driver to see where he was going,
the car then turned in through the gates and disappeared into the
estate.
We all returned to the Borough Depot to return kit etc. and then
dispersed. All that planning was for a major international event
that lasted for 20-25 mins in our area and a minute or two for
the cortège to pass, but it had been well worthwhile for it to all
pass successfully.
That was not the finish for me as I changed hats and put my
Scout Leader’s hat on for the next day, Sunday morning, when
Scouts for Northampton and area had been asked to go to the
Althorp estate to assist with the clearing of all the floral tributes
that had been left at the estate gates. We went to one of the estate
farm yards where there was a large shredder and tables laid out
to receive the bouquets etc. There were about 30 -40 Scouts and
leaders taking part. The flowers were being delivered to the farm
yard by large farm grain trailer fulls. Our task was to separate the
flowers from the cellophane wrapping and feed sachets so the
flowers could be put through the shredder to be used out on the
estate. It so became apparent that the Scouts had set up a
competition to see who could collect the most feed sachets. This
gave them the incentive to work quickly and stopped them
getting bored. To our surprise Earl Spencer turned up (bearing
in mind this was the day after the funeral) and worked along
with the young people for an hour or so.
I don’t think the Scouts all realised that they had been part of a
major national/international event and will perhaps reflect on
their part in this sad event in later life.
Local Reflections/Rumours
Locally there are a couple of rumours that circulate, the first
being:
• That when the hearse got into the estate it overheated and the
reserve hearse following up 2 mins behind the cortege with
Special branch escort had to be used.
• The second being whether Princess Diana is laid to rest on the
island or in the Spencer crypt in Great Brington church?
There was considerable activity in the church crypt during the
week leading up to the funeral which has led to this local
rumour.
This gives an insight into the planning that took place for a small
5-6 mile stretch of the funeral route of some 65-70 miles in all.
Ross Thompson
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Me and my Motors - david turner
Having read the very interesting contributions made by other
members I wonder if my own short stories may be of interest. I
passed my driving test in 1958 and was given sufficient money by
my family to acquire a rather ancient Ford popular. This was the
model which was significantly higher than it was wide and so
fast cornering was definitely out of the question. However,
according to the adverts it did have one advantage over sleeker
models in that it was possible to wear a trilby hat inside the
motor easily.
After a few months of ownership something happened which
will certainly not happen today or for evermore. I was driving
down a London street when another driver in a VW beetle
overtook me and as he did so a policeman stepped out into the
road with his arm up indicating that I should stop. The beetle
driver thought that the instruction applied to him as well and
jammed on his brakes causing the vehicle to go into a sideways
skid. The policeman was forced to perform a manoeuvre in order
to avoid being run over by the car with a movement which I
thought was rather reminiscent of a bullfighter.
Imagine my anger when the copper waved the other guy on and
told me that I was being charged with speeding. I had always
been instructed by my family to be respectful to the police but I
am afraid that on this occasion my youthful hot temperament
got the better of me and I certainly lost my rag in telling the
copper he was not doing his job properly. His reaction was to say
that they had got me and didn’t care about anybody else. My
defence was that my old car was not capable of the speed which
was attributed to it and therefore it is surely the other driver who
was going much faster than me and it was really he who should
be the subject of the charge. I then asked how they were so
certain as to the speed attributed to me and I was told that a
plain clothes officer stands at the side of the road and indicates
when a vehicle went past which might be speeding. Then, a
second man who will be positioned at a measured distance
which, I recall, may have been 220 yards, clicked his stop watch
and if the reading indicated a speed in excess of the permitted
maximum then he waved a white hankerchief to another copper
whose job it was to risk life and limb to step into the road to stop
the offending vehicle
On that occasion I eventually received a letter from the local head
man who told me that in this instance I would not be charged but
if I did it again then I would be charged on both counts.
There were a couple of idiosyncrasies about that car and one was
that the windscreen wipers were driven by a vacuum motor
which operated less efficiently as the load on the engine got
greater. So going up a steep Hill resulted in the wipers stopping
work entirely thus making life very difficult for the driver.
The other point was that it had a very primitive form of airconditioning
which consisted of two small flaps positioned just
ahead of the doors and which could be operated from inside the
car to open out in such a way that when the car was driven in a
forward direction there would be a blast of fresh air which would
normally blow up the drivers trousers. However, if one was
fortunate enough to have a young lady in the passenger seat
wearing a generous sized skirt then the skirt may be elevated by
the draft and thus the thing was known as a skirt raiser.
Another memory from those days is that a lot of guys had cars
built pre WW2 and some of these things didn’t have starter
motors but were equipped with starting handles which you fed
through a hole in the front bumper straight into the engine and
turned it as hard as you could. When I was at Stationers I can
remember only 2 Masters who had cars, one was Topley known
as Toppo and the other was Major Halls aka Razz or the Razz.
A rumour went round that the Razz started his car using the
handle but unfortunately had left the car in gear and ran himself
over. I never saw any evidence of this but if it did happen he was
not the only one.
Also some of those pre war cars had running boards actually to
assist older people in getting into the vehicle because the cars
were high but they did have another use in that if the car was full
up the odd passenger could stand on the running board and wrap
his arms around the central body post after lowering the windows
and hold on very tight. Not the safest thing to do as I can testify.
Another trick was used when a car wouldn’t start which was
fairly often and that was to get a group of guys to push it to top
of a hill and then let it coast down and put it into gear.
Having been lucky enough to escape prosecution for my offences
in the Ford popular I then had two more pieces of luck, the first
of which was a time when I was driving from Luton Airport
along the lower road when I passed an electronic speed gadget
which read the numberplate of the car resulting in a letter
inviting me to make payment of the fine of £60 and would I
please send in my driving licence so that it could be marked
accordingly with my offence. A couple of years later I received a
most unexpected letter from the Hertfordshire Constabulary
informing me that a checkup had revealed that the warning sign
that a speed camera was in the area was not properly cited and
was in fact too close to the camera.
I was then invited to return my driving licence on the basis that
a new one would be issued to me which would not contain any
offending entries and the £60 would be refunded. Having
received the clean licence and the £60 I then wrote to point out
that they had had use of my money for a couple of years and I
enclosed a bill for interest. Needless to say I didn’t hear anything
A few years after that I was pulled up by a police driver in the
road next to where we live and he and his companion got out of
the police car and told me that I was going to be charged because
I went through a light which was at red. I complained that in fact
the light was not red but was in the course of changing thereto
when I passed it. The copper in charge pointed out that if I
insisted that I was innocent and went to court there would be
two of them against one of me and I would undoubtedly lose the
appeal. They then pointed out that I could have what is called an
on the spot fine and this would be £60.
Naïvely I thought that the fine which is termed on the spot really
meant that you had to pay at that moment and I searched my
pockets for cash at which point I think that the chief copper
thought that I was about to make a bribe, but fortunately he
explained to me that what would happen is that I would receive
a notice of the fine through the post and I would have 14 days to
make payment.
His second-in-command then produced a pad of tickets upon
which he wrote some details and handed me a copy.I drove home
and about an hour later I received a telephone call from a
gentleman who described himself as the constable who had
taken charge of the situation when I had been reprimanded
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
earlier in the day. He told me that he had some bad news and
some good news. The bad news was that his assistant had written
out a ticket on which it said that my crime had nothing to do
with traffic lights at all but I had failed to wear seatbelts. The
good news was that of course I would not be charged and he
asked if I would be kind enough to throw away the ticket with
which I had been issued and to give him a promise that in view
of his leniency I must not relate the story to anyone else.
I did envy some of the owners of the cars illustrated in the last
mag and I suppose that on reflection perphaps I might have gone
for things a bit more exciting than the string of Jaguar XJ 6 S
which I had over 40 years, but they were lovely cars. For quite a
long time we had two of them together but the S type went a
couple of years ago ,it having negative equity . We are now down
to a Nissan for every day use and an X type Jag for State
occasions. It is about 15 years old and Lady T thinks that I
should sell it but it is still a super car and has only done about
52,000 miles which is nothing. But as I point out, if we sold it we
would probably get very little.
Many thanks for all the good notes which we are lucky to receive
twice a year.
me and my motors - Neil Adkins
Hi Tim, your request for a few words to go alongside my pictures
of my beautiful 1967 TR4A and the 1966 Lambretta I have
recently finished restoring forced me to reflect on how many cars
I have had over the years.
Remarkably it came to 50 ! I tried to remember the registration
numbers of them all but gave up after the first 20 or so.
On top of the cars there are around a dozen motor bikes and
Lambrettas.
My first car was a 1956 Hillman Californian registration number
6 GML, the number alone would be worth a fortune now.
I then progressed through the usual Mini, Ford Anglia 105e,
VW Beetle, Datsun Cherry, Escort Mk1 & 2, Cortinas, then a
TR4 A
Whilst writing I do recall some more features of the car and for
example it had no heater and no demister. Also the suspension
was basically a couple of cart springs mounted across the vehicle
roundabout the area of the wheels and of course this was
extremely uncomfortable. It was basically a pre-war design.
You will notice that the car in the picture has two windscreen
wipers but in fact some earlier models only had one. You will also
notice that although there are two headlights mounted on the
wings there appears to be no provision for indicators. This is
because there were things called a semaphore indicator, which
was basically a small arm of about 18 inches illuminated by a very
small bulb which came out of the bodywork just behind the
doors and of course occasionally this got stuck especially if the
thing was frozen up. The driver had to resort to winding down
the windows and sticking his arm out of the car as per the
instructions in the highway code of that time.Finally, I believe
that the top speed was in the region of just over 50 miles an hour
and it took 24.9 seconds from a standing start to achieve that
remarkable velocity.
Hope this may be usable.
David Turner
Immaculate engine bay
Vintage Lambretta
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
plethora of Vauxhall’s, Renaults, the odd Citroen and of course
because I worked for Nissan a succession of Micras for my wife.
I spent a period in a management buyout in Knaresborough.
During that time the Company cars were a bit more exotic.
Omega Elite, 5 Series BMWs, Audi A4s. Back to Nissan,
Qashqai 4x4, X Trail.
Whilst by day my life was governed by building a car every 28
seconds my real love is for classic cars. Over the years I have built
a Westfield Ford powered kit car, owned a e type and an MGB.
My current every day run about is an Audi TT TFSI Roadster,
my wife has a Kia Sportage to transport the dogs and the
grandchildren.
My working life has taken me all over Europe and Japan and I
have been lucky enough to drive around a number of the Grand
Prix Circuits in some fairly exotic sports cars but to be honest it
is the old classic cars that still do it for me. The modern super
cars have far too many electronic gizmos on them, yes they are
lightening quick but they don’t have the feel of the old cars!
If money was no object then the ideal car for me would be either
a classic 3.8 flat floor e type or a Ferrari Dino. Either would set
you back around £200k !
I had my TR4A valued for insurance last year, I was staggered to
find that the agreed value was £47.5k, silly money!
Take care, stay safe!
Neil Adkins
Me and my Motors - peter armstrong
I joined Stationers in September of 1957 and left in July 1963
and then worked in various bank branches in North London
employed as junior clerk up to cashier and then made the move
to the City and worked in a Foreign Exchange department and
made currency dealer. I then joined a small South African based
merchant bank in the City as assistant in their Foreign Exchange
Dept. in 1974. In 1979 I was seconded to their newly opened
sister bank in Nassau, Bahamas as Manager but my main area of
expertise was funding the bank’s foreign currency loan portfolio,
through the international money markets. In 1989 the bank’s
management decided the Nassau venture had served its useful
purpose and the bank was closed. By this time I had married a
local Bahamian woman and been granted “permanent residency
– with the right to work” and, consequently, I opted to remain
here; subsequently I applied for and was granted full Bahamian
citizenship. I am now enjoying retirement in the sun!
In 1987 I heard about and joined a newly formed social club –
the Antique Auto Club of the Bahamas, luckily ownership of an
antique vehicle was not and still is not a requirement of
membership, but fairly soon I did find a suitable car advertised in
Kent and so made the hike across the “pond” and became the
proud owner of a, heavily
customized Riley Elf
limousine:
A couple of other custombuilt
Minis followed, until I
again contacted the young
man who had customized
the Elf and asked him if he could produce a six-wheeled Mini
pick-up truck, which he, very successfully, did:
By now I felt I wanted something “truly different” so back to the
small ads and I came up with a 1971 Matra sports car, “a what?”
I hear you asking, well Matra was a French aero-space engineering
company but they did produce a couple of fiberglass bodied
sports cars and this was one of the later ones:
Of course my stable wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention my
last company car from the bank before they left me:
It’s a 1987 Avanti Coupe. The original car was the last model
designed and built by Studebaker from June 1962 to December
1963, in that time less than
6,000 in total were produced.
After the closure of Studebaker
at the end of 1963 a Studebaker
dealership in South Bend,
Indiana started to build and
sell the Avanti model from
1965. They incorporated the
company Avanti Motor
Corporation and continued
using the old Studebaker factory. I ordered my car and picked it
up from the factory gates, in South Bend, in August of 1987 and
have kept it ever since.
Of the four cars pictured here I sold the limo some year ago but
have kept the other three and enjoy showing them at the club’s
annual car shows, of course none of these are “daily drivers” and
my wife and I, for tooling around town, drive a Honda HR-V of
2000 vintage and a Japanese built Renault Clio badged Lutecia
from 2011 – a little bit of useless information apparently the Clio
name was copywrited in Japan by Honda, hence the name Lutecia.
Peter Armstrong
Me and my Number Plate - David Hudson
My story is not quite about me and my cars, or my brush with
the law, but more about me and my number plate! It started long
ago in my student days when I was sharing a flat with a motoring
nut case. He talked about cars all the time and one evening we
were all obliged to decide which was the best number plate we
could ever have and I quickly decided upon HUD 50N which
was as close to my surname as I could possibly get. It wasn’t due
to be issued for 3 or 4 years but I liked the idea and decided to
set about seeing if I could acquire it.
In 1974 shortly before it was due to be issued I wrote to
Oxfordshire Licensing Authority to ask if I could reserve it. I
got a rather curt reply saying all numbers were issued by
computers and the HUD series was not currently in use and they
could not tell if it would be. It looked like it wasn’t to be but a
while later I spotted an HUD reg with an N suffix and knew that
it must have been issued. I wrote again to the licensing authority
who advised that HUD 50N had been allocated to a garage 3
weeks earlier and they gave me the garages address. I wrote to
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
the garage asking if I could have it, but alas it had been issued on
a Batavus moped 3 weeks earlier to a lady but they did give me
her name and address. I accordingly wrote to her asking if I
could buy her new moped with my name on its registration.
After a couple of phone calls and a bit of haggling I was on my
way to Abingdon, Oxfordshire in my dads Morris traveller to
collect the moped. I paid £250 for the new moped which she
had purchased for £150 just a month ago.
The number was transferred onto my first ever car a 1965 rather
rusty Triumph Herald which I had acquired about a year earlier
for £140 and it became my pride and joy. It soon became known
to all my friends, work mates and football team mates that I was
the one whose number plate was worth more than the car! I took
it to a “Registrations Rally” at the National Motor Museum at
Beaulieu where I was awarded a prize for “the most distinguished
number on the least distinguished car” and its photo featured in
a number of motoring magazines. My Mum had been concerned
about how much I had paid for it but she was more impressed
when I told her about the many thousands of pounds that dealers
were offering me for it.
On Sunday mornings I played football for Avondale FC a team
for whom many Old Stationers have featured. It was in the pub
after a Sunday game when one of my teammates told me I was
going to be nicked next week for my number plate. His Dad was
in the police at Southgate and apparently the word was out to get
me! He wasn’t wrong! I was stopped 5 times during the
following week including twice in one day! Unbelievable! I
wrote a letter of complaint to the police about it. One evening
without warning two senior police officers called at the house to
discuss my “formal police complaint”. My poor mother was
mortified that we had the police calling at the house! My parents
house had been burgled 3 times in recent years and it seemed to
me that there had been little police action on that yet they
apparently had the resources and priority to stop me 5 times in a
week regarding my number plate. I questioned what the purpose
of a number plate was. Is it not to individually distinquish each
and every vehicle, and does my number plate not achieve that
more effectively that the millions of other non-descript numbers?
They didn’t really have an answer to that! My complaint was
about their prioritising their resources. My mother quickly
persuaded me to withdraw my complaint which I did and they
left saying the matter would be taken to court.
Some months later I duly received summonses for 2 separate
offences on each of two of the days I was stopped. They were
firstly for illegal spacing between the digits, and secondly for not
bearing the correct number plate saying it was HUD SON and
not HUD 50N. I set about preparing my defence, contacting
others who had been taken to court. The most amusing one I
heard of was an individual who on arriving at court went into the
magistrate’s car park and took photos of both magistrates cars
and police vehicles where their number plates did not conform
to the regulations! His case was dismissed immediately. I didn’t
think I should try that. I did get the firm who had made my
number plates to make up a plate with all the different 5s and Ss
they used which was 7 different digits. They also attended court
with me. They sought to take a tape recorder into court to record
the hearing and not being sure if they were allowed to they tried
to smuggle it in hidden under their coat. The police stopped
them from doing that but the clerk of the court who had
witnessed it said they were fully entitled to. The police had a
barrister prosecuting me with 3 officers giving evidence whilst I
conducted my own defence. I showed them the mocked up
number plate with all the different digits and asked them which
were 5s and which were Ss and why. They didn’t have a clue. I
showed the court exactly which were which and why . All Ss
were perfectly symmetrical and the top line curved down at the
end. All 5S were not symmetrical and the top line didn’t curve
down. I showed them which digit was on my car and that it was
clearly a 5 and not an S. One of the policemen giving evidence
I had never met before. His evidence was that he had driven past
me whilst I was being booked by a colleague and he noticed
clearly that the number was illegal! The case lasted nearly an
hour and a half. I was found guilty of the incorrect spacing with
no evidence other than on the word of the 3 officers, but not
guilty that it was the wrong number affixed to the car. I was
fined £5 on each of the two offences and charged £5 towards
police costs which was frankly a derisory sum. On leaving the
court I received a verbal apology from one of the senior officers
who had called round following my complaint who told me that
I would not be stopped again. The regulations have since
changed. The spacing is now more exactly specified and the
exact form of each digit is also specified. My number is now fully
compliant I promise you. I have been stopped since but only
once in 45 years compared to 5 times in a week. I have had my
fair share of speeding tickets and parking fines which proves the
number plate works in terms of identification.
Whilst playing football I have always been known colloquially as
“HUDDY” to all team mates and most of the Old Stationers
Football Club call me that which Ive always been quite happy
38

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
with. My son is also known as “HUDDY” to all his football,
rugby and cricket team mates. I therefore acquired the number
HUD1E which I bought at auction and I also have H11HUD in
the family. I have received many serious offers for HUD 50N but
will never part with it. It has been on a series of uninteresting cars
currently a Mercedes C class, but now that Ive reached 70 maybe
its time I put it on a special car to go with the number plate.
David Hudson aka DTC or HUDDY
Dave Hudson’s article about his special number plates prompted me to
include this photo of a 4.2 E-Type belonging to a member at my golf
club. This has got to be a very expensive add on to a fabulous car. Tim
my brush with the laPD
Hi Tim, I thought you might be interested in my brush with the
LAPD in the San Fernando Valley in 1973.
I left Stationers’ at the end of year 5 with 7 “O” levels and Beaky
Davis’ advice that I was wasting my education by not staying on
and that I would amount to nothing ringing in my ears, to start
my job as a Trainee Design Draughtsman with BSP Industries
in Borehamwood.
They sent me to the local Tech College on a sandwich course
where I gained an OND. I drifted into contract drafting then
moved to Carlisle with my new wife, Paula, to join Kangol
Magnet, a seat belt manufacturer as a design draughtsman. The
automotive sector is where I wanted to be.
I quickly progressed to become a process and tooling engineer
and the company was taken over by American Safety who were
based in, you’ve guessed it, San Fernando.
As a young 23 year old I had only been out of the country once
on a Stationers trip to Germany/Austria/Belgium but I was
despatched to America for 4 weeks to learn how to do it the
“American way”.
On arrival it was very clear that I needed to hire a car to get to
and from the office so I went to the local Hertz depot and of
course there was only 1 car for me... a Red Mustang!
All went well until the first evening I drove to meet a colleague
just down the road for a meal. I should mention that the road had
3 lanes going in either direction and traffic lights at every
intersection. The kind lady at Hertz had also instructed me that
in the unlikely event that I should get pulled over by the police I
MUST put my hands on top of the dashboard and make no
attempt to reach inside my jacket to get my licence out because
they might think I was getting a gun out and shoot me!
Anyway, back to the story, I drove down Sepuvedor Boulevard
but unfortunately went past the restaurant entrance. No problem
I thought, I pulled into a petrol station, drove straight through,
back onto the road effecting a U turn.
Unfortunately I went back onto the wrong side of the road facing
the oncoming traffic. Instant panic, I drove over the centre kerb
to get onto the right side of the road, fortunately missing other
cars but by the time I had gathered myself I had gone past the
restaurant again!
I turned an immediate left, again on the wrong side of the road.
At this point there where red and blue Police flashing lights in
front of me. Both doors opened one had a gun trained on me, the
other walked the long way around the car, opened my door,
dragged me out, put my hands on the roof, kicked my legs apart
and started to frisk me!
At this point I spoke to apologise, immediately the situation
lightened. He shouted to his mate “It’s OK he’s a Limey!”
So, I got a lesson in driving in the US from the LAPD, they
escorted me to the restaurant and I lived to tell the tale. It could
have all ended very badly, head on collision, shot by Police, who
knows?
I went to have a very successful business life mainly in the
automotive industry. I was the first employee and senior British
Manager responsible for establishing a Japanese transplant
operation beside the Nissan plant in Sunderland manufacturing
trim parts on JIT basis. That operation grew from the 40 people
I initially recruited to >500 with 5 factories under my guidance.
I visited Japan 25 times. I wish I could show old Beaky what I
have achieved! Now retired I spend my time on my classic car
and Lamberta restorations.
Neil Adkins
Truth is stranger than fiction
In the early ‘90s I was a Police Inspector based at West
Hampstead Police station. I was on duty one Sunday afternoon
when we got a call from the Royal Free Hospital to a ‘sudden
death’ of a middle-aged male. This was unusual because most
deaths in hospital are neither sudden nor need Police involvement.
What made it more unusual was that the call was from the
mortuary to say a bullet had been found in the man’s skull.
On arrival I was met by a young female doctor who was
distraught. Not surprisingly as she had only had six weeks
experience on the wards and had certified this man’s death as
natural causes from burst haemorrhoids. It was only when the
mortuary assistant was cleaning the body that the bullet wound
was noticed.
It appeared that the victim, a man called Graeme Woodhatch
had been found in a telephone booth outside his ward slumped
on the floor in a pool of blood. The cleaners had got to work
before we arrived, which was disappointing but we preserved the
scene as best we could. The C.I.D (or ‘the suits’ as we called
them disparagingly) arrived and took over the investigation, and
I returned to the station to write up my notes.
Some nineteen years later the story of the shooting emerged
when it finally came to court at The Old Bailey. Woodhatch had
fallen out with his business partner Paul Tubbs who believed he
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
was owed money. The business partner had hired a ‘hit man’, (or
‘hit woman’ in this case - there’s equal opportunities even in the
underworld it appears) to settle the debt. Deith Bridges was an
employee of the roofing firm and was a friend of the hit woman.
She was Te Rangimaria Ngarimu, a 27- year-old Maori student,
with degrees in mathematics and chemistry, and an Olympic
surfing champion, who wanted the money to buy a camper van.
She had fired four shots into Woodhatch’s head using bullets
that had been hollowed out to cause maximum damage. She
received only £1,500 of the £7,000 promised and returned to
New Zealand. She was touring in her camper van when she went
into a church in Auckland and decided to confess. She was
brought back to the U.K where she pleaded guilty and was sent
to prison for life. Tubbs and Bridges were convicted of conspiracy
to murder and also sentenced to life imprisonment.
A few years later my wife and I were at the 90th birthday party
of a neighbour of our holiday cottage in Norfolk. I got talking to
another neighbour who asked me what I did for a living, and not
unusually recounted his own ‘brush with the law’. He was a
retired potter and had become friendly with a local teacher, but
had lost contact some years previously. He had received a phone
call out of the blue from this old friend, asking whether he would
be a surety for his son who had ‘got himself into a bit of trouble’.
After going round the houses for a bit, it transpired that this was
Deith Bridges who had been charged with conspiracy to murder.
Not surprisingly my neighbour declined the request.
Now if you read that tale in a book, you would find it hard to
believe, but it did happen. Yes, truth is stranger than fiction....
Peter Miller
my life in print - alan cleps
What made me want to become a printer?
My secondary school education was spent at The Worshipful
Company of Stationers City Livery Company School in North
London. The School had begun in the 1800s in Bolt Court in
the shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral to educate the sons of Master
Printers. It did not have any bearing on me wanting to become a
printer. In fact none of my family had ever had any connections
with the industry and there was no suggestion from the school
that boys should become printers, much the opposite as we were
all expected to go to University.
My desire to become a printer all began when I went for a tour
around The News of the World newspaper on Saturday night with a
school friend, Michael Worms. His father (President of the local
branch of the British Legion) had organised a visit to the paper. I
was fascinated with the idea that I was able to see Sunday’s news
on Saturday evening, it all looked very exciting. Battle then
commenced as I became fixated with the idea, my father the
opposite. I had gone to Stationers to be educated to University
standard and that was that. After many battles at home and
meetings with the Headmaster it was agreed that I should be given
a chance, so my school subjects began to align themselves with
what was thought that would best suit me in my chosen career.
The next job to be tackled was to set about getting me an
apprecticeship. This was not easy as the Printing Trade was a
closed shop. However my Father knew a man through his
business contacts who was a journalist on The Sporting Life, a
horse-racing paper, he made some enquiries. His parent company
Odhams Press agreed to give me a preliminary interview to see
if they thought that I might be suitable. This was a very
superficial interview and they said that I should contact them
again when I was older. During the interwiew I was asked if I
was right or left handed, which seemed odd, its significance
would become obvious when I started my apprenticeship. I also
had a test to see if I was colourblind. I think from then on I asked
my Father every other day if I was old enough. Eventualy the
time came to make a formal application for an apprenticeship.
Then began the long path to being given an apprenticeship.
First I was interviewed in greater depth by two directors of
Odhams Press, Mr John and Mr Geoffrey, it was a family firm
even though it employed several hundred people. I was initially
accepted. I then had an interview with two board members from
the British Federation of Master Printers, sat examinations in
English and Maths and also was interwiewed by two officials
from the London Society of Compositors (I would be required
to join the union) and they wanted to know for themselves if I
was a worthwhile candidate. The union whilst it conducted
industrial relationship with the printing companies made sure
that anybody being considered for apprenticeship came up to
standard. This would become evident later during my apprentiship.
I also had to go for a medical to see if I was physically fit.
At long last I received a letter from Odhams Press saying that
they would be pleased to offer me an apprenticeship as a
Compositor (a Printer’s Devil as we boys were known). On the
due date I went along to the boardroom at Odhams along with
my Father where the conditions of my apprenticeship were
explained. These conditions can be seen on my indentures
displayed on the board near the bar. My apprenticeship would
last for 6 years during which time I was to attend day release each
week and evening classes twice a week, this was compulsory
(whatever would young trainees say today). So in January 1951 I
began the long journey to becoming a ‘Journeyman Printer’. As
in most craft jobs I began by performing menial tasks which did
not always seem to have much to do with printing. I was assigned
to a Craftsman Printer who I would be attached to for the first
couple of years.
At first I learnt the basics, one of them being that printers had
their own form of measurement that did not directly relate to
yards, feet and inches, also everything was done upside down and
back to front and type metal was a dull silvery grey, with some of
the letters being very small. I learnt the first steps in hand
typesetting. Printers held the ‘setting stick’ in their left hand and
picked up the type with their right (wouldn’t we be in trouble
with discrimination if we were still using ‘old technology’ now).
I realised that all the journeyman printers had mastered this skill
and little by little so did I.
In my time as an apprentice I was taught a lot about the history
of printing as it was thought that we should know why we were
doing things, how they had come about and not just do them.
Like other craft skills the printing industry was full of its own
jargon ‘somewhat like computer-speak nowadays’.
Setting sticks were made of metal, different typesizes had names,
12pt pica, 5pt minion, 8pt bourgeois pronounced bjoyce by
printers. Spaces m, n, mid thick, thin hair, quoins - that you could
not spend - planers and shooters. The men that you worked with
were called front pages, back pages, side pages in relation as to
where you stood at your work place in relation to them. There
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
were even ‘floaters’ who moved from publication to publication
as and when required.
About two years into my training I took a break to serve Queen
and country as a National Serviceman. On my return I took up
where I had left. Previously I mentioned the interest that the
trade union took in apprentices. At the end of each term the
Printing College sent a report to the firm, each apprentice in
turn had to appear before ‘The Printer’ and The Father of The
Chapel (the trade union representative). I knew of apprentices
that had their wages ‘docked’ at the insistence of The Father of
The Chapel for poor performance at the college. the reason for
this was that the union were proud of the skills of their members
and would not tolerate slacking. As I progressed I mastered more
and more difficult tasks and was given responsibilities to match.
As I had broken my apprenticeship for National Service I had
another year tacked on which meant that I would serve 7 years
not 6. I met a girl and wanted to get married whilst in the last
year of my apprenticeship. When I made this known I was
reminded by ‘The Printer’ that I was still an apprentice and
bound to him and as such my allegiance was to my master and
that he came first (can you imagine that happening these days?).
I got married. The great day came, no not my marriage but the
end of 7 long years and at last I was a journeyman compositor
and free to go out into the big world of printing. I stayed where
I was for a few years still gaining experience in trade that had
many facets. After two years I could apply to work on a
newspaper. I could never understand why one had to wait as the
least amount of skill was required to produce a newspaper. It gave
however the opportunity to earn much more than general
printing. I took this road and was able to clear up my mortgage
in fairly short time. After this I felt free to look for interesting
work and changed my job several times.
Book production was one of the jobs that I took as it required
you to put into practice many of the skills that I had learnt.
When producing a book there are lots of calculations to be done,
compositors did nonstop mental arithmatic all day long (obviously
the reason that I had to sit a maths exam when applying to
become an apprentice). Everything to produce a book had to be
worked out before you started, nowdays you can typeset
something on a computer and if it does not fit you can instantly
alter it. In those days there was no simple solution. If you
planned a 128 page book and the setting overran by a couple of
pages, well it does not bear thinking.
Talking of computers and the printing industry. Efforts to move
away from the technology that had not moved very far for
hundreds of years first began to surface in the mid 60’s. An early
advance that I became involved in was the use of teleprinter
punch hole tape to run mechanical typesetting machines that up
until then had keyboard operators to work them. It was discovered
that one man operating a punch hole machine could keep 3
adapted mechanical typesetting machines going at one time.
The next foray that I got involved in was early methods of
reproducing type on photographic paper. This involved producing
negative alphabets on strips of film. The film was placed in
standard photo printing machine, the same as many amateur
photographers used in their home darkrooms to make their own
prints. The letters were exposed individually in the correct
sequence, the bromide paper was developed and lo and behold
you had a line of type. In conjunction with this, the hot metal
text type was inked up and proofed. This, along with the
photographically produced headings, was pasted on a sheet of
paper that had the margins and dimensions of the finished page
pre-printed in very pale blue (pale blue would not reproduce
when photographed). Spaces for any pictures were marked out
with red paper the size of the picture. The finished page was
taken to a darkroom where it was placed on top of a large sheet
of unexposed film and put into a machine where all the air was
evacuated so that the two surfaces were tight together. A
powerful white light was operated for a few seconds, the resulting
film was developed and you had a printing page in reverse, the
previously-produced picture negatives were stuck in place, the
negative was exposed onto a presentised thin aluminium plate.
The resulting plate would be placed on the printing press. This
has been refined and refined so that today pages and images are
produced and brought together in a computer and the completed
page sent to a printing press where it appears directly onto the
press printing cylinders. We even have a cutdown version of this
method in my church office whereby I can email the church
magazine that I produce at home directly to the computer in the
church office which in turn can send it on to the church office
printing machine. All this can be had for less than £3000. A far
cry from when Caxton was experimenting with the first
moveable type some 500 years ago.
Since the 60s rapid changes have been made in the printing
industry with computerised technology and the internet enabling
newspapers to be originated in a central office and simultaneously
printed on presses in various locations saving overnight train and
lorry deliveries that were the only means of distribution when I
was young.
I worked at the Lynn News for many years when it was moving
into the electronic age. We used various means of reproduction
down the years. Initially they were slower than conventional
methods, but with perseverance and the advances they became
faster than hot metal. Nowdays it is possible to store a book like
the bible on one CD and to access any sentence at the touch of
a button. I spent the last ten years of my working life at Burralls
in Wisbech where we worked at the cutting edge of printing on
plastics and clear foil wrapping materials. I was present when
Burralls printed early morphed images, that is when an image
changes from one thing to another as you move the plastic on
which it is printed. On one occasion the Duke of Edinburgh
toured the print works in Wisbech town, he was photographed
shaking hands with David Burrall the managing director and
about half an hour later when he arrived at the other works on
the edge of town accompanied by David Burrall. David was able
to present the Duke with a signed and framed copy of he and the
Duke shaking hands.
At the end of my days at Burralls the section that did printing
for the horticultural industry had instant access to the words and
images of almost any plant and tree that you could think of all
held in giant filing system in a small room some 3 metres square.
I retired in 1999 having spent some 48 years as a Printer’s Devil.
I am glad that my father acceeded to my wishes as the printing
industry was a fascinating place to earn your living and thanks to
modern technology I am able to produce books and magazines
in a small room at home. I am also thankful that I was in print
before modern technology came along as I learnt so much. I have
touched on a few aspects of my life as a printer. It would take at
least another talk to regale you with many other experiences of a
magic working life.
Alan Cleps
Hodgson House 1945-1951
41

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
big guns gibraltar
Once a year since 2008 a group of four intrepid old friends repeat
a version of a journey first made 47 years ago. Three Old
Stationers, aka Geoff Tucker, Tony Moffat, Ray Humphreys and
one honorary old boy John Loten took a holiday in Gibraltar.
We felt that we were going back in time – to a British colony –
British pubs and British restaurants staffed by Spanish and in the
street’s British policeman. (The population is by surname 27%
British, 20% Spanish, 20% Italian, 10% Portuguese, the remainder
include Moroccans French and (sic)Jews.)
We were fortunate that the ceremony of the Keys occurred one day
– just like the tower of London, executed with bags of swank etc.
Whilst there we did the tour, the fortifications, monkeys grotto, etc
on foot and passed several 2nd world war guns, but we had to see
a special gun the 100-ton gun circa 1897. This took a whole day
as the gun was at the southern tip of the rock in the Napier of
Magdala Battery it was a long walk, stops were made en route.
We learned that Britain had made four 100 ton guns in 1877
17.72 inches calibre. These were to be installed in Malta and
Gibraltar. The guns were required because Armstrong had sold
8 of the same guns to the Italians to mount on their new
battleship. The Admiralty perceived this as a threat to Malta
which the Italians regarded as really being theirs.
The guns were duly installed – after firing tests one of the guns
in Gibraltar blew up leaving one in Gibraltar. Of the two in
Malta only one remains so that set the itinerary for next year the
other gun had to be seen. Consequently, the next year we set off
for Malta.
Once more we felt that it was very British but unlike Gibraltar
there was a large indigenous Maltese population. The country
has had an unkind relationship with Britain over the 150 years
before independence. We found the bars and pubs were very
British, but the rest was more Mediterranean.
We bought bus passes for the week and bussed all over the island.
We toured the harbour and hurried to watch the firing of the 12
o’clock salute.
We planned a day trip to the 100-ton gun. It was maintained by
a voluntary group who also did period re-enactments. We timed
our bus journey to arrive in time for one of these. It was well
done with sword fighting followed by firing of two of the battery
guns it was fun to watch.
We naturally checked up on the 100-ton gun it was well
maintained but unlikely to be fired. then back to catch the bus.
Ray Humphreys & Tony Moffat
The 100 ton gun in Gibraltar
The 100 ton gun in Malta
42

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
PUZZLE Corner
Word Search – english beers
Old Speckled Hen Bombardier London Pride Newcastle Brown
Hobgoblin Doom Bar Spitfire Landlord Tribute Old Peculier
Membership
SECRETary's report
Since last report To date
Paying members at 1st Jan 2021 477
Life member 1
Honorary members 11
New members 4 4
Deaths (5) (5)
Re-instalments/Resignations (1) (1)
Deletions (4) (4)
TOTAL 483
4 new members have applied to join
during 2021. Graham Eldridge (59-64),
Kevin Kift (72-79), Ade Macrow (69-75)
& John Hendle (65-72).
The death has been reported of 5 members
– John Brackley, Peter Holden, Keith
Ranger, Gordon Rose & Richard Hudson.
Greek Sudoku
The Sudoku puzzle
below has the numbers
1 to 9 replaced by nine
Greek letters: α, β, γ, δ,
ε, λ, π, σ, ω. To solve
the Sukoku Puzzle, fill
the grid so that every
column, every row and
every 3 X 3 box contains
all the symbols.
It is rated as “difficult”,
as you are getting the
hang of the Greek
Sudoku.
Good luck. The solution
is on the inside back
cover.
The usual standing order payment was not
received from Dennis Butler (41 – 46),
Alan Crump (39-43), Peter Ibrahim (no
years quoted) & Peter Lloyd (51-58). I
have not been able to contact them from
any of their recorded means of
communication. So, I have deleted them
from the database as it is highly likely that
they have died. If this proves not to be true
(and anyone who has any current
knowledge of any them should let me
know) it is a simple job to restore them to
the database.
Roger Engledow
10 June 2021
Anagrams
The following are all anagrams of English breweries.
To keep it simple, the answers are one word each.
1. LYE TEST
2. AGO CURE
3. RANT MOSS
4. MAD SAN
5. THAW WORD
6. A MAN BETS
7. SNOB DID TONG
8. SINE GUNS
9. SHAKEN TOTS
10. ELL FURS
43

My parents bought a pub in
Islington in 1965 when I was
14 and still at Stationers which
probably affected my outlook
regarding my future, not
knowing what direction I
would be taking and I am sure
many of my class mates were
in a similar position. Living in
a pub was a complete change
of lifestyle for me but at the
same time, exciting. I
eventually left school with O
levels (not many) but being
told I was more artistic than
academic I went to Vidal
Sassoon’s school of hairdressing in Knightsbridge. (I have cut my
own hair ever since.) While I was there I met a fellow student
who was the son of a famous trombonist who heard me
“warbling“ in the staff room and invited me to his house where
he had a recording studio - “game over!” We didn’t do one “gig”
but I got the music bug.
During the next year, I joined several little outfits and did a few
gigs around London including support act for Status Quo in
1971. At this time I went down to Cornwall and saw a band
playing on Perranporth beach with an outstanding drummer
called Roger Taylor who I became friends with. He came up to
University in London and formed a band called “Smile” with
Brian May. I followed them around for many of their gigs and
Roger stayed with me in the pub before getting a flat in
Shepherds Bush. At that time of course I would have loved to be
at that level of talent as they later became the best- selling rock
band in the world - Queen!
Getting a reasonable reputation as a lead singer, I was lucky
enough to be invited to join Long John Baldrey and we
performed at the 1974 Reading Festival which generated a great
write up in Melody Maker and New Musical Express and
created a lot of interest in me so I signed up with Long John’s
management team and secured a recording deal with Pye in
1976. At this time I got some helpful TV exposure, appearing in
Mike Mansfield’s Supersonic show on LWT and this put me in
contact with Gloria Jones who agreed to produce my next single.
Being Marc Bolan’s missus was no doubt a boost in the right
direction and I would go round to their house to rehearse. I
remember having a good drink in LWT with Marc Bolan,
Donovan and Lionel Bart, just the four of us getting pissed after
the show. I felt I was getting somewhere but in the middle of my
collaboration with Gloria, disaster struck. Gloria was driving the
car which hit a tree and Marc died from his injuries. She decided
to leave the country to avoid the tsunami of bad publicity.
After unsuccessful attempts at recording anything decent I
abandoned my solo career and joined the band “Bandit” and
continued the struggle with them. We got a deal with Ariola
America and negotiated an advance of £250,000 for two albums,
not bad in 1978 but after expenses all we got was £100 a week. I
had a great time though in those days, recording, touring and
fulfilling my dream of being in the music business. Plenty of luck
is required in this fickle vocation but the journey can be a lot of
fun. Then “punk hit the headlines and our music was probably a
bit old hat so consequently another chapter ended.
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
gerry trew bio
Gerry as Rod Gerry and wife as Rod and Tina Rod in red
By 1979 I had become a single parent and that definitely
changed my life. Now I had to stay at home in general but
fortunately became part of the resident band in Baileys nightclub
in Watford which meant I got home every night and worked
with some great cabaret acts; The Commodores, B B King,
Heatwave, and it was there that I met my future wife Nova
Casper who is famous for her Tina Turner tribute act. Then came
my big break appearing as a Rod Stewart tribute act on the TV
Show, Stars in their Eyes. That was 24 years ago and I have
travelled the world as Rod performing in Arenas, Stadiums,
Night clubs, Corporate events, Festivals and weddings. I was
chosen to portray Rod Stewart for the TV documentary “ Rod’s
Girls”, along- side many of Rod’s ex-girlfriends and wives. That
was a memorable experience!
Talking of weddings, having married Nova, we now do a duo
tribute act combining Tina Turner and Rod Stewart called “It
Takes Two”.
I now have three children and three grandchildren but I am still
available for bookings when the Covid regulations allow. And I
am still cutting my own hair!
Best wishes to all my class mates who I met at our class of 1962
reunion.
Gerry Trew
Gerry and Peter in the Cockpit before being escorted off the premises.
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tributes to gordon rose
Eulogy by Pauline (Gordon's Daughter)
I would like to recognize our family and friends, who couldn't
make it today in person due to COVID restrictions,
I am Pauline, Eve, and Gordon's daughter. I am the much
“younger” of their two children.
Dad, Papa, Darling, Sonny, Gordy, Rosie, GV, Uncle G, Gordon,
I am sure there were more. Mum asked Dad early on what the V
stood for. He told her it was for Vichy as he was part, French.
But, as it turned out, she learned it was for Vivian, and he was
full part Harringay.
Mum and Dad were married for 64 years; their first date won't
surprise you that it was full of laughter. Two unlikely worlds
traveled within the same friend group at times. The stars were
aligned the night Dad asked Mum out. They were at a party at
Phil Roussels. Dad's date had a nasty cold, and Dad was looking
to ditch her, and Mum's date was drunk and being sick in the
toilet. Dad insisted he walked Mum home. It was Kismet. On
their first date in 1954, Dad took Mum to see Jerry Lewis in the
West End, fancy! to see My Friend Irma Goes West with Dean
Martin and Jerry Lewis. Apparently, the audience was more
amused by Dads laughing than the actual film. Throughout
Dad's life, Jerry Lewis only had to walk on screen, and Dad
would lose it.
Growing up in our house, you had to have a sense of humour.
You had to laugh at yourself, and I learned from an early age not
to believe all that my parents told me. Especially when your Dad
is king of telling tall stories. You had to have tough skin, you see
because I believed all that my Daddy told me as a little girl.
There was the time that Dad went to America; he sat me down
when he came home and explained how he tried to think of what
he could get me for a present. It came to him while on the plane
as he was looking out the window. That cloud out there looks
perfect; Pauline would love a piece of it. So he proceeded to tell
me how he had opened the window by his seat. He had made
sure no one saw him. He climbed through the window and
crawled along the wing. I remember him telling me how the
wind blew through his hair ( yes, this took place a long time ago),
and he hung onto the wing with all his might. Finally, he was
able to get to the tip of the wing and reached as far as he could,
and was able to pluck off a piece of the cloud. He didn't want to
lose it, so he had to think quickly. He remembered he had a
matchbook in his pocket. He took the matchbook out and placed
the piece of cloud in for safekeeping. He then shimmied back
along the wing to get back through the window to his seat. None
of the stewardesses noticed, except the bloke seated next to him.
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
He just gave a nod and a wink to my Dad as if to say, I won't say
a word, mate. As Dad got to this part of the story, he was
reaching into his pocket. I was so excited, hoping for what I
thought might be in his hand. Sure enough, he pulled out a
matchbox and, to my delight, proceeded to open it up to show
the very cloud that he had captured. I was beside myself. I went
to bed that night, and I could barely sleep; you see, I was so
excited about, yes you've guessed it, …. taking it to school to
show my friends. I don't quite remember if it was then that I
gained the nickname lying Rosie. Or maybe that was when I first
got roughed up for telling fibs.
So I learned quickly to choose wisely who I shared my Dad
stories with. It was only my close friends that I told about my
Dad playing football with Georgie Best.
And even fewer about the time my Dad had lunch with the
Queen. She had picked him out of the crowd; Dad was dressed
casually, his jacket slung over his shoulder; she saw him through
the crowd and said, "Gordon come and have lunch with me."
I kept many other stories to myself.
Fear entered into my heart when the phone rang one day, and it
was Andrew Ashfield. A classmate of mine that I had a crush on.
He had worked up the nerve to call me to ask me to go for a
walk. However, for him, he chose the wrong wording. He asked
when my Dad answered the phone is Pauline there? My Dad
responded gleefully, yes, thank you, she is; thanks for checking
and hung up the phone. I was mortified.
Dad was dry. He was quick, and boy was he funny. He loved
making you laugh and loved it when you questioned what he was
telling you was the truth. His neighbor Reg is just one of the
many examples.
We will hear from Reg later today.
Andrew and I grew up at Barnet Football and Cricket Club.
Almost every weekend we were there come rain or shine. That
was where I first learned about friendship and teamwork. I was
fortunate to spend time with the ladies making the teas. I'd listen
to the conversations back and forth and the pride they took as
they came together every week to design menus and work in
supporting their men. On a good day, I was the trusted one to be
on the lookout to report back when the teams would be breaking
for tea. I couldn't wait for the matches to be over so I could stand
by my Dad's side with the beer mugs and tankards over my head
as I listened to the laughter; that's how I learned the gift of
conversation.
The Barnet discos came next; as I grew up, I was allowed to
attend some of the dances. That was always fun. I would try to
replicate Dad's skills on a Saturday morning at home. I would
leave out the loud messages that my Dad would inevitably blurt
out over the microphone about the boys in blue waiting for you
in the car park, so drive carefully and quickly. Good advice, Dad.
My husband Tommy was invited one time to join Dad on a
Sunday morning "shopping excursion." Tom agreed, believing
that he really was going shopping. He didn't know Dad well at
that time. This was when Tom got introduced to the Geranium
Growers Society. (you see Geraniums require a lot of watering)
Tommy was putting away his first pint around 8:00 a.m., his time
with the five-hour time difference.
My Dad was full of fun, and we shared a love for Arsenal. I think
that was one of the ways I could share something with him. One
of my proudest moments was to tour the Emeritus Stadium that
Dad had arranged. He was able to set up our guide to be the one
and only Charlie George. So you can imagine my pride when
one of the chaps working at the stadium recognized Dad from
his Highbury days. He was pleased to see Dad. As we walked
towards Charlie George Dad was introduced to Charlie George,
and he said, this is Gordon Rose he was a great footballer in his
day. WOW! How cool was that!
Dad lived his last years in incredible pain. His body that was once
fit and strong, gave way to pain and stiffness. However, Dad
never missed a beat. He kept going all the way until he was
physically unable to. Always with a smile on his face and a quick
comment to make you laugh.
Dad beat the odds time and time again. This time when I got the
call early hours of the morning, I have to admit I thought to
myself, he's got this one. But then I thought of all of the pain and
restrictions that he has lived with for far too long. Twenty-four
hours we were told. In typical Dad style, he hung on for another
six days giving us all time to be together. The night before Dad
passed, I went to see Dad with Mum and Andy. Dad hadn't
spoken for a few days. When Mum and I sat on either side of
Dad, he moved his head as we each spoke to him. Can you hear
us, Dad I asked? He shook his head yes. He asked me where he
was. I was able to tell him. I wondered if he was in any pain; he
confirmed no.
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About an hour went by, Andrew joined us in the room. Dad
started to try to speak. It was difficult to hear him as the oxygen
was full force in his mask. I got right up close to his face. With
difficult and muffled words, he slowly was able to get out, "why
don't they tell me" by this time, he was losing steam, but it was
important to me that I heard his question through. I saw his
mouth was moving, but nothing was coming out. Daddy, I said,
please try to speak louder if you can as I can see your mouth is
moving, but nothing is coming out. I am right here. At this point,
I felt the responsibility to be able to report out his obvious
concern. With my ear literally to his mouth, I heard the
enormous rumble of ARSENAL. Arsenal, I said? Are you saying
why isn't anyone telling you the Arsenal scores? He shook his
head yes. I told Dad, you are killing me. He gave us all a laugh
and provided us a fitting story of his passing as that was the last
word that my Dad spoke.
Dad, you will be missed. I trust you are playing football and
cricket again and enjoying a pint. Thanks for the laughs. You
know I love you, and I know you love me. I'll see you when it's
my time.
Eulogy by Peter Jarvis
“Gordon Rose would be interested to hear from anyone who can
“repair” a Radiogram”. So reads an extract from an Old Stationers’
F.C. Newsletter of 1970. Is there, just perhaps, an underlying
hint he was open to “freebies”; bribery? Corruption? Abuse of
high office? In short: Was Rose imperfect?
Society is very quick to judge past events by today’s standards -
so we need clarity. Any future statue to our hero might otherwise
incite cancel-culturalists to tear it down. However, an inquiry at
the time was decided against: the quoted extract merely revealed
a small gap in this paragon’s litany of attributes: Hands-on
practical skills were simply not his strong point; and that gap was
still evidenced decades later, by his dismal inability to find sports
programmes on his car radios.
In any event: and as we will doubtless celebrate in shared
recollections later today, Gordon excelled in all other areas; and
crammed his life with interests as diverse as sport; music; curries;
travel; dance; and, of course, more curries, resulting in a wellrounded
individual in every sense of the description! The
common themes of that life, of course, remain his tireless work
for others and an infectious ability to encourage everyone to “join
in the fun”.
From around 1944 Gordon attended the Stationers’ Company’s
Grammar School in Hornsey. When old enough, his enthusiasm
for football and cricket took him to the headquarters of the Old
Stationers’ Association in Barnet, where he joined OSFC
(describing himself as a speedy and skilful winger) and OSCC
(where others describe “a medium pacer whose bowling arm
might exceed hip-height in the bar after a game”). Tales of
cricket and Easter tours are probably best told by others later
today so I’ll focus on his many other roles.
Banking was his chosen career and he joined Westminster Bank
at its Lothbury HQ, before its amalgamation with National
Provincial. In recent months he still recalled playing for Lothbury
with his great friends Geoff Burdett and John Aylott, in
particular a memorable victory against the bank’s much stronger
“Overseas Branch”. Even then, he was key in arranging gatherings
at recuperative watering-holes during return journeys from
matches. He had started work when computers were the size of
small warehouses. As his career developed, Lothbury couldn’t
afford to lose his increasing expertise, (incidentally, upon
retirement he was long-established as head of Natwest’s entire
Clearing Operation), but his frequent injuries left the bank
reluctant to retain his footballing services: undeterred, in 1966/7
Gordon re-joined OSFC at Barnet. He was to become the
Football Club’s greatest luminary and its Honorary President;
and in 1981, took the prized mantle of President of the OSA
itself. Westminster Bank 0 – Old Stationers 1.
He was a very proficient dancer - his enthusiasm for jive rather
oddly leading him to a young lady Ballroom dancer by the name
of Evelyn; Gordon, however, didn’t put a foot wrong: so their
marriage followed in 1956; and later, their son Andrew; daughter
Pauline and three grandchildren: Ben; Michael and Cody. Over
the 64 years of their marriage, Eve endured (so sorry: enjoyed)
participation in all things cricket, football, music etc – providing
famous cricket teas at Barnet and with Gordon, co-hosting for
some years the memorable Rose Balls at the former Firs Hall in
Winchmore Hill: sizeable dinner and dance affairs. Latterly, she
has been Gordon’s unfailing support through lengthy illness. She
is a much-loved example to us all.
In the sixties the Old Stationers’ Association fielded eight
football teams every week in the Southern Amateur League plus
the occasional Veterans team; it maintained a decent Clubhouse;
four mud-prone pitches; an uneven cricket table; and for boys
from the school provided a natural pathway to the adult version
of their chosen sports.
There was, therefore, high demand for supremely competent
football Administrators. And it was natural that Gordon’s
lifelong and wholly unbiased support of that greatest of
professional clubs, Arsenal F.C., rendered him far better placed
to meet such demand than North Londoners of another
persuasion.
His abilities also sustained important social activities within the
club – frequent disco evenings and the like at the clubhouse but
perhaps the grandest and most notable being the aforementioned
“Rose Balls”. He served on the OSA’s Committee in one ever-
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present guise or another for five decades, and for some years
served as a stentorian Master of Ceremonies for the Association’s
Annual Dinners at Stationers’ Hall.
As 4th XI Team Captain for 5 seasons, his team became Division
2 Champions in 1972; and in 1973, (by then a Committee
Member with outstanding organisational skills), Gordon became
Club Chairman for the first time, holding the role until 1994
with the exception of the ‘81/’82 season during which he took on
a further demanding role as Manager of the football club’s 1st XI.
His teams won the SAL 3rd Division title in 1981/2; the 2nd
Division title in 1983/4, and he was still Manager when in
1988/9 the club won a memorable threesome: its first (and only)
Amateur Football Alliance Senior Cup; the Old Boys’ Senior
Cup (the tenth in the club’s history) and gained promotion to
Division One of the Southern Amateur League Senior Section.
Impressive achievements indeed!
Yet, perhaps, exceeded by one more: the Minutes of the Old
Stationers’ Apostles Luncheon Club (which for many years has
dined on the Capital’s finest cuisine), reputedly record 19
occasions when Gordon asked why baked beans could not
feature on the choice menus.
Sadly for Gordon, (and despite huge efforts by him and many
other Old Boys), it was during 1982, as he completed his OSA
Presidency and resumed the Football Club Chairmanship, that
the fateful decision to close the school was taken. The loss to
Education simultaneously cut off the supply of school-leavers to
maintain the sporting ranks of the Association.
Single-minded and determined, he was key to the survival of the
Club at this time; and provided vital leadership until in 1994
becoming the Football Club’s sixth Honorary (i.e. Life) President
– indicating the esteem in which he was held by contemporaries
and protégés alike. And from 1996 until 2016, he continued his
Association activities, now as Membership Secretary, delighting
in hunting down and weeding out those who had failed to
subscribe!
Meanwhile, Gordon and a few other Old Stationers known
collectively, (but for reasons best discussed later) as the Geranium
Society, had joined Botany Bay Cricket Club where he sustained
his lasting love of cricket. Here, he excelled as a distinguished
Umpire; and in 1996, pursuing a lifetime interest in Jazz, became
the first Chairman of the Botany Bay Jazz Club where his skills
as Master of Ceremonies, raconteur, comedian and Arsenal
Newscaster are still recalled with considerable affection –
particularly with regard to his imaginary 95-year old neighbour
Reg, (married to Sue, who’s 28 and absolutely gorgeous). Sadly, it
seems Sue has become concerned about Reg’s health and a while
back asked him to contact an Incontinence Help Line. He duly
spoke to a young lady there who confirmed help could indeed be
offered, through a network of local agents - and asked where he
was ringing from. She quietly closed the call, however, when Reg
replied “well, roughly from the waist down”……
Be all that as it may, however, it was clear to all who knew
Gordon that his proudest “Botany Bay” moment came in 2005
and 2006 when he had the significant honour of serving for two
years as its President.
A final but thoroughly deserved accolade came from no less
August a body than the Football Association when in recognition
of 50 years of services to Football, Gordon was awarded the rare
honour of a Long-service medal.
Such are the facts behind just some of Gordon’s lifetime interests
and ambitions. But to fully appreciate them we need also recall
his huge character and personality. He was a natural leader
aiming always to “take people with him”; but that was underpinned
by thorough subject knowledge, and canny preparation which
invariably ensured that Gordon’s way was the Old Stationers way.
For example, his method of Chairing of meetings included
instructing Club Secretaries that their job was to circulate
Minutes 2-3 days after each meeting; as Chairman, his was to
actually write them, about one week before the meeting took
place.
His nature was giving and generous to a fault; and his many
talents included a natural ability at both serious and comic public
speaking. So: as we say goodbye to Mr Old Stationers, an
outstanding, unforgettable man, our thoughts are entirely with
Eve and her family and we remember Gordon’s great love of
them; of life; and of shared happiness and friendship.
Which brings me, inevitably, to the concluding words of the
Stationers’ School Song: “What is the word that endureth
forever? Friendship. Friendship; ‘til time shall bring all of us
home”
Eulogy by Andrew (Gordon's son)
At last the old git’s dead... isn’t something you’ll hear anyone say
today.
As the new Patriarch of the Rose family it falls to me to conclude
the tributes to dad, we’ve heard about the love, respect and
esteem in which he was held. His loving and caring nature,
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devotion to his family, his unselfish sacrifices for others, his
humour, lust for life, public speaking, sporting prowess,
managerial skills, love of music and people in general.
Therefore, I had thought I would talk about Dad’s early life... his
parents... Harringay... Ice Hockey... Racers and Greyhounds...
Wood Green Jazz Club... Stationers... National Service...
Westminster Bank... his deep and lasting friendships... The Old
Boys... the Geranium Growers, Football, Cricket and a million
other things.
It seems, though, that I am here to recount a few personal
memories of the man I called Father, Sir or Dad, if he was in a
good mood!
My earliest memory is a constructed one and comes from an oft
repeated story from my Mum, in which she tells of my
enthusiasm at standing watching him play football either at
Norbury or Barnet, in the cold and wet. My plaintiff cries of ‘get
up Daddy’, ‘please get up Daddy’, apparently used to reverberate
around the grounds.
We’ve heard an extract from the School Song from Peter but, for
many years, I thought it went ‘we play down in North London at
a place called Barnet Lane, we play there in the sunshine but,
more often, in the rain. And if you don’t wear water wings you’ll
never see the game, play up you Stationers.
In later life I turned out once for the OS 7th Eleven on a cold
and wet day. This football lark is more difficult than it looks, isn’t
it?
Cricket was more my game, still usually in the wind and rain, and
I can remember one of my earliest experiences was at the old
school ground. Dad said that they would all be upstairs getting
changed. I made my way up the stairs, wooden, outside and the
wood was shredded through decades of metal spiked boots going
up and down. I turned right and walked along the balcony. As a
nervous young boy I opened the door and walked into the
changing room, there I saw an image that remains with me to
this day……. Tony Hemmings naked!
You’ve heard of the family’s early association with the
IOW………… and if anyone has been there in recent years you
may well have experienced the delights of Blackgang Chine. We
were there so long ago that there is cine film of me and the old
man stepping over the maze as it had just been planted and was
only about 4” high. I have an overwhelming desire to insert a
Spinal Tap reference here!
I started scoring for the OSCC from a fairly early age, well, it
was 5 bob and a free tea. It was while I was there as scorer that
Dad showed that he had, indeed, a softer side than many may
have seen in a deeply personal family moment. His Dad, my
Papa, used to umpire for the CC and, one day in 1969, he was
just getting ready to take the field when he told me he felt unwell
and to fetch my Dad. I did that and then set about my scorer’s
task. Some while later I heard that my Papa had died. Dad,
spent time talking to me and explaining the vagaries of life. I
was, of course, upset but carried on with my scoring responsibilities
and, in a great display of respect and uncharacteristic deference
dad didn’t bat until No.8 in the batting order!
We have heard of Dad’s managerial skills both in a work
environment and in the sporting arena, his clinical decision
making and well thought out approaches to many things.
However, he didn’t always display the greatest of decision making
skills, he was, after all, an Arsenal supporter!
Before we move away from the sporting theme I suppose I
should just mention that for Dad’s 60th I got him a very special
present. It was the second year in three that Spurs were playing
Arsenal in an FA cup semi-final. The first game had, rightly,
ended in a Spurs’ victory so it was with great pleasure that I gave
him a ticket for the second semi-final…….at the Spurs’ end!
You are now invited to imagine him, surrounded by Spurs’ fans,
having to suppress his cheers and, of course, his subsequent
delight as Arsenal, on that occasion, squeezed out a victory.
Many of you may know, and some will not, that I am actually
named after one of Dad’s great heroes, Sir Denis Compton. A
great footballer for Arsenal and legendary cricketer for Middlesex
and England. One day, at Lord’s, Mum was introduced to Sir
Denis by Drews, another legend, but this one was an Old
Stationer. She was then in turn, able to introduce him to Dad.
Imagine, Dad being introduced to his boyhood hero by his wife.
Hello he said, slightly in awe, I named my son after you. What,
Denis? said Sir Denis, no, Andrew said Dad!
Many of you here and watching from afar have been a huge part
not just of Dad’s life but of our lives as a family. Time will not
allow for those stories to be told here, but there will be an open
mike available back at Botany Bay and we would encourage
anyone with a story to tell to share it, please, with a wider
audience.
I will, however, give but a fleeting mention to some. The IOW
I have mentioned and our years in the New Forest with the
Burdetts and Hares. Our early forays to Ibiza, long before it
became the place it is now, with the Gills and Hares. Hayling
Island and Sinah Warren with the Burdetts and Hares and Geoff
and Dad having a starring role in the camp play, very Hi-De-Hi.
Later Spanish trips with the Evansesses, including spectating a
Rangers European game, that was an experience in itself. In fact,
our connections were so strong with some families that Geoff
Burdett ended up pleading with me to marry his daughter. Dad
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told me that would be a good move, as they ‘had connections’.
As part of the trade-off Dad had to become Geoff and Jean’s
eldest son Richard’s Godfather. I’m sure Richard will happily tell
you all about the uplifting and spiritual guidance Dad was able
to offer him, over the years.
After he retired from the Bank he took great delight in inviting
friends and friends of friends to share Mum’s and his Portuguese
time share. And I know many of you will have memories of great
times, food, drink and merry making on those trips. In the latter
years he was very generous in inviting Anne and me to take
friends of ours there and share time with them. I think that one
of his many attributes was the ability to welcome young and old
alike and to make friends with our friends and they, likewise,
made friends with him. His company was never a chore or
boring and he fitted in exceptionally well with us ‘youngsters’.
Well, everyone thought it was because of his welcoming nature,
I suspect it may have had more to do with the fact that I could
drive!!
I had hoped to at least be given some time to talk about the Rose
Ball, after all, I did do the music for a number of years, but it
seems that has also already been covered. What I will say
though, is that music was a huge part of his life and the Rose Ball
brought out some of his eclectic musical tastes. I’m sure, even
now, if you hear certain sounds from those days you can conjure
up images of him cutting a rug with great aplomb.
Before I sit down, in a moment we will be listening to our second
piece of music and I would ask you to reflect on your memories
of Gordon as it plays, perhaps it will help you to bow your heads
and sit in quiet contemplation as the gentle sounds waft over
your heads.
And, in closing, I should play a special tribute to those dearest of
friends and Old Stationers who took on the onerous role of
carrying Gordon to his penultimate resting spot. I have known
most of them since they were young men, and, as you’ve heard,
I’ve seen at least one of them naked. But Mum, Pauline and I are
genuinely and truly grateful for your very moving tribute.
Although, I think, if you close your eyes you could probably just
hear him saying, it’s about time you carried me, I’ve been carrying
you since the 1970s
Cue music.
Tributes to Gordon
Dave Deane
Our Old Stationer’s Club leader for many years really had a Zest
for Life.
Gordon Rose set the standard’s for the entire club and put much
time and effort into maintaining a strong and reliable system.
Gordon set out the Roadmap for captains and encouraged the
teams to gather in the bar and we all have memories of a great
club spirit.
As a player it was encouraging to have a man like Gordon in
charge.He allowed players to progress and develop their game.
Gordon gave players opportunities to try different positions.
Gordon was a city gent and succeeded in making strong links
with our competitors in the league, which made us welcome at
all away games.
The Southern Amateur league had a high proportion of city
types and Gordon’s natural charisma gave our club a prominent
standing in the league.
From a personal viewpoint, Gordon made me welcome when I
first joined the club at age 21.
When I married Barbara, he set up the Barnet Club House for
the successful after party.
When Brona and I married at the turn of the century, Gordon
and Andrew took control of the wedding party again at Botany
Bay Cricket Club and gave us fond memories.
In recent Years, Gordon, Eve and I kept in touch via the Botany
Bay Jazz Club and of course Old Stationer’s gatherings.
I shall miss him, a great Bloke.
Dave Hudson
I always had good banter with Gordon, mostly of the Spurs v
Arsenal theme and we laughed with and against each other
regularly. One day i was playing cricket with him for Old
Stationers and we were batting together. He called for a bad run
and I was run out by a long way. I was not happy. I waited until
in the bar after the game to confront him over the matter. His
answer was succinct, he simply said " Huddy if I had any idea you
were as slow as that I would never have called for the run". We
laughed as always. In life you meet some people who it is always
a pleasure to see. Gordon was clearly one of those.
Mike Hasler
The best way of describing Gordon was dynamic, fun and hard
working especially in all things Old Stationers’ but also in his
working lifetime with firstly Westminster Bank which later
became National Westminster Bank (NatWest Bank). He was
also a lovely family man and with his wife Eve had two adoring
children Andrew and Pauline. When they spoke at Gordon’s
funeral they encaptured a fun filled childhood that they enjoyed
but were sometimes unsure as to whether it was serious or a
practical joke!
I first met Gordon when he returned to Old Stationers Football
Club in 1966 after playing for Westminster Bank. He was 4th
XI captain and I was team secretary and then match secretary.
We served on both the OSFC committee and also the OSA
committee for many years and have been good friends for over
50 years.
In the early days Gordon used to give me a lift to the football
club committee meetings and I often had dinner with the family
beforehand and was always made very welcome. The family were
very good to me after Maureen died and we usually went out on
Saturday evenings together with Chris Shoring, for a meal which
was usually a curry, Gordon’s favourite.
He was great fun to be with and loved to play practical jokes and
this was reflected in the speeches made by Andrew and Pauline
at his funeral last week and which had us in fits of laughter; a
good tribute in itself to their father. On one memorable
occasion, whilst he was still playing football for Westminster
Bank, he was asked to be guest speaker at the OSFC annual
dinner. He started his speech by reminiscing on an Old
Stationer who had worked tirelessly for the Old Boys and asked
everybody to be upstanding to drink his health, which we all did.
He then let it be known that this was a fictitous character of his
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
own imagination and brought the house down! Hilary remarked
to me when she saw Andrew speak that it could have been
Gordon they were so alike.
Gordon served as an outstanding 4th XI captain between 1966
and 1971 and then became chairman of the football club in 1973,
a position he held until he relinquished it in 1995 with a short
break in 1981 and 1982 when he concentrated on trying to save
the school from closure.
He spent these years with Geraint Pritchard fighting the closure
which sadly failed but not for lack of effort and hard work. He
then resumed his position as Chairman of the football club for
many more years and was manager for the 1st XI for about ten
years. He was President of the Old Stationers’ Association in
1981 and later became membership secretary, a position that he
held until his health deteriorated and he handed it over to Roger
Engledow.
He was also a member of the Apostles' Club and a founder
member of the Geranium Society, a small number of mainly Old
Stationers who lived in and around Cuffley and drank on a
Sunday lunchtime firstly at the local pub before transferring their
allegiance to Botany Bay Cricket Club. He also enjoyed jazz
firstly at Wood Green Jazz Club and then at Botany Bay and this
was reflected in the funeral service where a jazz band commenced
the proceedings and finished the service with the song
“Resurrection Shuffle”
Gordon was a well respected member of both the Old Stationers’
Football Club and The Old Stationers’ Association and will be
sadly missed by everyone that knew him.
RIP
Chris wilkins
Gordon, Mr Old Stationer, was a true legend. He was a leader,
an organiser, reliable, a man of great humour and full of ideas and
energy. He was a very good footballer and a good cricketer.
I first encountered Gordon at the OS football club in the late
1960's. Initially I found him rather intimidating but once we got
to know each other and I won his trust we became very good
friends. The one blot on his character was his unfailing support
for that boring football team in North London! My many
memories of him include:
• The merciless ribbing he gave Tony Hemmings and me when
we returned to Botany Bay for the annual President's Day cricket
match, having watched Spurs getting beaten 5-0 or 5-1 by
Manchester City. Arsenal were on TV for a 6 o'clock kick off v.
Manchester United and most of the "crowd" abandoned watching
OSCC playing Botany Bay CC in order to watch the football.
Man U started banging in the goals (it finished something like
7-2) and we Spurs fans perked up and looked for Gordon. He
was nowhere to be seen. Eventually he was discovered hiding in
the storeroom, from which he managed to sneak off home and
thus avoided any retribution.
• Playing cricket on our annual "Bullen's Tour" to Norfolk, I was
in the changing room when Gordon returned, having been run
out. My first realisation of this was having to duck as a cricket
bat came flying in my direction followed by "you can't play
cricket with ----- like that" (I leave it to you to fill in the blanks)
and then a long period of silence.
• His very late arrival at a cricket match on the outskirts of
Norwich after he and Eve had done several laps of the Norwich
ring road, trying to find the ground. The air was blue for
sometime thereafter.
• His snoring keeping all the other guests awake on cricket tours.
He always denied that it was him!
• His rendition of "Pedro the piccolo" on many occasions after
football.
• His support to me when I took over captaincy of the OSCC 1st
XI and the OSFC 4th XI.
• His generosity of spirit when I dropped him from the OSFC
4th XI at the selection meeting of which he was chair.
• His support to me when my first wife became terminally ill and
subsequently died and his subsequent support when I introduced
Rosalind to the OSCC.
• His garish Hawaiian shirts
• The occasion when his daughter, Pauline, came up to Barnet
when we were enduring, under Gordon's orders, pre-season
football training. Afterwards we assembled in the bar for posttraining
"refreshment". Gordon had not yet appeared from the
showers and some of the younger players, who did not know
Pauline, were getting rather excited about his very attractive
young lady. I quietly explained who she was as, if Gordon has
seen this adulation (to put it politely), he would not have been
impressed.
• His very many excellent after- dinner speeches and his superb
toast mastering.
• The story that Eve told of his constant falling asleep in front of
Match of the Day after a few post-OSFC bevvies. On one
occasion she woke up in the middle of the night to find an empty
space beside her. She crept downstairs to find Gordon fast asleep
in front of a TV displaying only a white spot. She quietly tied his
hands and feet together and slipped a sheet gently over his head.
Later, he woke up suddenly and, seeing only darkness and being
unable to move, thought he was in a coffin.
His regular attendance at Apostles' lunches, when he would
insist on having baked beans with his Christmas turkey. Initially
we ribbed him but gradually many of us followed his lead.
51

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
I could go on, as the stories are endless, but it is time to stop and
simply remember this Great Man, who brightened many
people's lives.
David Hartwell
Gordon Rose was a great friend and fellow Stationer.When in
both Lower and Upper Sixth we often grabbed a quick 1/2 pint
during the lunch hour! However one of the best memories that
I have happened after we had both gone our separate ways and
we had a chance meeting I think was in 1965. We both had
been in serious relationships but unfortunately found ourselves
single and rejected.
On the spur of the moment we decide to drive to the Costa
Brava and fulfil our destinies as Don Juan's! The journey down
was uneventful and we were miserably disappointed as the
Spanish girls were heavily chaperoned and when you took one
out the family followed.The English girls wanted full bloodied
Spanish men so we were again rejected all round and left for the
UK! Crossing the Pyrenees into France we drove on...then
suddenly we saw 2 very attractive female hitchhikers!Being the
gentleman we were we offered our assistance,at last our luck was
in as they wanted a ride also to the UK!We spent a great 2 days
travelling home... Gordon and I sleeping in the car and the
tempting young ladies locked in their tent!!
Gordon passing is a sad loss and will be remembered by all who
knew him. RIP
Ivor Evans
Two memories of Gordon amongst many. One from long ago
and one more recent. At the time we lived in New Barnet, only
a stagger from Underhill. We had a drinks evening and Gordon
asked me what was the dress code. My reply was as usual, just
casual Gordon. People started arriving and there was a ring on
the door bell. Opening said door, only to be met with Gordon
and Eve, Eve dressed as expected but Gordon was in tropical
shirt, shorts and sandals, causing quite a stir. “Well, you said just
casual. This is me just casual.
The other occasion was at the bar in Botany Bay CC and we
were talking music, trad jazz in particular and Gordon said “Do
you think we could run a jazz club here?" My reply was "well we
can give it a try.” That is how Gordon and I became the first
members of The Bay Jazz Club and great things followed and
remain a very vibrant evening and a fitting tribute to Gordon’s
organising skills.
John Taylor
I first met Gordon when I was about 14 years old when Peter
Bullen had persuaded me to become the “scorer” for the Old
Stationers Cricket matches.
Peter was dating my older sister, Sylvia, and he picked us both up
in his ancient sports car. I think the game was against Old
Camdenians. Eve Rose used to make the teas at home matches
and would help me to recognise the batsmen and bowlers for the
scorebook. Names like the two Cooks, Brian and Ken, Plum
Warner, Peter Sargent, Bob Beckley and Jack Martin come to
mind with Gordon running the show in his inimitable way. In
due time Gordon helped me into playing for the Saturday
Seconds and the Sunday XI (and would even let me bowl a few
leggies “ so long as we had already scored over 300 runs
ourselves!” He also introduced me to beer!!!
I also played football with Gordon once he had come back to O
S from Westminster Bank and he was ever present at committee
meetings when I was Treasurer of the Football club , having
taken over from George Cotterel who some of you will
remember.
More recently my contact with Gordon and Eve has been at the
Bay Jazz Club where Gordon was the Chairman.
Lots of wonderful memories and these are just a few of my
earliest.
Martin Brown
I am a retired dentist and sold my practice back in 2000, after
which I took on part time work as an associate in two other
practices, one of which was in Cuffley.
One day at Cuffley I met Gordon Rose for the first time. He was
booked in as an emergency toothache and at that time I had only
recently discovered The Old Stationers’ Association and had just
a few weeks previously sent my membership application and
joining fee to him.
When I looked at his details on the treatment card, I recognised
his name and address immediately and told him who I was and
that I was also an Old Stationer.
He had a nasty abscess on a lower tooth, which needed an
extraction and which he preferred to have carried out under
sedation, which I duly performed. The operation completed
successfully, I decided it might be a good idea to speed up his
recovery from the sedation by singing the school song gently too
him, much to the amusement of my Chairside Assistant, Debbie.
With the pack still in his mouth, Gordon was compos mentis
enough to sing along with me, causing Debbie to break down
with hysterical laughter, particularly as we sang the whole song
without a waver and in perfect harmony.
My little trick seemed work, because Gordon recovered very
quickly from the effects of the sedation. I’m not sure if he would
have remembered anything of the event though. If he did, I hope
he would have forgiven me for this somewhat unconventional
approach.
Mike Wood
Goal scorer/poacher playing for most teams in the Club over the
years. Attached is a photo of Gordon probably taken on the day
of the 4th XI Old Boys Cup victory perhaps late 70’s or early 80’s
since that is the only time I would have taken a camera to
football. I guess Gordon
had refereed a match as
he is returning from a
shower.
I remember Rosey,
larger than life and
always a commanding
presence in any room,
always doing masses for
the Club and in
particular the unseen,
often thankless behind
the scenes tasks that are
essential to the smooth
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
running of any voluntary organisation. I hope his family will not
object to the sharing of the pic. For me it kind of encapsulates
the man. Bold and cheerful and helping out at the Club that
clearly meant so much to him.
I will be forever grateful for the impact he had on my life. He will
be missed by all that knew him.
Peter Hames
I am writing, not as an Old Stationer, but as one who enjoyed his
contacts with you all, on the cricket field or in the Hall as the
Clerk to the Company.
At one of my first dinners in the Hall at which I had the pleasure
to be present, Gordon was holding forth on some subject and in
so doing he kept bashing the top of the ancient table with a hard
object. Being the Clerk, I took him to task and told him a few
home tales which he failed to enjoy at first. I think it helped
when I told him I was a life-long supporter of Portsmouth FC.
and one of my daughters had published a book entitled ‘the
Great Divide' - it being the story of Arsenal v Tottenham. I am
pleased to say we became good friends and we enjoyed many a
chat over the years.
You may well think my piece is not required and I shall quite
understand and if so I shall still think of the above as my own
tribute to a special individual.
Ray Draper
I guess for me I remember him as a focal figure at the football
club when I first started playing there as a schoolboy and as I
progressed through the elevens he became like a mentor to us
“younger” old boys.
As a Coach at the old Boys, I recall some of the training sessions
being as tough as any I had ever experienced before… BUT
always time for a pint of ‘Bitter’, a chat and a humorous bit of
banter.
Looking back, playing cricket at OS with Rosie stands out even
more. A very handy batsman with a keen eye. Not very agile or
athletic in the field... BUT, to the unassuming batsman about
to face his slow medium bowling, the lowest round arm action
that took many an unassuming batsman by surprise.
Again our cricket in those days competitive... BUT, above all
extremely social due to the likes of Gordon.
Many years ago now, BUT extremely fond memories for me.
Roger Rufey
The last time I saw Gordon with his loverly wife Eve was at Ros
Wilkins 70th Birthday party. I’m really glad I had that opportunity.
Although only an honorary OS, he was an integral part of my life
with both the football & cricket club and a total bloody legend!
Following his Pedro the Picallo Player with Rule Brittania was a
privilege and for all my years at Barnet his presence, along with
so many other characters sadly no longer with us, made those
weekends the best of my life.
I’m sure that family and friends will support Eve in this difficult
time, but I also know that his loss will be greater than any of us
can imagine. Please add the love of both Julia and I to the long
list of condolences that I know you will receive.
Tony Hemmings
I first encountered the ebullient character of ‘Rosey’ when I made
my debut for Old Stationers’ Cricket Club after leaving School
in the summer of 1959. Of unknown ability to the captain,
Malcolm Ridgeway, I was posted at first slip on the basis that I
was a goalkeeper and thus accustomed to the ball firing at me. I
watched Gordon’s long, straight run-up and unusual round-arm
action, which appeared innocuous enough until a fine edge from
the batsman flew my way and I realised how much pace he
generated, dropping the catch and receiving his chastening glare.
He was never less than combative and wholehearted in whatever
game he played. He was a pretty useful middle-order batsman
too and a favourite recollection is when he contributed 100 runs
to the score without being credited with any of them. It was
against Lensbury at Teddington on a hot afternoon when Terry
Bailey, opening the batting, pulled up lame having scored only 4.
Gordon took on the role as his runner and spent the rest of our
innings helping Terry to his hundred, finally returning to the
pavilion beetroot red faced from the exertion, uttering a fine
repertoire of expletives.
He was a good footballer, although his right foot was only for
standing on, and played as a speedy left-winger for Westminster
Bank for the majority of his career. I played for OS against him
a few times and can vouch that he possessed a fierce shot and
could whip a good cross into the box. It was in the days when
goalkeepers could fairly be barged whilst bouncing the ball
before delivering it upfield and Rosey took great delight
harassing me at every opportunity. He returned to OSFC in the
mid-1960s to captain the 4th X1 and became President of the
Club.
Gordon and Eve moved to Cuffley shortly before Carole and I
moved to Cheshunt and we invariably travelled together to OSA
Committee meetings held, then, at the old OS clubhouse in
Barnet Lane, and to functions at Stationers’ Hall. He was OSA
President in 1981 and spearheaded the campaign to try to save
the School from closure. With unbroken Committee membership
until 2018, his enormous contribution to the activities of the
Association cannot be overestimated.
A group of OS and friends used to meet regularly at the Cuffley
Hotel for a Sunday lunchtime pint but, at the suggestion of
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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Bernard Kelly, whose son had just started to play for Botany Bay
CC, we changed the venue to the Cricket Club in the late 1980’s
and thus started a connection which still exists strongly today.
For many years Gordon umpired their 1st XI matches and was
also instrumental in forming the Botany Bay Jazz Club, which
has provided weekly musical entertainment on Tuesday evenings,
with Gordon as Chairman, and is highly regarded in jazz circles.
He was elected President of the Botany Bay Club for a two-year
tenure in 2004.
For many years Gordon and Eve holidayed for a few weeks in an
apartment at Quinta Do Lago in the Algarve and invited friends
to share a week or so with them there. Carole and I were
fortunate to be the recipients of their hospitality. It was then that
I discovered school swimming lessons at Hornsey Road Baths
had failed to engender any enthusiasm on his part to learn to
swim and that the pool at his apartment was purely to reflect the
sun’s rays to enhance his tan.
Leaving aside our difference of opinion over the best football
team in North London, I have valued our friendship over the
past 60+ years and these brief recollections only scratch the
surface of so many happy times shared.
FRIENDSHIP – till Time shall bring all of us home!
Roger Engledow
My favourite story about Gordon is only 3rd hand so someone
else may tell it better.
I think that it was after an Apostles' lunch that Gordon decided
to go back to work when the lunch finished. He arrived at
NatWest offices and was greeted by "Hello Gordon what are you
doing here?" Gordon's reply was that he had come back to work
after his lunch. "It must have been a good lunch" someone said,
"because you haven't worked in this office for 3 years!"
The Barracuda Bite
Whilst I may not have known Gordon for as long as many of
you, I have very fond childhood memories of Gordon, and this is
probably one of the best.
For anyone who has heard the tale of Gordon being bitten by a
Barracuda, I am about to tell the tale as I remember it, which
may not be the version that you have heard before!
This story goes back to the late 1970’s when we were living in
Grand Cayman. Gordon and Eve made what in those days was
a very long and arduous journey out to stay with us for a couple
of weeks holiday. As I am sure you will recall, this was a time
when string vests were popular, smoking was the norm and factor
30 was unheard of. As I am sure you can imagine, time spent on
an idyllic Caribbean island involved much time spent in the sun,
swimming and snorkelling with the fantastic array of very
colourful fish, including on occasions Barracuda. However, the
white scar on his stomach which Gordon took home as a
souvenir of that holiday, and which stood out so glaringly against
his suntan was most definitely not the result of a Barracuda bite!
The real culprit was a cigarette: one evening as Gordon was
relaxing in a T-shirt made from the same material as a string
vest, the glowing end of his cigarette fell off and landed on his
stomach. After much hopping about to remove the offending
article, the result was a perfectly round, painful burn on Gordon’s
stomach. What was surprising was that this was achieved whilst
leaving the shirt completely unscathed; the offending blob of
burning tobacco had made its way through one of the holes to do
its worst on the skin below. The result being the small, round
glaringly white scar on Gordon’s very brown stomach, which he
subsequently explained away as a Barracuda bite! Sadly, the
photographic evidence of the Barracuda bite has long since been
misplaced, but the fantastic memories of that visit and of Gordon
in general are etched in my mind, never to be forgotten.
Celia (Peter and Brenda Engledow's daughter)
The Wake at Botany Bay Cricket Club
54

JOHN BRACKLEY
Tribute
Good afternoon,
For those of you who don’t know me, my
name is Mark and I am John’s Son-in-law.
I have been lucky enough to get to know
John well over the last 20 years, and I am
honoured to read this tribute on behalf of
the family.
I would like to begin by thanking everyone
who is here today and those who have sent
their condolences. We have received
countless cards, messages and kind
thoughts during this difficult time.
John was born in Preston, Lancashire in
1943 the only child of Louise and Sydney
Brackley. The family moved to North
London where John spent most of his
childhood.
He proudly attended The Worshipful
Company of Stationers’ Grammar School
and would often tell us about the antics he
would get up to with his chums and the
colourful nicknames they had for the
masters, like spitty gob and chalky white.
John joined the Royal Navy in the early
60’s and following his initial training at
HMS Rayleigh he was immediately sent
to the Caribbean where he served on board
HMS Ursa as a signalman. He would
amuse us with stories of when he joined
the troops as radio operator and ship’s
marksman, on missions around Cuba and
surrounding islands.
John worked in the City of London from
the 1970’s initially as a Foreign Exchange
trader, then progressed to the commodities
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Obituaries
futures markets, dealing in coffee, cocoa,
sugar. During his long career in
commodities, John held various MD
positions, spending two years working in
Singapore for the International Petroleum
Exchange.
From the age of 21 John was heavily
involved in Freemasonry, being a member
of numerous lodges. In April 2000 an
opportunity arose for him to join Mark
Masons’ Hall as Assistant Grand Secretary.
He thoroughly enjoyed working
there and became the Grand Secretary to
the Grand Master, HRH Prince Michael
of Kent. They enjoyed a good working
relationship and travelled all over the
world visiting the many Masonic Orders
administered by the London office at 86 St
James’s Street. He retired in 2013.
Together with Mary, they joined the
charitable Hospitaller Order of Saint
Lazarus of Jerusalem and he became its
Grand Chancellor.
In retirement, John loved spending time
with his family first and foremost. An
intelligent man, wise, well read, kind and
generous. He enjoyed playing the organ
and piano, reading countless books
(especially history) and tending the orchids
and other plants in his greenhouse. He
also spent many hours flying around the
country and abroad, on his Flight
Simulator, having previously acquired his
private pilot’s licence some years ago. He
attended many Rotary social functions
supporting Mary in her year as President
of the Rotary Club of Bournemouth.
John loved photography, but we hardly
have any photographs of him, because he
was always behind the lens. Mary and
John often took trips out in his classic car,
a 1960 Ford Zephyr, where he would
create quite a crowd down at Mudeford
Quay, many of whom would say “my dad
used to have one of those”.
John leaves behind his wife Mary, who he
has been married to for 47 years, his
daughters Susan and Kathryn, son James,
and 7 grandchildren.
John was wonderfully cared for at the
Macmillan Unit, Christchurch Hospital
during his final days and we have set up a
‘Just Giving’ page in memory of John to
benefit The Macmillan Cancer Support
Charity.
John will forever be in our thoughts.
Thank you.
Keith Ranger
Tribute
Everyone knows our grandad by the name
Keith. However, to myself George, and
Ben he was known as D; he didn’t’ want
the “grandad” label, as he mentioned it
made him feel too old and George couldn’t
pronounce Keith, so the name D just
stuck. He was young at heart. An amazing
man who could mix with all ages, with his
charisma, personality and effortless
humour, who loved a conversation. Even if
D meet people for the first time, he made
you feel like a friend. Me, George and Ben
have the best memories of D, and he is
very proud of the people that we have
become today.
D would always be out on a summer day
with his shorts up to his stomach, golf
socks up to the knees and wearing his
Berkhamsted golf club jumper, as a proud
and competitive sportsman of the club.
He’d love watering his greenhouse, playing
ball with our dog Jasper and having a few
too many Chateauneuf Du Pape’s, from
his relic collection of alcohol. D was a
hoarder of absolutely anything and one
time attempted to return a pair of 25-yearold
trekking boots, back to john Lewis.
Although this was comical and one of the
many stories of D’s finest times, his
determination was undoubtful.
Another time D had a few too many
brandy’s and spontaneously took himself
off to the Rex cinema too see an old black
and white movie, on the hottest day of
summer. It had us all in stiches with
laughter. D and I shared many interests,
like our interest in education, taking me
too the theatres when I was younger and
he was the first to jump in my car when I
passed my driving test, turning on the
classical music station and singing at the
top of his lungs, which had me in tears.
55

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
He’d always wished for the very best for
me Ben and George and there’s so much I
wish I could tell D today, like starting an
industry placement at the end of this
month, however, I know he’s is looking
over us and is very proud.
In loving memory of our grandfather,
He will always be remembered by his witty
sense of humour, the ability to put a smile
on people’s faces, and his passion for life,
work and people. There are so many
captivating qualities D’ possesses, however
if I were to list them we’d be here all day,
and frankly I only have 5 minutes
Your loving granddaughter,
Charlotte
JOHN DICKENS
AFLOAT
When Bob, my skipper, told me that our
usual third crew-member was unable to
come on our sailing vacation to deliver a
40-foot yacht to Bodrum in Turkey, I had
no idea that in his place we would end up
with an O.S. Man. I had spoken to a
number of people and eventually told John
Dickens that we were looking for a third
ship-mate.
Having met John and his wife Joan each
day during the first year I left School on
the “Ally Pally” 233 Route on our way to
work, it was evident that they were young
at heart to put up with me as well as
sharing the back seat of Brian Chappel's
little car on route to an away football
match on some Saturdays with Ted
Merrony in front, as we all played for the
same XI (except our supporter Joan) in the
old boys XI. And so I called on him from
time to time for a chat while I was still
working in his area.
John had never been sailing, but he asked
a number of positive questions like “is
there a fridge on board to take the insulin
for my diabetes?”. I realised then he was
interested in coming along. He explained
that he'd tried almost everything else
sportswise and would love to try sailing
before he went blind or died. It was only
then I understood how ill he really was,
because his disposition made him seem
hardly any older than me. He certainly
had not lost his adventurous spirit - and
I was delighted to be able to teach him
something in exchange for his years of
educating me in sporting activity.
And so it was decided that John Dickens
would be our third crew-member. We all
duly met up in the airport and flew off to
Turkey where we boarded a coach and
went down to Antalya Marina where the
boat was. We waited there for a couple of
days while the last repair to the boat was
done. We all went on a coach trip to silk
and carpet factories in the morning, in the
afternoon to a museum, before the food
was bought and stowed on board: done
once, we knew what everyone would eat
for lunch over the next few days.
After we set sail, we found that John was a
very pleasant companion on board. He
slept in one of the aft cabins next door to
the skipper, and never complained of his
various medical problems. He needed help
only on the single gangway plank when
coming or going ashore or onto the boat.
He very quickly learned to duck when the
boom was coming over. He was delighted
when we taught him to sail the boat
downwind, and with the spinnaker up.
He learned to tie multiple knots, and soon
became our trusty fenderman whenever we
arrived in a port.
After that there were numerous adventures
in various places en-route which included
Albinyakar and the Beydaglari Ollimpos
Milli Park in the Gulf of Antalya.
Rounding the Yardima Burnu into the
Finike Korfezi we arrived in Fethiye. We
definitely liked Fethiye the best because
of its tombs and sculptures from Roman
days, with explanatory signs, on the
mountainsides.
One evening we met a whole bunch of
new arrivals at a restaurant who made up a
flotilla of boats sailing together in a similar
direction to ourselves and invited us to race
with them on the next day which was their
last day, at Dalaman. We still had several
days to go and found John a good learner,
so we felt fairly confident with the three of
us well practised; but because the wind
dropped we then managed to get to the
start line in last place. Every one was
drifting up to the first mark when
eventually the wind came up slowly but
surely from the opposite direction. Our
steady progress was maintained as last
became 1st, and we sat on the 2nd yacht's
course, tack for tack all the way back,
increasing our lead to the end on a broadreach.
We crossed the winning line to hear
by the radio that the course had to be
shortened as it had taken over an hour
before the first boat had got around the
first mark. Thus we got the winning gun!
That night we celebrated our victory. I will
always remember John sitting at a table
between two young ladies, telling tales of
the sea, in his Oxbridge accent. When
they kissed his cheeks, he called out to us
“I do believe I've pulled !” Everybody
laughed and cheered. That moment
remains strongest in my memory, showing
how young at heart John Dickens was.
Peter Jarvis' report of John's death and
Chris Edwards' Tribute in January 2021's
edition of The Old Stationer magazine left
me feeling very much saddened.
S. John Wrigley
Hodgson House 1953-55
PETER HOLDEN
Peter was born on 25 December 1929 with
his twin brother John to Ernest and Mable.
He passed away in his sleep on November
12 2020 after a relatively short but typically
brave battle with the impacts of the Corona
virus. He was 90.
A man of principle and strong morals,
loving of family, and who valued friendships
highly. He was a Londoner who, in
his early life, was brought up in Hornsey in
a house his parents shared with an aunt
and uncle.
When the war started Peter and his
brother were evacuated with their primary
school to Brampton, near Huntingdon,
their mother going as helper. They were
there for 6 months until the early bombing
eased off and they returned to London.
During the blitz, when the bombing
picked up again they went up to Nairn in
Scotland for 2 years, after which back to a
newly purchased house in Coleridge Road,
Crouch End, where Peter attended
Stationers school from 1941 to 1946. He
always said “the teachers were terrific and
I received a good education”
Scouting was an important element in
Peter’s upbringing . He joined the 79th
56

North London Air Scout Group in 1942
whose leader was Henry Brazier, a local
builder. It was attended by many of his
contemporaries including Peter Shelborne,
Jack and Peter Noutch and later David
Taylor, John’s brother. Peter and his
scouting pals went walking in Switzerland
and Austria on several occasions, venturing
up glaciers in their army boots with nails
smacked into their soles.
Peter and John left the school in 1946 at
the age of 16 and obtained employment
with Hanham and Partners, a firm of
architects and quantity surveyors in
Victoria Street, attending evening classes
at the Northern Poly and then the college
of Estate Management in Kensington and
thence to the Royal Institute of Chartered
Surveyors.
Then, in 1953, came National Service,
commissioned in the Royal Engineers
before a posting to the Northern Army
Group Headquarters in Germany, a high
powered Saper unit where he had two
years of excellent training for his
subsequent career with Gardiner and
Theobald, who he then joined, having
secured his letters, as an Associate of the
RICS.
He worked there for 38 years on several
prestigious building projects including
Lansdowne House on Berkeley Square
and the Swan and Edgar building in
Piccadilly Circus.
He retired in 1963 at the age of 63 from G
and T who presented him with a silver
salver and a “real” tennis raquet. He took
up Real Tennis at Hatfield House though
a most significant part of his life was spent
at Hanley Lawn Tennis Club in the
Crouch End Playing Fields where he was
a member for almost 50 years and Hon
Treasurer for many of them. It was here
where he met Pamela Thompson and they
were married in 1960 at St Michaels
church, Highgate and went to live in
Whetstone.
Three children, Twins Andy and Richard
and Jane provided seven grandchildren.
As with most families there were also
some challenging times – the loss to cancer
of his daughter, Jane, in 2010 and Pam’s
stroke in 2006 during Jane’s early diagnosis.
Peter became his wife’s carer until her
death in 2016 after which he remained
fiercely independent to the end.
Peter Holden, a good man, a gentleman.
R I P.
John Taylor
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Robert Coulter
He grew up in Muswell Hill, North
London, the youngest of 3 children to
Joan and Robert Coulter. The son of
teachers, Robert enjoyed life long learning
and had a strong work ethic. As a result of
his academic ability, he was selected to
attend the Stationers’ Company School,
one of the elite livery schools established
by the City of London guilds in the 1800s.
Robert was an academic rather than a
sports buff, and elected to study latin and
history, as well as the usual grammar
school subjects. He made many good
friends during his school days from 1960
to 1967 and became known for his bridge
and crossword skills more so than his latin.
Despite his travels to the far ends of the
earth, Robert remained proud of his
English heritage and made great efforts to
keep in touch with his school friends. In
fact he was on a Zoom call with seven aged
school friends from his hospital bed only a
few days before the end and still managed
to give a great performance. As his
childhood friend, Simon Kusseff says
“Robert was good company, had a twinkle
in his eye and with his dry sense of humor,
had the ability to put people at ease”.
Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered
Surveyors, Robert had a long, established
career in commercial real estate. It was a
love match when he met Daphne at work
in London. Soon married and moved to
Canada two weeks later. Both were
engaged in the Rotary Club in Canada and
developed long lasting friendships that
were nurtured to this day. Robert and
Daphne raised three children together in
Canada, before moving to Phoenix,
Arizona.
Simon Westbrook, a school friend, was the
best man at the wedding, and thought he
might never see Robert and Daphne again
as they sped off after the event in his
yellow TR6 convertible. What a surprise
to find that a few years later they would
both be living in the same country again:
Simon in California and Robert in Arizona
where they exchanged regular family visits
He loved to travel and experience life;
from kayaking in Iceland to herding
buffalo in Wyoming. He loved the opera
and was on the board of directors for the
Arizona Opera using his skills in finance
to further the arts. He loved being
challenged at work and was often involved
in multiple businesses simultaneously, even
taking a business call the day he died. He
loved orchids and made his own jams/
marmalades and limoncello. He was a
consummate entertainer and always wore
brightly (loud) colored shirts and loved to
have people over for feasts where all would
eat and drink wine, and be merry. Robert
loved his food and wines and we all loved
his cooking especially his steak and kidney
pie and his fish pie. The world will not be
the same without them!
He is survived by his wife, Daphne, his
children, Patricia, Alysson, and John, two
grand-daughters, Aurora and Lucy, and his
two sisters, Anne and Margaret, his sisterin-law,
Ethylin, and his brother-in-law,
Nigel, and his nieces and nephews.
To the Coulter Family
Please accept my sincere condolences on
Robert's death.
I along with my other year mates at
Stationers' school, got to know Robert in
the sixth form.
He was a very good bridge player and
several of us formed a bridge group that
would play at lunch time.
In those days, Robert was also very keen
on bar billiards and pool and had a billiard
table at home.
He used to invite me and doubtless others,
to play pool at the family home, in Muswell
hill.
There I met both his parents and one of
his sisters, who was a nurse.
His parents were teachers and his mother
taught at Rokesly Junior school, where my
sister was a pupil of hers.
Sometimes, Robert and I and my sister,
went to the cinema or theatre and when I
was at university, Robert used to take my
sister out.
Robert was good company, had a twinkle
in his eye and with his dry sense of
humour, had the ability to put people at
their ease.
He decided to become a surveyor and
moved into the world of property.
Not sure where he met Daphne, but it was
a love match, so when she moved to
Canada, he followed her.
After that, I lost touch with Robert and it
was only through Simon Westbrook that I
learnt Robert and Daphne had moved to
Arizona.
When Robert Bird started the monthly
Zoom calls a number of old Stationers
were able to see Robert again and it was
only recently that Robert told us that
57

Daphne had gone into a home, due to her
memory issues.
So when we saw Robert speaking to us
from his hospital bed, it was a bit of a
shock and it didn't seem appropriate to
enquire too deeply into what was wrong. It
was a sad farewell, but one hopes it was
some comfort to Robert.
Best wishes
Simon Kusseff
Anthony
William Hughes
1947 – 2021
In loving memory of Anthony (Tony)
William Hughes, who was taken all too
quickly from his family and friends on
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at the age of 74.
Tony was born in London, England on
March 19, 1947 to George and Vera
Hughes. His early years were spent in
central London followed by the family
moving to the suburbs. He married Wendy
in 1975 and they began their life journey
together. They lived in Brussels, Belgium
followed by Hong Kong, SAR where their
only son Jonathan was born. The next
move took the family to the United States.
The family made many moves as Tony’s
career advanced. He closed out his career
as President of Fortron Industries and
Vice President of Sales and Marketing for
the America’s with Celanese Corporation.
He was fortunate to retire at the age of 52
and enjoy the last 22 work-free years with
Wendy in Wilmington and Leland, North
Carolina. In his own words “Retirement
was the best job he ever had.”
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 9 3
Donald
Richman Smith
I recently heard from Jonathan Smith,
who you may have seen serving behind the
bar at OEs at the OSFC Re-Union Days,
that his father Donald Richman Smith
(17th July 1922 - 22nd Feb 2021), who
was an Old Boy of Stationers' School,
recently died, aged 98.
( Just a note.....Jonathan, who has no
connection with Stationers, would be
annoyed if he was known as the
barman........he was in fact until recently
Chairman of OEs Cricket Club and
sometimes worked behind the bar as a
volunteer to help swell the coffers of OEs)
Jonathan doesn't think his Dad ever had
any connection with the OSA and bearing
in mind his age I doubt many would even
remember him. I will leave it up to you
whether to include anything in the next
magazine or not.
Regards
Ian Meyrick
Ken Rickards
jill.parki@gmail.com
I am sorry to bring you the news that my
father Ken Rickards died peacefully at his
home in Usk on Thursday 28th January at
the great age of 100. Being so long ago, I
doubt many will remember him, but he
attended the Stationers' Company School
from 1930-37 and played for the Old
Stationers FC after the war; he often used
to regale us with tales of his time with the
club and liked to check on how you were
doing now. I know he would want to wish
the current members well.
Jill Parkinson
Hi Peter
Richard Hudson
alanhudson15@virginmedia.com
To: Peter Sandell
Could you please include the following in
the next OS Magazine.
My brother Richard passed away very
suddenly on 19th May. He attended
Stationers' school from 1964-71 and lived
in Crouch End for the last 40 years.
Richard will be very sadly missed by all his
family and friends.
Alan Hudson
peter.sandell@hotmail.co.uk
Alan
I'm very sorry to hear to your sad news. It
must be a great shock.
He rang me a couple of times last year and
I probably saw him last at the OSA Carol
Service in 2019.
I will ensure a note is put on the website
and it will go in the next magazine. I can
also drop an e mail to the OSA members
in his year.
If an obituary gets written, let me have it
and that can go in the magazine which is
due out early July.
Regards
Peter Sandell
This is very sad indeed as I have been
working with Richard for over a year to
prepare his article on the North Yorkshire
Moors Railway which is featured in this issue
of the Old Stationer magazine.
Tim
58

T he e Oll d S t a tii o nee r -- N o 9933
Minutes of the 2021 AGM OF THE Old Stationers’ Association
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the AGM was held as a virtual meeting on Zoom.
Present: Stephen Collins (President) in the chair,
Peter Thomas (Hon. Secretary),
Peter Winter (Hon. Treasurer)
Together with 8 other Committee members and 24 ordinary members. Two proxy votes were also received.
1. Minutes of the AGM held on Wednesday 22nd April 2020 (circulated to all members in ‘The Old Stationer’
Magazine No.91 – July 2020 edition).
It was proposed by Peter Winter, seconded by David Hudson, and resolved that the minutes of the Old Stationers’
Association AGM held online on Wednesday 22nd April 2020 be approved.
2. President's Address See attached report.
3. Hon Treasurers Report See attached report.
It was proposed by Nigel Friswell and seconded by Daniel Bone and resolved that the report and audited accounts
for the year ending 31st December 2020 be approved. A vote was held for Membership subscriptions to remain at
the current level for 2022. It was proposed by David Turner, seconded by Peter Sandell, and resolved that the
Membership subscription rate remain at £15.00 for 2022 be approved.
4. Election of Officers and Committee
Nominations were invited for the Association’s Officers and Committee for 2021/2022. The following members
were duly proposed, seconded, and elected:
Elected Proposer Seconder
President Stephen Collins Peter Thomas Chris Langford
Vice-President Daniel Bone Stephen Collins Russell Plumley
Hon Secretary Peter Thomas Chris Williams Peter Gotham
Hon Treasurer Peter Winter Alan Dobbie TonyMash
Hon Membership Secretary Roger Engledow Tony Hemmings Peter Sandell
Hon Editor Tim Westbrook Peter Bothwick David Cox
Events Managers
Peter Sandell
Roger Melling
Peter Thomas
Daniel Bone
Hon Archivist David Turner Peter Sandell Roger Engledow
Website Manager Peter Gotham Keith Knight David Turner
Ordinary Members
Andreas Christou
Peter Borthwick John Rowlands David Sheath
Tony Hemmings
5. Election of Honorary Auditors
It was proposed by Daniel Bone, seconded by Peter Gotham, and resolved that David Cox and Chris Langford be
elected as Honorary Auditors.
6. Any other urgent business
Apologies for absence were received from Peter Engledow, Peter Knight, Richard Slatford and Tim Westbrook.
There being no further business, the Annual General Meeting closed at 6.21pm on 26th March.
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
This has been a strange year to be President of the OSA, to say the least. The first lockdown began in time to prevent last
year’s AGM and Annual Dinner from taking place; but thanks to some nifty footwork by our then Secretary, Tony
Hemmings, a virtual AGM was successfully negotiated. Our current Secretary, Past President Peter Thomas, has brought
off the same trick this year, this time with an actual Zoom meeting.
As reported in the Old Stationer, only two planned events have been able to take place between lockdowns and tier four
restrictions. One was the annual Golf Society prize giving; the other was the walk around the Bolt Court area to examine
the School’s origins. But we have not just sat back and done nothing. In particular, thanks to an initiative by Peter Sandell,
one of the Committee’s Events Managers, we have begun a series of Zoom talks/Q&As. The first was with Bishop Stephen
Platten, the first OS to be Master of the Company, and the second with barrister Keith Knight. Both have been well
59

T he e Oll d S t a tii o nee r -- N o 9933
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
attended and very well received. We intend to continue with this initiative even after a return to normal life because we
regard it as an effective way of bringing members together who, in many cases, may live too far away from London to attend
our regular events. And we are exploring the possibility of bridge and chess tournaments via Zoom.
Another achievement during the year, as reported in the January edition of the Old Stationer, was the unveiling of a plaque
on one of the remaining exterior walls of the School playground to commemorate the existence of the School on that site.
Until then there was no way that most visitors to Stationers' Park would know why it was so called. Appreciation is due to
Tim Westbrook, editor of the Old Stationer, for his dogged persistence with Haringey Council to get that done.
We have already reported the generous bequest to the OSA of £10,000 by the late Sir John Sparrow. To that we can now
add £5,000 bequeathed by the late Past President Peter Sargent. The Committee will be discussing how to make use of
these incredibly generous gifts. One criterion on which we are agreed is that to a great extent they should potentially benefit
the entire membership.
And turning to membership, the picture is a little disquieting. At the time of writing membership stands at 484, down from
500 a year ago. This reflects new members totalling 8 in the period more than offset by deaths (20) and net resignations
(4). We do not know to what degree the high death rate is Covid-related, but in any event the average age of the membership
is likely to be gradually increasing, with inevitable consequences. There is still plenty of scope, however, to reverse that trend
by bringing in new members, and I urge all of you with knowledge of OS who are not members to persuade them to join.
Under the aegis of Committee member Andreas Christou, we are intending to up our game on Facebook and other social
media to seek to attract younger OS to join.
Looking ahead, the AGM on 26th March will be followed by a Zoom session with Giles Fagan, the incoming Clerk of the
Stationers’ Company, who will, among other things, update us on the progress of the major renovations of the Hall currently
under way. This gives me the opportunity to pay tribute to William Alden, Clerk for the past eleven years, who has been
an unfailing supporter of the OSA. We intend to acknowledge his friendship with a suitable gift when we can meet again
in person. We hope that that will be possible shortly after restrictions are finally lifted in late June, and we have provisionally
reserved Cutlers’ Hall for our Annual Lunch (in place of the Annual Dinner) on Friday, 25th June.
As can be seen in the papers for the AGM, the Committee has been kind enough to nominate me, along with Vice-
President Daniel Bone, for a further year in post in the hope that a more normal year of events may be possible, and I am
of course honoured to accept. I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of the Committee. In addition to those already
mentioned, it includes Peter Winter, who has successfully taken over as Treasurer from Michael Hasler (who continues to
make a good recovery from his illness), Membership Secretary Roger Engledow, Archivist David Turner, Website Officer
Peter Gotham, co-Events Manager Roger Melling, and ‘Ordinary Members’ Tony Hemmings and Peter Bothwick. Thanks
are due also to our honorary auditors, Chris Langford and David Cox, who continue to deliver valuable service.
Finally, I thought I would report that, on behalf of the Stationers’ Company, I recently telephoned all OS members of the
Company aged 80 and above to enquire about their welfare. I am pleased to say that all of the 14 to whom I spoke are
bearing up well in current circumstances and, aside from an inevitable range of aches and pains, all remain mentally acute.
Given the incidence of age-related dementia in the population at large, this was striking, and, who knows, may partially
result from the mental stimulation they received while attending our School all those years ago.
Stay safe, and let us hope that we can meet again in person before too long.
Stephen Collins President 2020/21
Honorary Treasurer’s Report
For the year ENDED 31st December 2020
Attached are the audited 2020 accounts. In a year when our activities were severely curtailed, significant points to note on
changes from 2019:
Increased Costs:
• Archiving spend of £830 (physical storage and movements of Hall material, plus digitalisation of old magazine library)
Offset by:
• Elimination of Carol Service costs, saving £325
• Reduced losses on lunches/dinners of £232
• No Three Peaks event this year, reduction of £124
Giving an outcome of:
• Surplus reduced by £201 at £580
• Business Account untouched this year (currently £13,002)
• Year end cash at bank of £16,981
I would like to thank Roger Engledow for the work he does in collecting and chasing the subscriptions.
I would like to thank our auditors, Chris Langford and David Cox, for their help and advice in this my first year as Treasurer.
Peter Winter Honorary Treasurer
60

T he e Oll d S t a tii o nee r -- N o 9933
As at 31st December 2020
ASSETS
31.12.20 31.12.19
£ £ £ £
Cash at bank on current account 3,979 7,290
Cash on deposit account 13,002 12.991
Total cash at bank 16,981 20,281
Stock of ties & badges (note 2) 1,249 1,361
Stock of books and programmes (note 3) 417 468
The Carpenter Painting 1,077 1,077
Display Cabinet 200 200
Debtors
Deposit 2020 lunches 0 500
Less Creditors
Luncheon Dec 2020 0 -4,402
2021 subscriptioni 250 350
Expenses 87 128
Other Creditors 337 (337) 478 (4,380)
TOTAL ASSETS 19,587 19,007
FINANCED BY:
Memorial Fund (Embleton) 1,701 1,701
Accumulated General Fund 16.077 15,403
Contingencies Reserve (note 4) 1,809 1,902
19,587 19,007
NOTES
1 The OSA also has in its possession a number of items of regalia and cups. It is not proposed to
show these on the face of the accounts, but the value for insurance purposes is £2,950.
2 Stock of ties and badges
Stock 31.12.19 1,361 776
Purchases 0 647
1,361 1,423
Less sales at cost -84 -16
Less presented to The President -27 -28
Less presented to The Master 0 -18
Stock 31.12.19 1,249 1,361
3 Stock of books and programmes
Stock at 31.12.19 469 563
Purchases 0 0
469 563
Less cost of sales -52 -95
Less stock written off
Stock at 31.12.20 417 469
4 The contingencies reserve has been created from past provisions for luncheon and annual dinner
costs no longer required. It is to be used to subsidised these events this year (£94) and in future years.
Peter Winter Treasurer
DETAILED Balance Sheet
Auditors Report
In our opinion the above Balance sheet and related Statements of Income and Expenditure, Accumulated Fund
and Memorial Fund present a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Old Stationers’ Association as at
31st December 2020 and of the surplus of income over expenditure for the year.
C Langford, D Cox
61

T he e Oll d S t a tii o nee r -- N o 9933
DETAILED Funds Summary
Year ended 31st December 2020 31.12.20 31.12.19
MEMORIAL FUND (EMBLETON)
£ £
Balance per Accounts 31.12.19 b/fwd 1,701 1,701
Less Stock of Old Stationers' President's XI
40th Anniversary book written off
Accumulated Surplus on Memorial Fund 1,701 1,701
ACCUMULATED GENERAL FUND
Balance per Accounts 31.12.19 b/fwd 15,403 14,296
Surplus on Ordinary Activities 545 983
-Deficit on other activities -202 -202
Transfer from contingencies reserve 326 129 326 124
Accumulated Surplus on ordinary activities 16,077 15,403
CONTINGENCIES RESERVE (note 4)
Balance per accounts 31st December 2019 b/fwd 1,903 2,229
Transfer to General Fund, re Dinner and Lunches -94 -326
Total Contingencies Reserve 1,809 1,903
TOTAL OSA FUNDS AT 31.12.2020 19,587 19,007
Note 4: The contingencies reserve has been created from past provisions for luncheon and annual dinner
costs no longer required. It is to be used to subsidise these events, this year (£94) and in future years.
GENERAL FUND
Income & Expenditure Account Year ended 31st December 2020
31.12.20 31.12.19
ORDINARY ACTIVITIES £ £ £ £
Income
Subscriptions 7,454 7,461
Bank interest 11 26
7,465 7,487
Expenditure
Magazine costs 5,642 5,577
Stationery, Postage & Web expenses 1,279 479
Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge expenses 124
Carol service and commemoration 324
6,921 6,504
Surplus on Ordinary Activities 545 983
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Tie, scarves and blazer badge sales net-cost/income 15 -13
Past President’s badge and tie at cost -27 -28
Baynes book net Surplus/-Deficit 59 86
Net -Deficit/Surplus on dinner and lunch club -94 -326
Surplus on walks 83 79
-Deficit on other activities 35 -202
SURPLUS INCOME OVER EXPENDITURE FOR YEAR 580 781
62

OSA PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION 2021 – “ANIMALS”
Whether you are an experienced photographer, or just one
who takes the occasional photograph with your mobile
phone, this is the photographic competition for you. Any
OSA member can enter up to three photographs which they
should have taken. The theme this time is – “Animals”. The
photograph can be of any animal: dog, cat, pet tortoise, lion
on safari, fox digging up the lawn, the world is your oyster.
Yes it could be an oyster! But no birds please. I am sure you
have some photographs that would suit. If the animal is
doing something interesting that would be great.
To Enter
Each photograph should have an “interesting” title, relevant
to the theme, and be accompanied by the sender’s name,
postal address and telephone number.
Send your digital or scanned photographs (colour or black
and white – or even sepia), as a 300 DPI JPEG file, to Tony
Moffat at: a.moffat@ucl.ac.uk
For those of the “old school” without
access to a scanner; send hard copy
photographs, which will be scanned
and then returned to you, to: Tony
Moffat, 22 Pig Lane, St Ives, PE27
5NL. Please use a piece of cardboard in
the envelope to protect the photographs.
Closing date
31st October 2021. Entries will be
acknowledged by email, telephone or
post.
Image editing
Images may be digitally enhanced to optimise a photograph,
remove scratches etc, but significant elements of the picture
should not be added or removed.
Judging
Judging will be carried out by a panel of judges who will be
using the following criteria: composition, originality, interpretation
of the theme, technical quality and most
importantly – how does your entry stand out from the
crowd. Like referees’ decisions, some people may disagree
with the judges’ decision, but their decision is final.
Prizes
The winner will be announced in the January 2022 edition
of the Old Stationer and will receive a bottle of champagne
at the AGM in March 2022 when some of the entries will
be displayed.
Publication of Entries
By submitting an entry, you agree that
the photograph(s) may be published in
The Old Stationer and on the OSA
web site.
Queries
Any queries, please contact Tony
Moffat at the email address above or by
telephone on 01480 764285.
Go on - have a go! Looking through
your old photographs will be fun
anyway. If you don’t have anything
suitable, why not go out and take some.
PUZZLE SOLUTIONS
GREEK SUDOKU
WORD SEARCH
Anagrams
1. TETLEYS
2. COURAGE
3. MARSTONS
4. ADNAMS
5. WADWORTH
6. BATEMANS
7. BODDINGTONS
8. GUINNESS
9. THEAKSTONS
10. FULLERS

The Old Stationers’ Association