The Salopian no. 160 - Summer 2017

58
OLD SALOPIAN NEWS
News of Old Salopians
1939-49
John Cross (Rt 1939-43) was awarded
a Commendation and Badge by the
Chief of Army Staff, Nepalese Army,
in March 2017. Part of the citation
is: “…His contributions to the noble
profession of arms, in particular to
Jungle Warfare and Counter Insurgency,
have been keenly studied and largely
internalised by the Nepalese Army,
as was his advice on setting up
the Nepalese Army Rangers.” John
comments: “I need not say I am
inordinately proud to have it and bow
my head in gratitude at the unexpected.
It is a British first. Floreat to you all.”
Charles Talbot (O 1945-49) was
appointed an MBE in the New Year’s
Honours and invested by the Princess
Royal on 25th April 2017.
Keith Ferris (R 1944-48) writes:
I regret that I haven’t featured in
any newsworthy triumphs. My only
contribution to world literature has
been an occasional letter in the national
press (Daily and Sunday Telegraphs,
The Independent, The Week and,
suitably, “The Oldie”) and in some
more unlikely publications such as The
Kent Messenger, The Campbeltown
Courier, The Greenwich Visitor, Het
Zwollse Kourant (Netherlands) and “Big
Band Jump” (US)!
1950-59
Mike Evans (SH 1947-51) sent this
photo taken during a visit to The
Schools this spring. “The ‘Alibin’ (as we
irreverently used to call it) was looking
good with the amazing blossom and
flowers.”
Sam Berry (Ch 1948-53) writes: The
note from Robin Butler in the Winter
2016 edition of The Salopian recalling
Adolf Morath and the book A Portrait
of Shrewsbury School sparked long
submerged memories for me. For
some reason I was given the task of
showing Morath around the site, one
of the results being a photograph of
me (or rather, of the back of my neck)
taken from the roof of the Alington
Hall. Another photograph in the
book is the Biology VIth, of which
I was a member. The original print
has been doctored (censored?) to
remove both the benignly overseeing
John Woodroffe and me. At the time
(summer 1953) I had been given the
offer of a place to read medicine
in Cambridge, but I got cold feet
about this and told my house master
(Alec Binney) that I didn’t really like
people enough to be a good doctor.
His response was to send a telegram
“Berry reading biology” to Cambridge.
I did indeed spend the next three
years reading biology, although I had
to bow out of zoology because I was
very bad at drawing and of botany
because I couldn’t remember the
names of plants. That left genetics,
which was somewhat hazardous
because I couldn’t (and can’t) cope
with calculus and my Cambridge
professor (Sir Ronald Fisher) had
more or less invented the subject.
This meant I had to leave Cambridge
after my first degree and before Fisher
discovered my no-doubt culpable
incompetence. I moved to do a PhD at
University College London (ironically
in a Department previously headed by
Fisher).
My time in Cambridge was not wholly
mis-spent. I went on to a career as an
academic geneticist (Lecturer, Reader,
then 26 years as a Professor); the first
two books I wrote were Teach Yourself
Genetics (based on my lectures to first
year university students) and Adam and
the Ape, an account of the compatibility
(indeed, the complementarity) of
evolutionary biology and biblical
Christianity.
Genetics changed radically during
my time at Cambridge. A few
months before I started my degree, a
somewhat mature postgraduate in my
college, Francis Crick, had published
a paper proposing a “Structure for
Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” (i.e. DNA),
in collaboration with a brash young
American, Jim Watson. Fifty years later
(2003), my son Andrew (Ch 1975-80, by
then teaching at Harvard, co-authored
a book DNA: the Secret of Life
celebrating the Golden Jubilee of this
discovery, with the same Jim Watson.
David Gilkes (M 1949-54): see article
on page 64
Anthony Wieler (Ch 1950-55)
While a student at Oxford University
in 1957, Anthony Wieler founded the
Oxford University Modern Pentathlon
Association and organised the first ever
match against Cambridge University. He
attended the 60th anniversary Varsity
Match versus Cambridge in April 2017.