The Salopian Summer 2023
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TITLE HERE 1<br />
THE SALOPIAN<br />
Issue No. 171 - <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
From the Editor<br />
CONTENTS<br />
On page 36 you will find a map of the Site as it was just before<br />
the School moved up from the town in 1882, a decision as<br />
controversial at the time as any which have followed, but now<br />
seen as a necessary and positive step in the ever-unfolding<br />
story of Shrewsbury School. <strong>The</strong> map repays close analysis.<br />
At its heart, then as now, is the euphemistically-named ‘House<br />
of Industry’, the former Victorian workhouse, a name equally<br />
suited to its present function. At its extremities are the twin<br />
temptations of the ever-vibrant Boathouse Inn and the long<br />
defunct Beehive Inn, the last now only remembered in the<br />
name of the lane on which it once stood. At the southern<br />
extremity of the new Site were the Smokers’ trees, the presentday<br />
location of two trees, one a replacement, and the Senior<br />
cricket scorebox, so named, not because they provided cover<br />
for wayward schoolboys, but because that was where the<br />
Masters, who by convention did not smoke on the Site, could<br />
retire to enjoy their pipes. To judge from the number of paths<br />
radiating from it, it was, also, at least until 1882, something of a<br />
Piccadilly Circus.<br />
One wonders what the Site looked like when the School<br />
picked up its bags and moved. 141 years later parts of the<br />
Site not needed for other purposes are being returned to their<br />
natural state in a rewilding project spearheaded by the Eco-<br />
Committee and Biology Departments, whose work you can<br />
read about on page 27. <strong>The</strong> image below shows the incipient<br />
wildflower meadow leading down to the architecturallyunloved<br />
but perennially-serviceable Kingsland Hall (‘KH’),<br />
erected in 1969, when I was in the Upper Fifth Form (as it was<br />
then called), to enable the surprisingly uncontroversial move<br />
from what was then unceremoniously known as House to<br />
Central ‘feeding’.<br />
<strong>The</strong> trees have long been celebrated as one of the crowning<br />
glories of the Site, but with the development of a pollinators’<br />
garden, new wildflower meadows, the ubiquitous squirrels,<br />
and recent reports that the Site is becoming a refuge for swifts,<br />
whose populations are in rapid decline, it is good to see the<br />
School as a haven for a different kind of wildlife - not just of<br />
the adolescent human variety. <strong>The</strong> continued inspiring work of<br />
the beekeepers, Eco-committee and all those whose efforts are<br />
focused on, in their own words, ‘sharing our space with nature’<br />
is to be congratulated.<br />
Wildflower meadow leading down to Kingsland Hall<br />
Front Cover: Pipped to the post<br />
Inside Front Cover: Podium joy<br />
(Photos: Dr Richard Case)<br />
From the Editor 3<br />
From the Pentagon 4<br />
Learning in a World of AI 7<br />
Breaking Cultural Barriers 8<br />
A Tribute to Huw Peach 9<br />
School Prizewinners <strong>2023</strong> 12<br />
Scholarships Awarded for <strong>2023</strong> Entry 13<br />
Leavers’ Address 14<br />
Queen Elizabeth Hall 15<br />
Building Bright Futures 16<br />
I.T. at Shrewsbury 18<br />
Economics is not just about Money 22<br />
McEachran Prize 24<br />
Junior School Essay Prizes <strong>2023</strong> 25<br />
Sharing our Space with Nature 27<br />
Biology Photo Competition 29<br />
Academic News 32<br />
Notes from the Archives and Taylor Library 34<br />
Notes from the Moser Library 38<br />
Shrewsbury’s first International School in India 39<br />
Drama and Dance 40<br />
<strong>The</strong> John Weaver Dance Festival 43<br />
Music 44<br />
Art 51<br />
CCF 55<br />
ShrewMUN VII 55<br />
Restart Africa 56<br />
Thursday Afternoon Activities 59<br />
Volunteering 60<br />
Scottish Islands Peaks <strong>2023</strong> 62<br />
Football 64<br />
Rugby 68<br />
Fives 71<br />
RSSBC 74<br />
RSSH 77<br />
Hockey 79<br />
Lacrosse 80<br />
Netball 80<br />
Simms Trophy 80<br />
View from the Boundary Crossword 81<br />
From the Director 82<br />
Vale Nick Jenkins 83<br />
News and Events 83<br />
Silk Roads and Song Cycles 88<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Drivers’ Club 89<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Freemasons Lodge 90<br />
News of Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s 90<br />
100 Years Ago 99<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Hunt 101<br />
Sabrina 102<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Golfing Society 104<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Squash 106<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Football 107<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Rugby 107<br />
Publications 108<br />
Obituaries 110<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club Contacts 123<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club Forthcoming Events<br />
Editor<br />
Richard Hudson<br />
rth@shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
Assistant Editor<br />
Annabel Warburg<br />
Obituaries Editor<br />
Dr David Gee<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club<br />
Holly Fitzgerald (Director)<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club, <strong>The</strong> Schools,<br />
Shrewsbury SY3 7BA<br />
01743 280891 (Director)<br />
01743 280892 (Administrator)<br />
oldsalopian@shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
Design: Tom Sullivan<br />
Print: www.buxtonpress.com
4<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
From the Pentagon<br />
Intelligent Change and the Power of Excellence<br />
“A Shrewsbury School education is<br />
characterized by its commitment to<br />
excellence and holistic development.<br />
It provides a rigorous academic<br />
curriculum that cultivates intellectual<br />
curiosity, critical thinking and a love<br />
for learning. <strong>The</strong> school emphasizes<br />
the importance of whole person<br />
education, fostering values such as<br />
integrity, courage and kindness.<br />
With a rich history, vibrant student<br />
community, and a wide range of<br />
extracurricular activities, the school<br />
offers a well-rounded education that<br />
nurtures character development and<br />
leadership skills. Shrewsbury School<br />
prepares children for a world of change<br />
by fostering adaptability, embracing<br />
diversity, and instilling a global<br />
perspective. It equips students with the<br />
skills, knowledge and confidence to<br />
navigate an ever-evolving society and<br />
make positive contributions to the world<br />
around them.”<br />
So says me? So says the artificial<br />
intelligence platform ChatGPT. <strong>The</strong><br />
text above was generated in a matter<br />
of seconds by a machine. It came in<br />
response to the following question<br />
prompt: why might a parent choose<br />
a Shrewsbury School education to<br />
prepare their child for a world of<br />
change? Reading the paragraph above<br />
- as a parent as well as Headmaster - I<br />
certainly found the artificially intelligent<br />
answer pretty compelling.<br />
As most alert humans will already<br />
know, ChatGPT is an online Artificial<br />
Intelligence tool that generates and<br />
refines text responses to the prompts<br />
a human chooses to give it. ChatGPT<br />
has basically eaten the entire contents<br />
of the internet up to 2021. Using its<br />
encyclopaedic data, ChatGPT – and<br />
other similar tools such as Bard and<br />
Bing (sounding like a provincial<br />
solicitor but with awe-inspiring reach)<br />
– these tools willingly and elegantly<br />
articulate responses to pretty much any<br />
question you ask them.<br />
<strong>The</strong> exponential rise in the potency<br />
and application of AI makes the<br />
human head spin. Its ability to produce<br />
authoritative, human-like responses<br />
to a vast range of questions explains<br />
why ChatGPT became the fastestgrowing<br />
app of all time, reaching 100<br />
million users in only two months.<br />
Every field of human activity has had<br />
to accelerate its consideration of the<br />
implication of AI. You’ll see elsewhere<br />
in this issue that our Deputy Head<br />
(Academic), Dr Richard Kowenicki, has<br />
begun work with colleagues, pupils<br />
and external experts to compute the<br />
various opportunities and challenges in<br />
the context of teaching and learning.<br />
For example, the obvious appeal of<br />
making the machines write (and mark)<br />
essays raises numerous questions about<br />
integrity and critical thinking. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
wider educational, ethical, cultural and<br />
social issues at play too. <strong>The</strong> discussion<br />
is far too complex to tackle in this<br />
context but, as you would expect,<br />
we are onto it.<br />
As I remarked in the previous issue<br />
of this noble publication - which we<br />
can confirm is written entirely by real<br />
humans - change is a certain fact of<br />
life. AI will change the world. It is<br />
already hugely powerful, but ChatGPT<br />
is certainly not perfect - yet. Indeed, it<br />
sometimes makes things up, particularly<br />
when writing biographies. In fact, as I<br />
recently discovered, it hallucinates …<br />
It’s a rather narcissistic exercise, but the<br />
experts say that it’s sensible to check<br />
up on our digital footprints from time<br />
to time. Most of us will have googled<br />
ourselves. In this spirit, I recently<br />
asked ChatGPT to write a 500-word<br />
biography of Leo Winkley. My wish<br />
was its command and within a few<br />
seconds, the bot had produced several<br />
paragraphs. “Leo Winkley is a respected<br />
educator” – a flattering start – “and<br />
the current headmaster of Shrewsbury<br />
School in the United Kingdom.” Good<br />
so far. But, in only the next sentence,<br />
things started going awry. “He was born<br />
on March 20, 1969, in Cheltenham,<br />
Gloucestershire, and grew up in a<br />
family of educators. His father was<br />
a headmaster, and his mother was a<br />
teacher. Winkley attended Cheltenham<br />
College and then went on to study at<br />
Pembroke College, Oxford, where he<br />
earned a degree in modern history.”<br />
This all sounds perfectly plausible – but<br />
there are five factual errors in these<br />
sentences alone. Later on, the Chatbot<br />
erroneously bestowed a PhD before<br />
capping the creative flight of fancy by<br />
awarding me an OBE in 2021 New<br />
Year’s Honours list. What fictional<br />
accolades might you receive, dear<br />
reader, from ChatGPT?<br />
Part of the trick with ChatGPT is to<br />
refine your prompts. Hence, one of the<br />
emerging new careers is that of the ‘AI<br />
prompt engineer’. So, I went back with<br />
the following rather schoolmasterly<br />
admonishment: “This is riddled with<br />
errors. Leo does not have an OBE. He<br />
was born in Guildford and studied<br />
<strong>The</strong>ology at Lady Margaret Hall,<br />
Oxford. Please could you check all facts<br />
and rewrite?”. To its credit, the AI bot<br />
apologised politely for its errors and<br />
went immediately to work. <strong>The</strong>re were<br />
still some hallucinations, but the second<br />
effort was much more accurate. In<br />
this revised version, it also upgraded<br />
me to “a highly respected educator”: a<br />
smart move.<br />
<strong>The</strong> serious point is that truth matters.<br />
But, who gets to decide what is true?<br />
As a school, we are alert to this debate<br />
and have begun working on how<br />
AI might be harnessed to improve<br />
and support excellent learning and<br />
teaching. Alongside a staff group,<br />
we have formed a pupil group to<br />
research and explore the application<br />
of AI to learning, both inside and<br />
outside the classroom. As we engage<br />
actively with the exciting potential<br />
of these developments, we will also<br />
have the courage of our educational<br />
convictions to avoid being swept along<br />
by a tide. We need to apply judgement<br />
and critical thought and, as a sevenday<br />
school, we will always treasure<br />
the unique value of real human<br />
community.<br />
It is often said that a lifetime flows like<br />
a river: sometimes direct, but more<br />
likely meandering. <strong>The</strong> annual cycle of<br />
a school is geared to this, as our pupils<br />
move up through the year groups and<br />
then follow their own courses toward<br />
wider seas. Those of us who work<br />
in schools choose to get caught in a<br />
precious kind of eddy, circling round<br />
with the young as they grow and move<br />
on. Our job is to nurture, inspire and<br />
prepare them for a world of change.<br />
On site, there is plenty of positive<br />
change going on. Queen Elizabeth Hall<br />
is nearing completion and will open<br />
in September with over 50 girls across<br />
four year groups. <strong>The</strong> refurbishment<br />
work on Churchill’s Hall and Ingram’s<br />
Hall has progressed swiftly before<br />
being sensitively paused for the exam<br />
season. <strong>The</strong> two new all-weather<br />
sports facilities – which will be named<br />
Radbrook and Port Hill pitches – are<br />
emerging nicely, as are the new netball
SCHOOL NEWS 5<br />
and tennis courts on Lower Kingsland.<br />
Preparations for our move to the fully<br />
integrated House system in September<br />
<strong>2023</strong> have continued strongly, with<br />
year group welcome events for<br />
current dayboys to ease their move to<br />
their preferred House. Most recently,<br />
Housemasters have hosted evenings<br />
for parents at each of the seven boys’<br />
houses. <strong>The</strong>re has been much careful<br />
planning to enable a really smooth<br />
beginning for all, as we revise daily<br />
routines, communications and the<br />
overall shape of the week. For the<br />
230 plus new pupils joining us in<br />
September, the ‘new’ will simply be<br />
how things are. In the meantime, we<br />
are mindful of ensuring a strong finish<br />
for Port Hill and Radbrook.<br />
Dr David Gee - the only human being I<br />
know with a data set superior to that of<br />
ChatGPT - kindly accepted my request<br />
to put together a commemorative<br />
booklet detailing the 38-year history of<br />
Port Hill and Radbrook, an important<br />
chapter in the long story of day boys<br />
at Shrewsbury School. This work will<br />
preserve what is a significant slice<br />
of our history as we move onto the<br />
next chapter. We have also worked<br />
with senior pupils on how honours<br />
boards and other House items are best<br />
preserved for posterity. We want Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> day boys to be able to return<br />
in decades to come and see such things<br />
displayed with pride.<br />
From September, there will be 12<br />
Houses – seven for boys and five for<br />
girls – with day and boarding pupils<br />
alongside one another. Individual<br />
Houses will tend to have about 70<br />
pupils (of whom around 55 will be<br />
full boarders) and an overall school<br />
roll of roughly 840. This is an exciting,<br />
carefully planned change as the School<br />
moves confidently forward.<br />
<strong>The</strong> economic and political headwinds<br />
that we face are far from artificial.<br />
However, we are in an excellent<br />
position to meet them. We do so<br />
with the confidence that comes from<br />
knowing that we are committed to<br />
excellence and contributing positively<br />
to the world around us. Not everyone<br />
understands the value that the truly<br />
great independent boarding schools<br />
bring to society. Not everyone knows<br />
that we currently have 23 pupils<br />
in the school on transformative<br />
bursaries as we partner with Royal<br />
National Springboard Foundation<br />
and other agencies to widen access<br />
to a Shrewsbury education. Or that<br />
our means-tested bursary programme<br />
currently provides financial support for<br />
194 pupils.<br />
Not everyone knows that we provide<br />
opportunities for thousands of pupils<br />
in our partner state schools, through<br />
our numerous music, sport, STEM,<br />
languages, dance, sport and character<br />
development programmes. Not<br />
everyone knows that Shrewsbury<br />
School is a champion supporter of the<br />
School Partnerships Alliance, a national<br />
charity that promotes cross sector<br />
educational partnerships to help the<br />
disadvantaged. Not everyone knows<br />
about <strong>The</strong> Shewsy.<br />
We are not doing these things for<br />
show. Neither are we doing these<br />
things for awards, though it is lovely<br />
to be nominated for three TES schools<br />
awards for <strong>2023</strong>. We are doing them<br />
because they are good. Because they<br />
are an integral part of the identity of<br />
our school, whatever the political and<br />
economic weather.<br />
We will keep arguing our case and<br />
presenting the truth as we see it.<br />
Even more importantly, we will keep<br />
focused on providing an outstanding<br />
education for our pupils, harnessing<br />
the generative power of excellence and<br />
sharing it with others.
6<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Final final. <strong>The</strong> Port Hill U15 house cricket team graciously accepting defeat at the hands of Radbrook in the U15 House final on the last full day of the <strong>Summer</strong><br />
Term <strong>2023</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Place of Port Hill and Radbrook<br />
in the History of Day Boys<br />
<strong>The</strong> Place of Port Hill and Radbrook<br />
in the History of Day Boys is published<br />
on the Wiki (School History) section<br />
of the School website and may be<br />
downloaded by scanning the QR<br />
code below.<br />
<strong>The</strong> School has admitted both Day<br />
Boys and Boarders throughout its<br />
470-year history and, as Dr David<br />
Gee describes in the first half of<br />
the booklet, the changes in the<br />
relationships between the two<br />
groups – and more widely between<br />
the School and the Town – have<br />
been fascinating. At its foundation,<br />
the School was intended to provide<br />
an education in Classical Grammar<br />
for the sons of local townsfolk, who<br />
considered it to be ‘their’ school. From<br />
its earliest days, however, Shrewsbury<br />
attracted pupils from considerable<br />
distances, who had no alternative but<br />
to board – either with local families<br />
or with individual members of staff<br />
– and rapidly the School found itself<br />
with as many Boarders as Day Boys.<br />
Much later, significant changes in<br />
the government, status and location<br />
of the School had taken place that<br />
seriously damaged the relationship<br />
between the Day Boys and Boarders<br />
and between the School and the<br />
Town. <strong>The</strong> power and influence<br />
over the School originally granted<br />
in the Foundation document to the<br />
Bailiffs and Burgesses of Shrewsbury<br />
were gradually (and acrimoniously)<br />
reduced. An Act of Parliament in<br />
1798 reformed the constitution of<br />
the School. In 1868, the inclusion<br />
of Shrewsbury as one of the nine<br />
‘Public Schools’, considered by the<br />
Clarendon Commission to be of elite<br />
national standing, was greeted by<br />
the Burgesses of the town not with a<br />
sense of civic pride, but with outrage<br />
that the Government had “stolen<br />
their school”. When, 14 years later,<br />
the School moved from its cramped<br />
buildings in the centre of the town<br />
to the more spacious location on the<br />
far side of the river in Kingsland, the<br />
move caused widespread local outcry.<br />
All this had a drastic effect on<br />
the status of Day Boys, whose<br />
participation in the School was for<br />
decades largely confined to their<br />
attendance in class. (Regarded by<br />
most of their schoolfellows and even<br />
by many of the staff as second-class<br />
citizens, they had to make their<br />
own arrangements for sport.) This<br />
began to change, however, under the<br />
headmastership of Revd Moss, who<br />
had been a Day Boy at Shrewsbury<br />
himself and, in 1904, appointed a<br />
master to exercise specific pastoral<br />
oversight of them. When Alington<br />
succeeded Moss as Headmaster, he<br />
made a deliberate effort to draw the<br />
Day Boys into the School’s wider<br />
activities; and in 1934 Headmaster<br />
Hardy appointed the first Day Boy as<br />
Head of School.<br />
Headmaster Donald Wright made<br />
more sweeping changes during<br />
the 1960s and 70s, determined that<br />
the School should turn to face the<br />
Town. Gradually the status of Day<br />
Boys changed and numbers grew<br />
rapidly. As ‘Day Boys Hall’ in the<br />
Main School Building began to take<br />
over more and more classrooms, new<br />
accommodation had to be found.<br />
Dr Gee himself led the move, on<br />
a cold February morning in 1979,<br />
when the Day Boys picked up all<br />
their possessions and carried them<br />
to the first physical ‘House’ they<br />
had ever had, in the building that<br />
had previously been the School’s<br />
Sanatorium.<br />
Dr Gee’s history of Day Boys ends on<br />
1st January 1984, when Port Hill and<br />
Radbrook formally came into being.<br />
<strong>The</strong> story is then taken up in the<br />
second half of the booklet by Andy<br />
Barnard, Housemaster of Port Hill<br />
from 2011 until 2022 and Dr Richard<br />
Case, Housemaster of Radbrook from<br />
2014. <strong>The</strong> next chapter of a fully<br />
integrated House system for Day Boys<br />
and Boarders begins in September.<br />
To download the full ‘History of Day<br />
Boys’ booklet, please scan the QR code.
SCHOOL NEWS 7<br />
Learning in a World of AI<br />
Deputy Head Academic Dr Richard Kowenicki writes about the challenges faced by the inexorable<br />
rise of ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence platforms.<br />
Since ChatGPT was launched for public consumption,<br />
the rapid acceleration and universal availability of AI<br />
technology has left all those with an interest in education –<br />
pupils, teachers, parents – attempting to forecast the potential<br />
impact on school life. Is this the opportunity we’ve all been<br />
waiting for to develop genuinely personalised learning? What<br />
will it mean for the role of homework? Will we even need<br />
teachers in the future?<br />
While the answers to these questions are not clear yet, AI<br />
looks set to be a fundamental disrupter to education. In his<br />
2018 book <strong>The</strong> Fourth Education Revolution, Sir Anthony<br />
Seldon anticipated many of the themes that are now in<br />
the public spotlight, and made recommendations to all<br />
institutions on how best to prepare for a world of AI. <strong>The</strong> job<br />
for schools, including Shrewsbury, is to develop expertise in<br />
the context of education, and as far as possible to anticipate,<br />
plan and innovate as the technology evolves rapidly. It is<br />
worth remembering that the hardware and software that<br />
young people are currently using will be the worst and<br />
least powerful they will ever use. It is both an exciting and<br />
daunting prospect, especially when we consider that experts<br />
predict that technological advancement in the next ten years<br />
will be equivalent to what we have witnessed in the previous<br />
100 years.<br />
Our job, as educators, is to balance the risk that AI poses<br />
with the opportunities it creates. It seems these days that<br />
every article or post out there is either on one side or the<br />
other. Clearly, we must protect learning and the integrity<br />
of assessment, whether by internal or Public Exam, but we<br />
should also be open to the opportunities that AI affords.<br />
Unsurprisingly the response from schools has been varied.<br />
Some, most notably all the New York City Public Schools, the<br />
largest school district in the US, have banned ChatGPT due<br />
to “concerns over cheating” and the potential impact on skills<br />
development. At Shrewsbury we, like all schools, will be<br />
developing systems and policy to mitigate the risk to learning,<br />
but our focus has been on promoting positive behaviour and<br />
in particular on attitudes to learning. Academic Honesty has<br />
been a theme of this academic year – an ongoing discussion<br />
about what it really means to engage intellectually with<br />
academic endeavours, consistent with the <strong>Salopian</strong> Virtues<br />
that pervade the School; intellectual curiosity, critical thinking,<br />
originality and above all a love of learning. <strong>The</strong> goal is for<br />
our pupils to be genuinely proud of the work that they<br />
create, and so we need to be mindful of the challenge young<br />
people face in ensuring that the work they complete is truly<br />
their own and that they have the skills and understanding<br />
to acknowledge content that is not their own. This does not<br />
come without training, and we expect to coach pupils on<br />
how to work in an academically honest way.<br />
That is not to say we are ignoring the role that AI will<br />
play in learning. <strong>The</strong> advancement of AI technology and<br />
Academic Honesty are not mutually exclusive. It seems as if<br />
every day a new AI learning tool is released to market, and<br />
in the classroom I have already seen our pupils are using<br />
ChatGPT in a very effective way to summarise texts and to<br />
assess their knowledge and understanding, all of which helps<br />
support their learning. <strong>The</strong>re are tools for teachers too, who,<br />
with careful prompting, can use ChatGPT to plan lessons<br />
or suggest creative and effective assessment activities. Our<br />
challenge is to identify and focus on the areas of teaching<br />
and learning where AI will have a meaningful and positive<br />
impact and to train our pupils to use it for good purposes.<br />
We have recently convened groups of interested pupils and<br />
teachers who are enjoying experimenting with selected AI<br />
tools and exploring what enhances learning and, perhaps<br />
more importantly, what doesn’t, so that any promising leads<br />
can be scaled up.<br />
To showcase the potential flaws of the technology, a number<br />
of school leaders in recent times have used ChatGPT to<br />
generate content for magazine articles, newsletters and<br />
assemblies to see if the consumer can spot the difference.<br />
Invariably the AI content is technically precise, but at the<br />
same time anodyne and lacking in nuance and with a trained<br />
eye is easy to spot. (This entirely human-generated article is<br />
perhaps the exception which proves the rule: I am after all a<br />
science teacher.) In the future, better promptcraft may lead to<br />
more convincing AI-generated content, but the point being<br />
made is that whatever the output of AI, it cannot replace<br />
the human attributes of a developing learner, most notably<br />
the natural human instinct to want to know more and to<br />
understand better. <strong>The</strong>re is no doubt that technology will play<br />
an important role in the learning journey of all young people,<br />
but it will never supersede the fundamental human trait of<br />
intellectual curiosity. It is with that spirit that we proceed into<br />
a world with AI cautiously, but also with a sense of optimism.
8<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Breaking Cultural Barriers<br />
Those of you who keep an eye on the cultural offerings of<br />
the South Bank will be aware that the National <strong>The</strong>atre<br />
has commissioned a new play this summer. Written by James<br />
Graham, the play is inspired by Gareth Southgate’s journey<br />
from his infamous missed penalty in 1996 to his current status<br />
as England manager and national treasure. Dear England<br />
stars Joseph Fiennes as Southgate and takes its name from<br />
Southgate’s open letter to the nation in 2021. Naysayers have<br />
already derided the commission as populist: they bemoan the<br />
incursion of the sporting hoi polloi onto the National stage.<br />
However, to do so is to miss three crucial points. <strong>The</strong> first<br />
concerns the epic, one might even say Shakespearean, nature<br />
of the drama that can unfold on a sports pitch. <strong>The</strong> second<br />
is to diminish the colossal influence that football has had<br />
in redefining our concepts of gender roles in recent years.<br />
Finally, such criticism reinforces the idea that people are<br />
one-dimensional: sportsmen or intellectuals, artists or athletes.<br />
This kind of categorisation is anathema to a Shrewsbury<br />
education.<br />
At the end of the Lent Term, we witnessed our very own<br />
footballing drama unfolding on Senior, when the boys’ First<br />
XI defeated the favourites, Brooke House College, to earn a<br />
place in the ESFA final. Hundreds of supporters turned out<br />
to witness a superb display of teamwork and skill, leading to<br />
a 3-2 victory and cries of ‘Barlo-o-o-w’ echoing around Top<br />
Common. Six weeks later, the team and supporters travelled<br />
to Stoke, where they met Hampton School in the final. On<br />
that day victory eluded them, but that does not detract from<br />
the importance of the journey that took them there. <strong>The</strong> boys,<br />
their coaches and the school can be tremendously proud of<br />
the grit, determination, perseverance and sportsmanship that<br />
they have displayed throughout this season and those that<br />
have gone before.<br />
This year we have also seen the role that sport can play in<br />
breaking down gender barriers. We were delighted to launch<br />
girls’ football in the Lent Term and have been tremendously<br />
proud of the girls’ success so far. Special credit must also go<br />
to the coaches – particularly Dr Ellie Lyell, who has been<br />
appointed as our first Head of Girls’ Football, and Mr Liam<br />
Hennessy, who has recently received a national accolade<br />
from the FA as part of their #LetGirlsPlay campaign.<br />
It is tribute to the breadth of the <strong>Salopian</strong> experience that<br />
many of those involved in these great sporting successes<br />
have also been part of the variety of other co-curricular<br />
events that have enriched the last two terms at Shrewsbury.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following pages will celebrate superb theatrical<br />
productions, concerts and recitals, the inaugural John Weaver<br />
dance festival, Shrewsbury’s MUN conference, House and<br />
School debating, military competitions, outdoor adventures<br />
and much, much more. We honour the superb achievements<br />
of our specialists, but we also acknowledge the huge number<br />
of Renaissance men and women who are developing their<br />
skills and interests in a wide variety of different areas – and<br />
having serious fun in the process. To borrow the exhortation<br />
of Sir Henry Sidney, who sent his son Philip to Shrewsbury in<br />
1565, I would urge our current <strong>Salopian</strong>s to: ‘Give yourself to<br />
be merry … for you find yourself most able in wit and body<br />
when you be most merry.’<br />
Dr Helen Brown<br />
Deputy Head (Co-curricular)
SCHOOL NEWS 9<br />
A Tribute to Huw Peach<br />
Waves of deep shock and sadness reverberated throughout the School community when we heard the<br />
news in January that Huw Peach, Head of German, Teacher of French, Head of Model United Nations,<br />
Rowing Coach and House Tutor in <strong>The</strong> Grove and later in Ingram’s, had been diagnosed with an<br />
inoperable brain tumour. He died nine weeks later, on 7th March, peacefully and at home, surrounded<br />
by his family. On behalf of the School, fellow linguist Thane Warburg pays tribute to a remarkable,<br />
deeply respected and much-loved colleague and friend.<br />
For the <strong>Salopian</strong> community, young<br />
and old, and perhaps particularly<br />
for those of us with greying hair who<br />
knew him for so long, a Shrewsbury<br />
without Huw seems unthinkable. He<br />
was an ageless and joyous part of all<br />
things <strong>Salopian</strong> for over 30 years, a<br />
constant presence spreading energy<br />
and positivity wherever he was, in<br />
abundance. That bike speeding around<br />
the Site, the beatific smile, the uplifting<br />
chat, the raft of Commendations, the<br />
help for any colleague in need, the<br />
nodding head expressing affirmation.<br />
He educated, charmed, delighted,<br />
inspired, listened, and counselled all<br />
of us.<br />
At his core were deeply held moral<br />
principles, genuine moral courage<br />
and an infectious love of humanity<br />
and the planet. He was universally<br />
admired, respected and loved, by<br />
the countless pupils he taught, by his<br />
colleagues in the Common Room, by<br />
the whole non-teaching staff. He was<br />
endowed with many gifts, not the least<br />
of which was his joy at generously<br />
giving people time. When you talked<br />
to Huw you automatically became<br />
the most important person in his<br />
world. He gathered new friends at an<br />
extraordinary rate wherever he was<br />
and remained, faithfully, in touch with<br />
them for years and years.When the<br />
shocking diagnosis of his brain tumour<br />
was made just after Christmas, the<br />
Peach family letterbox was very soon<br />
inundated with letters and cards from<br />
hundreds of those whose lives had<br />
been so positively influenced by HRWP.<br />
What becomes crystal clear in reading<br />
these appreciations and tributes is just<br />
how deeply influential Huw’s entire<br />
Weltanschauung has been, and how<br />
it will continue to inform those whose<br />
lives he touched.<br />
How lucky Shrewsbury is to have<br />
had him for so long. After an idyllicsounding<br />
childhood in Oxfordshire<br />
and education at Abingdon School<br />
followed by Hertford College, Oxford<br />
where he read German and French,<br />
he arrived in the Michaelmas Term<br />
of 1991 fresh from two years of TEFL<br />
teaching, on the JET programme, in<br />
Japan. Characteristically he had thrown<br />
himself while there into his teaching,<br />
into learning Japanese and into<br />
environmental issues.<br />
It was clear from the off, that Huw’s<br />
appointment to Shrewsbury was an<br />
inspired one. He was an all-round<br />
schoolmaster and the ultimate team<br />
player, who invested his prodigious<br />
energy and talents into a wide range<br />
of activities. <strong>The</strong>re are far too many to<br />
catalogue here, but picture him playing<br />
football for the Staff Ramblers, speeding<br />
down the wing – his shots sometimes<br />
on target, sometimes decidedly not,<br />
the resulting smile and laughter just<br />
the same whether resulting in Triumph<br />
or Disaster. Throughout his career he<br />
was the most devoted and enthusiastic<br />
rowing coach on the river. It didn’t<br />
matter whether the crew was a top one<br />
or not, the same surge of energy and<br />
encouragement was invested so that<br />
everybody under his instruction felt<br />
they were potential Olympics material.<br />
Every year during Bumps the Umpire<br />
List unfailingly included HRWP and, if a<br />
volunteer was required for the Postors<br />
vs Staff race, guess who was always<br />
there. <strong>The</strong> ultimate team man. It was<br />
and will remain a treasured memory<br />
for many that Huw was well enough,<br />
early in the new year, to be present<br />
when an RSSBC boat was named<br />
after him and he was presented by a<br />
grateful Boat Club with an oar for his<br />
decades of service and dedication. His<br />
characteristic “Wonderful! Fantastic!”<br />
and smile, a mile wide, summed up his<br />
courage, his joy at being among friends<br />
and the poignancy of the situation.<br />
It was through rowing that Huw met<br />
Sophie, the love of his life, in July<br />
1993. As a Tutor in <strong>The</strong> Grove, he was<br />
invited to a Bumps Supper hosted by<br />
Sophie’s parents. Things moved swiftly<br />
and they were engaged the following<br />
July and married in July 1995. <strong>The</strong><br />
arrivals of Millie, Sam and Zac brought<br />
further joy, pride and fulfilment to<br />
the Peach family. <strong>The</strong>ir move to Clive<br />
House, in the centre of Shrewsbury, 22<br />
years ago, signalled a commitment not<br />
just to the School but to a rich family<br />
involvement in the life of the town<br />
and the county. <strong>The</strong> Peaches were the<br />
most generous of hosts to so many<br />
and deeply influential in many good<br />
causes, educational and environmental.<br />
Huw was far-sighted in educational<br />
terms, seeing way beyond the<br />
confines of exam boards. Many Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s will recall the weekly,<br />
fiendishly difficult quiz, focused on<br />
European current affairs, concocted by<br />
Shrewsbury’s European Liaison Officer<br />
– how times have changed - one Huw<br />
Peach, which was posted around<br />
the School and fiercely contested by<br />
Houses. Many will recall the annual<br />
all-day European Conferences also<br />
organised by Huw, one for the Lower
10<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Sixth and one for Third Formers,<br />
where the issues of the day were<br />
debated. For as a committed European<br />
and an inspirational teacher of German<br />
and French, Herr Pfirsich/M. Pêche<br />
was evangelical about the importance<br />
of pupils being well informed and<br />
prepared for life beyond Shrewsbury.<br />
Nowhere can the fruits of this vision<br />
be seen more clearly than in his long<br />
involvement with and leadership<br />
of Model United Nations (MUN).<br />
<strong>The</strong> many moving tributes Huw<br />
received from former MUNers are<br />
not just testament to his work but<br />
also to the formative skills and the<br />
self-confidence acquired by those<br />
involved. Every Wednesday evening,<br />
bands of enthusiastic MUNers would<br />
populate Huw’s classroom on the top<br />
floor of the MSB and enjoy the cut<br />
and thrust of debate as they explored<br />
the burning political and ethical<br />
issues of the moment.<br />
Huw’s conception was of a meritocracy<br />
in which the most talented pupils<br />
filled the top executive positions,<br />
regardless of age, where everybody<br />
was encouraged to speak, where<br />
everybody was given the space to fail<br />
or get things wrong, this latter point<br />
crucial. He was the master delegator –<br />
MUNers understood Huw’s rules and<br />
expectations and he invested total trust<br />
in the pupils, knowing that they in<br />
turn would respond positively to being<br />
treated like adults. A great many pupils<br />
found these sessions, which were funfilled,<br />
to be the highlight of their week.<br />
For many the aim was to go to MUN<br />
Conferences, which included trips<br />
to schools across the country, giving<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s the chance to meet fellow<br />
MUNers from other schools and try out<br />
their ideas and their persuasiveness in<br />
both formal and informal settings.<br />
Michael Webb (S 2003-08), a<br />
former MUNer, pays tribute to Huw’s<br />
transformative powers. At his first<br />
conference he had to summon up<br />
courage as he strode into his first<br />
committee room knowing he had to<br />
meet as many of his fellow delegates<br />
as possible: “I was a shy boy then.<br />
I remember being buttoned-up,<br />
anoraky, someone who’d much rather<br />
sit alone and read a book than meet<br />
new people.” But he recalls how<br />
well prepared and supported he felt,<br />
knowing that Huw was “an omniscient,<br />
unobtrusive, fatherly presence, primed<br />
to dispense as many words of expert<br />
advice or encouragement as might be<br />
needed at just the right time”.<br />
Perhaps the climax for many<br />
was the Paris MUN, held in the<br />
UNESCO Building, a chance to<br />
ply their skills internationally.<br />
Michael recalls giving a speech to<br />
the General Assembly, assembled<br />
in the main hall of the UNESCO<br />
building: “It was an enormous room.<br />
I remember the delegates’ desks<br />
arranged in semicircles, all with fancy<br />
microphones, translation booths in<br />
the corners, and a solitary podium<br />
in the centre of the giant stage…<br />
That experience has meant that, ever<br />
since, I’ve never felt intimidated when<br />
speaking in large halls or at imposing<br />
podiums. I just think ‘I’ve done that<br />
before at the Paris MUN!’”<br />
Central to Huw’s MUN philosophy<br />
was the idea of being an ‘honourable<br />
delegate’, of listening to opposing<br />
viewpoints carefully and seeking<br />
consensus. How our modern politicians<br />
could have done with a crash course<br />
from him! In 2017, Shrewsbury<br />
established its own annual Conference<br />
which has been a resounding success.<br />
True to his philosophy, Huw created<br />
the framework but delegated the<br />
responsibility for the Conference to<br />
the pupils, knowing that they could<br />
fail but trusting in them absolutely.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sense of achievement those<br />
pupils experienced as they realised<br />
what a triumph they had pulled<br />
off remains with them to this day.<br />
Tributes to Huw for his MUN work<br />
poured in from MUN teachers at<br />
other schools and from their pupils.<br />
He was that well known, that friendly<br />
and that well loved.<br />
Huw was always burning the midnight<br />
oil. We, in the Languages Faculty,<br />
marvelled at the countless hours he<br />
spent preparing his lessons and often<br />
wondered whether perhaps he had<br />
a clone or had access to Hermione<br />
Granger’s Time-Turner. <strong>The</strong> sheer<br />
wealth of original material he produced<br />
every week, the listening material,<br />
up-to-the minute material directly from<br />
authentic German and French sources,<br />
recorded audio and TV clips, together<br />
with bespoke question sheets was<br />
truly mind-boggling. What teacher up<br />
and down the land has the dedication,<br />
would find the time, day after day,<br />
to treat their pupils to a feast of such<br />
relevant educational pickings?<br />
He had certain sayings in his classroom<br />
which generations of his former<br />
charges will recognise: “Englisch ist<br />
streng verboten!” and “Ohne Fleiß kein<br />
Preis”. His classes were fun, absorbing<br />
and high performing. His pupils loved<br />
being introduced to literature, film and<br />
German culture by him, as well as<br />
gradually mastering the language. Chris<br />
Minns, who led the German Faculty so<br />
ably for many years before Huw took<br />
it over, is unstinting in his praise for<br />
his indefatigable colleague. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
a class act together, inspiring many of<br />
their charges to go on to read German<br />
at university, some to become German<br />
teachers themselves, some to become<br />
German academics.<br />
Huw’s French was every bit as good<br />
as his German and to share a Sixth<br />
Form set with him was an enriching<br />
pleasure. He worked supportively,<br />
at all times, to strengthen the MFL<br />
Faculty. Exams results days every year<br />
saw Peach family holidays put on hold<br />
as Huw nervously awaited the news. A<br />
poor night’s sleep was then followed<br />
by careful poring over each pupil’s<br />
result, delight at success and a personal<br />
sense of failure if he sensed an<br />
underperformance. Modest to a fault,<br />
Huw never took any credit for all the<br />
success: “All down to innate talent<br />
and hard work,” he would say. It is<br />
a mark of the far-reaching esteem in<br />
which he was held that he received,<br />
in February, a personal letter from<br />
the German Ambassador enclosing<br />
a Certificate of Appreciation, on<br />
behalf of the German Embassy and<br />
the Goethe Institut, for: “Outstanding<br />
Achievements in Teaching German”.<br />
This is a very rare honour.<br />
Huw’s passion for the environment<br />
began long before it became<br />
mainstream. Thanks to him, recycling<br />
at the School was introduced in<br />
the 1990s. He was a stalwart of the<br />
Green Party in Shropshire and, but<br />
for 400 votes, would have become a<br />
Councillor. He always cycled to work.<br />
No car for short journeys for him. He<br />
didn’t just talk a good ‘green’ game,<br />
he actually lived it, day by day, week<br />
by week, year by year. Peach family<br />
holidays, even those abroad, were<br />
invariably taken using trains, buses and<br />
bikes. Never a plane, rarely a car. But<br />
here is the thing about Huw. He taught<br />
by example and was not judgmental.<br />
He never ever intimated to a colleague<br />
that they could and should be setting<br />
a better example to the pupils. He was<br />
very fond of quoting the saying “Be the<br />
change you want to see in the world”<br />
and he epitomised this every day of his<br />
life. He was a tireless campaigner and<br />
made great use of Twitter to engage<br />
in those causes dear to his heart. His<br />
Twitter ‘bio’: “Trying hard to add to<br />
the sum of accurate information in the<br />
world”. Food for thought.<br />
Huw was wise. He was a vastly<br />
experienced support and counsellor<br />
to a number of Housemasters. His<br />
pastoral care was an entirely natural<br />
extension of his genuine interest in<br />
others. A long-term member of <strong>The</strong>
SCHOOL NEWS 11<br />
Grove’s House staff, he was loyal<br />
and cherished, as he was latterly in<br />
Ingram’s. He was a rock when the<br />
School was going through times of<br />
change and was much valued for<br />
this. He was immensely popular and<br />
much sought-after as a Sixth Form<br />
Tutor. As ever, he gave his Tutees<br />
time, got to know them properly,<br />
engaged them in thought-provoking<br />
conversations, gave them excellent<br />
advice and was generous in taking<br />
them out for Tutor meals.<br />
Huw met his diagnosis with truly<br />
exceptional acceptance and dignity.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was no anger or bitterness, no<br />
hint of this being unfair. In his last few<br />
weeks, Sophie and the family were all<br />
together ensuring every day was full<br />
of love and laughter, sharing precious<br />
moments with extended family and<br />
a multitude of friends. While he was<br />
well enough, the family explored<br />
their favourite bits of the Shropshire<br />
countryside. <strong>The</strong> support he was<br />
given by the Severn Hospice team was<br />
remarkable, allowing him to remain<br />
at home throughout so that the family<br />
could do the lion’s share of his care.<br />
<strong>The</strong> service to celebrate his life, held<br />
in the School Chapel, was as true a<br />
reflection of Huw’s life as it is possible<br />
to imagine. <strong>The</strong> Chapel was absolutely<br />
packed, well over 600 in attendance,<br />
those present clothed in bright, bright<br />
colours. Beautiful mellow music from<br />
<strong>The</strong> Indigo Girls and Daby Touré<br />
began and concluded the service. In<br />
between, Zac, Sam, Millie and Sophie<br />
paid loving tributes to their Dad and<br />
Husband with extraordinary poise<br />
and delivery, as did Huw’s sister Katie<br />
and brother Guy. <strong>The</strong>re was laughter<br />
and true celebration of a man of rare<br />
qualities, tinged, of course, with the<br />
undercurrent of immense sadness.<br />
Mendelssohn’s Anthem ‘Verleih uns<br />
Frieden’ was sung beautifully by<br />
the choir and there was a poignant<br />
reading in German about the state<br />
of the planet. <strong>The</strong>re were joyful<br />
hymns and powerful words from<br />
the Chaplain, Andy Keulemans. At<br />
the end of the service, and such a<br />
rollercoaster of emotions, reflection<br />
on Huw, on such a life-affirming and<br />
positive example to us all, brought<br />
starkly into focus the cruel sense of<br />
loss of an inspirational teacher in his<br />
prime. Huw’s indomitable spirit and<br />
life-enhancing legacy will continue in<br />
future generations, of that there is no<br />
doubt. Truly, a man of overflowing<br />
goodness.<br />
Paris MUN, December 2014<br />
Before he died, Huw received hundreds of letters, cards and messages from former pupils, current pupils, MUN teachers at<br />
other schools, MUNers at other schools. <strong>The</strong>y meant a great deal to him, just as he meant so much to them. Here is just an<br />
inkling of the legacy Huw leaves:<br />
“<strong>The</strong> topics we discussed in meetings sparked a curiosity about the world and fuelled an anger about its problems. <strong>The</strong><br />
culture that you fostered of encouraging those who hadn’t yet spoken to speak is one I try to replicate in my tutorials…Most<br />
importantly, MUN taught me that good preparation is key; if, for whatever reason, the preparation doesn’t get done, then<br />
you’ve just got to wing it.” Sasha Arridge (Rb 2001-16)<br />
“Please allow me to extend my heartfelt gratitude to you for your outstanding dedication to and tireless support for the<br />
teaching of the German language.” Miguel Berger, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany<br />
“I gained an awareness of issues that were of global importance and a passion for trying to understand the alternative point<br />
of view. I also grew in self-confidence and maturity, thanks to your willingness to challenge me, but always with kindness.”<br />
Grace O’Mara (M 2017-19)<br />
“I will never forget the way you made us feel – that every thought, idea and word mattered, and that you believed<br />
in us. Your optimism, kindness and consideration to all is, to this day, one of the biggest influences on me…I will<br />
remember with extreme fondness the first ShrewsMUN and the fun my contemporaries and I had putting that together<br />
under your trusting eye.” Ed Plaut (S 2012-17)<br />
“You gave us an understanding of language beyond words on a page. Please know that Wednesday evenings gave me,<br />
and hundreds like me, the space not just to speak, but to understand – yes the world around us, but also ourselves…<br />
Returning from a conference always felt a bit like returning from the moon – an escape but also an incredible, eye-opening<br />
adventure.” Dan Edwards (S 2010-15)<br />
“Now, as a German teacher myself, I would say that your direct impact has been fundamental for me succeeding in my own<br />
goals…17 years on I still remember how we studied Germany’s past through literature and film in a way that humanised it,<br />
as well as the European project.” Arthur Ford (G 2001-06)
12<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
SCHOOL PRIZEWINNERS <strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Sidney Gold Medal<br />
D. C. Heintz (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Harvard Book Prize<br />
N. F. Toms (EDH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Richard Hillary Essay Medal S. D. L. Unsworth (S)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Darwin Science Prize<br />
T. Lam (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Noneley Exhibition<br />
H. R. Marshall (Rb)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dukes Prize for French<br />
G. C. Wood (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth French Prize<br />
E. Veter (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bentley Prize for German<br />
E. I. Bolza (EDH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bain Prize for Spanish<br />
G. Yuen (SH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Spanish Prize H. W. J. Hatton (Ch)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Moss Prize for Classics<br />
J. T. Gowar (S)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cross Prize for Classics<br />
J. H. Mackinnon (O)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Classical Civilisation Prize<br />
M. P. R. Wyatt (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Philip Sidney Prize for English S. S. E. George (M)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Kitson-Clark Prize for English L. Williams (SH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Upper Sixth <strong>The</strong>atre Studies Prize E. L. Garavini (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth <strong>The</strong>atre Studies Prize S. O. Patten (Ch)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bright Prize for History<br />
D. C. Heintz (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Murray Senior Prize for History Y. Wong (R)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Upper Sixth Politics Prize<br />
O. J. L. Faulkner (PH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Politics Prize<br />
I. K. Barnes (M)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dorothy David Prize for<br />
Philosophy and <strong>The</strong>ology<br />
C. D. Thomas (MSH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Philosophy<br />
and <strong>The</strong>ology Prize<br />
J. C. O’Brien (MSH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Robertson-Eustace Prize<br />
for Geography<br />
G. M. Stanford-Davis (O)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Geography Prize G. D. Sykes (EDH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arnold Hagger Prize for Mathematics D. L. Y. Chan (Ch)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Mathematics Prize K. Kwok (S)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arnold Mathews Science<br />
Prize for Biology<br />
Z. Zhang (O)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arnold Mathews Science Prize<br />
for Chemistry<br />
Y. Wu (EDH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arnold Mathews Science Prize<br />
for Physics<br />
X. Miao (S)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Biology Prize J. Li (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Chemistry Prize N. Sin (I)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Physics Prize<br />
H. M. Cowan (Rt)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Upper Sixth Economics Prize K. Lam (MSH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Economics Prize E. Veter (G)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ramsbotham Prize for Business M. J. Baillieu (S)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Business Prize A. A. J. Tulloch (Rt)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Extended Project Qualification Prize A. C. L. Griffiths (EDH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> James Meikle Prize for<br />
Physical Education<br />
W. F. Goodall (Rt)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Physical Education Prize E. A. Hurford (EDH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hill Art Prize<br />
O. R. Bayliss (Rt)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Art Prize<br />
T. D. Jagger (PH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> History of Art Prize<br />
W. T. O. Wild (SH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Photography Prize<br />
L. F. A. Clarke (EDH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> A Level Music Prize<br />
A. G. Hope Barton (I)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Duffell Prize for Design<br />
and Technology<br />
T. R. Hughes (S)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth Design and<br />
Technology Prize<br />
T. P. Moore (I)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bentley Elocution Senior Prize K. E. R. Woodman (M)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bentley Elocution Fourth Form Prize E. G. Prieur (R)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bentley Elocution Third Form Prize R. S. F. Evans (R)<br />
<strong>The</strong> McEachran Prize (senior)<br />
E. A. W. Scott (Rt)<br />
<strong>The</strong> McEachran Prize (junior)<br />
V. A. M. Heintz (M) and<br />
Y. M. Wong (SH)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Junior School Essay Prize<br />
R. N. Zhang (Rt) and<br />
C. E. Kenyon (M)<br />
<strong>The</strong> David Harrison Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hawksley Burbury Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> Rolls Royce Science Cup<br />
Fifth Form Academic Prizes<br />
Fourth Form Academic Prizes<br />
Third Form Academic Prizes<br />
<strong>The</strong> Goulding Family Prize for Drama<br />
<strong>The</strong> Junior Drama Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> Keighley Prize for Stage Management<br />
<strong>The</strong> Russell Prize for Music<br />
<strong>The</strong> Guyer Prize for Music<br />
<strong>The</strong> Woollam Family Prize for Music<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gordon Riley Prize for Music<br />
<strong>The</strong> Senior Debating Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> Junior Debating Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> Sports Person of the Year Award<br />
<strong>The</strong> Sports Person of the Year Award<br />
<strong>The</strong> David Spencer Memorial Trophy<br />
for Outstanding Contribution to<br />
Boys’ Sport<br />
<strong>The</strong> Elle Gurden Trophy for Outstanding<br />
Contribution to Girls’ Sport<br />
Tony Barker Award for All-Round<br />
Sporting Excellence<br />
<strong>The</strong> Charities Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> West Family Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> Guy Lovett Award<br />
<strong>The</strong> Haynes Cup<br />
<strong>The</strong> Societies Prize<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong> Award<br />
<strong>The</strong> Praepostor Prize<br />
Headmaster’s Leadership Prize<br />
R. P. Wolskel (Rb)<br />
J. F. Gundle (O)<br />
Z. Xu (EDH)<br />
J. M. Fraser-Andrews (EDH),<br />
H. M. Kam (EDH)<br />
M. C. C. Lee (O)<br />
S. J. Levings (EDH)<br />
C. Man (Ch)<br />
G. M. E. Moody-Stuart (R)<br />
F. N. Scholes-Pryce (Ch)<br />
P. Songwanich (MSH)<br />
G. R. Walker (EDH)<br />
H. Yang (M)<br />
J. Chan (G)<br />
K. Cheng (EDH)<br />
C. Cheung (R)<br />
C. Y. Y. Dai (MSH)<br />
C. E. Kenyon (M)<br />
H. Pang (M)<br />
G. T. Rink (PH)<br />
C. Tsoi (Rt)<br />
R. P. Wolskel (Rb)<br />
W. S. Young (I)<br />
W. M. Bowett (MSH)<br />
T. Bunditkitsada (G)<br />
V. A. M. Heintz (M)<br />
T. Leverton-Griffiths (Rb)<br />
L. V. S. Ling (Rt)<br />
P. Mo (Rt)<br />
H. D. Mparadzi (MSH)<br />
B. A. Reid (EDH)<br />
R. M. Yung (O)<br />
R. N. Zhang (Rt)<br />
K. E. R. Woodman (M)<br />
P. E. A. Lawton-Smith (G)<br />
S. Ludlam (R)<br />
E. S. Inger (Rb) and<br />
A. O. Thompstone (EDH)<br />
P. Poon (I)<br />
L. Hui (I)<br />
G. Yuen (SH)<br />
S. T. Sim (G)<br />
Y. M. Wong (SH)<br />
I. A. A. Downes (G)<br />
O. J. Sharp (PH)<br />
G. W. Hughes (PH)<br />
K. M. Scholes-Pryce (M)<br />
L. F. A. Clarke (EDH)<br />
P. E. A. Carter (EDH)<br />
O. J. Sharp (PH)<br />
M. Cherkashyn (SH)<br />
H. E. Clarkson Webb (O)<br />
S. D. L. Unsworth (S)<br />
J. T. Gowar (S)<br />
P. Poon (I)<br />
R. R. Mupesa (S)<br />
C. D. Thomas (MSH)<br />
E. A. W. Scott (Rt)<br />
A. O. Thompstone (EDH)
SCHOOL NEWS 13<br />
SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED FOR <strong>2023</strong> ENTRY<br />
Third Form<br />
Academic<br />
Butler Scholars:<br />
Helena Cornwall-Legh (Terra Nova School)<br />
Sebastian Eckley-Majercak (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Madeleine (Maddie) Geary (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Carys Tamilarasan (Prestfelde)<br />
Kennedy Scholars:<br />
Arthur Cornwall-Legh (Terra Nova School)<br />
Edward Densem (<strong>The</strong> Grange School, Hartford)<br />
Annabel Feeny (<strong>The</strong> Elms)<br />
Alice Jutsum (Prestfelde)<br />
Maigan Lord (Terra Nova School)<br />
Sherwyn Sarabi (Aysgarth)<br />
Emilia Smith (Cargilfield School)<br />
Alington Scholars:<br />
Callum Dovaston (Packwood Haugh)<br />
India Grant (<strong>The</strong> Elms)<br />
Tsz Huen (Becky) Hao (St. Andrew’s Prep)<br />
Avani Lacy-Colson (Prestfelde)<br />
Harrison Reilly (Prestfelde)<br />
Music<br />
Lydia Chen (Chetham’s School of Music)<br />
Hei Ching (Hazel) (Cheung Pui Ching Middle School, Hong Kong)<br />
Frances Cleobury (St. Peter’s, York)<br />
Sebastian Eckley-Majercak (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Benjamin Foxley (Yarlet)<br />
Grace Graysmark (Newport Girls High School)<br />
Georgie Pugh (S. Anselm’s)<br />
Harrison Reilly (Prestfelde)<br />
Sherwyn Sarabi (Aysgarth)<br />
Wanzhi She (Godstowe Prep School)<br />
Chit Soo Pui (Ching Middle School, Hong Kong)<br />
Sport<br />
Arjan Barard (St. Dominic’s Grammar)<br />
Pheobe Bell (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Rosie Cooper (Abberley Hall)<br />
Jake Datnow (Prestfelde)<br />
Sienna Earles (Viz II OS Togaska Slatina, Slovenia)<br />
Jack Edwards (Mary Webb)<br />
Madeleine Geary (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Bascom Griffiths (<strong>The</strong> Elms)<br />
Charlotte Harker (Casterton, Sedbergh Prep)<br />
Harvey James (Prestfelde)<br />
Eleanor Marsh (Abberley Hall)<br />
Will Parkinson-Witte (Prestfelde)<br />
Willow Sowden (Prestfelde)<br />
Sir Michael Palin All-Rounder<br />
Hattie Bankes (Moreton Hall)<br />
Camilla Brough-Byatte (Terra Nova School)<br />
Clara Charlesworth-Jones (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Arthur Cornwall-Legh (Terra Nova School)<br />
Helena Cornwall-Legh (Terra Nova School)<br />
Callum Dovaston (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Madeleine Geary (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Tsz Huen (Becky) Hao (St Andrew’s Prep)<br />
Henry Hill (Terra Nova School)<br />
Harry Inkin (<strong>The</strong> Elms)<br />
George Jordan (Prestfelde)<br />
Avani Lacy-Colson (Prestfelde)<br />
Carys Tamilarasan (Prestfelde)<br />
Mary Tomlinson (Yarlet)<br />
Art<br />
Rocco Catellani (Aysgarth)<br />
Oscar Diwakar (Kings School, Macclesfield)<br />
Emilia Smith (Cargilfield School)<br />
Camilla Brough-Byatte (Terra Nova School)<br />
Arthur Cornwall-Legh (Terra Nova School)<br />
Helena Cornwall-Legh (Terra Nova School)<br />
Harriet Grindle (Prestfelde)<br />
Tsz Huen (Becky) Hao (St Andrew’s Prep)<br />
Fleur Jarvis (Prestfelde)<br />
Elizabeth Moore (Prestfelde)<br />
Oliver Standeven (Aysgarth)<br />
Drama<br />
Grace Graysmark (Newport Girls’ High School)<br />
Luke Greenhill (Aysgarth)<br />
Harry Inkin (<strong>The</strong> Elms School)<br />
Daphne Whittal (<strong>The</strong> Downs)<br />
Design & Technology<br />
Clara Petrie (Windlesham House School)<br />
Orlando Boddington (Packwood Haugh)<br />
Sixth Form<br />
Academic<br />
Juliet Anthony (Headington School)<br />
Hei Yin (Ian) Ng (Cheltenham College)<br />
William Oakden (Birkenhead School)<br />
Lilith Pearson (<strong>The</strong> Community College, Bishop’s Castle)<br />
Max Webber (Denstone College)<br />
Dorothy Yap (Tanglin Trust School, Singapore)<br />
Melissa Zarbafi (Queen Anne’s School)<br />
Jialin (Peter) Zhang (Guanghua Cambridge International<br />
School, China)<br />
Music<br />
Yat Kiu (Ian) Chak (La Salle College, HK)<br />
Chit Hang (Chad) Lee (Ying Wa College, HK)<br />
Keely Li (Burgess Hill Girls)<br />
Max Webber (Denstone College)<br />
Sport<br />
Teix Bolingbroke (Cheadle Hulme School)<br />
Portia Boustead (<strong>The</strong> Grange School, Hartford)<br />
Gabriella (Gabby) Bowman (Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn)<br />
Ka Kiu (Kathy) Chow (St Clare’s Girls’ School)<br />
Finlay Cullen (<strong>The</strong> Community College, Bishop’s Castle)<br />
Charlotte Kirk (Clayton Hall Academy)<br />
Lou Kokubo (Royal Russell School)<br />
Christopher (Kit) Smith (Dulwich College, Singapore)<br />
Isaac Stanley (<strong>The</strong> Priory School)<br />
Art<br />
Ruya Cooper (Alderley Edge School for Girls)<br />
Alice Pilott (Queen’s School, Chester)
14<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
LEAVERS’ ADDRESS<br />
<strong>The</strong> following address was given at the Leavers’ Service on 1st July <strong>2023</strong> by Dan Nicholas<br />
(Staff 2007-23, Housemaster of <strong>The</strong> Grove (2009-12) and of Severn Hill (2012-19).<br />
So the day has finally arrived! <strong>The</strong><br />
sense of joy and relief you might<br />
be experiencing may be overwhelming<br />
- and I am not just talking about the<br />
parents who have written their last<br />
cheque. I remember it myself, sitting<br />
where you are sitting some 43 years ago.<br />
For our leavers, exams are over, gap<br />
years loom and you are on the cusp of<br />
your next adventure. Five years have<br />
flown by. You will have played hard on<br />
the sports fields, pulled strongly on the<br />
river, performed to the highest levels in<br />
concerts and on the stage. Hopefully<br />
you will also have gained some<br />
academic qualifications and progressed<br />
from those early days. We will always<br />
remember fondly those first essays:<br />
the evaporation of the children to the<br />
countryside during the war, the prisoners<br />
of war kept as ostriches in constipation<br />
camps. <strong>The</strong> future being safe with all<br />
cars being fitted with catholic convertors<br />
... and of course you are now leaving<br />
school to enjoy your adultery.<br />
Reflect on your journey so far – the<br />
lasting friendships you have made, the<br />
things you have learned and achieved.<br />
You will rightly be feeling excited,<br />
perhaps emotional. Undoubtedly<br />
there will be some nervousness and<br />
trepidation as you leave the familiarity<br />
and security of a place that has played a<br />
major part in your formative years. That<br />
is only normal. But as O’Donoghue’s<br />
For a New Beginning, so beautifully read<br />
by Chloe reminds us: “This beginning<br />
has been quietly forming, waiting until<br />
you were ready to emerge”. Like the<br />
chrysalis, so much has been happening,<br />
so much unseen, until the butterfly takes<br />
flight. Some of you may have emerged<br />
already; others may not yet have<br />
emerged, but will do so at just the right<br />
time. Everything has been preparing you<br />
for this day, and everything is in place.<br />
You have made mistakes and you have<br />
learned from them. You have pushed<br />
the boundaries and will rightly delight<br />
in letting your Housemasters and<br />
Housemistresses know what they never<br />
discovered. Well done for not getting<br />
caught! Together they, your parents and<br />
your teachers have helped you calibrate<br />
your moral compass so that you can<br />
be confident of taking the right path<br />
on your own, unrestrained by the rules<br />
and regulations which school has used<br />
to guide you. And you will hopefully<br />
have developed moral courage, integrity<br />
and a sense of duty, all so important in<br />
leading others. It was Thomas Jefferson<br />
who said: “In matters of style, swim with<br />
the current; in matters of principle stand<br />
like a rock”. <strong>Salopian</strong>s are both stylish<br />
and principled.<br />
So “What next?” is something you<br />
may be pondering - and your parents<br />
too. As O’Donohue tells us: “Though<br />
your destination is not yet clear,/You<br />
can trust the promise of this opening”.<br />
Follow what you love, be you, do what<br />
you are good at and your life’s destiny<br />
will unfurl. Do not be troubled by this<br />
unknown. Whatever career path you<br />
take, it is how you lead your life that will<br />
be how you are remembered. Always<br />
do the best you can, but remember that<br />
it will be who you are and what you<br />
stand for which will enable you to take<br />
others with you. Value communicating<br />
with others not by text/Instagram/<br />
Facebook but face-to-face, sympathising<br />
and empathising with others. We all, at<br />
times, need to open our eyes and see<br />
and recognise people for what and who<br />
they are: actually looking, seeing, caring<br />
and understanding.<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Sir Philip Sidney said …<br />
”Scholae meae alumnos agnosco”: I<br />
recognise the members of my school.<br />
We symbolise this in our annual School<br />
Callover, in which every pupil answers<br />
their name to the Headmaster – your<br />
final one will be this afternoon. You<br />
might have been wondering what this<br />
was really all about. It is a time when<br />
every pupil is seen, recognised and<br />
valued for who they are and for the<br />
part they play and have played in the<br />
community. Not a bad lasting message<br />
to take away as you all launch into new<br />
communities.<br />
As Proverbs tells us: “More than all else,<br />
keep watch over your heart, since there<br />
are the well-springs of life”. It is for no<br />
small reason that the <strong>Salopian</strong> motto is<br />
“Intus si recte ne labora” – “If your heart<br />
is in the right place, all is well.”<br />
So what is that “right place”? It is where<br />
you will find the sense of fulfilment and<br />
success – not to be measured materially<br />
but from leading, giving and serving<br />
others. We see before us the Class of 23<br />
future leaders. And with this privilege<br />
of leadership comes the responsibility<br />
not only to lead with vision but with<br />
selflessness at the heart of what you do.<br />
Our bible reading reminds us to “do<br />
nothing out of selfish ambition or vain<br />
conceit. Rather in humility value others<br />
above yourselves, not looking to your<br />
own interests but each of you to the<br />
interests of others”. This is encapsulated<br />
in Sandhurst’s motto “Serve to Lead”,<br />
which is very close to my heart.<br />
And as you lead, do so with courage,<br />
commitment and vision. As O’Donoghue<br />
says: “<strong>The</strong>n the delight, when your<br />
courage kindled,/And out you stepped<br />
onto new ground,/Your eyes young<br />
again with energy and dream”.<br />
And where can the selflessness be<br />
found? In commitment to others, love of<br />
others and commitment to something<br />
other than “self” – causes, music, art,<br />
your chosen profession. You have<br />
already laid the foundations for this,<br />
and for many, the less colourful canvas<br />
of your arrival is now vibrant with hue,<br />
tone, shapes and contrast, making life<br />
much more interesting and colourful not<br />
only to you, but also to others, so that<br />
people want to know you, wish to be<br />
with you and want to work with you.<br />
And with the commitment to something<br />
other than yourself comes risk, and with<br />
that risk comes adventure: “Awaken<br />
your spirit to adventure;/ Hold nothing<br />
back, learn to find ease in risk”. Aversion<br />
to risk may mean that we never meet<br />
the best possible version of ourselves. In<br />
the words of Winston Churchill, “Success<br />
is not final, failure not fatal; it is the<br />
courage to continue that counts”.<br />
Do not be scared of change, for change<br />
is progress and you are better fitted for it<br />
than you may think. Heed the words of<br />
our very own Charles Darwin:<br />
“It is not the strongest of species that<br />
survive nor the most intelligent, but the<br />
ones most responsive to change”<br />
I have given you some tall orders, I<br />
know, and none of us is able to live up<br />
to all these ideals all of the time, but<br />
we can try. Sadly we live in a world<br />
where many of these values are lacking.<br />
Make sure that you aim to make the<br />
difference. You can and you will. You<br />
are the future, and we have confidence<br />
in you. “In out of the way places of the<br />
heart,/Where your thoughts never think<br />
to wander,/This beginning has been<br />
quietly forming,/Waiting until you were<br />
ready to emerge”.<br />
Today you are ready. On what will you<br />
set your heart?
SCHOOL NEWS 15<br />
Queen Elizabeth Hall: A New House Community<br />
In a matter of weeks Shrewsbury<br />
School will be home to a brand-new<br />
community of kind, talented, creative<br />
young women who are ready to throw<br />
themselves into school life from day<br />
one. Hailing from myriad walks of<br />
life and global locations, across four<br />
year groups, they are an energetic and<br />
eclectic bunch who will be part of the<br />
wonderful paradox of something which<br />
is both new and what will be a key<br />
moment in the School’s history – its<br />
fifth girls’ house.<br />
And I am fortunate enough to be their<br />
founding Housemistress.<br />
We are so lucky that we will be able<br />
to call Queen’s – a beautiful, purposebuilt,<br />
green building – our home at<br />
School. <strong>The</strong> appeal of being the first<br />
to use the Common Room, or House<br />
Hall – and to have a material impact<br />
on the way they look and feel – is<br />
a privilege for both the pupils and<br />
me. As I know to be true from my 18<br />
months at Shrewsbury, <strong>Salopian</strong>s are<br />
deeply connected to and proud of<br />
their Houses – and I hope Queen’s will<br />
be no exception. Girls who join us in<br />
our first few years will have the unique<br />
opportunity to shape our identity, which<br />
will be grounded in our values as a<br />
community. <strong>The</strong>y will be pioneers in<br />
this regard, and I am looking forward<br />
to seeing what they bring.<br />
I have been in the fortunate position of<br />
being able to meet incoming September<br />
<strong>2023</strong>, 2024 and 2025 pupils among the<br />
hundred or so prospective families I<br />
have toured in my time at Shrewsbury<br />
so far. Without a building to show<br />
them, or, more importantly, existing<br />
Queen’s girls for them to talk to, I am<br />
convinced that photographs of our<br />
two dogs have been the clincher for<br />
several… But their genuine excitement<br />
to be part of something new is tangible.<br />
I am very pleased to be working<br />
already with our incoming Upper Sixth<br />
pupils who are taking an inspiring<br />
leap of faith and moving from some of<br />
the existing girls’ Houses to create the<br />
Queen’s pupil leadership team. With<br />
a wealth of experience of the School,<br />
they are well placed to guide and<br />
support our incoming new pupils.<br />
In a narrative of new beginnings,<br />
it seems fitting that we are named<br />
after a woman who made her own<br />
beginning, as our late monarch, at<br />
the youthful age of 25 – offering a<br />
lifetime of service with kindness,<br />
dedication and fortitude. Her Majesty<br />
Queen Elizabeth II showed the<br />
immeasurable strength of young<br />
women, in good times and in bad,<br />
and is a fitting figure after whom we<br />
are honoured to be named.<br />
A House community is defined by its<br />
people, both within and without, and<br />
I would like to thank all colleagues<br />
who have been working hard to make<br />
the launch of Queen’s a success,<br />
particularly Martin Cropper and his<br />
team in the Admissions Department<br />
and Jon Taylor and his team in<br />
the Estates Department. I am also<br />
particularly grateful to Anna Peak and<br />
my Housemaster and Housemistress<br />
colleagues for welcoming me into their<br />
midst and providing sage words of<br />
wisdom that I know will stand me in<br />
good stead as I take up this role.<br />
<strong>The</strong> House team and I look forward<br />
to opening the doors of Queen’s to<br />
our first cohort of around 50 pupils in<br />
September, who will make their own<br />
important contributions to Shrewsbury<br />
School at this exciting point in its coeducational<br />
journey.<br />
Sally Pearson
16<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
BUILDING BRIGHT FUTURES<br />
For a number of years, I have<br />
closely followed the work of the<br />
High Fliers Research group. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
produce annual reports on Graduate<br />
Recruitment, connecting their studies<br />
into the future aspirations of imminent<br />
university leavers to the reality of<br />
the opportunities that exist for these<br />
cohorts. Whether it is graduate pay,<br />
reporting on the most desired graduate<br />
opportunities, or promoting the surge<br />
of degree apprenticeship opportunities,<br />
the topics they cover are of genuine<br />
interest to the Futures Department and<br />
help to inform aspects of what we offer<br />
to our pupils at Shrewsbury.<br />
I tuned in recently to their latest<br />
online broadcast, where they shared<br />
some genuinely fascinating data on<br />
competition for graduate jobs: those<br />
positions that you can only access if<br />
you have a degree. <strong>The</strong>y made two<br />
statements that particularly caught<br />
my attention. First, on average, ‘top’<br />
companies receive 39 applications per<br />
graduate opportunity, with the most<br />
sought-after positions receiving over<br />
300! Second, up to 70% of graduate<br />
employers will take applicants from any<br />
degree discipline.<br />
<strong>The</strong> widely reported rise in 18-yearolds<br />
in the United Kingdom, along with<br />
UCAS recently predicting that by 2030<br />
there will be one million applications<br />
for Higher Education courses (a 25%<br />
increase on the current number),<br />
serves as another reminder of the<br />
increased competition our current<br />
pupils are going to face as they move<br />
through compulsory, further and higher<br />
education.<br />
Just take a moment to reflect on what<br />
it must be like for employers to receive<br />
that volume of applications from so<br />
many well-educated individuals. Some<br />
of you reading this magazine may<br />
be dealing with this as a key part of<br />
your work and be very familiar with<br />
the challenges it presents. It must be<br />
very tricky sifting through hundreds of<br />
applications which, from an educational<br />
perspective, must all look very similar.<br />
GCSES: tick. A Levels: tick. University<br />
Degree (whatever the subject): tick. So<br />
if those minimum expectations are met,<br />
employers are naturally crying out for<br />
points of difference between applicants.<br />
As a Futures Department, I see it as our<br />
absolute responsibility to contribute<br />
positively in preparing pupils for these<br />
challenges and offering some of those<br />
points of difference. Whether that’s<br />
skills workshops, enterprise days, mock<br />
assessment mornings, work experience<br />
opportunities, networking meetings<br />
or careers fairs, we are very aware<br />
of the need to ensure that our pupils<br />
have the best opportunity to navigate<br />
these future processes effectively. Our<br />
newest addition to the Futures activities<br />
is a ‘pilot’ Sixth Form programme to<br />
be introduced in September, which<br />
I anticipate will offer something<br />
positively different for those students<br />
who access it.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ‘Future Ready Qualifications’<br />
(FRQs) are a suite of accredited awards<br />
which will be offered to Lower Sixth<br />
Formers alongside their core A Level<br />
programme. Although it is a new<br />
offering, it is bringing together awards<br />
Shrewsbury School has been delivering<br />
since 2020, so it is based on informed<br />
practice. <strong>The</strong>re are three distinct parts:<br />
1. <strong>The</strong> Institute of Leadership &<br />
Management (ILM) Young Leaders<br />
Award (Level 2)<br />
2. Microsoft Skills Certifications – the<br />
opportunity to gain accredited awards<br />
in Word, Excel and PowerPoint<br />
3. Accredited work briefs and / or<br />
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).<br />
Let me explain further. When public<br />
examinations were cancelled in 2020,<br />
the School moved swiftly to become<br />
accredited to deliver the ILM Young<br />
Leaders Award. Since then, over 200<br />
Sixth Form students have obtained this<br />
award, either in the absence of A-Level<br />
exams in 2020 and 2021, or through<br />
studying it as part of their Thursday<br />
afternoon activities programme. As the<br />
lead for this qualification, I could not<br />
be more enthusiastic about its value<br />
(unsurprisingly!).<br />
Delivered in a training course style,<br />
students learn about topics such as self-
SCHOOL NEWS 17<br />
leadership, resilience, self-motivation,<br />
problem-solving, communication and<br />
mentoring younger members of the<br />
School community. Since 2020, over<br />
250 pupils have benefitted from this<br />
mentoring support. All the students<br />
who have gained this award have<br />
developed skills and competencies<br />
that employers, regardless of their<br />
industry, want. Moreover, these have<br />
been learned using a framework<br />
that is nationally recognised and<br />
often incorporated within employers’<br />
leadership training.<br />
Our digital lead, Henry Exham,<br />
introduced the Microsoft Office<br />
Specialist course in September 2020<br />
as a Thursday afternoon activity. Very<br />
popular among students, it offers<br />
them a fantastic opportunity not only<br />
to develop their digital skills but also<br />
become accredited in IT packages<br />
that many employers utilise. As we<br />
approach its third year of delivery,<br />
those who have obtained these awards<br />
can now demonstrate confidently their<br />
excellence in these areas.<br />
<strong>The</strong> third aspect of the FRQs is in some<br />
ways for me the most exciting. This will<br />
be delivered in the <strong>Summer</strong> term of the<br />
Lower Sixth, by which stage students<br />
will be starting to think a little bit more<br />
seriously about their future aspirations<br />
as they approach their final year.<br />
Linked to their personal aspirations,<br />
students will have the opportunity<br />
to choose either to navigate their<br />
way through a work-based project,<br />
offered via a number of high-profile<br />
graduate employers, or to take on a<br />
MOOC (Massive Online Open Course)<br />
linked to a subject they may be<br />
contemplating studying at university.<br />
Both are accessed online, and students<br />
are supported to work independently<br />
through different challenges to help<br />
demonstrate competencies and qualities<br />
that are essential for future success.<br />
So, by the end of their Lower Sixth,<br />
those students who have chosen<br />
MOOC will have studied a range of<br />
courses, from which they will have<br />
developed and accrued a whole host<br />
of desirable skills, to list on either<br />
immediate or future applications. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
students will leave Shrewsbury School<br />
in 2025, and it is worth noting the<br />
‘Top 10 Skills of 2025’ that the World<br />
Economic Forum advised would be<br />
most desired for future workplace<br />
success:<br />
• Analytical thinking and innovation<br />
• Active learning and learning strategies<br />
• Complex problem-solving<br />
• Critical thinking and analysis<br />
• Creativity, originality and initiative<br />
• Leadership and social influence<br />
• Technology use, monitoring and<br />
control<br />
• Technology design and programming<br />
• Resilience, stress tolerance and<br />
flexibility<br />
• Reasoning, problem-solving and<br />
ideation.<br />
Many of these points will be covered<br />
and developed throughout the FRQ<br />
programme, in addition to the wealth of<br />
experiences students are able to enjoy<br />
through the whole person education<br />
offered by the School.<br />
Those who choose to do four A Levels<br />
or an Extended Project Qualification<br />
(EPQ) will still have the opportunity to<br />
take on aspects of the FRQ programme<br />
through the Thursday afternoon<br />
activities programme and will have their<br />
own points of difference through those<br />
selections.<br />
As we cast our mind back to what<br />
it must be like for employers sifting<br />
through vast piles of job applications,<br />
these may prove to be very helpful<br />
indeed…<br />
Chris Wain<br />
Head of Futures
18<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
IT at Shrewsbury<br />
A Memoir: 1979 to 2005<br />
Mark Twells (Staff 1979-1985, 1993-2005) charts the early days of IT development at Shrewsbury.<br />
RGR tends an analogue computer, Speech Day 1994<br />
1979 to 1985<br />
On my first Speech Day in 1979, I<br />
wandered into a static exhibition in<br />
the end of the baths building – what is<br />
currently the Admissions Office. <strong>The</strong>rein<br />
stood an old Eliot computer along with<br />
the peripheral bits and pieces needed<br />
to run it – teletypes, paper tape readers<br />
and so on. A small platoon of boys ran<br />
this behemoth. I was entranced. A little<br />
more exploring revealed a classroom<br />
full of Research Machines 380z Z80<br />
machines – small microcomputers,<br />
capable of running small programs.<br />
Gilbert Roscoe (RGR) taught these skills<br />
to the School through an innovative<br />
loophole in the timetable provided by<br />
the then Director of Studies. Shrewsbury<br />
had an eye on the future, and I began<br />
to get hooked.<br />
I borrowed a RM and a bag full of<br />
cassettes (of software) over Christmas<br />
1979 and set it up on the dining table at<br />
home, much to my mother’s annoyance.<br />
I taught myself the rudiments of Z80<br />
machine code and marvelled at the<br />
“front panel” – the device provided to<br />
debug a 380z. Z80 assembler was the<br />
language of the CPU, the brain in the<br />
computer. It turned out to be difficult<br />
enough to even print characters on<br />
the screen, let alone write something<br />
useful. Proper graphics were even more<br />
difficult to do. Easy to dismiss these<br />
things as complicated toys.<br />
By the start of January 1980, I had<br />
become enamoured with the micro PC<br />
as a tool for teaching mathematics. I<br />
engrossed myself in coding and actually<br />
managed to produce one or two small<br />
gems (by my standards) to use in the<br />
classroom. Little else hit the mainstream,<br />
though RGR did produce an excellent<br />
controller for the School’s telescopes –<br />
written, of course, in Z80. (It was the<br />
only way to get enough room to write<br />
the code combined with enough speed<br />
to make it useable). I teetered on, in a<br />
relationship with the RM machines but<br />
not prepared to make the first move,<br />
for some time. And thus ended my first<br />
entanglement with Shrewsbury.<br />
1985 to 1993<br />
I stagnated for a while, then realised<br />
I needed to move. By this time<br />
married with one daughter, Mrs T and<br />
I reckoned that a move back to her<br />
native Leicestershire was sensible. In<br />
the interests of career progression, a job<br />
came up at Loughborough Grammar<br />
School, teaching maths. I applied and<br />
got the job.<br />
Seven years later came a phone call.<br />
Michael Hall (FMH) at Shrewsbury<br />
wanted someone to run Basic Year (the<br />
Outdoor Pursuits programme for junior<br />
boys). I wasn’t initially interested but<br />
went over for a chat with Ted Maidment<br />
anyway. He offered some involvement<br />
in IT, a new IT centre, a split with<br />
Maths, and the Basic Year. And I got<br />
paid too. I bit, and moved back, married<br />
with three girls, in September 1993.<br />
1993 to 2000<br />
It became evident that in the interval<br />
1979 to 1993, very little had changed.<br />
Most of the Common Room had been<br />
in post in 1985 when I left. Richard<br />
Auger (RA) was Director of Studies and<br />
took a commendably positive viewpoint<br />
on IT. <strong>The</strong> baths building was still the<br />
home of IT, although some newer RM<br />
machines had been purchased. Gilbert<br />
(RGR) wanted to develop, and I was<br />
keen to help. <strong>The</strong> classrooms were on<br />
a local area network 1 , mainly to share<br />
printers and suchlike. Pupils had very<br />
limited space for storage on the server.<br />
We decided that things had to expand.
SCHOOL NEWS 19<br />
Begging letter to Headmaster.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first target was the Common Room.<br />
We bought a Windows NT machine<br />
for the CR and stuck it in a corner,<br />
eventually connecting it by means of<br />
a homemade fibre optic cable to the<br />
core net in IT. Several members of staff<br />
became frequent users of this setup and<br />
saw the benefits of the net.<br />
Windows NT was a godsend for us.<br />
In 1993 we were locked into Research<br />
Machines, and increasingly frustrated<br />
by them. Our servers lacked storage<br />
space and they had a very strange<br />
system of rolling out applications over<br />
a network. Windows NT seemed to<br />
offer us a solution. We couldn’t use<br />
ordinary Windows because it had no<br />
security whatsoever: we once put a<br />
sacrificial, clean, Windows 98 machine<br />
in a corner of a classroom on Speech<br />
Day. Within an hour it was a complete<br />
unbootable mess. NT gave us security<br />
on the hard disk which 98 lacked.<br />
Unfortunately, it came with other issues<br />
which we discovered as we progressed<br />
the project. Microsoft didn’t understand<br />
school networks, so the ability of NT to<br />
handle roaming desktops (your desktop<br />
follows your login around the network),<br />
for example, was broken. But we<br />
persevered and things improved as they<br />
rolled out fixes. With our own login<br />
script, driven by a backend database,<br />
we got drives to map properly and<br />
desktops to roam. Pupils sat down and<br />
got their own desktops, and their own<br />
shared resources.<br />
Eventually, we got good enough<br />
with NT to allow us to ditch RM. This<br />
mattered because until we had a non-<br />
RM network we couldn’t hang normal<br />
PCs onto it. We wanted to go all out<br />
and hang boys’ PCs on the network<br />
to give them a seamless working<br />
experience.<br />
Fibre Optic technology, used to link<br />
buildings together, was initially alien to<br />
us. In the end, after a lot of practice,<br />
RGR acquired great skill in popping<br />
plugs onto fibres, polishing the ends<br />
to undreamed of tolerances. <strong>The</strong>y all<br />
worked splendidly. We had to buy<br />
some quite expensive kit to terminate<br />
the fibre and I remember distinct raised<br />
eyebrows in the bursarial department at<br />
the budget request. More followed…<br />
Very little debate produced trenches<br />
and ducting for Biology and Art, just<br />
across the quad. Science was easy. And<br />
then Ted managed to raise money for<br />
the promised new IT centre from a<br />
generous bequest from an Old <strong>Salopian</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> only condition I remember was that<br />
the building had to be called <strong>The</strong> Craig<br />
Building.<br />
And so we moved out of the baths<br />
building into a purpose-built suite<br />
of 2.5 classrooms and one servery/<br />
office in what had been the Science<br />
department car park. Much had to be<br />
done ourselves – all the data cabling,<br />
and we had major issues with the<br />
ducted mains cabling round the edge<br />
of the room. But we had two rooms<br />
of working, networked PCs and a<br />
respectable servery.<br />
In the late 90s, I ran a day seminar<br />
in another boarding school on the<br />
importance of the internet. In those<br />
days, Shrewsbury was regarded as<br />
being innovative, and our LANs 1 for<br />
networking boarding houses were<br />
way ahead of most other schools. Our<br />
email was strange, however. We had<br />
about five email addresses on the CiX<br />
conferencing system, accessible by<br />
dialup. At least one member of staff<br />
wooed his current wife on CiX. Our<br />
Russian Fellow was stunned to discover<br />
we had email. Our Harvard Fellow<br />
was appalled that only one address<br />
(and not the internet) was available on<br />
site in one machine. But CiX wasn’t<br />
the internet, so I had some difficulty<br />
in putting a demo together, since we<br />
didn’t actually use it. I think I managed<br />
to talk about networking Encarta for a<br />
few hours.<br />
On the way back from this seminar<br />
I began to reflect on how we used<br />
our small network. In a sense it was a<br />
solution looking for a problem. We had<br />
the means to distribute data, but little<br />
data to distribute. Email was an obvious<br />
win, but reflecting on how Microsoft<br />
and Research Machines distributed<br />
updates suggested another. Updates<br />
would arrive in the post as a pile of<br />
20 or so 3.5” diskettes. One ploughed<br />
through these on each server in turn,<br />
then rebooted. Time consuming, and<br />
error prone. <strong>The</strong> slow speed of updates<br />
also exposed us to disk-borne viruses.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there was Encarta. Probably<br />
the biggest draw, this fossilised but<br />
wonderful encyclopaedia had, if I recall<br />
correctly, annual updates. It was always<br />
out of date.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Internet, specifically <strong>The</strong> World<br />
Wide Web, beckoned. <strong>The</strong> first<br />
capture of www.shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
was in December 1998. <strong>The</strong> site is<br />
unrecognisable: static (they all were),<br />
clunky and small. It had no official<br />
status with the School. By May 1999<br />
a small “Web Prospectus” had been<br />
installed. We plagiarised text from
20<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
the printed prospectus and made use<br />
of scanned photographs and so on.<br />
Everything was dial-up so files had to<br />
be small. We had to use a modem to<br />
dial in to a node, so uploading anything<br />
was very slow. By today’s standards<br />
the whole edifice was wooden. But<br />
we have to remember that this had no<br />
official backing, and dial-up forced all<br />
the files to be small. Headmaster Ted<br />
Maidment was not especially interested<br />
in this method of recruiting, so we<br />
held essentially free rein. Alex Went<br />
joined the team and did a lot of design<br />
and writing. RGR and I continued to<br />
progress the technicalities of running a<br />
Linux Webserver in public.<br />
We began to experiment with email.<br />
Part of the problem was that there was<br />
no standard for handling attachments,<br />
and most of the email clients were<br />
difficult to use. This didn’t stop some<br />
staff and a fair proportion of boys from<br />
using our primitive system. It dialled up<br />
on a regular schedule, dumping and<br />
fetching using an unstable version of<br />
Slackware Linux as the mail server. <strong>The</strong><br />
more propeller-head pupils and staff<br />
used pine as a mail reader.<br />
2001-2005<br />
By May 2001 we had email running<br />
more reliably, over the dial-up. Boys<br />
were given an email address upon<br />
request – the setup ran on a rather flaky<br />
early version of MS Exchange. Some<br />
departments, notably Physics, were<br />
quick to realise that this offered a great<br />
opportunity to share documentation.<br />
With an eye on future developments,<br />
staff emails linked into set lists in an<br />
obvious way 2 , though the set lists were<br />
(being polite) “work in progress”.<br />
We moved quickly to a leased line for<br />
email. <strong>The</strong> domain shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
was registered, and we began to populate<br />
it with sites, servers and services.<br />
An early www.shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
<strong>The</strong> first experimental www usage<br />
happened about this time. We intended<br />
to use squid, a proxy server connected<br />
to both the internet and our internal<br />
network to supply web pages to pupils.<br />
We set this up on another linux machine<br />
(running Slackware) fairly easily and it<br />
worked well with most web browsers,<br />
requiring a small configuration change.<br />
Once dialled in, squid would fetch a<br />
page once, then cache it for subsequent<br />
users. Initially this worked well, but as<br />
the internet grew in size and popularity<br />
we realised we had a major management<br />
issue with it.<br />
Our network still consisted of two<br />
classrooms, a link to a solitary computer<br />
in the Common Room, and a couple of<br />
servers – the main RM file server, and<br />
a Linux box serving mail and what we<br />
rather amusingly called an Intranet, a<br />
static website with areas managed by<br />
departments. This was going nowhere<br />
unless and until we engaged pupils,<br />
but a couple of departments were very<br />
interested.<br />
Churchill’s proved to be an initial<br />
driving force. Despite an almost<br />
complete lack of budget, we<br />
“subcontracted” the cabling of<br />
Churchill’s to a couple of keen Sixth<br />
Formers. Meanwhile, the Main School<br />
Building was cabled – MT spent many<br />
happy hours crawling around the very<br />
top floor of MSB laying 102 cabling. Not<br />
very futureproof, but it was easy and<br />
we were familiar with it. Meanwhile,<br />
10T went into Churchill’s, and boys<br />
appeared on our network 24/7. <strong>The</strong><br />
problem of having machines one didn’t<br />
own or control was a new one, and<br />
unfamiliar. Few schools had got this far<br />
by this date – Chris Dawkins at Felstead<br />
had networked most of the school, but<br />
he was using BBC computers, which<br />
were probably easier to control but very<br />
niche. We wanted an open architecture,<br />
so that we could plug what we wanted<br />
onto it. This meant using TCP/IP 3 as the<br />
network protocol, and precluded the<br />
BBC. Our choice allowed us to move<br />
away from RM, and move towards<br />
Unix, Linux and newer IBM PC variants<br />
running vanilla WindowsNT.<br />
A number of members of staff bit the<br />
bullet and populated our web server<br />
with useful teaching pages. Alex Went<br />
(ASMW) in English, Simon Baxter (SDB)<br />
in Maths and various physicists set to<br />
and digitised a lot of their courses.<br />
Our first choice of architecture rather<br />
naively imagined that pupils would use<br />
the network for study – encyclopaedic<br />
information, and what later came to<br />
be known as GTD – Getting Things<br />
Done. Planning and diary. This turned<br />
out to be naïve at best, and probably<br />
just plain wrong. <strong>The</strong> first two Houses<br />
online spent most of their time ‘hacking’<br />
the opposition, and indulging in vast<br />
pan-network games, which crippled<br />
the network for serious work, and<br />
even slugged backups. Something had<br />
to change. We had installed switches<br />
on the edge of our DMZ 4 , which<br />
was at least a start, but then someone<br />
mentioned VPNs 5 .<br />
We hadn’t heard of VPNs – virtual<br />
private networks. One set of physical<br />
infrastructure, several virtual networks<br />
running on it. We could separate the<br />
pupils off. However, we learned that<br />
they were the domain of research and<br />
very expensive. We had to bottle in<br />
our pupils, but give them access to<br />
what we deemed useful and VPNs<br />
were clearly the answer. This had the<br />
consequence of making RGR and me<br />
the most unpopular brushers (teachers)<br />
on site, but we had to move. But what<br />
and how?<br />
<strong>The</strong> solution turned out to be Linux,<br />
again.<br />
In 2000, VPNs were ridiculously<br />
expensive and difficult to get hold of<br />
and configure. Additionally, we would<br />
have to manage the configuration<br />
manually since the School added 20%<br />
of users every year, and lost the same<br />
number. <strong>The</strong>se changes all had to find<br />
their way into the configuration - this<br />
became an all but impossible task for<br />
two essentially part time members of<br />
staff, charged with teaching a timetable<br />
as well. Ade and Rick joined us –<br />
Ade became our full-time technical<br />
help, with particular expertise in PC<br />
configurations. Rick was technically<br />
part-time with classroom Audio Visual.<br />
With these two on board we could<br />
move forward with the plan, helped by<br />
the electricians who were now floodwiring<br />
Houses and classrooms in their<br />
‘spare’ time, having taught themselves
SCHOOL NEWS 21<br />
<strong>The</strong> first e-prospectus. Around 2000<br />
how to terminate the copper cables we<br />
used for miles of indoor wiring.<br />
<strong>The</strong> VPN solution turned out to be to<br />
make our own switches. Linux – our<br />
chosen flavour was Ubuntu - shipped<br />
with some nifty code called ebtables<br />
which allowed us to configure routing<br />
in a computer full of network cards<br />
by mac address - a sort of unique<br />
telephone number for the PC. We could<br />
say that this PC was permitted to use this<br />
route through our box to communicate<br />
with this server on this port. Thus, we<br />
generated several rules for each PC<br />
on the network. If the system didn’t<br />
recognise the network card in the PC,<br />
the network led nowhere. But where to<br />
get the MAC addresses 6 - the network<br />
card’s phone number - from? <strong>The</strong><br />
solution involved a big database, and<br />
more utilities such as arp. Running arp<br />
against a known machine gave us its<br />
MAC address which was then stored<br />
in a SQL table. Another routine then<br />
pulled the MAC addresses out and ran<br />
ebtables with them to let them through<br />
to appropriate servers. <strong>The</strong> effect was to<br />
stop House-to-House gaming, and even<br />
to stop iTunes sharing in Houses.<br />
It made us very unpopular, but it kept<br />
the network working.<br />
This design went through several<br />
iterations. An early one had the pupil<br />
file storage in the box itself, with each<br />
box handling three Houses. This was<br />
fast (a direct route on both sides) but<br />
unwieldy, and one pupil once changed<br />
Houses. Later ones had a single<br />
pupil file server for each House to<br />
which the PC was routed.<br />
But things were getting complicated.<br />
As well as the two SMB 7 Servers – a<br />
main and backup – we had three House<br />
firewalls, and separate pupil and staff<br />
file servers, then backup systems. Each<br />
client had to run a login script which<br />
set up the required drive mappings<br />
at login. This script got increasingly<br />
complicated as services were added<br />
and expectations grew.<br />
We had, however, missed a trick. WiFi.<br />
WiFi started slowly, but eventually<br />
broke our model. We had designed<br />
everything – in particular the SQL 8<br />
tables for the switch firewalls – on the<br />
back of one pupil, one IP address. WiFi,<br />
after a few years of settling in, gave<br />
pupils the option of connecting phones,<br />
laptops, tablets and desktop PCs all<br />
to our network. Our original notional<br />
limit of around 1000 PCs began to look<br />
woefully inadequate and we began to<br />
run short of IP addresses as well. In<br />
addition to all this, we discovered that<br />
some foreign students had discovered<br />
how to run virtual network cards<br />
configured with a MAC address of their<br />
choosing. A bit of judicious listening<br />
gave them two or three staff MACs to<br />
play with, and away they went with full<br />
staff privileges.<br />
We realised that changing systems was<br />
a lot more difficult than building them<br />
in the first place. Our setup with one IP<br />
address per pupil wasn’t going to work<br />
long term, so we began to fragment our<br />
network and provide WiFi on a House<br />
by House basis, connecting to the<br />
central ‘DMZ’ for internet/email access.<br />
IT became a provider of bought-in<br />
services, and the Site slowly became<br />
fibre-optically enabled.<br />
In 1993, <strong>The</strong> School timetable was<br />
held in the head of its creator, Mark<br />
Mortimer (MM). A paper copy, with<br />
the timetable in pencil, was kept in the<br />
Common Room. If you wanted a copy,<br />
you had to get it yourself with paper<br />
and pen. Set lists were managed by the<br />
head of department. It looked like time<br />
for a change, though there were no<br />
commercial packages to do the job in a<br />
very niche market. We wrote our own,<br />
over a few months. A web-based front<br />
end managed modules to handle the<br />
various lists we wanted, exam results,<br />
registration and everything except<br />
examination entries. <strong>The</strong> prospect of<br />
Bob Kendall retiring (Examinations<br />
Officer) a few years into the project<br />
eventually forced a move to a much<br />
more standard package, iSAMS, which<br />
the School runs to this day.<br />
iSAMS gave us all a clue about direction.<br />
We were moving from a strange and<br />
non-standard system, built as innovators,<br />
into a world of standard packages with<br />
IT support glueing them together. Seat<br />
ticketing had to talk to iSAMS. iSAMS<br />
had to talk to examination boards,<br />
and so on. <strong>The</strong> floating hotel that is<br />
Shrewsbury had to provide internetbased<br />
resources without compromising<br />
on security. And backend provision was<br />
changing. Real servers became software<br />
packages running on 19” rackmounts,<br />
and the creation of a webserver involves<br />
just a few keypresses on one of the host<br />
machines.<br />
As things matured, the virtual classroom<br />
became a reality. Just in time for<br />
the COVID pandemic, Shrewsbury’s<br />
adoption of e-learning enabled the<br />
School to function in some manner,<br />
and emerge more or less intact. Indeed,<br />
a VLE (virtual learning environment)<br />
probably saved the School during<br />
the COVID pandemic. But that is for<br />
someone else to judge.<br />
1. Local Area Network – a network occupying one room or building.<br />
2. If mt@shrewsbury.org.uk was the email address, mt taught the set.<br />
3. <strong>The</strong> set of rules for communicating between computers. TCP/IP was a complex set which was difficult to implement. BBCs used a simple but proprietary<br />
protocol. PCs ran the full TCP/IP – so we judged that to be the better bet.<br />
4. DMZ = central zone, flanked by a secure fence (a firewall) through which few are allowed. All the important servers go in the DMZ with access to them<br />
controlled by other machines.<br />
5. VPN = Virtual Private Network. Multiple networks can run privately over a single physical connection, thanks to the wonder of encryption. For instance, we<br />
would run House staff in a different network to boys.<br />
6. A unique number attached to a network card, allowing us to identify the card and hence the PC and hence the user. Or so we thought.<br />
7. SMB = Microsoft’s file sharing server system. <strong>The</strong> servers are generally referred to as SAMBA machines,<br />
8. Structured Query Language. Used to access data in a database. Nearly everything, these days, is held in a database.
22<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Economics is not just about Money<br />
Nick Zafar has taught in the Shrewsbury School Economics Faculty since September 2018.<br />
He runs the Economics Society. This is the text of the lecture he recently delivered in the<br />
Barnes <strong>The</strong>atre as part of a lecture series entitled Dialogues.<br />
It is the start of the<br />
first lesson with a<br />
new class. I advise<br />
my new students<br />
that the moment<br />
they stepped into<br />
my classroom they<br />
agreed to leave their<br />
humanity behind.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were now<br />
embarking on a<br />
course to become<br />
superhuman, to<br />
understand and<br />
explain things that<br />
are currently just<br />
a blur of facts, figures and opinions swimming in the ether<br />
of their consciousness. I would explain that it was not my<br />
role to get them a good A level grade, that was their job. My<br />
job was to turn them in to economists, and the rest would<br />
follow naturally. <strong>The</strong>y would be able to intelligently discuss<br />
economic affairs with their parents and stand their ground,<br />
challenging opinions and long-held perceptions.<br />
<strong>The</strong> start to this process often involves the post-it sticker (I am<br />
sure there are more high-tech ways of doing this) exercise.<br />
Each student writes down one word that economics means to<br />
them and sticks it on the whiteboard. Unsurprisingly, the word<br />
that appears most often is “money”. So starts the journey of<br />
re-education.<br />
Adam Smith, often referred to as the ‘father of modern<br />
economics’, is still the prime influence on the way we view<br />
economics in the Western world. He suggested:<br />
1. Wealth is created through productive labour,<br />
2. Self-interest motivates people to put resources to best use.<br />
He set this out in his work An Inquiry into the Nature and<br />
Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776, where he suggests<br />
that self-interest and competition ensures sufficient goods are<br />
produced at the lowest price to meet the demands of people,<br />
and better products are produced at lower prices due to<br />
competition.<br />
Traditional economic theory, based on Adam Smith’s work,<br />
believes that all needs and wants are met by an economy<br />
where buyers and sellers meet and determine an appropriate<br />
price which in turn is a measure of worth for all things that<br />
people desire. Over-pricing cannot occur because the buyers<br />
will not pay it and under-pricing will not occur because the<br />
suppliers will supply at this price. Everything will be priced<br />
fairly, and everyone will be happy.<br />
With resources allocated efficiently through this mechanism<br />
(often referred to as the “invisible hand”) there will be no<br />
abject poverty, extreme inequality, environmental destruction<br />
et cetera.<br />
One can challenge traditional economic theory by discrediting<br />
its underlying assumptions, including the existence of perfect<br />
information, perfect mobility of resources, homogenous<br />
products etc. However, disciples will respond by asserting the<br />
assumptions are ideals that, while unrealistic, are still worth<br />
pursuing as a yardstick of desirability. <strong>The</strong>y will argue that<br />
rational human beings will strive for these ideals and therefore<br />
that they remain valid.<br />
This piece of work, which has earned Adam Smith the<br />
accolade of being the “father of modern economics”, is 247<br />
years old, yet still substantially informs government policy and<br />
thinking today. It informs political discourse. It informs the<br />
teaching of economics which in turn perpetuates allegiance to<br />
it by the next generation of economists.<br />
247 years ago, the British economy was in its industrial<br />
revolution heyday, with a manufacturing base fed by cheap<br />
resources from a sprawling empire that reached every corner<br />
of the Earth.<br />
247 years later, the British economy, in common with most<br />
developed economies, relies upon a highly developed service<br />
sector fuelled by communication technology that would have<br />
been regarded as magic in Adam Smith’s time.<br />
247 years ago, environmental concerns were not even<br />
conceived of, let alone recognised as arguably the biggest<br />
crisis the world faces.<br />
On a macro level, the success of economic policy is generally<br />
gauged by reference to the achievement of key economic<br />
objectives, the most important of which is generally regarded<br />
as economic growth. Economic growth is measured by<br />
reference to the gross domestic product or gross national<br />
income of a nation which in simple terms is an indication<br />
of the wealth of a country. So, GDP or GNI is a measure<br />
of material wealth. If we can maximise this, and therefore<br />
average incomes, we maximise satisfaction. That’s the way<br />
traditional thinking goes.<br />
However, an American economist by the name of Richard<br />
Easterlin observed a puzzling phenomenon. Between 1946<br />
and 1970, the US witnessed remarkable economic expansion.<br />
And yet surveys failed to show any upsurge in happiness<br />
throughout this period of post-war boom. This trend, as you<br />
can see in the graph on the following page, has continued.<br />
Easterlin Paradox<br />
<strong>The</strong> Easterlin Paradox suggests that, once a basic level of<br />
income has been achieved (in the US in the 1960s that was<br />
considered to be $10,000) further increases do not increase<br />
happiness.<br />
This naturally raises the question of how ‘happiness’ is<br />
measured. Most economists and academics have shied<br />
away from the task of trying to measure what they see as<br />
unquantifiable. Fortunately, not all.<br />
Measuring happiness usually involves surveys asking people<br />
to report their own happiness levels. In attempting to do this,<br />
researchers have found that it becomes possible to measure<br />
the immeasurable. This is done by attributing measurable<br />
indices to generally agreed human desirables of happiness<br />
which affect broader welfare levels. <strong>The</strong>se generally agreed<br />
human desirables include levels of literacy, access to health<br />
care, political freedom, quantity of leisure, income levels<br />
and pollution levels. Although not a comprehensive list of<br />
happiness-deriving factors, it would be hard to argue that they<br />
do not significantly contribute to happiness.
SCHOOL NEWS 23<br />
Income level is recognised as a factor contributing to<br />
happiness in our analysis, but it is only one of many factors.<br />
GDP is concerned with income levels and income levels<br />
alone. Traditional economics implies a direct and endless<br />
correlation between material wealth and happiness and<br />
therefore welfare.<br />
If economics professes to be a discipline that seeks to establish<br />
how best to use limited resources to meet unlimited needs and<br />
wants (which it does), surely it needs to consider all needs and<br />
wants … not just income-related needs and wants?<br />
In October 2002 Dr Daniel Kahneman was awarded the Nobel<br />
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. <strong>The</strong> significance of<br />
this event is that Dr Kahneman is not an economist. He is a<br />
psychologist.<br />
Daniel Kahneman’s work challenged the traditional economic<br />
theory of markets. He argued that where traditional economists<br />
went wrong was in assuming that people and organisations are,<br />
or seek to be, “rational decision makers”, that they made fully<br />
objective decisions after considering all the costs and benefits,<br />
motivated entirely by self-interest, to maximise their own material<br />
benefit. Indeed, to make decisions based on any other factor is<br />
considered irrational. Daniel Kahneman’s work concluded that<br />
this was a false premise.<br />
Deep in the eastern Himalayan mountains, a tiny state with<br />
a population approaching one million people has taken this<br />
thinking to rethink the drivers of economic policy. That country<br />
is Bhutan. It borders powerful neighbours, China and India,<br />
both of which are entirely committed to the traditional economic<br />
objective of growing their economies and average incomes<br />
almost, many would argue, to the exclusion of all else.<br />
Bhutan however has chosen a different path. It has chosen<br />
instead to pursue economic happiness. Instead of using<br />
Gross National Product, Bhutan’s government uses the Gross<br />
National Happiness index (GNH) as its main macroeconomic<br />
indicator of economic success. This informs economic policy.<br />
<strong>The</strong> GNH’s construction is simple: rather than measuring the<br />
aggregate spending from a country’s population, Bhutan’s GNH<br />
seeks to measure their total happiness. In order to measure this<br />
as objectively as possible, the indicators for GNH are based on<br />
tangible statistics of measures on factors ranging from economic<br />
development to environmental protection levels.<br />
<strong>The</strong> idea of a GNH index stretches back to 1972, when one<br />
of the founders of the European Union, Sicco Mansholt, first<br />
came up with the idea. He did this because it was recognised<br />
that the world’s traditional budget reliance on Gross Domestic<br />
Product (GDP) was criticized for ignoring crucial aspects of<br />
people’s lives, including life-satisfaction and environmental<br />
degradation etc.<br />
Compared to GDP’s technical measures of spending and<br />
output, Bhutan’s own GNH index takes a more holistic<br />
approach to measuring a country’s growth. It gives equal<br />
weighting to ‘economic’ and ‘non-economic’ aspects of the<br />
country, as exemplified by the four pillars that the GNH index<br />
encompasses:<br />
1. sustainable and equitable development,<br />
2. conservation of the environment,<br />
3. preservation and promotion of culture, and<br />
4. good governance.<br />
While other countries, including the UK and New Zealand,<br />
have shifted macroeconomic analysis towards more holistic<br />
social indicators to incorporate wellness goals, only Bhutan<br />
has put the ideas of happiness as central to their public policy<br />
decisions.<br />
So, how successful has Bhutan been? Here are some of the<br />
outcomes:<br />
1. While the rest of the world struggles to achieve carbon<br />
neutrality, Bhutan is the first and only carbon-negative<br />
country in the world.<br />
2. Bhutan has also recently prevented the COVID-19 pandemic<br />
from overwhelming its population, with only one Bhutanese<br />
citizen passing away from the virus to date.<br />
3. According to a World Bank report, Bhutan has been able to<br />
cut poverty from 36 to 12 per cent between the years 2007<br />
and 2017: the steepest decline in poverty of any of its<br />
neighbouring South Asian countries over that time.<br />
4. Enrolment in both primary and secondary education has<br />
significantly increased, with the former jumping up by 30<br />
percentage points between 2007 and 2017.<br />
5. 91 per cent of the Bhutanese population now lives within a<br />
one-hour distance from a health facility, compared with just<br />
73 per cent in 2007<br />
6. Increased public investment has led to farm road networks<br />
jumping from 1700 km to 11200 km between 2008<br />
and 2017.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are valid criticisms of some of these numbers that may<br />
question the direct cause and effect relationship. For example,<br />
while educational attainment certainly increased over the past<br />
decade in Bhutan, it is easy to see that the trend extends back<br />
to the 1990s. Also, many of the World Bank report statistics, in<br />
fact, show positive trends that already follow from before the<br />
GNH index was first used.<br />
While there is value in constructive scepticism, I would<br />
suggest that perhaps Bhutan has demonstrated sufficient<br />
success to encourage others to think again about their use<br />
of GDP alone to inform economic policy. Perhaps Bhutan<br />
and the use of GNH has gone some way to explaining the<br />
Easterlin Paradox.<br />
Perhaps the time has come for us to rethink the traditional<br />
approach to economics espoused by Adam Smith. Perhaps<br />
it is time to recognise that the work of Richard Easterlin, of<br />
Daniel Kahneman, and the Bhutan experiment, all prove<br />
conclusively that economics is not just about money.<br />
Perhaps it is time for a new parent of modern economics<br />
– and why shouldn’t that person come from one of those<br />
students embarking on their course to superhumanity at<br />
Shrewsbury School?
24 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
On a chilly evening in early February, what could be<br />
better than an evening in the Moser Library, listening to<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s discussing their carefully chosen “spells”?<br />
<strong>The</strong> McEachran Prize, awarded to the winner of this<br />
wonderfully unique competition, is a celebrated and much<br />
anticipated event in our School’s Fasti, and the class of <strong>2023</strong><br />
did not disappoint. <strong>The</strong> illustrious Frank McEachran, who<br />
taught for 40 years at Shrewsbury and whose passion and<br />
individuality are commemorated through this competition,<br />
would have been very pleased to see 16 young people<br />
volunteering to share such a wide variety of interesting and<br />
engaging thoughts, sparked by carefully chosen lines of verse<br />
or prose.<br />
Richard Hudson, former pupil of ‘Kek’ and, more latterly<br />
teacher of English and Housemaster of Churchill’s, was<br />
welcomed back to adjudicate – and nobody envied him the<br />
task of having to choose the winners from such a strong field!<br />
<strong>The</strong> evening began with a reminder of the rules: students<br />
must talk for up to four minutes on the subject of their<br />
choice, the content of which has been inspired by a<br />
“spell” – a piece of text from any source or genre. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
is no reward for slick delivery here – this is not a public<br />
speaking competition - rather, the talks are judged on the<br />
way the subject matter relates to the chosen text, the level of<br />
intellectual coherence and the interest and value of what they<br />
have to say.<br />
This year’s ‘spells’ came from a wide variety of sources, from<br />
<strong>The</strong> Velvet Underground to Herman Melville, from Woody<br />
Allen to John Milton. Without exception, the talks were<br />
hugely engaging, carefully considered and intellectually<br />
stimulating. Such is the personal nature of the competition,<br />
every person in the audience will have had their own<br />
individual view on who was the most deserving of the prize,<br />
with so many worthy contributors. But the adjudicator was<br />
the only person to make his choice.<br />
McEACHRAN PRIZE<br />
Mr Hudson gave careful consideration to each talk and in<br />
the end made the following awards: the junior prize was<br />
shared between Violet Heintz (M 3) and Matthew Wong (SH<br />
4). Violet reflected on the aphorism commonly associated<br />
with Winston Churchill: History is written by the victors.<br />
Matthew chose an extract from Keith Douglas’ poem,<br />
Vergissmeinnicht.<br />
<strong>The</strong> senior prize was awarded to Edward Scott (Rt U6)<br />
who skilfully wove his spell into his speech, to explore the<br />
nature of Englishness and the value of the ordinary through<br />
examination of “the little old lady of College Street, who<br />
commanded no armies and attacked no religions, who was<br />
burnt at no stake and married no prince, whose life added no<br />
faintest ripple to the waves and storms and England.” (from<br />
England, their England by A G Macdonnell).<br />
Enormous thanks are extended to all who took part in what<br />
was a wonderful evening of thoughtful entertainment.<br />
Kristina Leslie<br />
Head of English
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
25<br />
JUNIOR SCHOOL ESSAY PRIZES <strong>2023</strong><br />
Intellectual passion at Shrewsbury School is alive and well, as these two young winners<br />
of the Junior School Essay Prize <strong>2023</strong> amply demonstrate.<br />
Third Form Winner Charlotte Kenyon (M)<br />
Discuss the claim that morality is nothing more than the expression of personal preference.<br />
I was nine years old when I first made the decision to be a moral human being. It was a<br />
conscious decision galvanised by a curious manifestation of guilt coinciding with the caustic<br />
realisation that actions had consequences. That decision has continued to mould me into<br />
the person I am today. Yet, is morality simply the desire to avoid feelings of regret? Does it<br />
lend itself more to the expression of personal preferences and each individual gradually and<br />
inevitably growing into the person they are meant to be? Or is it, perhaps, quite the opposite;<br />
is morality the shaping and adaptation of oneself to best fit into the jigsaw puzzle of society in<br />
the least problematic and inconvenient way possible?<br />
As mentioned, my personal experience of not only finding but, crucially, choosing to be<br />
guided by morality was one driven primarily by guilt. At a time when neural-pruning and<br />
brain-rewiring was occurring at great abundance, my juvenile self was swamped in a constant<br />
and tiring feeling of prudence and regret. Mistakes of days past would suddenly emerge in<br />
my thoughts and actions of the present were shaped by a careful aversion to feeling that same<br />
regret. It was this relentless self-reflection that led to my subsequent attitude to life being one<br />
engulfed in morality and doing the right thing. I don’t think that I am alone in this childhood<br />
phenomenon and I believe that it poses a strong argument for morality being a desire to<br />
avoid displeasing oneself and others. This albeit rather cynical view finds itself supported by<br />
the evolutionary ideology of mankind doing good deeds based on the assumption that it will<br />
result in a reciprocation of such deeds.<br />
On the other hand, Carl Jung once said that “without freedom there can be no morality”. This<br />
conveys an alternative approach to the meaning of morality. I whole-heartedly agree with Jung<br />
in the sentiment that morality is dependent on the existence of free will because morality is<br />
founded on the principle of choice. And yet, the statement I am discussing seems to imply that<br />
morality is, in itself, the freedom to choose and to express such choices. Once again, I find<br />
myself questioning whether morality can be this egotistical. Is morality all about being true to<br />
oneself and expressing personal preferences? Perhaps, if humans coexisted in the absence of<br />
interaction, if a person lived their life for the purpose of pleasing oneself, then this could be a<br />
plausible definition. However, in a world so heavily reliant on interaction and communication,<br />
morality appears to be quite the opposite.<br />
Here, I implore you to flip the prior point on its head and explore the argument that<br />
morality is the interpretation and utilisation of others’ expressions of personal preference in<br />
determining our future actions. In other, more simplistic terms, doing good is about observing<br />
what possible action would result in the greatest amount of positive reaction from the<br />
external world. This juxtaposes the previous two ideologies by being a fundamentally selfless<br />
approach to doing the right thing and, in my opinion, comes the closest amongst a myriad of<br />
philosophical attempts to defining morality. It would provide reason for the apparent lack of<br />
morality in certain species who appear incapable of deciphering the unwritten rules of right<br />
and wrong; if morality relies on the observances of the external world and the evaluation<br />
of said observances, then animals who seem to act with little or no accordance to morality<br />
may simply not have the mental capacity to evaluate their surroundings with sufficient<br />
thoroughness and scrutiny.<br />
To summarise, I think that morality can mean different things to all individuals. However, I<br />
believe that all morality of all forms relies on the honest and outward expression of personal<br />
preferences and, even more crucially, the intelligent inference of these expressions in<br />
moulding and manipulating the outcomes and actions that follow.
26 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Fourth Form Winner Nathan Zhang (Rt)<br />
Never Take the Stone<br />
Once upon a time, there was a kingdom named Atlantis. Atlantis was utterly isolated from the rest of the world, so<br />
explorers from Atlantis desired a greater sense of freedom and companionship. As a result, adventurers were sent out to<br />
discover a sign, any sign, that they weren’t alone and stuck in this unholy and dystopian place.<br />
One of these adventurers, through dedication and enormous amounts of effort, discovered a magic spell that allowed them<br />
to communicate with anyone anywhere. And so they found Avalon, Antillia, Aeaea, and many other communities. At first,<br />
everyone in Atlantis was absolutely delighted with this news and reached out to find an extraordinary amount of amiable<br />
people and found friends in them.<br />
Yet happiness left as fast as it came as more and more malicious users began to appear. Though they were a minority,<br />
they sent waves of resentment within the kingdoms and caused every kingdom to abhor each other. In a frantic move to<br />
appease the people, they built gigantic opaque walls that blocked every form of outgoing magic. Consequently, the people<br />
inside the walls only remember the resentment and hate against the other kingdoms. Furthermore, the supposedly opaque<br />
walls weren’t as all-blocking as they seemed, and, just occasionally, there would be rocks disguised as magic which were<br />
hurled at opposing kingdoms, bringing about chaos and riots.<br />
This magic’s name is social media, and the black wall is the algorithms directing what you see.<br />
Social media started with the ambitious belief that people all around the world would be able to connect with each other,<br />
be cordial with each other, and make friends that would’ve been impossible to make just a decade before. Yet, after a few<br />
years, social media has become a distorted version of itself – almost completely unrecognisable to its first users. So, what<br />
happened? Was it the greedy, monopolistic companies blinded by profit? Was it the people who changed, and the early<br />
optimistic ages just an anomaly caused by a sense of freshness and something brand-new? Or is it a combination of both?<br />
Either way, social media’s benefits and drawbacks have been thrust into the spotlight over the past few years, and the only<br />
way to find out is by diving deep into how it became in the first place.<br />
For one, social media’s algorithm has dramatically improved and changed in the past few years. What is an algorithm, and<br />
what does it do, you may ask? Well, the algorithm’s general purpose is to recommend news or information that the user<br />
is interested in. If you like cat photos, the algorithm will recommend cat photos; if you like football, it will recommend<br />
football news and articles. This idea has performed wonders and was “magical” to begin with, yet I imagine even its<br />
creators wouldn’t have imagined the effects that it would have on our society.<br />
Before discussing its drawbacks, I absolutely need to address the algorithm’s positives. Social media and algorithms<br />
have become invaluable to our daily lives. It has allowed anyone with internet access to become a global citizen. Social<br />
injustices and unfair treatment have been pushed to the forefront because of social media and algorithms. Moreover,<br />
people who enjoyed particular niches and were isolated found their homes on social media. Most importantly, it induces a<br />
sense of relaxation after working a 9 to 5 full of stress and overwork.<br />
Above are all perfect examples of how social media has been revolutionary for the human race, which begs the question:<br />
why is the writer so cynical about its effects and future? <strong>The</strong> short answer is this – the stones that were disguised as magic.<br />
See, social media can bring out the best and worst of humanity. <strong>The</strong> best was shown as online strangers welcoming<br />
loners into their society. <strong>The</strong> worst is the egregious behaviour brought by the anonymity that brought the outcasts shelter.<br />
Without a necessity to reveal your identity, many are willing to go to lengths to bring hate that originated from their daily<br />
lives. <strong>The</strong>y are a mere minority but were pushed into the limelight through the algorithm’s subtle manipulations to gain<br />
interactions. After these people get rewarded for their rants and hatefulness, they get jolts of dopamine that cause<br />
them to do it over and over and over again. Other people looked on in envy and began to follow suit, and what<br />
ensues is extremism and polarisation. One of the most notable examples was the US election of 2020. Voters from<br />
both parties fell into an almost mindless frenzy of hate. As a result, it became one of the most controversial elections<br />
in the country’s history.<br />
A notable phenomenon resulting from social media is reductionism – reducing nuanced questions to ‘yays’ or ‘nays’. Here<br />
lies the second trick of the magic known as social media. It’s like ‘the monkey’s paw’ in the sense that it gives people<br />
information from every corner of the world, yet that information is too much for humans to comprehend and react<br />
logically. Without enough time to think, resorting to moral outrage and reductionism is much easier.<br />
Reduction’s hideous twin is known as “ad hominem” – attacking others directly rather than arguing about an issue. For<br />
one, the algorithm traps us in echo chambers that focus solely on reinforcing one’s pre-existing beliefs. <strong>The</strong>y narrow<br />
down people’s viewpoints, so they will view an opposing group or ideal as the ‘enemy’ and believe themselves to be the<br />
‘protagonist’. Moreover, as mentioned before, the vocal hateful minority gets pushed to the front page. As those people<br />
are the only voices they see from the other side, they instantly start to dislike and distrust those with similar perspectives.<br />
Ultimately, everyone doesn’t like everyone, and nothing will change if this continues.<br />
Social media is the perfect poster boy for the phrase “Be careful about what you wish for”. It started off with the grand<br />
belief that people could connect with others worldwide, yet it only amplified hatred and invoked distrust.<br />
When you gaze too long into the black opaque wall, the wall also gazes into you. If you get too close to it, it will offer you<br />
a stone, and when it does, remember to never take the stone.
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
27<br />
Sharing our Space with Nature<br />
<strong>The</strong> past academic year has been<br />
a success for the Eco-Committee<br />
at Shrewsbury, thanks to the outgoing<br />
leaders who have been instrumental<br />
in increasing membership and<br />
engagement within the School: Ling<br />
and Issy from Mary Sidney Hall and<br />
Boris, Sasha and Tim from School<br />
House. We owe them a huge debt of<br />
gratitude and we wish them all the best<br />
for the final exams.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new leadership team of Felix<br />
Kershaw (S L6), Umar Salehuddin (S<br />
L6), Rosie Taylor (M L6), Grace Dale<br />
(MSH L6), Chelsey Dai (MSH 4), Josh<br />
Wong (SH 4) and Tony Gao (R U6)<br />
took over at the start of the <strong>Summer</strong><br />
term. This young, keen group will lead<br />
Shrewsbury’s Eco Committee for the<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> term and upcoming <strong>2023</strong>-24<br />
academic year.<br />
Preserving our planet is not just a<br />
duty; it is our collective responsibility.<br />
Aims and initiatives were immediately<br />
established by the new leadership<br />
group. One of our aims is to increase<br />
our environmental connections across<br />
Shropshire and explore how we can<br />
work together to make Shropshire<br />
a greener place. This was put into<br />
action on 18th May, when members<br />
attended the Zero Carbon Shropshire<br />
event: Accelerating Action on<br />
Climate Change, held at University<br />
Centre Shrewsbury. Philip Dunne,<br />
MP of Ludlow, was in attendance,<br />
demonstrating the high status of the<br />
event. Our other notable partnership<br />
this year has been with Packwood<br />
Haugh School, where we exchanged<br />
ideas and visited each other’s<br />
environmentally-friendly school sites.<br />
Since the Eco Committee’s first<br />
meeting in 2018, the pupils have been<br />
campaigning for a wildflower meadow<br />
in School. As reported in the last<br />
edition of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong> (Issue 170), a<br />
wildflower meadow was sown next<br />
to Kingsland Hall by members of the<br />
Eco Committee in October 2022. It will<br />
take time to establish into a healthy<br />
and thriving area for wildflowers<br />
and wildlife and it will probably be<br />
five years before it reaches a peak<br />
in biodiversity. <strong>The</strong> Eco Committee<br />
hope that by sharing more of our<br />
space with nature at school, we can<br />
raise awareness of human-caused<br />
climate change and the rapid loss of<br />
biodiversity around us. <strong>The</strong> meadow<br />
will be scythed in September and then<br />
dried to make hay bales.<br />
As we all know, Nature is threatened<br />
as never before by climate change,<br />
habitat loss, species decline and the<br />
threat of invasive species. Since 1940,<br />
Felix Kershaw (S L6), Dr Quentin Shaw, Jai Humphries (Ch U6)<br />
we have destroyed four million acres<br />
– that’s around 97% – of all flower-rich<br />
meadows in the UK. We could recover<br />
at least half that figure if only our<br />
gardens, both civic and private, were<br />
freed from chemical interventions and<br />
turned back primarily to native flowers<br />
and shrubs. Through initiatives run by<br />
the Eco Committee, we hope to put<br />
Shrewsbury School, with its links to<br />
Darwin, at the forefront of education<br />
about ‘nature-based solutions’ and<br />
planning for a future that includes and<br />
values the natural world.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Third Form have been busy again<br />
this year, continuing to plant and<br />
work on the Pollinators’ Garden every<br />
week as part of the BASE rotation on<br />
Thursday afternoons. <strong>The</strong> garden is<br />
really beginning to take shape and is<br />
looking wonderful. <strong>The</strong> Lower Sixth<br />
volunteers who have led, guided and<br />
worked alongside the Third Formers<br />
each week in the garden have been<br />
fantastic. <strong>The</strong> Pollinators’ Garden has<br />
a myriad of different habitats and<br />
flowers to support our pollinators.<br />
In the centre of the garden are the<br />
School’s beehives, which are nurtured<br />
by the School Beekeeping Society<br />
every Monday afternoon.<br />
During this coming year, we are targeting<br />
the problem of food waste and recycling<br />
within School and have begun to work<br />
with Holroyd Howe, the School’s catering<br />
company, in looking to see how we<br />
can reduce food waste. Our sustainable<br />
buffets every other Tuesday for Eco<br />
Committee meetings have contributed to<br />
this, with Holroyd Howe using leftovers<br />
from previous meals to make into a<br />
delicous buffet for members.<br />
This term, we have begun work on<br />
a new Swift Conservation project at<br />
School.
28 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
<strong>The</strong> arrival of swifts on Site in May has<br />
been a reminder of the importance<br />
and impact our School Site can have<br />
in conserving insectivorous birds. With<br />
the School’s proximity to the River<br />
Severn, which throngs with mayflies<br />
during much of the <strong>Summer</strong> term, this<br />
is the most pertinent time of the year<br />
to be thinking about how Shrewsbury<br />
can aid the survival of migratory birds.<br />
Swifts are perhaps one of the most<br />
extraordinary of the migratory birds<br />
that arrive in spring, and at least five of<br />
them have been spotted flying over the<br />
School Site so far this year.<br />
However, Swift populations have<br />
declined by 60% since 1995, and<br />
they are currently on the UK’s<br />
conservation red list. An increased<br />
global temperature has played a large<br />
role in swift population decline.<br />
However, the largest factors have<br />
been decreases in insect-food, due to<br />
decreased insect population numbers<br />
in the UK, and the destruction of<br />
nesting sites – often small crevices in<br />
buildings – due to increased efforts to<br />
insulate modern buildings.<br />
In light of this, the Eco Committee<br />
wanted to see how Shrewsbury<br />
School could have a greater positive<br />
impact, and on 15th May, a Trustee<br />
of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Dr<br />
Quentin Shaw, was invited to have<br />
a look around the Site and advise us<br />
on swift conservation. He was highly<br />
complimentary about Shrewsbury<br />
School’s efforts and felt that conserving<br />
and supporting swift populations on<br />
the School Site would be incredibly<br />
beneficial, especially given that we are<br />
situated on one of the largest areas of<br />
private land in Shrewsbury.<br />
He made several key suggestions about<br />
how we may aid swifts. <strong>The</strong> first was<br />
that we could put up little signs where<br />
the swifts are currently nesting, in the<br />
roof of Quod and other locations, to<br />
prevent the current nest sites from<br />
being filled in in the future.<br />
<strong>The</strong> second was that we could put<br />
swift boxes up around site to increase<br />
the number of useable nest sites on<br />
the School grounds. He particularly<br />
earmarked the front of the Design &<br />
Technology Department (the Chatri<br />
Building) as an excellent location,<br />
as the overhanging shelter would<br />
emulate the caves where swifts would<br />
naturally nest.<br />
Given the importance of insect<br />
populations for sustaining swifts as<br />
food sources, he suggested that we<br />
might increase the number of flying<br />
insects by further expanding our<br />
wildflower meadows onsite. He was<br />
greatly impressed by our current efforts<br />
in front of Kingsland Hall and in the<br />
Pollinators’ Garden.<br />
Finally, he suggested that we ask the<br />
School to ensure that all new buildings<br />
have swift bricks (hollowed-out bricks<br />
placed high up under the eaves) to<br />
provide shelter. <strong>The</strong>se are the best form<br />
of swift nesting as they last for many<br />
years and, unlike nest boxes, don’t run<br />
the risk of falling off. <strong>The</strong> swifts also<br />
prefer nesting bricks to boxes, and<br />
bricklayers can incorporate these into<br />
decorative brickwork.<br />
Meeting Dr Shaw was a great<br />
opportunity to talk with an expert<br />
in this field, and we look forward to<br />
putting his suggestions into action.<br />
In conclusion, this past year has<br />
been fruitful and we aim to make<br />
great strides in pursuing positive<br />
environmental change on the School<br />
Site next year. We also would like to<br />
acknowledge our utmost gratitude to<br />
Mrs Matthews, who has been influential<br />
in helping out with our Eco Committee,<br />
and we look forward to future projects<br />
next year.<br />
Umar Salehuddin (S L6),<br />
Eleanor Chance (EDH 3),<br />
Aidan Kwok (S L6),<br />
Lemuel Asare (S 4)
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
29<br />
Biology Photo Competition<br />
Junior Category<br />
Winner: Fynn Carey (S 4)<br />
Runner-Up: Chiara Craig (MSH 3)<br />
Commended: Toby Strebel (I) 4th Form<br />
Commended: Henry Cunningham (Ch 4)
30 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Senior Category<br />
Winner: Camilla Lawson (G U6)<br />
Commended: Ivo Winkley (Rb L6)<br />
Runner-Up: Alistair Murray (SH 5)<br />
Commended: Camilla Lawson (G U6)
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
31<br />
Staff Category<br />
Winner: Stewart Harrison<br />
Commended: Kate Bronner<br />
Runner-Up: Sara Luzny<br />
Commended: Paul Allen
32 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
ACADEMIC NEWS<br />
Gold CREST Award<br />
Mico Xu (EDH L6) has been awarded<br />
a prestigious Gold CREST Award, the<br />
highest level of achievement in the<br />
CREST Awards programme. Requiring a<br />
minimum of 70 hours of dedicated work<br />
on a STEM-related topic, the award<br />
encourages young people to engage in<br />
scientific research and exploration.<br />
Mico’s physics project delved into<br />
the fascinating realm of earthquakes,<br />
combining theoretical knowledge<br />
with practical experiments to develop<br />
innovative ideas for reducing earthquake<br />
mortality. Her extensive background<br />
research demonstrated a profound<br />
understanding of seismic events and<br />
the potential dangers they pose to<br />
human lives, as well as the history and<br />
development of engineering designs.<br />
Mico’s hands-on approach included<br />
embarking on a series of experiments<br />
to test various building modifications<br />
aimed at minimising the impact<br />
of earthquakes. Through these<br />
experiments, Mico explored different<br />
concepts and approaches, allowing<br />
her to gain valuable insights and<br />
practical knowledge in the field of both<br />
theoretical and practical physics. <strong>The</strong><br />
external assessor of Mico’s project was<br />
highly impressed, awarding full marks,<br />
which is a very rare occurrence.<br />
Mico completed this project as part of<br />
the Lower Sixth Academic Perspectives<br />
courses, which all pupils take in their<br />
chosen subjects, to add breadth and<br />
innovation to their learning and also to<br />
embed skills that might not fall into the<br />
standard A-Level specifications.<br />
In the Physics Academic Perspectives<br />
course, a range of titles have been<br />
investigated, from the best pizza box<br />
design, a robotic ball-boy, testing the<br />
strength of ropes and designing a safe<br />
drop system for drone deliveries.<br />
Biology Challenge<br />
Third and Fourth form pupils performed<br />
exceptionally well in this year’s Royal<br />
Society of Biology ‘Biology Challenge’,<br />
in which 43,485 pupils from 621 schools<br />
worldwide took part.<br />
Six <strong>Salopian</strong>s were given Gold awards,<br />
placing them in the top 5% of entrants;<br />
11 were awarded Silver, placing them<br />
in the next 10%; and 33 won Bronze,<br />
placing them in the next 15%. A further<br />
50 pupils were highly commended.<br />
<strong>The</strong> entire Fourth Form and some pupils<br />
from the Third Form undertook two<br />
25-minute papers, which put them<br />
through their paces with a mixture of<br />
knowledge-based and problem-based<br />
questions.<br />
<strong>The</strong> winners of the Gold awards were:<br />
George Rink (PH 4)<br />
Mia Hirakawa (G 4)<br />
Evans Su (Ch 4)<br />
Merrie Jackson (M 4)<br />
Jeremy Cheung (R 4)<br />
Richard Wolskei (Rb 4)<br />
Gold Award winners with Head of Biology<br />
Dr Torin Morgan<br />
Chemistry Olympiad<br />
Twenty-five students from the Lower Sixth<br />
and nine students from the Upper Sixth<br />
took part in Round 1 of the Royal Society<br />
of Chemistry Olympiad in January. This<br />
competition is designed to challenge and<br />
stimulate the most talented young chemists<br />
in the country and is open to all post-16<br />
students in the UK.<br />
<strong>The</strong> paper itself is based on the core of<br />
the chemistry A-level specifications, so<br />
that students taking any of the different<br />
exam board A-levels can compete<br />
fairly. <strong>The</strong> exam lasts two hours and<br />
is composed of a series of structured<br />
questions designed to stretch able<br />
students by making them apply the<br />
principles they have learnt to new and<br />
often more complex situations than<br />
they would meet in their A-level course.<br />
Thus, in order to score marks, it is<br />
essential to have a very sound base of<br />
knowledge and understanding but also<br />
the ability to think and reason - often<br />
‘outside the box’ - at a high level.<br />
Gold Awards – given to the top 9% of<br />
students from nearly 12,000 entries –<br />
were won by: Jia Shin Quek (Rt U6),<br />
Charlie Sin (I L6), Vanessa Wu (EDH<br />
U6), Olivia Zhang (EDH U6)<br />
Eight students won Silver Awards: Chloe<br />
Cheung, Oliver Cool, Jeremy Gundle,<br />
Cici He, Tommy Wu, Mico Xu, Jonathan<br />
Zhang and Maggie Zhang<br />
Twenty-one students won Bronze<br />
Awards: Nigel Chan, Jeremy Cheung,<br />
Archie Collings, Hal Cowan, James<br />
Crews, Kanami Fukuoka, Jacky Gong,<br />
Henry Hatton, Angel Lai, Ben Lahiri,<br />
Moriz Ip, Cherry Li, Rio Nakamoto,<br />
Jennifer O’Brien, Anson Pan, Isabella<br />
Qin, Umar Salehuddin, Mingming<br />
Srichaisak, Gladys Wan, Isaac<br />
Wickramage and Yanny Yiu.<br />
British Physics Olympiad and<br />
Challenges<br />
Congratulations to the Upper Sixth<br />
Physics students who took part in the<br />
gruelling British Physics Olympiad<br />
Round 1. <strong>The</strong> paper is 2 hours 40<br />
minutes long and gives students a great<br />
opportunity to test their problem-solving<br />
skills. Impressively, all students in<br />
Shrewsbury School who sat the paper<br />
were awarded with a certificate. Top<br />
performers were Michael Miao (S) who<br />
achieved a Top Gold award (awarded<br />
to around 50 students nationally), and<br />
Godwin Yuen (SH) and Tom Pan (Ch)<br />
who both achieved a Gold award.
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
33<br />
<strong>The</strong> entire Lower Sixth Physics cohort<br />
took part in the slightly less gruelling<br />
Senior Physics Challenge online and<br />
eight students achieved a Gold award,<br />
representing the top 17% of students.<br />
Fifth Formers took part in the<br />
Intermediate Physics Challenge, and<br />
18 students achieved Gold, again<br />
representing the top 17% of students<br />
nationally.<br />
Microsoft Office Specialist<br />
Competition<br />
Congratulations to Kate Veter (G L6) and<br />
Roy Hsieh (R L6), who won through<br />
to the UK final of the Microsoft Office<br />
Specialist Competition.<br />
As reported on page 17, Microsoft Skills<br />
is now offered to Lower Sixth pupils as<br />
a Thursday afternoon activity, led by<br />
Henry Exham, Head of Digital Learning.<br />
Pupils work towards certification in<br />
one part of Microsoft Office: Word,<br />
PowerPoint and Excel. When they take<br />
these exams, their scores are recorded<br />
and the top ten in each application<br />
across the whole of the UK and<br />
Ireland are selected to take part in the<br />
UK and Ireland Championship Finals.<br />
Kate was selected as a finalist in Word<br />
and Roy in PowerPoint. <strong>The</strong>se are<br />
huge achievements, as over 15,000<br />
students aged between 13 and 22 take<br />
each exam.<br />
<strong>The</strong> UK and Ireland Microsoft Office<br />
Specialist Finals took place online<br />
on 15th June, with the prize for the<br />
winners a trip to Orlando, Florida, USA<br />
to represent the UK in the Microsoft<br />
Office Specialist World Championships.<br />
<strong>The</strong> exams were especially hard to<br />
test candidates’ skill and accuracy.<br />
Although Kate and Roy both scored<br />
well, unfortunately they did not win the<br />
grand prize. Nevertheless, it was a great<br />
experience, and they can both be very<br />
proud of their achievement.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Purple Comet Maths<br />
competition<br />
Congratulations to the team of <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
mathematicians - Kanami Fukuoka (MSH<br />
L6), Mico Xu (EDH L6), Jacky Gong (Rt<br />
L6), Aidan Kwok (S L6), Michael Miao<br />
(S U6) and Darren Chan (Ch U6) - who<br />
came first in the UK in an international<br />
online Maths competition, ‘<strong>The</strong> Purple<br />
Comet’. <strong>The</strong>y were also placed 178th<br />
globally in their class out of over 1,000<br />
teams.<br />
<strong>The</strong> competition is designed to require<br />
teamwork and ingenuity to solve as<br />
many of a set of 30 maths questions<br />
as possible in 90 minutes. Over 4,000<br />
teams from 67 countries took part, from<br />
Albania to Vietnam, and the contest was<br />
split into classes dependent on size of<br />
school.<br />
Our second team of Tom Pan (Ch U6),<br />
Harold Ju (S 5), Caesar Chan (O 5),<br />
Tommy Wu (O L6), Jeremy Cheung (R<br />
4) and Steven Jiang (SH 5) came well<br />
within the top 400 teams in the ‘Small<br />
High School’ class and third overall<br />
amongst the UK entrants.
34 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Notes from the Archives and Taylor Library<br />
<strong>The</strong> Taylor Library has passed through many phases in its<br />
over 400-year history and it continues to evolve steadily<br />
as we make it a more lively part of the School’s intellectual,<br />
cultural and academic life. It began active life in the early<br />
17th century as the School’s working classical and theological<br />
library and has grown over the centuries not only to reflect<br />
the changing curricula, history and intellectual thrust of the<br />
School but also to achieve wide national and international<br />
recognition. We continually ask, how does it enrich the<br />
cultural, intellectual and spiritual life of the School? How<br />
does it reflect the life and history of the School? How can its<br />
riches be nurtured and disseminated to best effect within the<br />
School and beyond? How do we best honour and preserve<br />
this precious legacy and history? <strong>The</strong>se are questions asked<br />
equally insistently by many other University and School<br />
Ancient Libraries. When linked, as it is, with the School’s<br />
fine modern and ancient Archives containing all manner of<br />
precious materials right down the centuries to our founding<br />
Royal Charter under the Royal Seal of Edward VI in February<br />
1552, it amounts to a unique resource. We face in several<br />
directions: into the School; out to a national and international<br />
scholarly and academic community; to the wider <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
community; to other schools and our local community; and<br />
to the public at large.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re have been a number of interesting initiatives in recent<br />
months outlined below, that help us along this path.<br />
Taylor Library Catalogue<br />
Our cataloguing project of the Taylor Library Collections is<br />
progressing steadily as we enter rare book details into our<br />
main frame school catalogue system. By the autumn, we<br />
hope to have completed the initial entries of approximately<br />
20 per cent of the total of rare books in the Library, and at<br />
that stage we plan to formally declare the catalogue ‘open’<br />
so that it will be visible inside the School via the Library<br />
catalogue terminals. <strong>The</strong> next step will be to open the<br />
catalogue to public access via the internet. <strong>The</strong> main source<br />
has been the eight volumes of handwritten 19th century<br />
catalogues in various headmasterly hands and in several<br />
languages (see below).<br />
Exhibitions<br />
We have staged a number of exhibitions and events within<br />
the School. <strong>The</strong> latest of these include an exhibition to mark<br />
the 350th anniversary of the birth in 1673 of John Weaver<br />
(OS), renowned as the 18th century pioneer of Dance, Ballet<br />
and Pantomime. I wonder how many Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s know<br />
this. Naomi Nicholas, Assistant Taylor Librarian and Archivist,<br />
describes this exhibition below.<br />
We are currently working on an exhibition about John Taylor,<br />
Fellow of St John’s College Cambridge, Professor of Classics<br />
and briefly Cambridge University Librarian, after whom the<br />
Library is named.<br />
Rare Books <strong>Summer</strong> School<br />
Another exciting initiative is a collaboration with the<br />
London Rare Books School (LRBS) at London University’s<br />
Institute of English Studies. <strong>The</strong> idea of a residential<br />
summer school based in the Taylor Library was conceived<br />
this year following a lecture last October in the Library<br />
by Professor David Pearson, the country’s leading book<br />
historian. After some discussions, we met with Andrew<br />
Nash (Director of the London Rare Book School), David<br />
Pearson and Philip Walker (the School’s General Services<br />
Manager) to explore the possibilities. It was decided to<br />
proceed with an initial three-day <strong>Summer</strong> School in the<br />
Easter Holidays from 10th – 12th April 2024. It will be<br />
available to any member of the public, with probably<br />
around 15 places, and hopefully a couple of free places for<br />
our Sixth Form volunteers in return for helping host the<br />
visitors. This promises to be an exciting new venture and<br />
hopefully the first of many. In addition to providing a rich<br />
learning experience in the Taylor Library, it will help us to<br />
understand key parts of our own collections in more depth<br />
and to make this knowledge more widely available within<br />
the School and <strong>Salopian</strong> communities.<br />
Pages from the 19th century MS catalogue, much of it in the hand of<br />
Headmaster Butler<br />
Alpha Academy<br />
As part of the School’s emerging link with the Alpha<br />
Academy in Stoke-upon-Trent, we hosted five Junior School<br />
classes all on one day in February for a ‘Darwin-<strong>The</strong>med<br />
Experience’ in the Library and on the School Site. This was<br />
brilliantly led by our excellent Upper Sixth volunteers, Mia<br />
Wyatt, Orlando Bayliss and Sam Unsworth, who were greatly<br />
appreciated by the visiting children and staff. We are gearing<br />
up for another Alpha Day in June.<br />
Mia Wyatt (Upper Sixth Archives Volunteer) teaches juniors from Alpha Academy
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
35<br />
<strong>The</strong> Shewsy<br />
I have been working on a Chapter outlining the history of<br />
Shrewsbury House in Liverpool as part of a book on Public<br />
School Missions to inner cities, provisionally titled My Soul’s<br />
Shelter: Public Schools and their Missions to be published in<br />
October. Of the very many schools that established ‘missions’<br />
to inner cities in the late 19th century, all have long since<br />
closed down, with the exception of Shrewsbury House and<br />
the Harrow Mission. <strong>The</strong> full details are:<br />
My Soul’s Shelter: Public Schools and their Missions<br />
(Provisional Title)<br />
Sunnyrest Books, Truro, October <strong>2023</strong><br />
Foreword by HRH the Princess Royal, Prologue, 22 School<br />
Essays, Epilogue. c500pp; c170 illustrations.<br />
Hardback c. £40, Paperback c. £25.<br />
Schools included: Bradfield, Charterhouse, Cheltenham<br />
Ladies’, Clifton, Dulwich, Durham, Eton, Haileybury, Harrow,<br />
Highgate, King’s Canterbury, Marlborough, Monkton Combe,<br />
Radley, Repton, Rugby, Shrewsbury, <strong>The</strong> Leys, Tonbridge,<br />
Uppingham, Wellington, Winchester.<br />
Scholarly Visits<br />
We have hosted the usual array of scholars and academics<br />
to work on various items and received a varied mail bag of<br />
archival and scholarly enquiries, including visits from:<br />
Evelyn Nicholson, doctoral student from Cambridge, to work<br />
on the Haughmond Graduale (MS 30), and MS 12 from<br />
Buildwas Abbey, both dating from the early 12th century.<br />
John Colley, doctoral student from Oxford (recently elected<br />
Fellow of St John’s Cambridge), came to work on various<br />
16th century books related to the English Renaissance. He<br />
was particularly interested in marginalia and annotations. One<br />
of the books is reputed to have been the personal possession<br />
of Roger Ascham, tutor to our founder king, Edward VI.<br />
MS XXIII: Floretum et Rosarium. England late 15th Century<br />
Prof Van Dussen of McGill University plans to visit for two<br />
days in June to work on MSS X and XXIII; “particularly<br />
interesting admixtures of Floretum and Rosarium material,”<br />
he observes. He specialises in research on the Wycliffites in<br />
England and their counterparts in Hussite Bohemia.<br />
MS X: Rosarium <strong>The</strong>ologiae (De Virtutibus et Vitiis) – 194<br />
leaves. 165mm by 110mm, vellum, red initials, England,<br />
15th Century. A donation label stuck to f. iv states, ‘given by<br />
Mr Lewes Taylor parson of Moreton Corbett in the County<br />
of Salop, 1619’. Extracts in Latin from the Fathers, etc., on<br />
Virtues and Vices.<br />
MS XXIII: Floretum et Rosarium – A theological<br />
commonplace book, in alphabetical order according to<br />
subjects. Paper and vellum. 174 leaves, 230mm by 215mm,<br />
England, late 15th Century.<br />
Peter Brown – ‘Journeys of the Mind’<br />
Over the last couple of years, I have been in occasional<br />
correspondence with Peter Brown (O 1948-52), Professor<br />
of History at Princeton. I was able to provide some help<br />
and digital copies of a hefty chunk of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong> for<br />
the last 80 years or so to help him with his magnificent<br />
memoirs, Journeys of the Mind: A Life in History, Princeton<br />
University Press, <strong>2023</strong>. It is an enthralling account not only<br />
of his life from childhood in Dublin to academic historian,<br />
but also his seminal work in the study of late antiquity, the<br />
rise of Christian Europe, and pioneering work in Byzantine<br />
and Middle Eastern antiquity.. It contains a fascinating and<br />
detailed account of his time at Shrewsbury School in the<br />
early 1950s, in which he captures with great faithfulness and<br />
affection the character and atmosphere of the School at that<br />
time and his remarkable teachers,<br />
notably Murray Senior and Laurence<br />
Le Quesne. He is undoubtedly the<br />
most distinguished historian to have<br />
come from Shrewsbury and is rightly<br />
described on the book’s cover as<br />
“one of the world’s most influential<br />
and distinguished historians”.<br />
Among his many books, his<br />
biography St Augustine of Hippo is<br />
a much-read classic.<br />
Rowland Heylin (OS)<br />
A fascinating request came to us from Lloyd Bowen, an<br />
academic in the History Department at Cardiff University,<br />
regarding an Old <strong>Salopian</strong>, Rowland Heylin, who, along<br />
with his wife, bequeathed 83 books to the School Library.<br />
We were able to supply some details of the books, some of<br />
which are listed in the Library’s Benefactors’ Book, while the<br />
remainder will emerge as we complete the cataloguing work.<br />
Heylin was born in 1562 and entered the School in 1570.<br />
He became Alderman of Cripplegate in 1624 and Sheriff of<br />
London in 1625. He was a native of Shrewsbury, although<br />
of Welsh extraction, his family having long been settled at<br />
Pentreheylin in Montgomeryshire. He published a Welsh<br />
version of the Bible at his own expense, and among his<br />
bequests to the Ironmongers’ Company was £100 to provide<br />
for an annual sermon to commemorate the failure of the<br />
Gunpowder Plot, and for a dinner after it. Lloyd was able<br />
to add that Heylin was deeply involved in the religious<br />
controversies of the early 17th century – particularly in<br />
Shrewsbury itself, where his sponsorship of a disruptive<br />
puritanism is striking.
36 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Map of Kingsland just before the ‘move’ showing the Taylors’ Arbour, Shoemakers’, Smithys’, Saddlers’, Skinners’, etc as well as ‘site of windmill’; and - heaven be<br />
praised - the Boathouse Inn. <strong>The</strong> Main School Building is still named ‘<strong>The</strong> House of Industry’.<br />
Enquiries<br />
We provided copies of old local maps of Kingsland from the School archives for a local planning application challenge. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
illustrated some interesting details of Kingsland and the School Site from the 19th century, especially the sites of various craft<br />
and trade ‘Arbours’ that used to flourish, as well as the site of the Beehive Inn.<br />
We provided a translation of the School’s Founding Charter of Edward VI for Katriona Wade (former parent), which opens:<br />
“Edward the Sixth, by the Grace of God of England, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and in Earth of the<br />
Church of England and of Ireland Supreme Head…. Know ye that we… [ordain] for a Grammar School to be erected and<br />
established [in the County of Salop] for the education and instruction of boys and youths…”<br />
Robin Brooke-Smith
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
37<br />
<strong>The</strong> John Weaver (OS) Dance Exhibition<br />
<strong>The</strong> inaugural John Weaver Festival of Dance hosted by the School (see page 43) has been a wonderful opportunity to<br />
delve deep into our historic collections and highlight some previously unseen items from the Taylor Library and Archive.<br />
<strong>The</strong> festival weekend of 17th-19th March saw over 50 visitors make their way to the Moser Gallery to see our first editions<br />
of Weaver’s works, which include two copies of An Essay towards an History of Dancing (1712) and a copy of Anatomical<br />
and Mechanical Lectures upon Dancing (1721). Also on display, and brought together for the first time since they were<br />
given to the School by Weaver himself in 1743, were Ptolemy’s Harmonicorum (1682), Danet’s Dictionary of Greek and<br />
Roman Antiquities (1700) and Della Porta’s fascinating work on Physiognomy (1618). <strong>The</strong>y give us a fascinating glimpse<br />
into Weaver’s mind and the subjects that interested and inspired him.<br />
Thanks to Tim Ashton (OS), the importance of dance as court magic and statecraft is explored through account books and<br />
ledgers lent to us for the exhibition, relating to designs for a dancing pavement installed in the 19th century at his home at<br />
Soulton Hall, but whose roots go back much further.<br />
Naomi Nicholas<br />
Orlando Bayliss (Rt U6) – Archives Volunteer, 2022-23<br />
During my final year at Shrewsbury, I have had the privilege of spending my Wednesday mornings volunteering in the<br />
Moser Library. Throughout my five years at Shrewsbury School, I have endeavoured to embrace its traditions and history.<br />
Volunteering in the Library in the Upper Sixth has enabled me to do exactly this.<br />
One of my roles has been to catalogue the School’s records in a digitised format. This job has given me a truly unique<br />
insight into the history of the School which I feel very lucky to have experienced. Amongst the less exciting swathes of<br />
‘bailiff & bursar correspondence’, many gems have been revealed. I have catalogued Richard Ingrams’ and Willie Rushton’s<br />
‘<strong>Salopian</strong>’ articles and have uncovered proposals for the School’s move to Kingsland in 1882. <strong>The</strong> archives have, therefore,<br />
unexpectedly provided a degree of interest and excitement which I had not anticipated at the outset.<br />
In addition to cataloguing, my fellow volunteer Sam Unsworth and I were tasked with the job of deciphering and<br />
recording the names engraved on the School wall (on which exemplary students were documented until the 1960s).<br />
From the 2,249 names recorded, Sam and I encountered many fine <strong>Salopian</strong>s, from Everest explorer Andrew Irvine to our<br />
esteemed Archivist Dr Brooke-Smith! It was especially rewarding and interesting to take the time to appreciate a part of the<br />
School which I had walked past many times without, I now realise, giving it due attention.<br />
Volunteering in the Library has also given me a valuable opportunity to escape the, at times, relentlessly frenetic <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
life and enter the studious calm of the Archives, where one’s brain can move in a different, intriguing direction. Sam<br />
Unsworth and I must thank Dr Brooke-Smith and Mrs Nicholas for their kind and expert insight into the wonderful<br />
resource that is the Taylor Library and the Archives.
38 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Notes from the Moser Library<br />
<strong>The</strong> Moser Library team has been<br />
very busy this year. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Summer</strong><br />
term has seen a glorious flourishing of<br />
students revising, and some exciting<br />
changes have been taking place. We<br />
have transformed part of the foyer in<br />
the main library into our new Wellbeing<br />
Hub: a welcoming and relaxing space<br />
where students can take a break and<br />
settle down comfortably with one<br />
of the new titles in our collection, a<br />
magazine or perhaps our Book of the<br />
Month, chosen by Library staff.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Moser is first and foremost a place<br />
of quiet study. It is also a sanctuary,<br />
a break from the rush of lessons<br />
and activities and a space to reflect<br />
and absorb the learning gathered<br />
throughout the day. We cultivate this<br />
environment and pay special attention<br />
to making every student feel welcome.<br />
We have also opened a Break Station<br />
specifically with our Upper Sixth<br />
Formers in mind: an area filled with<br />
colouring books and jigsaws to offer<br />
them a short, refreshing break from<br />
gruelling revision schedules. This has<br />
proven popular with teachers as well!<br />
For our ever-curious students we have<br />
dedicated a rotating range of displays in<br />
celebration of events and notable dates<br />
from around the world. From Chinese<br />
New Year to the poetry and art of<br />
Edward Lear via Revision Skills, Science<br />
Week and Random Acts of Kindness<br />
Day, LGBT History Month, Children’s<br />
Mental Health Week and celebrations of<br />
all the patron saints of the UK. Photos<br />
of these and much more besides are in<br />
our Twitter feed @Shrewsbury_Lib<br />
During the Lent term, we linked up<br />
with the joyful celebrations of John<br />
Weaver. Alongside the exhibition in the<br />
Taylor Library (see page 37), we are<br />
currently proudly displaying costumes<br />
made by students from the Art Faculty.<br />
We have been installing pop-up<br />
libraries across the School to support<br />
a range of different events, including<br />
Shakespeare’s birthday menu in the<br />
Kingsland Hall, the Darwin Festival in<br />
the Science Lecture <strong>The</strong>atre and many<br />
of the lectures in Hodgson Hall. This<br />
has given students an opportunity<br />
to read around the subjects being<br />
discussed, follow different lines of<br />
enquiry and further explore their<br />
interests.<br />
World Book Day in March is always a<br />
time of celebration in the Library. With<br />
a full week of events and competitions,<br />
the atmosphere was certainly buzzing!<br />
Daily competitions were held for all<br />
comers, including wordsearches, ‘Guess<br />
the book title’ and, with a little input<br />
from teachers and their favourite books,<br />
‘Who reads what?’ This challenge<br />
proved trickier than expected – the<br />
Shrewsbury teachers shrugging off<br />
categorisation to surprise everyone<br />
with their choices! Our Manga Art<br />
Competition showcased some amazing<br />
talent inspired by iconic Manga<br />
characters, with the winning entries<br />
displayed for all to admire.<br />
We welcomed Amy Beashel,<br />
Shropshire-based Young Adult author,<br />
to talk to a Third Form English group.<br />
Amy spoke eloquently about her<br />
journey to becoming an author, fielded<br />
the excellent questions put to her and<br />
kindly signed copies of her books. As<br />
well as inspiring our budding Third<br />
Form writers to jump in, Amy also gave<br />
the pupils practical tips on fine-tuning<br />
their writing skills using post-it notes<br />
and the Pomodoro Method!<br />
March brought the annual McEachran<br />
Prize competition, held in the<br />
Churchill’s Room. This room also<br />
played host to several of the<br />
Shrewsbury Dialogue events; well<br />
attended and thought provoking,<br />
also supported by a curated range of<br />
exploratory reading material. A real<br />
highlight was the diplomatic wisdom<br />
(and optimism!) shared by John and<br />
Judith McGregor.<br />
We look forward to opening our doors<br />
to a new intake of readers in September<br />
and wish our leavers all the very best in<br />
their future endeavours.
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
39<br />
Shrewsbury’s first International School in India<br />
We are delighted to announce a<br />
new partnership with Jagran<br />
Social Welfare Society to establish our<br />
first international boarding school in<br />
India. Shrewsbury International School<br />
India, which is set to open in 2025,<br />
will span across 115 acres in Madhya<br />
Pradesh in the heart of the country.<br />
<strong>The</strong> School will be a full co-educational<br />
boarding school for ages 11 to 18 and<br />
will follow Shrewsbury’s distinctive<br />
version of whole person education,<br />
offering the very best academic, cocurricular<br />
and pastoral provision with<br />
state-of-the-art classroom, sporting,<br />
drama, music and living facilities.<br />
At the formal signing of the agreement<br />
with Jagran Social Welfare Society,<br />
Shrewsbury School’s Chair of<br />
Governors Tim Haynes commented:<br />
“This signing marks a very historic<br />
moment in Shrewsbury’s history. We<br />
are absolutely delighted to be working<br />
with the Jagran Social Welfare Society<br />
who already have considerable<br />
experience in education in India.”<br />
Shri Hari Mohan Gupta, Chairman of<br />
Jagran Social Welfare Society, said: “It<br />
is very exciting to sign the agreement<br />
with Shrewsbury School UK. It’s a great<br />
opportunity for us and as Chairman,<br />
I would like to express my gratitude<br />
and thanks to the team at Shrewsbury<br />
who have worked very hard on this<br />
agreement, it’s very exciting for us.”<br />
Headmaster, Mr Leo Winkley added:<br />
“We are thrilled to be working with<br />
our partners to bring the full boarding<br />
experience of a Shrewsbury education<br />
to India.”<br />
Commenting on the development,<br />
Dr Maghin Tamilarasan, International<br />
Development Director at Shrewsbury<br />
School, said: “We are delighted to<br />
have signed an agreement with Jagran<br />
Social Welfare Society, which is the<br />
culmination of three years of hard<br />
work by both parties. We are very<br />
much looking forward to making<br />
progress on the project and opening<br />
the school in 2025.”<br />
Mr Abhishek Mohan Gupta, Vice-<br />
Chairman added: “It’s a milestone<br />
for us as a society bringing worldclass<br />
education to India; it marks the<br />
beginning of great quality education<br />
in India.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> signing ceremony (pictured above)<br />
took place in Shrewsbury School’s<br />
Moser Library and was witnessed by<br />
Shrewsbury Headmaster Leo Winkley,<br />
along with Governors of Shrewsbury<br />
School and the Chairman and Vice-<br />
Chairs of Jagran Social Welfare Society.<br />
Shrewsbury International School India<br />
will be our fifth international school,<br />
following the announcement in 2022<br />
of Shrewsbury International School<br />
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the existing<br />
international school in Hong Kong and<br />
the further two schools in Bangkok,<br />
Thailand. This year also marks the 20th<br />
anniversary of the opening of the first<br />
Shrewsbury International School in<br />
Bangkok (Riverside).
40 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Drama and Dance<br />
Lysander, Hermia, Helena and Demetrius (Johnnie Thurstan,<br />
Faye Pritchard, Pippa Lawton-Smith and Luca Gremoli).<br />
<strong>The</strong> lovers were played with endearing innocence and<br />
naivete by this young cast; I particularly enjoyed the spoilt<br />
disdain with which Hermia received her suitors’ puppyish<br />
affection, and the boys’ attempts to show off their physical<br />
A Midsummer Night’s Dream<br />
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is often played as one of<br />
Shakespeare’s most twee and genteel comedies – it’s a<br />
favourite of country-house outdoor Shakespeare companies,<br />
and the play’s imagery of forests and fairies can easily<br />
become comfortable and cute.<br />
Mrs Cissone’s fierce and fabulous Junior School production,<br />
therefore, gave the play a welcome sense of grit and energy.<br />
Instead of wafting acres of tulle and sparkles, these fairies<br />
were punky rebels in leather and miniskirts. Led by a<br />
charismatic Oberon (Ethan Prieur) and sparky Titania (April<br />
Hunt), the fairies inhabited a junk-yard forest of steel girders<br />
and discarded washing machines. In this world, Puck (Freya<br />
Collinge) was a celebrity influencer, whose pranks find<br />
their way instantly onto YouTube. <strong>The</strong> fairies observed the<br />
hapless mortals who stumble into the wood as if it were a<br />
Renaissance Gogglebox, offering a hilarious commentary<br />
(‘Love that journey for you!’) on the on-off relationships of<br />
prowess to impress her. In an addition to the script, Pippa<br />
Lawton-Smith’s Helena burst into song in the second Act,<br />
bemoaning Demetrius’s failure to see beyond the surface. It<br />
was a dramatic and musical triumph, with brilliant lyrics by<br />
Pippa herself and orchestration by Ivo Winkley.<br />
<strong>The</strong> comic subplot of the play is provided by a group of<br />
wannabe thespians, who also find themselves in the forest.<br />
Violet Heintz was hilarious as the beleaguered director (I<br />
wonder where she got that from…) who is trying to herd a<br />
motley crew of workmen through rehearsals. Will O’Hagan,<br />
Isaac Simmons, Angus Paton and Lucy Barrett wrung every<br />
moment of slapstick brilliance out of Shakespeare’s script – I<br />
particularly loved Will’s expression of moonshine through<br />
interpretative dance. <strong>The</strong><br />
show is stolen, however,<br />
by Gethin Harrison’s<br />
egomaniacal Bottom,<br />
who is desperate to play<br />
every part at once.<br />
Played straight through in<br />
a breakneck 75 minutes,<br />
this was a tremendously<br />
engaging and energetic<br />
production by a young<br />
cast who were clearly<br />
having a ball.<br />
And <strong>The</strong>n <strong>The</strong>re Were None<br />
Agatha Christie – the best-selling fiction writer of all time –<br />
knew how to construct a plot. She was the mistress of the<br />
carefully laid clue, the red herring, the even redder herring,<br />
and the unexpected murderous twist. And <strong>The</strong>n <strong>The</strong>re Were<br />
None is one of her most famous and most complicated<br />
mysteries. Ten strangers find themselves marooned on<br />
an island off the coast of Devon. One by one, they fall<br />
prey to an unknown murderer, who arranges each death<br />
to echo a line of the well-known nursery rhyme. Poppy<br />
Godsal’s brilliant adaptation, written and performed as<br />
her EPQ project, had all the suspense and surprise of the<br />
original, eliciting audible gasps from its audience as the story<br />
unfolded.<br />
Laurie Morgan, a veteran of the Ashton stage, is terrific as<br />
the dashing but possibly unhinged Captain Lombard. This<br />
is a stock Christie character: the charming rake with a shady<br />
past, a good chat-up line and a revolver in his pocket. Laurie<br />
got the style precisely right, his accent and delivery spot<br />
on and his sense of total investment in the character and<br />
situation impeccably judged. <strong>The</strong> object of his attentions is<br />
Vera Claythorne, the beautiful young secretary. Kate Woodman<br />
– also a dramatic stalwart of the Upper Sixth – gave a brilliantly<br />
nuanced performance, forcing the audience to question whether<br />
she is a heartless femme fatale or frightened ingenue.
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
41<br />
Clara Garavini played the prime suspect, a doctor with a<br />
shocking case of nerves and a dark history of alcoholism.<br />
She is the most obvious choice as murderer, and Clara<br />
found clever ways to underline this while, at the same<br />
time, leaving open the real possibility that she is just<br />
another frightened victim.<br />
This being Agatha Christie, there is a smorgasbord of eccentric<br />
supporting characters. Gravitas came from an impressively<br />
mature performance from Will O’Hagan as Sir Lawrence<br />
Wargrave, a judge familiar with death sentences. Hattie<br />
Attwood was suitably purse-lipped and judgemental as the<br />
sanctimonious Miss Brent. Henry Clark brought an endearing<br />
vulnerability to the gruff bluster of General Mackenzie,<br />
lamenting his departed wife. No murder mystery is complete<br />
without a policeman, and Massimo Wyatt was excellent as<br />
retired CID man, William Blore. Tom Daly’s spoilt petrolhead<br />
and Isla Britten and Poppy Godsal’s put-upon maids provided<br />
the comic relief.<br />
<strong>The</strong> play’s tension was highlighted by Sam Ludlam’s lighting<br />
design, which became increasingly chilly and menacing<br />
as the murderer grew closer. <strong>The</strong> story unfolded against<br />
the backdrop of a beautiful 1930s-inspired set, built by<br />
our resident technicians Bradley Fenton and Stuart Myles.<br />
Those who saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream the previous<br />
week may have suspected that the transformation from one<br />
outstanding set to another was the result of fairy intervention;<br />
there was definitely magic at work.<br />
Legally Blonde: <strong>The</strong> Musical<br />
Our second EPQ production of the year played to rave<br />
reviews, as Daisy Scott took on the enormous challenge<br />
of directing and choreographing an extract from the<br />
hit West End and Broadway musical, Legally Blonde.<br />
For those of you who know the film, the premise is<br />
simple – a ditzy Californian fashion-major ditches the<br />
sunshine and Manolos in an effort to demonstrate to her<br />
snobbish boyfriend that she is sufficiently ‘serious’ to be<br />
considered wife material. Along the way, she realises<br />
that she has a brain as well as a pretty face; she ends<br />
up as the Valedictorian of Harvard Law School while the<br />
erstwhile boyfriend drops out to become a model. She is<br />
accompanied along the way by a Greek Chorus of sorority<br />
girls – played here by a hugely talented group of students<br />
from the Third and Fourth Forms.<br />
Hattie Attwood was brilliant as Elle, delivering a<br />
performance that was both hilarious and vulnerable. It is a<br />
hugely challenging role musically and Hattie demonstrated<br />
fantastic technique, particularly in the powerhouse first<br />
act closer So Much Better. Billy Gardiner and Oscar Niblett<br />
played the men in her life – her pompous ex-boyfriend<br />
Warner, who tells Elle he wants ‘less Marilyn, more Jackie’,<br />
and the hapless but sweet-natured junior lawyer, Emmet.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were a series of brilliant cameos throughout the<br />
production, including two for whom this was their final<br />
performance on the Ashton stage. Isla Britten was fantastic<br />
as the hopelessly romantic beautician Paulette, who<br />
pines after the handsome UPS delivery man (Tom Daly),<br />
while Kate Woodman played Brooke Wyndham, a fitness
42 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
guru wrongfully accused of her husband’s murder. Kate’s<br />
number Whipped into Shape was a virtuoso combination of<br />
singing, skipping and masterful comic timing, and a fitting<br />
finale for her <strong>Salopian</strong> drama career.<br />
This was a hugely impressive production, and particular<br />
praise must go to Daisy for masterminding the whole affair<br />
with such professionalism and aplomb.<br />
House Plays<br />
This year has seen a wide variety of house productions: Peter<br />
Pan (Moser’s Hall), <strong>The</strong> History Boys (Churchill’s Hall), <strong>The</strong><br />
Wedding (Ingram’s Hall) and Black Comedy (Severn Hill).<br />
Over a hundred students were involved, either performing or<br />
backstage, and it has been a joy to see so many making their<br />
theatrical debuts.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Rankin Cup is awarded to Moser’s Hall (pictured below),<br />
and the cup for Best Performance in a House Play is awarded<br />
to Sam Unsworth of Severn Hill.
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
43<br />
In <strong>2023</strong>, we have celebrated the<br />
350th anniversary of John Weaver,<br />
the ‘dancing master’ of Shrewsbury<br />
from 1720 to 1760. Weaver was a<br />
highly esteemed choreographer and<br />
producer, creating works such as <strong>The</strong><br />
Loves of Mars and Venus and Orpheus<br />
and Eurydice which were performed<br />
at the royal court and in the West<br />
End. He combined Italian Commedia<br />
dell’Arte with classical mythology and<br />
French court dance to create the first<br />
truly English ballet. Weaver wanted to<br />
elevate dance to the same artistic status<br />
as theatre, believing that dance could<br />
communicate story and feeling without<br />
the commentary of speech or song. He<br />
was also an accomplished writer and<br />
academic, developing his own system<br />
of dance notation which is still used<br />
today. Dance is a uniquely transient art<br />
form, but Weaver’s system has enabled<br />
generations of choreographers to pass<br />
on their work to later dancers.<br />
We celebrated Weaver’s legacy with a<br />
series of events, including an exhibition<br />
of his work in the Moser Library, a<br />
lecture by renowned dance historian,<br />
Moira Goff, our inaugural dance<br />
competition and the annual dance<br />
<strong>The</strong> John Weaver Dance Festival<br />
showcase, which this year was inspired<br />
by Weaver’s influence on English ballet.<br />
<strong>The</strong> festival began with the showcase,<br />
which was performed to enthusiastic<br />
audiences on Friday and Saturday<br />
night. Over fifty students took part,<br />
which is testament to the growth of<br />
dance at Shrewsbury over the last few<br />
years under the inspirational leadership<br />
of Sian Stanhope and Olivia Jones.<br />
All of the performances demonstrated<br />
great skill and enthusiasm, from Clara<br />
Garavini’s jazz routine to the exquisite<br />
ballet solos of Emily Martell, Cordelia<br />
Hebblethwaite, Will O’Hagan and<br />
Bethan Reid and the dynamic hip<br />
hop trio of Rebekah Liu, Joey Pang<br />
and Nami Chusang. <strong>The</strong> finale of the<br />
showcase was a fantastic contemporary<br />
group number to Bring me Out of the<br />
Dark, performed by our Intermediate<br />
Contemporary Team.<br />
This team, alongside groups from six<br />
other schools across Shropshire, took<br />
part in Shrewsbury’s inaugural dance<br />
competition on Saturday. Moira Goff<br />
was joined as adjudicator by Rosie<br />
Price, a dancer and teacher from<br />
Elmhurst School of Ballet and Rambert<br />
School of Contemporary Dance. We<br />
welcomed competitors in all age<br />
groups from Primary to Senior, with the<br />
winners of each heat going through to<br />
the Grand Final on Sunday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> standard of competition was<br />
incredibly high, and it was wonderful<br />
to see so many students passionate<br />
about dance as an art form.<br />
On Sunday, we were delighted to<br />
welcome the Lord Lieutenant of<br />
Shropshire, Anna Turner, to present the<br />
Weaver Cup – and even more delighted<br />
when our team were announced as the<br />
overall winner. <strong>The</strong> adjudicators praised<br />
the piece’s imaginative and challenging<br />
choreography, and the emotional<br />
commitment of all the dancers.<br />
1st – Shrewsbury School<br />
2nd – Katie Crosland Dance Company<br />
3rd – Packwood Haugh<br />
We would like to thank all those<br />
who helped make the festival<br />
possible, particularly Maggie Love,<br />
Moira Goff, Rosie Price, Anna<br />
Turner, Laura Whitrick, and all the<br />
participants.
44 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Music<br />
Director of Music Maria McKenzie looks back on an eventful first year in post.<br />
What a thoroughly enjoyable<br />
and opportunity-filled first year<br />
I have had; from the collaborative<br />
performance given by the then new<br />
Third Form in September, to nurturing<br />
the virtuosic abilities of some of our<br />
top musicians, the exquisite detail<br />
encouraged in detailed rehearsals or<br />
the enjoyment of Thursday evening Big<br />
Band marathons, it has certainly been a<br />
year to remember.<br />
An incredibly busy year has featured<br />
too many performances to mention, but<br />
highlights include the annual weekend<br />
of St Cecilia concerts, exceptional<br />
chamber and solo recitals in Didsbury,<br />
Manchester and Ludlow in January, a<br />
lively and enjoyable evening of Jazz<br />
in <strong>The</strong> Barnes that featured over 100<br />
students in aid of the local Foodbank,<br />
an exquisite Evening of Song from <strong>The</strong><br />
Great American Songbook, showcasing<br />
our exceptional vocal talent across<br />
the various years, a debut Evensong<br />
at St Paul’s Cathedral and a rather<br />
spectacular Gala Concert in April, here<br />
in the Alington Hall.<br />
Well, where do I begin? Singing<br />
Evensong in St Paul’s to a sizeable<br />
congregation, including some notable<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s, is something that will<br />
be remembered by all the performers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sublime quality of choral timbres<br />
was appreciated by all and it iscertainly<br />
an event to repeat. From choral to<br />
orchestral, we embarked on two<br />
impressively large ensemble concerts<br />
this year. <strong>The</strong> first was the Friday<br />
evening of the St Cecilia celebrations<br />
which featured the Concert Band,<br />
String Orchestra, Wind Orchestra and<br />
Symphony Orchestra in an exciting<br />
programme including works by<br />
Horovitz and Greig, culminating with<br />
Wagner’s Maestersingers Overture<br />
and Mars and Jupiter from Holst’s<br />
<strong>The</strong> Planets. Our musicians were on<br />
fine form, performing throughout<br />
to an exceptional standard, with<br />
professionalism, musicality, enthusiasm<br />
and passion – what more could you<br />
want? <strong>The</strong> Gala Concert in April was<br />
another opportunity to celebrate<br />
our fantastic musicians, and that we<br />
certainly did. From the triumphant<br />
brass, the exquisite wind playing and<br />
some sumptuous string performances,<br />
the whole concert was as enjoyable<br />
for us as it was for the audience. <strong>The</strong><br />
programme was themed Celebration<br />
and included some Coronationinspired<br />
repertoire selected especially<br />
for the occasion.<br />
<strong>The</strong> annual Jazz in the Barnes just<br />
before the February Exeat, raising funds<br />
for the local Foodbank, is always an<br />
enjoyable evening and this year was<br />
no exception. Those lucky enough to<br />
have been present were privileged to<br />
be part of a transient, brilliant, musical<br />
moment that featured performances<br />
by the growing Jazz Band (now nearly<br />
30 in size!) under the direction of<br />
Katy Landon, Head of Wind, Brass<br />
& Percussion, the talented All Things<br />
Jazz combo, giving a female-only<br />
performance of Twenty-First Century<br />
Woman by Alexander L’Estrange, all<br />
culminating in an explosive finale by<br />
the Big Band.<br />
To support the increasing number of<br />
top-level musicians here at Shrewsbury<br />
we have reconnected our links with<br />
the Royal Northern College of Music<br />
(RNCM) and have been fortunate to<br />
have had visits from Andy Stott, Head<br />
of the Popular Music course, Chris<br />
Hoyle, Head of Strings, and Catherine<br />
Yates, Deputy Head of Strings,<br />
accompanied by some RNCM students<br />
to give workshops and masterclasses.
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
45<br />
Music prizes<br />
Our internal music prizes were expertly<br />
adjudicated by professional musicians<br />
from across the UK.<br />
This year our adjudicators were:<br />
Richard Howarth – String Prize<br />
Katherine Page – Piano Prize<br />
Anthony Howe– Brass Prize<br />
Jennifer Hutchinson – Wind Prize<br />
Dan Ludford-Thomas - Singing Prize<br />
As ever, the competitions were hotly<br />
contested and generated huge amounts<br />
of practice, always encouraged! This<br />
year the prizes were awarded as<br />
follows:<br />
Brass Prize – Outstanding Soloist –<br />
Sam Hui (I U6) – Euphonium<br />
Senior Classical Singing Prize –<br />
Billy Gardiner (SH L6)<br />
Senior Contemporary Commercial Vocal<br />
Music Prize – Kate Woodman (M U6)<br />
Senior Piano Prize – Marina Kam<br />
(EDH 5)<br />
Senior Wind Prize – Natalia Toms<br />
(EDH L6) - Saxophone<br />
Senior String Prize – Ethan Poon<br />
(I U6) – Violin<br />
Individual successes<br />
As you would expect, in a thriving department there are number of individuals<br />
who should be celebrated; Arthur Hope Barton (I U6), who in addition to<br />
performing for us weekly in Chapel has been awarded a Gap Year Organ<br />
Scholarship at Sherborne School. Three students, Jay Wu (SH U6), who has<br />
gained a place at the Royal Academy of Music to study viola from September,<br />
Sam Hui (I U6) (euphonium) and Marina Kam (EDH 5) (percussion)<br />
who were successful in making the final of the prestigious Gregynog Young<br />
Musician of the Year in November. Despite being an incredibly competitive<br />
competition attracting entries from a national field, Marina was awarded<br />
Percussion Finalist and Sam Brass Finalist. All three played incredibly well and<br />
should be very proud of their performances. Five of our students competed<br />
in the final eight in the Concord College Concerto Competition during Coach<br />
Weekend in March. <strong>The</strong> finalists were; Bob Li (S 4) (bassoon), Max Hu (Rt<br />
3) (violin), Jay Wu (violin), Jia Shin Quek (Rt U6) (piano) and Marina Kam<br />
(marimba). <strong>The</strong> competition was tough, with all of our students performing to<br />
a high level, playing with exceptional musicianship and impressive technique.<br />
<strong>The</strong> winner was Marina Kam.<br />
Marina, a particularly busy music student, has also recently competed in the<br />
Coach House Piano Schools Competition and was awarded 3rd place in this<br />
national competition. Marina conveyed the different styles and genres of<br />
each piece superbly. <strong>The</strong> finale of pieces byLiszt and Granados provided the<br />
perfect climax both musically and technically, enabling her to fully convey her<br />
exquisite talent for the piano. Two of our younger students, Mia Hirawaka<br />
(G 4) (cello) and Richard Wolskel (Rb 4) (double bass) auditioned and<br />
were selected as section leaders in the National Children’s Orchestra (NCO)<br />
performing amongst other repertoire the fiendishly difficult Dances from West<br />
Side Story by Bernstein. Richard Pinsent (Rb 3) (flute) has been selected for<br />
the NCO this academic year. Finally, we congratulate Ivo Winkley (Rb L6)<br />
and Natalia Toms (EDH L6) who have both been awarded a place in the<br />
band in the National Youth Musical <strong>The</strong>atre this summer.<br />
Choral Highlights<br />
Arguably the highlight of the musical<br />
calendar in the Michaelmas term<br />
was the pair of St Cecilia concerts,<br />
celebrating the patron saint of music.<br />
<strong>The</strong> second of these concerts focused<br />
on a choral theme, with the centrepiece<br />
of the concert being the massed choral<br />
performance of John Rutter’s evocative<br />
Requiem. <strong>The</strong> first half saw a series<br />
of choral items sung with poise and<br />
nuance by the Chamber Choir before<br />
Arthur Hope Barton and Marina<br />
Kam performed Gerald Finzi’s lyrical<br />
Eclogue. <strong>The</strong> final moments of the first<br />
half were a collaborative effort between<br />
the Chamber Choir and Community<br />
Choir, giving the audience a flavour of<br />
the power of a massed choir of some<br />
130 voices. John Rutter’s Requiem<br />
possesses many changing moods and<br />
following the impending and gloomy<br />
opening, the dulcet melodies of the<br />
Kyrie shone through. <strong>The</strong>re were<br />
beautiful vocal solos in the Pie Jesu and<br />
Lux Aeterna by Annabel Thompstone<br />
and Iris Downes respectively, whilst<br />
special mention should also go to<br />
Godwin Yuen for his wonderful oboe<br />
playing, a sensitive cello solo from Jia<br />
Shin Quek alongside superb ensemble<br />
playing from the student orchestra.<br />
Soon after this memorable concert, the<br />
choir were in fine voice for the series<br />
of Carol Services which followed. At<br />
the end of a busy term of singing, they<br />
should be extremely proud to have<br />
produced three services of such musical<br />
subtlety and nuance.<br />
Throughout the course of the year,<br />
the choir have sung some wonderful<br />
anthems from the staple repertoire<br />
of the Anglican tradition. Particular<br />
highlights have been Elgar’s Spirit<br />
of the Lord, Wesley’s Blessed be<br />
the God and Father, Finzi’s God is<br />
gone up and perhaps the highlight,<br />
Stanford’s tumultuous For Lo, I raise<br />
up. As a result, their ability to learn<br />
new repertoire on a weekly basis has<br />
enhanced their sightreading skills but<br />
also provided great variety within the<br />
weekly services.<br />
On Sunday 19th March, they<br />
performed a programme based on<br />
<strong>The</strong> Great American Songbook. This<br />
was an exciting project in which they<br />
grappled with the jazz style within<br />
a choral medium. Alongside some<br />
consort singing in groups of six or<br />
seven singers, the Chamber Choir<br />
sang Alexander L’Estrange’s upbeat<br />
arrangement of Lullaby of Birdland<br />
and an eight-part interpretation of<br />
Over the Rainbow whilst they were<br />
joined by a jazz combo to perform<br />
Hoagy Carmichael’s Skylark with Kate<br />
Woodman taking centre stage as the<br />
vocal soloist. A series of lovely vocal<br />
solos and an instrumental arrangement<br />
of Moon River followed to provide a<br />
lovely evening of lighter music, fitting<br />
for a Sunday evening.
46 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
One of the major landmarks of the<br />
choral year was the Chapel Choir’s<br />
invitation to sing Evensong at St<br />
Paul’s Cathedral in London in April.<br />
With the inspiration of singing in<br />
such a famous and iconic acoustic,<br />
the choir sang with great skill and<br />
style. In an acoustic delay of a mere<br />
seven seconds, the attention to<br />
detail in both diction and phrasing<br />
was testament to their hard work as<br />
the Rose Reponses and Psalm were<br />
controlled very effectively. Walmisley’s<br />
dynamic setting in D Minor provided<br />
the tenors and basses with plenty of<br />
melodic lines, whilst the reflective<br />
solo quartet in the Magnificat was<br />
beautifully effected by Eva Garavini,<br />
Rose Farquharson, Billy Gardiner and<br />
Branton Zhao. Wesley’s Blessed be<br />
the God and Father is a staple of the<br />
choral tradition, often heard in many<br />
cathedrals around the land, and this<br />
epic anthem was beautifully crafted<br />
with Annabel Thompstone singing with<br />
great understanding and musicality in<br />
the soprano solo. As with all musical<br />
experiences, the opportunity to sing<br />
in such a wonderful setting will<br />
last long in the memories for those<br />
choristers fortunate enough to attend.<br />
Finally, special mention must go to<br />
both Branton Zhao and Annabel<br />
Thompstone, this year’s Choregi,<br />
who have set a wonderful example<br />
to all members of the choir with their<br />
leadership, musicianship, commitment<br />
and dedication.<br />
Richard Stafford<br />
Meet Ethan Poon and Clara McAllister<br />
Ethan Poon (I U6), a Music Scholar,<br />
has the double distinction of being<br />
both Leader of the Symphony Orchestra<br />
(violin) and of the Big Band (drums).<br />
What has been your most<br />
memorable musical experience<br />
during your five years at Shrewsbury?<br />
My most memorable musical<br />
experiences have been taking part in<br />
the yearly Prep School Big Band Days<br />
which, strangely enough, are some<br />
of the few times I don’t actually play<br />
much music. <strong>The</strong> process of meeting<br />
a group of drummers with varying<br />
skill levels, helping them learn new<br />
repertoire, then having them perform,<br />
all within the space of a couple of<br />
hours is a really rewarding experience.<br />
What opportunities do you feel you<br />
have gained as a Music Scholar?<br />
As a Music Scholar who plays two very<br />
different instruments, I’ve been given<br />
many opportunities to perform in many<br />
new and contrasting environments,<br />
such as in the Elgar Concert Hall in<br />
Birmingham or the Tabernacle in<br />
Machynlleth.<br />
Which performance will stay with<br />
you forever?<br />
Although they weren’t necessarily<br />
entirely music-oriented performances,<br />
the shows I did up in Edinburgh for<br />
Gatsby are some of the most fun I’ve<br />
had in general. <strong>The</strong> pressure from<br />
having to perform in front of an<br />
audience that had no relation to the<br />
School at all, combined with the need<br />
to impress them to get good reviews<br />
made for a somewhat stressful, but<br />
totally memorable experience.<br />
Clara McAllister (EDH 3) is a Third<br />
Form Music Scholar specialising in<br />
singing and cello.<br />
What has been your most<br />
memorable musical experience<br />
during your first year at Shrewsbury?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re have been so many amazing<br />
musical highlights this year, such as<br />
the many concerts that I have taken<br />
part in, so it is difficult to pick just one!<br />
However, I think I would probably<br />
have to choose the unforgettable day<br />
we spent in London when the Chapel<br />
Choir got to sing Evensong at St Paul’s<br />
Cathedral. It was an absolutely magical<br />
day. We sang such beautiful pieces and<br />
in the most stunning surroundings. It<br />
was certainly an experience that will<br />
always stay with me.<br />
Has having the title Music Scholar<br />
given you extra opportunities?<br />
Being a Music Scholar has really given<br />
me so many opportunities in all areas<br />
of music and I feel very fortunate to be<br />
part of such a fantastic community. I<br />
am learning so much every day from<br />
such talented and creative people,<br />
both teachers and students. As well as<br />
the many concerts and performances<br />
throughout the year, I have really enjoyed<br />
having the opportunity to sing with<br />
the local the Community Choir and the<br />
chance to perform at local schools.<br />
What makes a Music Scholar<br />
different at Shrewsbury?<br />
Being a Music Scholar at Shrewsbury<br />
feels like being part of a family.<br />
Everyone in the Music Department<br />
is so supportive and encouraging<br />
and I felt so welcomed and at home<br />
there from the very beginning. It is<br />
such a busy environment and there<br />
is always something going on in the<br />
Maidment Building, which is fantastic<br />
as it means there’s always something<br />
to get involved in. What I find special<br />
about Shrewsbury is that although<br />
I am a Music Scholar, I am still fully<br />
encouraged and supported to be a part<br />
of other aspects of school life, such as
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
47<br />
sport. This is really important to me<br />
as I also very much enjoy sport. This<br />
year I have played fives, football and in<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> term I really enjoyed rowing.<br />
What made you decide to apply for<br />
a Music Scholarship?<br />
I decided to try for a Music Scholarship<br />
as music has always been one of my<br />
passions. In my previous school, St<br />
Peter’s York, I was a chorister at York<br />
Minster, where we usually sang five<br />
services each week and so choral<br />
singing was such a big part of my life,<br />
and one which I enjoyed so much.<br />
I also play cello and piano, and so<br />
at St Peter’s I was part of the string<br />
orchestra and various other music<br />
ensembles. I really wanted to continue<br />
with my music at Shrewsbury School,<br />
and so I thought I should give a Music<br />
Scholarship a try!<br />
What advice would you give an<br />
incoming Music Scholar?<br />
I would advise the new Music Scholars<br />
to throw themselves into every<br />
opportunity that comes their way. Life<br />
at Shrewsbury is so busy, with many<br />
musical opportunities on offer, as well<br />
as academics, sport, drama, House<br />
events, and all the other areas of school<br />
life. I would say to the new Music<br />
Scholars, get involved in it all, and most<br />
importantly, enjoy all of the fantastic<br />
experiences that you will have!<br />
Grade 8 & Diploma success<br />
Chloe Thomas - Flute - Grade 8 Distinction<br />
Meadow Perks – Singing - Grade 8 Distinction<br />
Angel Lai - Singing - Grade 8 Distinction<br />
Anna Mallett - Singing - Grade 8 Distinction<br />
Rose Farquharson - Singing - Grade 8 Distinction<br />
Will Himmer - Jazz Saxophone - Grade 8 Distinction<br />
Jia Shin Quek - Cello - Grade 8 Distinction<br />
Stephen Jiang - Clarinet - Grade 8 Distinction<br />
Diplomas<br />
Richard Pinsent - Flute - ATCL<br />
Godwin Yuen - Oboe - ATCL<br />
Eva Garavini – Singing - ARSM Distinction<br />
Symphonic Sunday<br />
Symphonic Sunday, our communitybased<br />
children’s orchestra for students<br />
of around Grade 3 and above, has had<br />
an excellent year with four rehearsal<br />
sessions and a gala concert on 18th<br />
June in the Alington Hall.<br />
In addition to the regular orchestra,<br />
there is now another orchestra for<br />
younger musicians just starting out! <strong>The</strong><br />
Symphonic Sunday Sinfonia is aimed at<br />
students who can play five notes up to<br />
around Grade 3.<br />
We have enjoyed all sorts of music<br />
from Handel to Beethoven and beyond,<br />
and film music from Batman to <strong>The</strong><br />
Polar Express. A first for the orchestra<br />
this year was to play with a choir too<br />
in Zadok Rules by Alexander L’Estrange.<br />
<strong>The</strong> students enjoy the lovely<br />
atmosphere of the Maidment on a<br />
quiet Sunday and the pattern of expert<br />
sectionals taken by the music teaching<br />
staff here and the full orchestra<br />
directed by Maria McKenzie. Another<br />
first this year was for the orchestra to<br />
play with a choir formed of students<br />
from Radbrook Primary School and<br />
Packwood Haugh Prep School.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are nearly always places available<br />
for anyone looking to join in.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is an online application form<br />
on the School website. <strong>The</strong> QR code<br />
below takes you to the relevant page.
48<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
All Things Jazz<br />
Serendipity is a wonderful thing and<br />
can sometimes lead to an extended<br />
period of grace. It doesn’t happen<br />
often that a group of young musicians<br />
all land up at the same School, at the<br />
same time, all with extraordinary talent,<br />
discover each other and make magic<br />
happen. Such is the transitory nature of<br />
schools that this can only be called ‘a<br />
period of grace’.<br />
In late 2021 Kathryn Turpin, in her<br />
Concert Party activity on Thursdays,<br />
spotted the opportunity to group<br />
together some musicians in a jazz<br />
format she quaintly named <strong>The</strong> Baby<br />
Big Band. This group metamorphosed<br />
over time to become what is now<br />
known as All Things Jazz.<br />
<strong>The</strong> band consists of Ethan Poon<br />
(drums), Jensen Kong (bass), Ed<br />
Pickersgill (piano, trumpet & vocals),<br />
Kate Woodman (vocals), Ivo Winkley<br />
(trumpet & piano), Billy Gardiner<br />
(vocals) and Max Darke (saxophone).<br />
<strong>The</strong>y have pursued the genuine<br />
jazz experience of creating head<br />
arrangements of Jazz Standards from<br />
lead sheets or recordings (ie no written<br />
arrangements) and opened each one<br />
up with extended improvisations. <strong>The</strong><br />
ensemble is the epitome of musical<br />
democracy, led with gentle authority by<br />
the inimitable and multi-talented Ethan<br />
Poon, with only occasional direction<br />
provided by staff.<br />
This calendar year alone, besides<br />
countless Thursday afternoon<br />
performances at local care homes<br />
and primary schools, the band has<br />
performed at three Open Mic nights,<br />
Jazz at the Barnes <strong>The</strong>atre, twice at the<br />
Hencote Restaurant, Attingham Park’s<br />
Coronation celebrations and the REVS<br />
Classic Car Rally at Trinity Church in<br />
Meole Brace. <strong>The</strong>y will also provide<br />
parents with an elegant backdrop to<br />
their pre-concert drinks at the Jazz in<br />
the Big Tent on the eve of Speech Day.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir star continues to rise!<br />
Mike Skipper<br />
Upper Sixth Leavers<br />
From his early days at Shrewsbury<br />
as a soaring treble to his impressive<br />
leadership as Choregus over the last<br />
year, Branton Zhao has always<br />
been a consummate musician with a<br />
wholehearted commitment to choral<br />
singing.<br />
Lwsi Roberts has effortlessly<br />
embraced many different styles of<br />
singing during her time at Shrewsbury,<br />
from opera to the open mic nights,<br />
and has introduced the Shrewsbury<br />
audience to the beautiful Welsh<br />
repertoire she makes so much<br />
her own.<br />
Annabel Thompstone has been<br />
a stalwart member of the choral<br />
community since arriving at<br />
Shrewsbury, and has been both<br />
charming and inspirational in her<br />
leadership of her House singing and<br />
as Choregus, culminating in a beautiful<br />
solo in the recent evensong at St Paul’s<br />
Cathedral.<br />
Eva Garavini has worked tirelessly to<br />
develop her singing and musicianship<br />
over the last five years and was<br />
recently rewarded with a Distinction in<br />
her Diploma – a huge achievement for<br />
a singer still at school.<br />
Although only starting his school<br />
singing career in the Fifth Form, Guy<br />
Davies’ quick vocal progress and<br />
natural stage presence meant that he
SCHOOL NEWS 49<br />
was soon taking leading roles in our<br />
successful productions of Gatsby and<br />
Chicago.<br />
Reuben Lindsay-Bowen has one of<br />
the most beautiful voices to have been<br />
heard at Shrewsbury in recent years<br />
and was a committed member of the<br />
outreach Concert Party group for two<br />
years, bringing much pleasure to all<br />
who heard him.<br />
Although competing as an athlete at<br />
national and international level meets,<br />
Iris Downes has still found time<br />
to sing with immense artistry, vocal<br />
beauty and natural musicianship in the<br />
full range of musical opportunities that<br />
Shrewsbury offers.<br />
Eleanor Keulemans has embraced<br />
singing at Shrewsbury in all its many<br />
forms, with poise and vocal beauty<br />
throughout, and has made a real<br />
impact with the elegance of her<br />
performances over the last year in<br />
particular.<br />
Gabby Taylor arrived at Shrewsbury<br />
like a whirlwind determined to do<br />
as much singing as possible, and has<br />
sung at every possible opportunity<br />
since then, from open mic nights to<br />
soloist at the St Cecilia concerts.<br />
Kate Woodman has been a<br />
consummate professional in her<br />
approach to her singing during her<br />
time at Shrewsbury, shining in many<br />
productions both within and outside<br />
school over the last five years, as well<br />
as being a mainstay of the alto (and<br />
also tenor!) lines in the Chapel and<br />
Chamber Choirs.<br />
Jasper Heath has been a huge asset<br />
in Jazz Band over the last five years.<br />
His confidence as a saxophonist has<br />
helped to build the Jazz Band to the<br />
ensemble that it is today. Jasper is a<br />
keen soloist and has been a strong<br />
leader in the saxophone section - his<br />
enthusiasm will be greatly missed by<br />
all on Tuesday evenings.<br />
Sam Hui has been an exceptional<br />
musician in both dedication and<br />
musical ability. It has been a pleasure<br />
to have such an accomplished Tuba,<br />
and more recently Euphonium,<br />
player at Shrewsbury. Sam has been<br />
involved in many ensembles at school<br />
including Symphony Orchestra, Wind<br />
Orchestra and Brass Quintet. He has<br />
performed on numerous occasions<br />
both as a soloist and in many different<br />
ensembles; a particular highlight<br />
was winning the Brass final of the<br />
prestigious Greygnog Young Musician<br />
Competition.<br />
Elliot Inger has been an exemplary<br />
Music Scholar throughout his time<br />
at Shrewsbury; his musicianship has<br />
grown from strength to strength over<br />
the last five years. Highlights for Elliot<br />
have been his performance of the<br />
Kamen Concerto in the Gala Concert<br />
and achieving an LTCL diploma on<br />
the saxophone. Elliot leaves us as a<br />
musically proficient saxophonist and<br />
clarinettist.<br />
Joyce Li should be proud of her<br />
achievements over the last five<br />
years. She leaves with a distinction<br />
in her flute LTCL diploma, a huge<br />
accomplishment. <strong>The</strong> maturity and<br />
musicianship in her performance is<br />
of a level rarely seen in students of<br />
this age. Joyce has been the principal<br />
flautist of Symphony Orchestra, Wind<br />
Orchestra and Flute Quartet during<br />
her time at Shrewsbury, her efforts<br />
rewarded with an honorary Music<br />
Scholarship in the Sixth Form.<br />
Since Third Form, Sam Wan has been<br />
involved with many aspects of musical<br />
life at Shrewsbury. Over the last few<br />
years, he has been principal clarinettist<br />
of both Symphony Orchestra and<br />
Wind Orchestra, played in several<br />
chamber ensembles and been a valued<br />
member of the Music Department.<br />
As a trumpeter, vocalist and jazz<br />
pianist, Edward Pickersgill has been<br />
an enthusiastic musician particularly<br />
in the genres of Jazz and Pop. A<br />
confident, talented and often lively<br />
member of an ensemble, his musicality<br />
and ability have really flourished<br />
during his Sixth Form. An exquisite<br />
voice, extraordinary ability to scream<br />
any trumpet line and flair for playing<br />
a set of jazz chords on the piano have<br />
enabled Ed to make a real name for<br />
himself at Shrewsbury.<br />
Rufus Thornhill will go down in<br />
history as someone who not only<br />
emptied every first aid box in the<br />
Maidment of plasters, stained the<br />
Congas (blood) red after a lengthy<br />
gig and yet was considered the ‘really<br />
cool guy’ at the back of the Big Band,<br />
improvising his way through any style<br />
or genre. Rufus will be missed but<br />
always remembered as setting the<br />
tradition for having a permanent conga<br />
player in Big Band!<br />
An exceptional musician, through and<br />
through, Godwin Yuen has made a<br />
lasting impression on the department<br />
and has made outstanding progress<br />
during his five years here, culminating<br />
in achieving a Distinction in his ATCL<br />
Oboe diploma. In addition to the<br />
copious ensembles that Godwin has<br />
been part of, he is also an incredibly<br />
talented pianist. We certainly hope that<br />
his music journey is not ending here.<br />
As a Music Scholar, Godwin has been<br />
reliable and committed, so talented yet<br />
so modest.<br />
Jacky Chan will be greatly missed<br />
around the Music School. Often selfdeprecating<br />
but unfailingly caring<br />
of others, Jacky was a central player<br />
in string activities for five years. An<br />
excellent soloist, he won the top<br />
prize for a string solo in the annual<br />
competition in only the Fourth Form<br />
and has appeared in quartets and as<br />
co-leader of the String Orchestra for<br />
a long time. A cheeky smile and the<br />
ability to play the violin excellently are<br />
two fond memories as he leaves us.<br />
Jay Wu has been a non-stop force<br />
of nature. A brilliant viola and violin<br />
player, his place at the Royal Academy<br />
of Music secures his reputation as<br />
a recent superstar. Although quiet<br />
in person, Jay’s musicality and<br />
commitment shine through in his<br />
solo playing and he has been a<br />
fearsome member of quartets and<br />
duos. He has tirelessly come to the<br />
rescue of ensemble pieces played<br />
by all standards of string players and<br />
deservedly won the top prize in the<br />
string competition at the first go. It<br />
is likely we will see him again in the<br />
future to support our Shrewsbury<br />
concerts and other local musical<br />
events.<br />
Modest but keen to achieve, Jia Shin<br />
Quek has blessed us with both his<br />
piano and cello playing over the last<br />
two years. After some early nerves,<br />
he settled into solo performing<br />
well and hit the heights of concerto<br />
appearances in external competitions<br />
and here also. Ever-studious, Jia Shin is<br />
never short of a supportive comment<br />
or an ultra-polite request for help with<br />
his own music. He will be missed<br />
across the Department, and we hope<br />
to hear of his continued development<br />
on both instruments. Something of<br />
a fashion icon, Jia Shin has set new<br />
standards of Haute Couture coupled<br />
with Haute Baroque!<br />
Chloe Cheung arrived with a<br />
reputation for intensely musical violin<br />
playing and occasionally audacious<br />
violin antics. A quiet, thoughtful young<br />
lady, Chloe has been in the mix right<br />
at the front of chamber music and<br />
orchestras, always being there to bring<br />
beautiful playing to any situation. She<br />
has an uncanny ability to go up and<br />
down the violin when everyone else<br />
stays in the stratosphere (!) and is<br />
always reliable under pressure. Often<br />
very busy, Chloe has supported ad<br />
hoc ensembles and been a wonderful<br />
addition to the 1st violins in many<br />
concerts. We all wish her well!
50 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Max Hu impressed us all with his<br />
violin playing from the very first<br />
concert. He has a rare ability to get<br />
around the instrument extraordinarily<br />
well and always plays with passion and<br />
intensity. As the leader of the top string<br />
quartet, String Orchestra and co-leader<br />
of the Symphony Orchestra, Max has<br />
shown he is equally at home playing<br />
with ensembles as in a duo with a<br />
piano. Although not known for the<br />
best counting, Max expresses himself<br />
every time he puts bow to string and is<br />
a player everyone looked up to for one<br />
reason or another. His efforts in the<br />
Concord College concerto competition<br />
two years running will live long in the<br />
memory. We wish him all the best as<br />
he moves on.<br />
Better known to some as Amadeus,<br />
Morricone, Tarantino, Voodoo Child,<br />
Laurie Morgan is an original thinker<br />
and a poster boy for alternative rock<br />
fans. He has left an indelible mark on<br />
the theatrical stage here at Shrewsbury,<br />
but will also be remembered<br />
for his insouciant introductions,<br />
performances, and leadership of Open<br />
Mic Nights.<br />
Eclectic talents like Ethan Poon are<br />
not often seen. It is difficult to imagine<br />
that such a highly skilled violinist and<br />
leader of the Symphony Orchestra<br />
could also be the superbly talented<br />
drummer that leads the Big Band<br />
(known as ‘Big Daddy’) and All Things<br />
Jazz. On top of all of this, he is also a<br />
Mathematician and a Physicist.<br />
It is extremely rare that a school is<br />
in a position where they can rely on<br />
a student accompanist. Throughout<br />
the course of his Upper Sixth year,<br />
however, Arthur Hope Barton has<br />
revealed both his musical and stylistic<br />
prowess on the organ. Performing at a<br />
level most university graduates would<br />
be proud of, alongside supporting<br />
the weekly chapel service routine,<br />
it has been a total privilege to see<br />
Arthur hone his accompanying skills<br />
this year, with a possible culmination<br />
being the opportunity to play on the<br />
organ at St Paul’s Cathedral. Arthur<br />
has contributed a huge amount to the<br />
musical life of the School and certainly<br />
has a bright musical future which we<br />
will follow with interest.
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
51<br />
It has been another typically busy end to the academic<br />
calendar in the Art Faculty with all the usual Lent term<br />
prep school art events, outreach screen-printing workshops<br />
at <strong>The</strong> Priory School and the final installation of our outreach<br />
mosaic in Meole Brace Primary School.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are some exciting new outreach projects in the<br />
pipeline for next academic year, so watch this space! This<br />
year, however, we are sad to say goodbye to two of our<br />
most well-loved members of the art team. Rubia Rose<br />
Southcott has been a dynamic and enthusiastic Art Fellow<br />
on a two-year placement following her degree at Ruskin<br />
College, Oxford. She has been a cornerstone of the Faculty,<br />
assisting both students and staff in the day-to-day running<br />
and the creation of ambitious outcomes. Rubia now moves<br />
on to pastures new back in her hometown of London as a<br />
professional visual artist.<br />
ART<br />
Stewart Harrison has led the teaching of Art History in the<br />
Faculty for the last five years with expertise and energy. <strong>The</strong><br />
subject has been enlivened by his presence, the learning<br />
environment of the lecture theatre is carefully decorated<br />
with interesting and helpful material on the walls and<br />
his students will miss his densely packed, interesting and<br />
engaging lessons in the subject. Stewart is looking forward to<br />
enjoying his retirement focusing on his many interests (he is a<br />
Renaissance man!) including photography, travel, music and<br />
photomontage.<br />
Next year we look forward to welcoming two new members<br />
for the team: our new Art Fellow, printmaker and book artist<br />
Rachel Lloyd; and Art Historian Bella Winkley from Benenden<br />
School in Kent.<br />
Lucy Caddel<br />
Rubia Rose Southcott<br />
Stewart Harrison<br />
MEOLE BRACE PRIMARY MOSAIC
52 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
A LEVEL ART<br />
Eleanor Keulemans<br />
Buster Read<br />
Tom Ross<br />
Mia Wyatt<br />
Rose Tempest
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
53<br />
Emma Cocliffe<br />
Grace Lyu<br />
Harry Clarkson Webb<br />
Liberty Clarke<br />
Orlando Bayliss
54 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
GCSE ART<br />
Charlotte Taylor<br />
Clemmy Sowden<br />
Grace Shan Henry Hollins Iona Biggs Lovell<br />
Kara Hundermark<br />
Lyla Williams<br />
Molly White
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
55<br />
CCF<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cadet Cambrian Patrol is the premier national Army<br />
Cadet competition, held at the infamous UK Ministry of<br />
Defence Sennybridge Training Area in South Wales. It is<br />
designed to test the skills, teamwork, fitness and leadership<br />
abilities of some of the best CCF cadets in the country.<br />
This year, Shrewsbury’s Army Section Cambrian Patrol team<br />
won the tremendous accolade of achieving a gold medal.<br />
This achievement places them in the premier league of<br />
Army Section teams.<br />
Geography teacher Captain Charlie Kenzie (Officer<br />
Commanding the Shrewsbury Army Section) was glowing<br />
in his praise of the team’s success:<br />
“I cannot overstate the significance of this achievement<br />
and how proud I am of the team. <strong>The</strong> competition is<br />
truly gruelling: sleep deprivation and upwards of 30km<br />
patrolling across difficult ground, whilst completing infantry<br />
activities such as Section Attacks, take a huge physical and<br />
mental toll on your body. Having spent eight years as a<br />
front-line Infantry Officer in the British Army, I know and<br />
understand the extent of the challenges they faced over the<br />
weekend. I can say with utter certainty, that there are some<br />
regular soldiers who would have struggled, if not failed, to<br />
complete the arduous nature of this year’s exercise.”<br />
Section Commander Sgt Charlie Silver (EDH L6) deserves<br />
particular credit. She was ably supported by her Second-in-<br />
Command Sgt George Edwards (PH L6), SSgt Imo Voelcker<br />
(G L6), Lcpl Casper Dugdale (I L6) and cadets Will Beeston<br />
(PH 4), Richard Wolskel (Rb 4) Alex Mackinnon (Rb 4) and<br />
Tom Brough-Byatte (R 4).<br />
ShrewsMUN VII<br />
Co-Secretary General Oscar Rink (PH U6) reports.<br />
In March, we once again had the honour of hosting our<br />
own Shrewsbury School Model United Nations Conference,<br />
welcoming over 170 delegates from ten schools.<br />
We chose as our theme ‘multiculturalism’, celebrating the<br />
School and our international community, where we continue<br />
to embrace diverse ethnicities and cultures. Despite finding<br />
ourselves in a difficult situation with Mr Peach’s passing, our<br />
team managed to put together what proved to be a very<br />
successful and engaging conference.<br />
Under the guidance of our experienced chairs, debates in<br />
committees were lively and productive and a wide range of<br />
issues were discussed, from women’s rights in Iran to the<br />
role of AI in conflict. Our social event was also a hit with<br />
our delegates, thanks to our very own George Rink (PH 4)<br />
making his debut as DJ.<br />
General Assembly (where all 170+ participants debate<br />
together) was filled with fruitful debate as we attempted to<br />
resolve the issue of spy balloons, addressing topics such as<br />
national security and sovereignty.<br />
Our winner of the Huw Peach Best Delegation Award at<br />
ShrewsMUN VII was Withington Girls’ School. Representing<br />
Australia, their delegates performed at the highest standard<br />
across the committees. We further commend all other<br />
delegations for their hard work, great teamwork and<br />
outstanding public speaking skills.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was an impressive level of debate, and we were<br />
delighted to see delegates grow in confidence throughout<br />
the conference. We look forward to seeing more in the future<br />
and continuing the legacy of ShrewsMUN.
56<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
RESTART AFRICA<br />
Shrewsbury has recently committed to supporting Restart Africa<br />
as our overseas charity for at least five years. Giles Bell explains why.<br />
Over the last few years, I have<br />
found myself a regular visitor to<br />
Kenya in my role as an Admissions<br />
Tutor at Shrewsbury. Two hours north<br />
of Nairobi in a small town called<br />
Gilgil, there is a prep school I go to<br />
visit called Pembroke House, and it<br />
was there that I was first introduced<br />
to the inspirational Mary Coulson. Her<br />
work with the orphans and abandoned<br />
children in Gilgil led to the beginnings<br />
of a beacon of hope for children who,<br />
until they arrive at Restart, have none.<br />
I was lucky enough to stay with Mary<br />
and hear from her at first-hand how she<br />
came to start a charity from scratch that<br />
now feeds, clothes, educates and above<br />
all offers sanctuary and security for over<br />
100 children.<br />
It is hard not to be deeply moved<br />
by the stories Mary told me about<br />
the traumas that children were<br />
experiencing after the horrific postelection<br />
violence in 2008, which had<br />
resulted in over a thousand deaths<br />
and more than 500,000 people being<br />
displaced from their homes and<br />
villages, with a large number ending up<br />
in Gilgil. Many of them were children<br />
who had been orphaned, abandoned,<br />
or driven out of their homes by parents<br />
who could no longer support them.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y suffered starvation, physical and<br />
sexual abuse at the hands of gangs on<br />
the streets, or sometimes their own<br />
families.<br />
Mary was so horrified by the growing<br />
number of street children that she felt<br />
compelled to do something about<br />
it. She found a modest property to<br />
rent and initially gave shelter to just<br />
six boys, providing refuge for those<br />
desperately in need: Restart Africa had<br />
been born.<br />
<strong>The</strong> original buildings were in a poor<br />
state of repair, with the boys all in one<br />
dormitory room crammed with bunk<br />
beds, often sleeping two to a bunk. <strong>The</strong><br />
toilets were primitive and everything<br />
was a challenge, but the children<br />
were fed regular meals, received an<br />
education and were safe from the<br />
horrors they had endured on the<br />
streets. As time went on, Restart also<br />
started to take in girls, many of whom<br />
had suffered horrific sexual abuse. <strong>The</strong><br />
number of children eventually swelled<br />
to over 100, ages ranging from just a<br />
few months old to youths in their late<br />
teens. <strong>The</strong> old Restart building was<br />
bursting at the seams and became unfit<br />
for purpose.<br />
Just before Christmas 2014, the children<br />
moved into a new Centre which was to<br />
be their new home. I first visited Restart<br />
in June 2015 and was bowled over by<br />
the warmth of my reception and by the<br />
smart new buildings, but above all by<br />
the enthusiasm and welcoming smiles<br />
of the inhabitants. I immediately found<br />
myself being taken by the hand and<br />
proudly shown round the premises<br />
by a little girl called Paulina. She was<br />
very keen on my hat and laughed a lot.<br />
She told me that the best thing about<br />
living at Restart is that she feels loved.<br />
Another little boy called William told<br />
me that he loves his life now as he can<br />
play football and he knows that people<br />
care about him. He reiterated those<br />
sentiments in front of a judge who<br />
was trying his father for murdering his<br />
mother. <strong>The</strong> judge, wiping away his<br />
tears, told the courtroom that Restart<br />
had clearly done a fantastic job looking<br />
after this young boy who had seen so<br />
much violence and experienced so<br />
much suffering so young.<br />
<strong>The</strong> charity’s motto is ‘Think not what<br />
you are, but what you can become’,<br />
and underlines the belief that, given<br />
the love and opportunity that Restart<br />
provides, the children there will all<br />
have bright futures.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are strong links between<br />
Shrewsbury School and Restart. Jules<br />
Winkley, Anna Peak and I are all<br />
Trustees of the UK branch, and the<br />
Chair of the Trustees is Chris Conway,<br />
whom many members of the <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
community will remember fondly<br />
in his previous guises as a member
SCHOOL NEWS 57<br />
of the Chemistry Faculty and Head<br />
of Careers. Mary Coulson sent her<br />
sons to Ellesmere College, where she<br />
and her late husband Terry became<br />
good friends of the Headmaster, a<br />
certain Ted Maidment. When Ted<br />
became Headmaster of Shrewsbury,<br />
the Coulsons came to visit him and<br />
the Shrewsbury connection was<br />
established. We have since had five of<br />
Mary’s grandchildren at Shrewsbury,<br />
four of whom have moved on to<br />
further their academic aspirations, but<br />
we still have Sophia!<br />
We are planning a trip to Restart next<br />
year. This will enable Shrewsbury<br />
pupils to visit Restart and meet the<br />
children, establish friendships and<br />
return to the UK inspired to help<br />
them further. We are also aiming to<br />
raise a significant amount of money<br />
so that the children can go to private<br />
schools. Whilst not on the same level<br />
as British private schools, these are<br />
significantly better than the state<br />
schools in Kenya. We have already<br />
raised a significant amount of money<br />
for Restart this year, courtesy of a<br />
staff football match and an all-night<br />
sponsored ‘sport-a-thon’. (See Andrew<br />
Murray’s report below.) A huge thank<br />
you to all involved, especially Adam<br />
Morris and Seb Cooley.<br />
With so much misery around the world<br />
in terms of conflict, repression, war<br />
and environmental destruction, it is<br />
wonderful to be involved with a charity<br />
that really does make a difference to<br />
children’s lives. <strong>The</strong> Restart community<br />
very much reminds me of the prep<br />
school up the road, Pembroke House.<br />
However, the experiences of the<br />
clientele are very different. <strong>The</strong> Restart<br />
children have been ‘thrown away’.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y are the unwanted, surplus to<br />
requirements and unaffordable. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
are some heartrending stories behind<br />
the smiles. What Restart does is give<br />
such children a chance, a ‘re-start’ in<br />
life. <strong>The</strong>re are some success stories<br />
if you want to measure success by<br />
going to university and gaining decent<br />
jobs. <strong>The</strong> real success in my mind<br />
is in providing children who have<br />
nothing with a place of security, an<br />
education, friendship, community,<br />
love and a chance to grow up with a<br />
smile on their faces. This is all thanks<br />
to the vision of Mary and the hard<br />
work of her team. Mary has been<br />
awarded the MBE for her work with<br />
Restart, and if you are looking for a<br />
rewarding challenge, please do think<br />
about volunteering or raising money<br />
for the Orphanage. If you would like<br />
any further information, please do<br />
not hesitate to contact me at gjfb@<br />
shrewsbury.org.uk. I also encourage<br />
you to have a look at the website:<br />
http://www.restartafrica.org/ where<br />
you can make a donation should you<br />
wish to.<br />
I leave you with the words written<br />
by Tara Swords (G 2014-18), who<br />
volunteered at Restart a few years ago.<br />
For me, her last sentence says it all and<br />
always brings a tear to my eye.<br />
“During my Gap Year I spent eight<br />
weeks at the Restart Centre near Gilgil,<br />
Kenya. <strong>The</strong> Centre provides a home<br />
for children who either have no family<br />
or who for some reason are unable to<br />
live with their family. At Restart they<br />
ensure that their children receive a<br />
good education so that their chances in<br />
life are increased. Even though I had<br />
spent time exploring their website, I<br />
wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s the kind<br />
of place you need to experience firsthand<br />
to fully appreciate. One thing I<br />
wasn’t quite expecting was the fact that<br />
Restart is such a happy place. <strong>The</strong>re is<br />
a real sense of family. <strong>The</strong> children are<br />
well cared for, and they thrive because<br />
of this. <strong>The</strong>y are friendly, loving,<br />
courageous, amazing personalities who<br />
are willing to experience everything life<br />
offers. <strong>The</strong>y study hard, take pride in<br />
their work, support each other, are keen<br />
to help with chores, love singing and, of<br />
course, there’s football.<br />
“No one ever seems to leave, even<br />
those who grow up, secure a job and<br />
start to make their way in life stay<br />
connected. Before I went to Restart, I<br />
kept wondering what I could do for<br />
the children there, what I could teach<br />
them. But the reality was that they<br />
taught me far more. I learnt that second<br />
chances do exist and that when people<br />
work together, they have the capacity to<br />
change lives. Above all, I deepened my<br />
belief that skills and talents, all those<br />
things society places great value on, are<br />
humbled in the presence of kindness.”
58<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
FUNDRAISING FOR RESTART AFRICA<br />
Through our partnership with Restart Africa, our collective goal at Shrewsbury School is to raise funds and enhance the<br />
educational prospects of the children at the Restart Centre. With every £360 contributed, we can support a child’s access to<br />
quality education in Kenya for an entire year. This not only enhances the welfare and prospects of these children but also<br />
enriches the community by investing in teaching, infrastructure and technology.<br />
Throughout the year, our school community has rallied behind this noble cause, engaging in a series of remarkable<br />
initiatives that have a massive impact for these children. We kicked off the year with a resounding success, as our School,<br />
Staff and Old <strong>Salopian</strong> network collaborated to host a Charity Football event in November. Under the guidance of Mr<br />
Morris, this event was accompanied by a raffle and auction, resulting in an impressive total of over £6,000 raised for<br />
the charity.<br />
Following this triumphant start, a group of 32 pupils stepped forward in February to take part in an exhilarating All-<br />
Night Sports Marathon. Over a span of ten hours, these spirited individuals competed in ten different sports. With the<br />
unwavering support of our staff throughout the night, our students enthusiastically participated in a diverse range of<br />
activities, from Dodgeball to Netball, Mountain Biking to Yoga. Together, they raised an astounding sum of £3,500.<br />
Our Houses have also played an instrumental role in our charitable endeavours, spearheading numerous initiatives and<br />
events. One such example is Churchill’s Hall, which organised a ‘300km in an Hour’ event, uniting the entire House in a<br />
shared goal. Students ran, pedalled, and rowed their way to the finish line, demonstrating their commitment to making a<br />
difference. We also had a superb effort from other Houses, such as Mary Sidney Hall who sold house joggers alongside an<br />
evening of poker, spanning all the way to an individual effort from a pupil who sold Chinese New Year decorations.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se remarkable undertakings are a testament to the compassion and resilience of our school community. We believe that<br />
education is a powerful tool for transformation, and with each donation, event and initiative, we inch closer to creating<br />
a brighter future for the street children of Kenya. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved in any of these<br />
projects, whether it be through organisation or through much-needed donations.<br />
Andrew Murray
SCHOOL NEWS 59<br />
THURSDAY AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES<br />
Over the last year, our Co-curricular Activities Programme<br />
has developed apace. As the staff member responsible<br />
for this provision, I feel proud that we have so much to offer<br />
to pupils. All good schools will trumpet their successes, but<br />
for me it is how we use our time to develop young people<br />
that is the real measure. Without getting carried away with a<br />
mission statement, what are we trying to achieve? A love of<br />
the outdoors of course, a social conscience and awareness of<br />
others, the positive traits that can be developed by working<br />
in groups, a chance to show initiative, to experience the<br />
challenge of leadership, to have fun, and to develop interests<br />
for life, perhaps even passions. All these are laudable aims,<br />
and seeds sown now can take years to yield, sometimes with<br />
unexpected results.<br />
For a new Third Former, the activity programme starts in<br />
week three of their <strong>Salopian</strong> career. <strong>The</strong> BASE programme is<br />
designed to be a fun springboard into adventure, but with the<br />
added aim of encouraging sociability, positivity and ingenuity<br />
- all traits of which Old <strong>Salopian</strong> and Everest mountaineer<br />
Sandy Irvine would have approved. <strong>The</strong> Sandy Irvine Award<br />
(the badge for which will show crossed ice-axes) will be<br />
awarded to those Third Formers who best exhibit these. Adam<br />
Smiter heads up this provision and is supported by Head of<br />
Adventure Tom Folker in constantly refining what is a complex<br />
programme involving 140 pupils. So far our youngest pupils<br />
have orienteered, learned basic first aid, explored the hills of<br />
Caradoc and the Wrekin, and developed indoor climbing and<br />
kayak skills. <strong>The</strong> year will culminate with a two-day overnight<br />
‘mountain marathon’ expedition in the lovely Shropshire Hills<br />
during Outdoor Week in June.<br />
Our aim with BASE is to impel pupils into mixing with<br />
each other, to open their eyes to the fun that can be had via<br />
well planned adventure pursuits, and to encourage them to<br />
continue this later on in their school career. Such activities may<br />
not be for all, but we believe everyone should have the chance<br />
to experience them. BASE also includes both adventure and<br />
volunteering elements, as well as a chance to taste Combined<br />
Cadet Force activities, so on entering the Fourth Form<br />
pupils are better prepared to choose their Thursday<br />
Afternoon activity.<br />
In their second year at the School, <strong>Salopian</strong>s have three<br />
Thursday options to choose from: Adventure Society,<br />
Volunteering and Combined Cadet Force. Once pupils enter<br />
the Fifth and Sixth Forms, the range of possibilities widens and<br />
more specialist experiences are available such as scuba, selfprotection,<br />
natural history and polo, to name just a few.<br />
Older readers will remember the Rovers, now rebranded as<br />
the Adventure Society (AS). This has proved to be a popular<br />
option, given the choices of kayaking, climbing and biking<br />
mixed in with elementary skills such as bushcraft, navigation<br />
and first aid. Tom Folker, who runs AS, has completely rejigged<br />
the structure and we have a well-run programme that offers<br />
variety and choice.<br />
Our three CCF sections, Royal Marines, Army and RAF,<br />
continue to thrive and cadets will take on leadership roles as<br />
well as being eligible for a host of MOD-sponsored courses<br />
and expeditions. Our CCF programme has produced glider<br />
pilots and RYA-qualified dinghy instructors, and at Fifth and<br />
Sixth Form level the chance to experience realistic leadership<br />
challenges. MOD events such as the Brigade Cadet Skills,<br />
Cambrian Patrol and Pringle Trophy competitions create real<br />
interest amongst our cadets and there is competition for team<br />
places so all can show off their skills.<br />
Another area of effort has been in the development of our<br />
Alive, well and thriving<br />
volunteering programme. Again, our aim here is to foster<br />
a culture of awareness, but also to identify how outreach<br />
activities can be treated rather like work experience, in order<br />
to encourage working with others, the chance to experience<br />
contact with charities, Community Interest Companies, public<br />
sector organisations and so on. All this, we hope, will mature<br />
the individual, increase employability, create better citizens,<br />
improve emotional intelligence and provide real personal<br />
satisfaction.<br />
Naomi Pritchard, assisted by Dr Jane Pattenden, has taken<br />
on the leadership of volunteering and has worked hard at<br />
developing contacts for the large number of pupils who want<br />
to become involved. <strong>The</strong>se have been challenging times for the<br />
traditional visiting of care homes. However, with the guidance<br />
of Stuart Cowper (Head of Partnership and Community<br />
Engagement), real ingenuity has been shown in the breadth<br />
of our volunteering contacts. As she describes in more detail<br />
overleaf, around 180 pupils are now involved in projects such<br />
as reading in schools, care home and charity shop work,<br />
medical volunteering, mindfulness courses, supporting Syrian<br />
refugees and online contact with the Restart Centre in Kenya.<br />
A partnership with Severndale Specialist Academy is providing<br />
challenging placement opportunities for our volunteers, who<br />
range from Fourth to Sixth Form.<br />
Those Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s who visited Talargerwyn during their<br />
time at Shrewsbury will be glad to hear we are now ensuring<br />
that all <strong>Salopian</strong>s get the chance to visit to visit Tally during<br />
their school career. A new initiative developed by Tom Folker<br />
ensures that all Third Formers take part in a House-based<br />
short weekend trip. <strong>The</strong>se have been really well received and<br />
create a positive bonding experience for all concerned, as well<br />
as the chance to experience not just Tally, but the delights of<br />
Snowdonia too.<br />
We undertake all these initiatives not just because it is the right<br />
thing to do, but because it develops our young people as well.<br />
At a future interview, some will be asked to reflect on a time<br />
when they faced challenge, helped others, or shown initiative<br />
and leadership. As well as giving them something to talk about,<br />
I would hope that the programmes described here might just<br />
create happier, rounded individuals with genuine interests,<br />
perhaps even life passions. If a spark is lit by what we provide,<br />
then we can maybe feel some small sense of satisfaction that<br />
we have made our mark.<br />
Nick David<br />
Director of Activities<br />
Francis Argyle (M 1964-69). Thursday afternoon for life. See page 93.
60<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
VOLUNTEERING<br />
the shelves and put together packages of food to send out to the<br />
local community, as well as helping with other errands. It’s<br />
great work and it’s incredibly rewarding to know that we are<br />
doing our bit for the community, I will continue to help out<br />
as I get older. I also really enjoyed working with my friends to<br />
help at the Christmas Fair held in Quod, where we sold crafts<br />
from Thai villages as well as Christmas Cards designed by our<br />
Headmaster in order to raise money for the Foodbank.”<br />
This year our volunteering programme has gone from<br />
strength to strength. With 180 students eagerly wanting<br />
to help out in the local community on Thursday afternoons,<br />
we were able to deploy willing teams to <strong>The</strong> Grange Primary<br />
School, <strong>The</strong> Martin Wilson School, Shrewsbury Cathedral<br />
School, Woodfield Infant School and Radbrook Primary<br />
School to help support young children in the classroom,<br />
with a particular focus on reading. Other volunteers were<br />
dispatched to the local Mount Care Home, St Barnabas<br />
Foodbank, an array of local charity shops, Severndale<br />
Specialist Academy, Restart Kenya (via a video link),<br />
Beekeeping at School and at Longlands Primary, Headway,<br />
our Homework Club for local refugees and the Royal<br />
Shrewsbury Hospital. Within each of these placements is a<br />
plethora of activity and, most importantly, a great deal of<br />
good work being done by our students.<br />
<strong>The</strong> students have benefited greatly. Scarlet Sim of <strong>The</strong><br />
Grove, who has helped out at the local Foodbank all year,<br />
writes: “I work at the Foodbank with a group of other students<br />
every Thursday as part of my afternoon activity. We restock<br />
Logan Penty commented about recent bee-keeping lessons<br />
he gave at Longlands Primary School: “I really enjoyed<br />
hosting ‘all things bees’ at the school. We created activities to<br />
help educate young children about the importance of bees,<br />
including taste-testing, candle-making and trying on a childsize<br />
bee suit. It was brilliant to see how keen the children were,<br />
and I can’t wait to go to more schools to keep sharing our<br />
knowledge.”<br />
Natasha Loumidis and Florence Belcher (friends from Moser’s
SCHOOL NEWS 61<br />
Hall) have been dedicated volunteers at our Homework Club:<br />
“We really love helping out at our Homework Club and<br />
working with younger refugees whilst their older brothers and<br />
sisters work hard on their Maths and English with our friends.<br />
We take time to entertain the younger children with puzzles,<br />
art and spelling games, trying to make learning fun and help<br />
support their primary school learning. When we hear the<br />
stories these children tell us about their backgrounds, it makes<br />
us want to work even harder to help them and we are really<br />
proud to help out with this activity. We strongly urge other<br />
students to get involved and come and help.”<br />
I am delighted to share positive feedback from our local<br />
contacts, demonstrating the strong impact our students are<br />
making. Adrian, General Manager of the Mount Care Home,<br />
writes:<br />
“Our residents are more content and happier when your<br />
students visit. <strong>The</strong> engagement levels increase greatly for our<br />
residents and they are more active. We have a few people<br />
with early onset dementia and the first signs are confusion<br />
and short-term memory loss. It seems that these issues are<br />
not noticeable during these student visits, it is like they take<br />
full control of their cognition and wellbeing. <strong>The</strong> only thing<br />
we can change is adding more visits from your students.<br />
Please let the students know they are making a huge positive<br />
difference to people`s existence.”<br />
Karen, Team Leader from the local Foodbank, has frequently<br />
commented on the impact our students make:<br />
“<strong>The</strong> girls work hard each week, preparing for the busiest<br />
session of foodbank the following day. <strong>The</strong>y prepare parcels<br />
and their contents, like bagging up sugar, tea bags and<br />
washing powder. <strong>The</strong>y also replenish the shelves and ensure<br />
there is enough stock out ready for the following morning.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir presence is invaluable as they ensure we have a head<br />
start on Friday morning.”<br />
Emma Hellyer, Governor at <strong>The</strong> Martin Wilson School writes:<br />
“Thank you so much for setting up support for <strong>The</strong> Martin<br />
Wilson School. At a recent Governor meeting, the new<br />
partnership was highlighted as a real positive at an otherwise<br />
extremely challenging time for the school.”<br />
In particular, a huge well done to Phoebe Carter, Ollie Sharp<br />
and Joss Gowar for their recognition at the High Sheriff’s<br />
Outstanding Young Citizen Awards Ceremony, held at<br />
Telford College, for their volunteering and fundraising efforts<br />
over the last couple of years. <strong>The</strong>y were all recognised<br />
in the Volunteering and Community Service category for<br />
their dedication to society. A special mention must go to<br />
Joss Gowar, who was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ – the<br />
highest prize in this category – for his continuous work at the<br />
Foodbank, help at Restart Kenya, fundraising and previous<br />
work for Global Social Leaders.<br />
Naomi Pritchard<br />
Head of Volunteering
62<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Scottish Islands Peaks <strong>2023</strong><br />
With stories of last year’s battle with the dreaded mal de<br />
mer ringing in their ears, this year’s Peaks Race Team<br />
of six were full of trepidation as we set off on the long drive<br />
north to Oban. Yet all the talk at race briefing was about the<br />
lack of wind, of the need to row, and a possible Monday or<br />
even Tuesday finish … For the school teams this was not the<br />
news we wanted! Sailing is a tricky sport to predict however;<br />
we would just have to see how it all panned out.<br />
At midday on Friday 19 May, Tim Strebel and Hamish<br />
Griffiths were our pair on the start line, ready to run the 4.5<br />
mile hilly loop in this, the fortieth anniversary of the race.<br />
Thirty minutes later they were witnessed bombing along<br />
the final straight, forcing on their lifejackets and paddling<br />
furiously out into the bay to be greeted with wild abandon<br />
by the rest of the team aboard Gertha V. This was our sleek,<br />
Swan 46 that had so gamely housed a Shrewsbury team in<br />
the British Three Peaks Yacht Race the previous summer.<br />
Little did our sailors, Simon and Malcolm, realise then that<br />
they would be persuaded to leave the boat in Scotland for<br />
this next mad cap adventure! For now, though they must<br />
have been delighted with this quixotic decision as we<br />
bounded out into the Firth of Lorn with a decent wind, bright<br />
sunshine and a spot right up at the front of the fleet. Tacking<br />
up the Sound of Mull, it was now the turn of our next pair,<br />
Ellie Leigh-Livingstone and Rosie Morris (with Adult Runner<br />
and Old <strong>Salopian</strong>, Oscar Dickins) to ensure they were fuelled<br />
and focused for the 19-mile odyssey that awaited them on<br />
Mull: Bein Talaidh. By 5.30pm, the dinghy was hoisted over<br />
the side, we clambered desperately in and paddled ashore<br />
for the compulsory five-minute kit check. Always a nervewracking<br />
experience (failure means a return to the yacht<br />
to collect the forgotten item), the girls soon emerged from<br />
the tent and were off on their way into the wild heart of the<br />
island.<br />
Salen Bay often feels like the calm before the storm; it’s<br />
important for the rest of the team to cook a hearty meal,<br />
play some cards and generally rest up. And yet the YB Races<br />
tracker app was telling us that Ellie and Rosie had somehow<br />
overtaken the Glenalmond boys’ pair near the summit. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
was a palpable sense of excitement back ashore amongst<br />
the marshals as we waited to see if this extraordinary feat<br />
was true. After 4hrs 27mins, through the ethereal mist, fading<br />
darkness and midge clouds, Team Shrewsbury emerged in a<br />
state of sheer delirium. Indeed, such was their euphoria that<br />
they charged straight into to the sea to wash muddy legs,<br />
momentarily oblivious to the need to be back on Gertha as<br />
soon as possible! Back aboard, Archie soon became king<br />
of the galley as he served our runners some thoroughly<br />
deserved hot food. <strong>The</strong> wind had now (11pm) almost<br />
completely died and so digestion and sleep were easy as we<br />
took the tide gently south into darkness.<br />
By first light (4am at this time of year in Scotland), all the<br />
runners were still asleep, some even on the floor. As so often,<br />
it seemed to take forever to squeeze through the key tidal<br />
gate of Fladda, some of the lighter boats pushed ahead of us<br />
in the very light airs. Spirits rose though as the waft of bacon<br />
permeated through the cabin; possibly the only thing in the<br />
world that can force a teenager out of their bunk! By 3pm<br />
we had finally reached the picturesque village of Craighouse.<br />
Embraced by the stunning Paps to the west and lovely Small<br />
Isles to the east, the pupils had a chance to row ashore here
SCHOOL NEWS 63<br />
and explore the only shop and hotel on the island, oh, and<br />
one of the many distilleries! Yet for Archie Tulloch, Massimo<br />
Wyatt and myself, no such relaxation was to be had as we<br />
began our assault on the infamous slag heaps that are the<br />
Paps. Pounding along the seashore, the turquoise blue sea<br />
was somewhat incongruous, particularly as rain suddenly<br />
appeared, enough to make us don our waterproofs as we<br />
neared the first summit. Although only 14 miles, Jura has two<br />
mountains to climb and no path at all; the terrain is essentially a<br />
natural obstacle course of boulders, bogs, heather and streams.<br />
A savage decent off the final Pap saw our little trio realise we<br />
were on for a record Shrewsbury time (2hrs 20mins), ensuring<br />
that the final run in along the single track road resembled a<br />
particularly macabre SAS selection process.<br />
Back aboard, we inched our way towards the races main<br />
hurdle; the mighty Mull of Kintyre. Although pleased to not<br />
be feeling seasick in this exposed section, a decision now<br />
had to be made over whether or not to use the engine.<br />
Glenalmond had long since lost patience with the lack of<br />
wind, but a quick call to Fettes confirmed the worst: we’d<br />
have to stow the oars and even the sails and motor for<br />
much of the rest of the race. This meant that to win the<br />
Youth Section, it would all come down to the running and it<br />
currently stood 1-1 between ourselves (Jura win) and Fettes<br />
(Mull win); all was to play for as after a final night at sea we<br />
finally arrived around midday on Sunday in Lamlash, Isle of<br />
Arran. Tim Strebel and Hamish Griffiths, accompanied by<br />
Oscar were hell bent on trying to beat the record for this leg<br />
that has held since 1998. Unfortunately, cramp on Goat Fell<br />
put paid to this by just four minutes, but the blistering time of<br />
3hrs 44mins ensured that yet again Shrewsbury were winners<br />
of the Prince/Princesses of the Bens and as a result, Youth<br />
Section winners. A proud team wolfed down some pizza with<br />
Bryan Adam’s <strong>Summer</strong> of ‘69 blasting out on the speaker as<br />
we completed the final lap across the Firth of Clyde and into<br />
Troon for a 7.30pm finish. After the briefest of celebrations, we<br />
were back on the minibus, arriving at 1.00am in Shrewsbury,<br />
ready for Period One that morning. What an adventure, it was<br />
truly, as Bryan sang: “the best days of our lives.”<br />
Sam Griffiths
64 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
FOOTBALL<br />
<strong>The</strong> 2022-23 football season will be remembered for a<br />
number of historic events.<br />
Thursday 4th May witnessed over 800 vociferous current<br />
and past <strong>Salopian</strong>s descend on Stoke City’s Bet 365 Britannia<br />
Stadium for the ESFA National Cup Final against Hampton<br />
School, our first ever appearance in the final of this<br />
competition.<br />
We also launched football for our girls with an inaugural<br />
U14 Festival held on 6th October on Top Common. It was<br />
wonderful to welcome Aiofe Mannion, current Manchester<br />
United Super League player and ROI International, and<br />
Laura Bassett, ex-England international, to launch the festival.<br />
Third Former Ariana Marais had the honour of scoring the<br />
first ever goal for a Shrewsbury girls’ team. Jenny O’Brien<br />
had the honour of scoring the first ever girls’ 1st XI goal<br />
with a thunderbolt left foot strike in the ISFA U18 National<br />
Cup against Repton, a fitting way to kick off our girls’<br />
programme in ISFA competitions. We are excited about<br />
how this programme is going to develop over the coming<br />
seasons under the guidance of new Head of Girls’ Football<br />
Dr Ellena Lyell.<br />
We also had the honour of hosting Charterhouse in the<br />
Centenary Year anniversary of this historic fixture between<br />
the two Schools this season.<br />
A total of 374 schools entered the 2022-23 ESFA National Cup.<br />
Our ESFA journey started on 20th September 2022, at home<br />
to Wrekin College in Round 1. Seven rounds later, we found<br />
ourselves facing our old adversaries Hampton in the final. To<br />
be one of the two best U18 schools sides in the country and<br />
to have the chance to contest a national final was an amazing<br />
achievement.<br />
<strong>The</strong> closest we had previously been to getting into an ESFA<br />
final was back in 2001 when we lost to St Cuthbert’s, who<br />
were the eventual winners. <strong>The</strong> 2001 side was managed<br />
by then Master-in-Charge of Football Mark Dickson, who is<br />
currently Chief Executive of ISFA. Mark was the first manager<br />
to win the coveted Boodles ISFA National Cup in 2000, and<br />
we were delighted that he was in attendance at Stoke. It<br />
was also an honour to welcome two other former Heads<br />
of Football to the final. Robin Trimby, who was in Charge<br />
from 1962-1981, has been a huge supporter of our 1st XI<br />
throughout the season; and Steve Biggins, at the helm from<br />
2009 to 2015, was also in attendance.<br />
Cup runs are never straightforward, and our journey to the<br />
final epitomised this. However, despite the perilous nature<br />
of knock-out football, we played some of our best football<br />
throughout this competition. It would not be right for me<br />
to single out individuals for praise, as our success was<br />
based on a team ethos of everyone working together and<br />
enjoying each other’s success. However, as with any team<br />
sport, you need individual moments of brilliance and we<br />
have had these in abundance throughout the competition.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were no better examples of this than in the last<br />
16 game versus Altrincham Grammar and the semi-final<br />
versus Brooke House.<br />
After having to move the Altrincham game to Shrewsbury<br />
Sports Village due to a waterlogged Senior, Will Jenkins (Rb)<br />
made three unbelievable saves, saving the first three penalties<br />
in the shoot-out. We went on to win the shoot-out 2-0 on the<br />
back of Will’s brilliance. <strong>The</strong> Brooke House game witnessed<br />
two of the best goals you will see at this level of football.<br />
After a composed finish from the penalty spot by captain<br />
Ollie Sharp (PH), Louis Crofts (PH) produced a thunderbolt<br />
left foot strike into the top corner to give us a 2-0 lead. Archie<br />
Barlow (R) then stepped up and scored a brilliant individual<br />
goal, turning the Brooke House centre-back before bending<br />
in a left-foot strike into the top corner that was ultimately<br />
the vital winning third goal. <strong>The</strong> Brooke House performance<br />
was arguably our best performance under such pressure for<br />
several years. A performance based on hard work, tactical<br />
awareness, resilience and the sheer desire of all players<br />
to do the best they possibly could for the School, were<br />
the hallmarks of an unbelievable display. <strong>The</strong> team were<br />
cheered, on throughout, by the majority of the School and<br />
by friends and family, who surrounded Senior and created<br />
an unbelievable atmosphere; they were our 12th man. We<br />
executed the game plan to perfection on the day. It was a<br />
just reward for all the hard work and commitment this group<br />
of players had put in throughout the season.<br />
Despite the disappointment of the end result, we can reflect<br />
on an amazing day in the ESFA Final. Thursday 4th May will<br />
go down in history for the Football Club. <strong>The</strong> atmosphere<br />
created by the spectators from both Schools, but particularly<br />
by the 800 <strong>Salopian</strong>s in attendance, made for an amazing<br />
occasion and spectacle. Shrewsbury is an amazing institution,<br />
and nothing epitomised this more than the whole community,<br />
past and present, coming together as one to cheer on our<br />
amazing squad at Stoke. <strong>The</strong> boys did everything they could<br />
do to claim the win, but it wasn’t meant to be. A couple of<br />
key decisions that didn’t go our way, and good attacking play<br />
and defensive work from Hampton, were to be our undoing.<br />
Despite the disappointment, the lads were in reflective mood<br />
post-game and can take heart in the history they had created.<br />
This group of players have created an everlasting bond of<br />
friendship. <strong>The</strong> experiences of this season will be forever<br />
etched in their memories, and these shared experiences,<br />
I am sure, will be talked about in years to come. A great<br />
example of the bond created by team sport happened<br />
this season. <strong>The</strong> team of 1972 met up with their former<br />
manager, Robin Trimby, to celebrate their invincible<br />
season, at the Hudl League game versus Repton, on Senior,<br />
in November. It was an honour and privilege to get to<br />
spend some time with them, talking about the success they<br />
had and the philosophy of the current football programme.<br />
I hope our group of boys will be doing something similar<br />
in another 50 years’ time, albeit potentially without their<br />
team manager, but you never know.<br />
Following on from the unbeaten Hudl League campaign<br />
last season, we went into this season with high<br />
expectations. However, having to play Bradfield in our<br />
opening fixture, without four key starting players due<br />
to a biology trip, was a challenging start. Despite the<br />
4-1 defeat, there were enough signs in the game to<br />
suggest that better things were to come. A well-deserved<br />
2-1 victory at home to Millfield, a side we now haven’t<br />
lost to in three years, kick started our season. A further<br />
3 points were gained against our arch-rivals Repton,<br />
courtesy of a 2-0 win on Senior. A screamer from Oli<br />
Smith (Rt) opened the scoring and a further strike from<br />
Sam Jones (PH) sealed back-to-back victories over<br />
Repton. Further wins against Bedes and Ardingly and<br />
a draw away against Boodles champions Royal Russell<br />
(who we haven’t lost to in four years), secured us a<br />
fourth-place finish. A creditable season on the back of<br />
last season’s unbeaten campaign. We now believe we<br />
can compete at the top of the table in this league, which<br />
is a great place to be mentality-wise.
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
65<br />
1st XI Squad Photo 2022-23<br />
Match Day – ESFA National Final<br />
ESFA National Final supporters
66<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Our Boodles campaign ended at the quarter-final stage,<br />
ironically against Hampton School. <strong>The</strong> tale of another<br />
penalty that wasn’t given would be the abiding memory<br />
of this fixture, as we went down 2-1 away from home.<br />
However, this level of performance, in terms of getting to the<br />
last eight again will see us seeded in the top six schools in<br />
<strong>2023</strong>-24 and will see us enter in Round 3 next season.<br />
After a wonderful season that achieved so much, we wish<br />
our leaving Upper Sixth students the best of luck next year.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y have been wonderful ambassadors for the Football Club<br />
throughout their five years at the School. Our aim now is to<br />
build on the success achieved during the past two seasons<br />
and continue to produce players and a side that can compete<br />
against the very best schools on the circuit. <strong>The</strong> future looks<br />
positive, with a number of quality footballers joining the Sixth<br />
Age Group Playing Records<br />
1st XI<br />
Played Won Drawn Lost Goals<br />
For<br />
Under 14A<br />
Played Won Drawn Lost Goals<br />
For<br />
Goals<br />
Against<br />
30 21 3 6 96 40 56<br />
Under 16A<br />
Played Won Drawn Lost Goals<br />
For<br />
Goals<br />
Against<br />
9 2 1 6 18 25 -7<br />
Under 15A<br />
Played Won Drawn Lost Goals<br />
For<br />
Goals<br />
Against<br />
14 9 1 4 53 24 29<br />
Goals<br />
Against<br />
11 2 1 8 15 44 -29<br />
Goals<br />
Difference<br />
Goals<br />
Difference<br />
Goals<br />
Difference<br />
Goals<br />
Difference<br />
Form in September, as well as four boys from our current<br />
U15 side being invited on the pre-season tour in August. We<br />
hope that they will be able to make the transition to playing<br />
top level U18 football.<br />
ISFA Representatives 2022-23<br />
U15 – Isaac England (Rb)<br />
U17 – Oscar Cooke (PH), Louis Crofts (PH). Both Oscar and<br />
Louis played for the ISFA U18 side in an international fixture<br />
this season.<br />
U18 – Oli Sharp (PH)<br />
Shrewsbury continues to be the ‘Home’ venue for the<br />
ISFA U18 side in Season <strong>2023</strong>-24 and we look forward to<br />
hosting International Independent Schools next season. It’s<br />
wonderful to see four of our boys represent the National<br />
sides in the above age groups. Isaac (Rb) has been an ever<br />
present in the U15s this season, has captained the side and<br />
scored a terrific header in the fixture against Manchester<br />
United’s U15 Academy side at Carrington. Oli, Louis and<br />
Oscar all featured in the U18 ISFA International at Shrewsbury<br />
against the Welsh Schools and Colleges FA, with Oli playing<br />
in every international last season. This continues to be a<br />
wonderful development opportunity for our elite players and<br />
demonstrates we can produce players good enough to play<br />
international representative football.<br />
Launch of Girls’ Football<br />
Celebrating a historic moment this year, we proudly launched<br />
our inaugural football programme for girls. Both senior and<br />
junior girls, fuelled by their own resilience, showcased skills,<br />
determination and great team spirit to trailblaze the sport.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y achieved remarkable success, both on and off the pitch,<br />
and rose to the challenge when participating in local leagues,<br />
national cups, football festivals and House tournaments.<br />
<strong>The</strong> under-14s kicked off their season playing against<br />
Madeley High School in the first round of the Sisters N Sport<br />
Cup and won 3-1. Often, the Juniors played against teams<br />
that were not only slightly older than them but had also been<br />
playing for much longer. With each match played, these girls
SCHOOL NEWS 67<br />
are heralding a new era of sporting excellence and we’re<br />
excited to see what they achieve next season.<br />
Our Senior girls started their campaign travelling to Malvern<br />
College for their first away match. <strong>The</strong> gusty winds at the<br />
foot of the Malvern Hills quickly blew away their first game<br />
nerves but, despite hitting the woodwork, they lost 1-0. It<br />
seemed only fitting then that we hosted Malvern College in<br />
a return fixture for the Seniors’ final 11-a-side game of the<br />
term. Yet Shrewsbury found themselves 1-0 down at half<br />
time. With the shouts of ‘Salop’ and encouragement from the<br />
supporters the girls had accumulated and a rousing half-time<br />
team talk, the girls courageously turned it around. To show<br />
how far they have progressed in their abilities, confidence<br />
and resilience, the girls came away with a well-deserved 2-1<br />
win! Through teamwork, discipline and determination, this<br />
team have etched their names into the annals of Shrewsbury’s<br />
sporting legacy.<br />
Quality staff is the key to running our successful development<br />
programme. We are fortunate to have retained some of the<br />
very best people to work with our boys’ and girls’ sides this<br />
year. Former professional players, UEFA Pro Licence, UEFA<br />
A & B Licence coaches all work across A team/1st XI squads.<br />
However, it’s not just the top squads that require quality level<br />
coaching; it is a priority for us to staff each team with the best<br />
quality staff available. <strong>The</strong> new 3G Astro will offer another<br />
exciting dimension to our programme next season and give us a<br />
wonderful state-of-the-art facility that can be used in all weathers.<br />
I am hoping this facility will take our football provision to the<br />
next level through one-to-one coaching sessions in students’ free<br />
periods, and always having a quality surface available in which<br />
to develop a possession-based playing style.<br />
Our desire to offer the very best development programme<br />
continues to be our primary focus. A player-centred<br />
approach is key to developing players who have a love<br />
of the game, a willingness to improve and a desire to be<br />
the best players and human beings they can be. Football<br />
in the independent sector is improving every year, as was<br />
evident in the performance KCS Wimbledon produced<br />
in the Boodles National Cup against us this year, despite<br />
them losing the game. <strong>The</strong> so-called non football-playing<br />
schools are becoming fewer, with a number of new ‘football<br />
academy’ programmes being launched in several high-profile<br />
independent schools. As a result, we need to ensure we are<br />
staying ahead of the game. As a school we need to continue<br />
to develop a culture of excellence within our programme at<br />
all levels. If we do this, we have shown that we are, on our<br />
day, one of the strongest football schools in the country. We<br />
wish all our 2022/23 leavers the very best with their future<br />
footballing pursuits and we hope to see them back at School<br />
as part of the Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s squad in the coming seasons.<br />
Steve Wilderspin<br />
Director of Football
68<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
RUGBY<br />
1st XV<br />
Played Won Drawn Lost Points For Points Against Points Difference<br />
10 4 0 6 240 225 15<br />
On paper the results from this season look similar to<br />
last year, and yet the reality could not be further from<br />
the truth. A table of results hides much about a season, and<br />
certainly does not account for the three games that were lost<br />
by a mere two points; it just always appeared that the bounce<br />
of the ball kept on turning away from us. Even so, this was<br />
a season in which the Shrewsbury rugby players stood up to<br />
be counted and showed that they could stand up against any<br />
opponents.<br />
Certainly this was a season of great progress, in which the<br />
players fully bought into coach Rhodri Evans’ ideas and<br />
plans and began to play rugby of the highest quality. After a<br />
rather dismal first match against Wrekin in sunny September<br />
(10-24), the pod work and running lines saw strides of<br />
improvement. <strong>The</strong> movement of captain Will Goodall from<br />
scrum-half to hooker (could he be the next Tom Youngs?)<br />
was a useful change, as the placement of a skilful target man<br />
at the front of the pod system offered the opportunity to use<br />
his pass to increase the distribution and pace of our game.<br />
This enabled a wider and quicker game plan, and the fiery<br />
backline were able to use this to their advantage. With Tom<br />
Daly organising proceedings from fly-half, the team scored<br />
some tremendous tries, ably supported by a mobile pack led<br />
from the front by George Orchard and Ed Scott. Soon enough<br />
results went our way; a 15-10 defeat of Wrekin a fitting finish<br />
before Christmas, and a 57-5 annihilation of Oswestry good<br />
recompense for the loss in 2022.<br />
Yet again, the main problem for the team was keeping all our<br />
players fit and healthy. Long-term injury meant that George<br />
Stamford-Davis never donned the white shirt this season,<br />
while there were long lay-offs for Ed Scott, Ed Carryer,<br />
Freddie Greenwell, Harry Harnaman and Charlie Rutherford,<br />
to name but a few. In fact, I don’t think that our number one<br />
starting side ever managed to play together.<br />
Success, then, came from a large squad of committed players,<br />
who all drove each other to be better. It was useful to have<br />
natural leaders in the squad, witnessed on the pitch through<br />
the go-forward power of Jack Sheldon, Tom Corbett and<br />
Marcus Davies. In the backline, there really was skill galore,<br />
with Tom Daly’s jinks well-attuned to the power of Tom<br />
Brown and the pace of Morgan Matthews.<br />
Yet it was the supposed ‘fringe players’ who really pushed
SCHOOL NEWS 69<br />
through this year. <strong>The</strong> likes of Jasper Heath, Tom Hollins and<br />
Will James gave absolute commitment to the team, becoming<br />
integral teammates, and showed that hard graft can have a huge<br />
impact on squad success.<br />
While the near losses may remain close in our minds, the boys<br />
should focus on the huge number of positives from the season.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were a team who showed absolute commitment to the<br />
cause (apart from Friday morning fitness sessions!). A team<br />
determined to work together to improve. A team determined to<br />
fight for one another, never giving up, never taking a backward<br />
step. I admire the team spirit that they showed and thank them<br />
all for the efforts that they gave.<br />
Much of this determination stemmed from the impressive<br />
leadership team of Will Goodall, Ed Scott, Morgan Matthews and<br />
Marcus Davies, who gave their very all throughout every session<br />
and match. Yet it is important to recognise our leavers, whose<br />
impressive efforts for Shrewsbury rugby over the last five years<br />
have helped to build them all into determined individuals, who<br />
work cohesively as a team:<br />
Will Goodall, Ed Scott, Morgan Matthews, Ed Carryer, Will<br />
Corbett, Ed Dale, Freddie Greenwell, Jasper Heath, Tom Hollins,<br />
Will James, John-Anthony Leigh-Livingstone, Yuhi Nzei, George<br />
Orchard, Jack Sheldon, Harry Harnaman, George Stanford-Davis,<br />
Hubert Read, Kit Lovesetto.<br />
U18 VIIs<br />
In the Lent term, the U18s moved on to the Sevens season,<br />
and achieved some notable successes. It was a pity that<br />
things just kept on getting in the way of developing our<br />
game; teachers’ strikes and bad weather affected two of the<br />
main tournaments that we were entered for, and this was<br />
disappointing for everyone concerned.<br />
Even so, the boys developed their game well and, in the<br />
game of the season, found themselves battering the Sedbergh<br />
try-line with the scoreline 14-10 with only 4 minutes to go at<br />
the North of England Cup. Unfortunately the victory was not<br />
to happen… we dropped the ball over the try-line, and from<br />
then on Sedbergh wouldn’t give us the ball back.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Sevens season is always about Rosslyn Park, though,<br />
and the boys can be pleased with the effort they put in.<br />
A close game against Dollar Academy led to success<br />
against Ysgol Gyfun Bryn Tawe (28-19), though a strong<br />
Bradford Grammar side sent us back up the motorway.<br />
Even so, the boys, led superbly by Morgan Matthews, will<br />
have taken a huge amount from the sevens season, and I<br />
look forward to them pulling on the Old <strong>Salopian</strong> jersey in<br />
the oncoming years.
70<br />
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
U16s<br />
Though small in number, the U16s play with great heart.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y slotted into the senior squad after Christmas and played<br />
in several games against the likes of Repton, St David’s and<br />
Oswestry. <strong>The</strong> U16s also competed at Rosslyn Park, where<br />
they put themselves in a strong position to finish towards<br />
the top of their group with a fantastic 28-19 victory over the<br />
Grange School, Northwich. Led impressively by Henry Riley-<br />
Smith and Rupert Price, the U16s showed plenty of grit to<br />
score some excellent tries, particularly through the impressive<br />
Oli Bing. Unfortunately the wind blew out of the boys’ sails,<br />
and a hefty defeat to Skinners’ School deflated them, which<br />
led to a disappointing defeat to Greenhill. Even so, I am sure<br />
that the players took a lot from the experience, and they will<br />
be integral to the success of the squad next season.<br />
As I have stressed earlier, the team came on leaps and<br />
bounds, and this has much to do with the continued efforts<br />
of the dedicated coaching staff. Rhodri Evans has been a<br />
revelation with the boys, getting them to play progressive<br />
patterns that take us forward and set up intelligent attacking<br />
play. He has been ably supported by Will Reynolds, Luke<br />
Baxendale and Chris Wain over the season, and I offer my<br />
thanks to them for their hard work throughout the year.<br />
Chris Cook<br />
House rugby<br />
Back once again, House rugby proved to be another feast of entertainment at the end of the Lent term. <strong>The</strong> sun blazed down<br />
on players and supporters, allowing the flowing rugby that we want to see.<br />
A new set-up for this year saw the group stages turn into new competitions for Bowl, Vase and Cup.<br />
Juniors<br />
Seniors<br />
Bowl Severn Hill Oldham’s<br />
Vase Port Hill Ingram’s<br />
Cup Radbrook Rigg’s
SCHOOL NEWS 71<br />
FIVES<br />
<strong>The</strong> Shrewsbury School Fives Club has enjoyed another<br />
successful season, and there continue to be a healthy number<br />
of players coming through the ranks. It was a privilege<br />
for us to host the <strong>2023</strong> Schools’ National Championships<br />
at the School in March. During that week we welcomed<br />
over 600 players, who competed in 11 different age group<br />
tournaments. In nine of these tournaments, Shrewsbury<br />
players reached the semi-final or final.<br />
U14 Boys<br />
After great enthusiasm throughout the introductory sessions<br />
in the Michaelmas term, a healthy number of U14 Boys<br />
opted to play fives in the Lent term. <strong>The</strong> squad started the<br />
season strongly, with Daniil M (S 3) winning the individuals’<br />
tournament at Repton. A strong showing in our fixture with<br />
Eton led to Shrewsbury entering an U14 squad into the U15<br />
Hughes Cup. <strong>The</strong> team finished 7th, an excellent effort with<br />
some superb individual performances.<br />
<strong>The</strong> squad continued to progress as the season went on,<br />
and one week before the Nationals, six players were in the<br />
running to be in the first pair. In the U14 Main Competition,<br />
which mainly comprises experienced players who have<br />
played for several years, Shrewsbury gave a good account<br />
of themselves, with several pairs progressing from the group<br />
and into the knockout rounds. Canon Farrer (Ch 3) and Tyger<br />
Leverton-Griffiths (PH 3) were the surprise package, reaching<br />
the last 16 from pair 3.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next day was the U14 Beginners’ Tournament, with<br />
players from the major Fives-playing schools present. Five<br />
Shrewsbury pairs reached the last 16 stage of the tournament,<br />
with Shrewsbury’s first pair, Sam Spiby (PH 3) and Miguel<br />
Aranguren Martín (SH 3) making it through to the quarterfinals,<br />
where they defeated Queen Elizabeth’s School Barnet<br />
2-0 (12-6, 12-2). <strong>The</strong>y then took on Eton 1 in the semi-final.<br />
What followed was a three-hour spectacular, with Shrewsbury<br />
coming out 3-2 winners (12-5, 12-8, 6-12,6-12,12-9). <strong>The</strong> next<br />
day they took on Queen Elizabeth’s School Barnet 1, hoping<br />
to win the U14 Beginners’ trophy for Shrewsbury for the first<br />
time since March 2019. Sam and Miguel stepped up to the<br />
challenge and produced their best fives to date, defeating<br />
QEB 3-0 (12-4,12-7,12-5)<br />
U15 Hughes Cup<br />
U15 Boys<br />
A year of development for our U15 Boys this season. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
has been a core of committed and talented sportsmen who<br />
have set about learning the intricate nuances of Fives and<br />
have made great progress. A 4th Place finish in the Hughes<br />
Cup was Shrewsbury’s best performance in some years, and<br />
the strength in depth of the squad allowed us to rotate and<br />
rest key players throughout the tournament. Yee Lok Mak,<br />
Oliver Paine, Harrison Vaughan, Freddie Ogilby, Jonty Swan<br />
and Max Milbank all showed great potential and provided<br />
good competition for our first pair. As the season progressed,<br />
it was clear that this year had bridged the gap significantly as<br />
we competed in some tight affairs against Eton and Harrow<br />
in particular. In the Nationals, four Shrewsbury pairs reached<br />
the last 16, with 2nd Pair (Oliver Paine and Yee Lok Mak)<br />
having to withdraw mid-way through a tight encounter with<br />
Harrow 1 after injury. Our 1st pair progressed through to the<br />
semi-final after overcoming Ipswich 1 3-0 (12-5, 12-6, 12-7).<br />
Unfortunately, they were eliminated in the semi-final, losing<br />
0-3 (7-12, 12-14, 7-12) to a very talented Berkhamsted pair.<br />
Best Performers: Michael Draper (I 4) & George Battersby (O 4)<br />
Most Committed: Jonty Swan (O 4) & Miles Tomblin (I 4)<br />
Most Improved: Yee Lok Mak (S 4) & Freddie Draper (Rb 4)<br />
End of Season Awards:<br />
Best Performers: Sam Spiby & Miguel Aranguren-Martín<br />
Most Committed: Tyger Leverton-Griffiths & Jack Lupton<br />
Most Improved: Dan Metelskiy & Maksym Blahodyr<br />
U15 Boys<br />
U14 Boys<br />
U16 Boys<br />
<strong>The</strong> U16s Boys have been a great source of fun and<br />
enthusiasm this year. Late to the game, they have been up<br />
against it in terms of catching up with those who started<br />
playing in prep schools. <strong>The</strong>y have set about the challenge<br />
with great determination and are always good value on court.<br />
Louis Hursthouse, Louis Malanaphy and Harry Mitchell have
72 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
improved a lot and have worked tirelessly to bridge the<br />
gap. Unfortunately, an injury kept <strong>The</strong>o Darke out for the<br />
bulk of the season. We hope he will make up for this in<br />
the Sixth Form.<br />
Best Performer: Louis Hursthouse (S 5)<br />
Most Committed: Louis Malanaphy (Ch 5)<br />
Most Improved: Gabriel Smith (O 5)<br />
Richard Barber Cup<br />
distinction, becoming the inaugural recipient of the Ainslie<br />
Award. This is named after Jago Ainslie (S 2017-22) and will<br />
be awarded annually to an individual who embodies the<br />
values of a <strong>Salopian</strong> Fives player. George received the most<br />
votes from the committee, comprising staff, students and Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Fives Players.<br />
Best Performers: George Hughes (PH U6) & Jack Home (PH L6)<br />
Most Committed: Harry Webster (Rb U6)<br />
Most Improved: <strong>The</strong>o Wylie (PH L6) & James Hudson (R L6)<br />
Best Newcomer: Monty Cort (O L6)<br />
Mixed Fives<br />
<strong>The</strong> U18 Mixed Open was<br />
dominated by Shrewsbury,<br />
with all four semi-finalists<br />
being <strong>Salopian</strong>s for the<br />
first time ever. <strong>The</strong> final,<br />
Shrewsbury 3 vs Shrewsbury<br />
4, was an excellent match,<br />
with Anisha Mupesa &<br />
Harry Webster defeating<br />
Rose Farquharson & Guy<br />
Bradshaw 2-0 to keep the<br />
Mixed trophy at Shrewsbury<br />
for another year.<br />
Senior Girls<br />
Senior Boys<br />
Senior Boys<br />
<strong>The</strong> Senior Boys’ Fives season started in December with the<br />
Graham Turnbull trophy. George Hughes and Mr Cooley<br />
reached the final, before losing in a tight final against St<br />
Olave’s. Luckily, George and Mr C would get the chance to<br />
make amends for this at the Richard Barber Cup in January,<br />
which they did. Shrewsbury retained the trophy for the<br />
second year running. Early season wins against Harrow<br />
and Eton also provided us with optimism about the season<br />
ahead. A season-long injury to Alex Clark and injury to <strong>The</strong>o<br />
Wylie meant that we were not at full strength going into the<br />
Williams Team Cup. On the day, the boys fought valiantly<br />
against St Olave’s and Eton in particular. But both proved too<br />
strong, and Shrewsbury recorded a 3rd place finish.<br />
Fast forward to the Nationals and there was an upset in the<br />
group stage, as Shrewsbury 2 defeated Shrewsbury 1, which<br />
meant that our first pair lost their seeding. Shrewsbury’s<br />
top three pairs reached the last-16 stage before exiting the<br />
competition, with Pair 1 being defeated by the eventual<br />
winners St Olave’s, Pair 2 losing to second seeds Harrow,<br />
and Pair 3 losing to the tournament’s surprise package and<br />
eventual semi-finalists St Olave’s 3.<br />
Alex Clark, James Crews, Harry Webster and Guy Bradshaw<br />
have served the Fives Club superbly well during their<br />
five years at school, earning their Fives colours for their<br />
efforts. Boys’ Captain George Hughes has led the Club with<br />
<strong>The</strong> Senior Girls have been<br />
outstanding this year. <strong>The</strong><br />
season opener, the Richard<br />
Black Cup, showed the potential<br />
in this group. Shrewsbury<br />
finished in third place in an<br />
adult tournament, a superb<br />
achievement. Throughout<br />
the season, all students made<br />
outstanding progress, with a<br />
convincing win against Oxford<br />
University in the run-up to the<br />
U18 Girls Open Winners Nationals. Five Shrewsbury pairs<br />
reached the quarter-finals of the<br />
U18 Girls open, a clear indication of the strength in depth of<br />
our seniors.<br />
It would be an-all Shrewsbury final, reminiscent of the 2019<br />
Nationals, with Rachel Ellis & Esther Hurford (Shrewsbury 1)<br />
competing against Amanda and Anisha Mupesa (Shrewsbury<br />
2). After a tight semi-final, and with Anisha already having<br />
competed in the U18 Mixed Open Final in the morning,<br />
Rachel and Ellis took advantage of this and produced
SCHOOL NEWS<br />
73<br />
their best Fives, winning the tie 3-0 and providing Rachel<br />
(Captain of Girls’ Fives) with a trophy in her final match<br />
at Shrewsbury. Rachel, like George, has captained the side<br />
superbly well this season, leading by example and being a<br />
positive role model to the younger girls.<br />
Scarlett Whittal and Liberty Clark, along with Rachel, received<br />
School Firsts for Fives. Rachel also went on to be nominated<br />
for Young Fives Player of the Year in the Eton Fives<br />
Association Awards.<br />
Best Performers: Rachel Ellis (M U6) & Esther Hurford (EDH L6)<br />
Most Committed: Liberty Clarke (EDH U6) & Scarlett Whittal<br />
(EDH U6)<br />
Most Improved : Rose Farquharson (G L6)<br />
performances from the U15s in<br />
matches against a strong Repton<br />
squad throughout the year and,<br />
as the National Championships<br />
loomed, there was much optimism<br />
about Shrewsbury’s chances of<br />
success. Emily Clark and Charlotte<br />
Field reached the final before<br />
succumbing to a very talented<br />
Highgate pair who had already<br />
won the U14 Girls’ Nationals the<br />
previous week.<br />
Best Performers and Most Committed: Emily Clark &<br />
Charlotte Field (both EDH 4)<br />
Most improved: Mia Hirakawa (G 4)<br />
U16 Nationals<br />
U16 Girls<br />
<strong>The</strong> U16 girls have real quality and, with the right application,<br />
can become an excellent squad. Liv Millar and Alice<br />
Beardsmore have shown great potential this year. <strong>The</strong>re were<br />
strong performances from the U16 Girls in matches against<br />
Repton and Ipswich School, and they performed superbly<br />
well in the Northern Championships held in February.<br />
In the Nationals, this year group welcomed Janice Wong (G<br />
L6) to the team, as she is eligible to participate in the U16<br />
tournament. Our first pair of Janice and Liv reached the<br />
final of the U16 Nationals and provided us with one of the<br />
best matches of the Championship week. At two sets down<br />
against a Highgate pair who had never dropped a set, Janice<br />
and Liv brought the match back to 2-2. Unfortunately, they<br />
didn’t have enough to get over the line, but they were able to<br />
prove that, with the right application, they have the potential<br />
to defeat any pair. Next season we very much look forward<br />
to seeing Jess Fraser-Andrews back on court after the knee<br />
injury that has kept her out for over a year.<br />
Best Performers: Janice Wong (G L6) & Liv Millar (EDH 5)<br />
Most Committed: Charlotte Taylor (EDH 5) & Clemmy<br />
Sowden (G 5)<br />
Most Improved: Alice Beardsmore (EDH 5)<br />
U15 Girls<br />
Despite low numbers, the U15s showed real promise. Led<br />
by Emily Clark, the squad has made tangible progress<br />
throughout the season, providing competition for the<br />
squads in the years above and below. <strong>The</strong>re were strong<br />
U14 Girls<br />
This year the U14 Girls showed great enthusiasm and a<br />
determination to improve throughout the season. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
made a great start at the U14 Individual tournament, with<br />
three <strong>Salopian</strong>s finishing top of the rankings and making<br />
it through to the grand final. As the weeks progressed,<br />
there were several players vying for a spot in the top pair.<br />
Eventually, Bella Clark and Millie Parry proved to be the most<br />
consistent performers and were rewarded with a place. In<br />
March the U14 Girls competed in their National competition<br />
in snowy conditions at Eton. Millie & Bella were competitive<br />
throughout the day. <strong>The</strong>y played with improving technique<br />
and focus and were worthy finalists. Unfortunately, Highgate<br />
1 had five years of experience to call on in the final and,<br />
whilst the Shrewsbury girls battled hard, they could not<br />
match the know-how of their opponents. Nevertheless, they<br />
will now find their names on the honours board and can feel<br />
confident that they are the best U14 Beginners in the country.<br />
Bella Bland and Violet Heintz performed superbly well and<br />
reached the semi-finals before being defeated by the eventual<br />
winners, Highgate. <strong>The</strong>re were also impressive performances<br />
from Clara McAllister & India Quinn who won Plate A,<br />
winning 75% of their matches throughout the day.<br />
Best Performers: Bella Clark (M, III) & Millie Parry (MSH 3)<br />
Most Committed: Willa Bowett & Emilia Griffiths (both MSH 3)<br />
Most Improved: Violet Heintz (M 3)<br />
Thank you to the many school staff who coached and<br />
supported our students this year, generously giving up their<br />
time and effort to ensure that we were able to make the<br />
2022/23 season one to remember.<br />
Junior Girls<br />
Adam Morris
74 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
North of England Head<br />
<strong>The</strong> first event of the Michaelmas Term saw 87 pupils take<br />
to the water for the Boat Club’s annual VSW Sculling<br />
race. <strong>The</strong>re was little wind and the stream conditions were<br />
perfect for some great racing. One second separated the<br />
overall winner of the Victoria Cup, Bill Harris (Rt U6) from<br />
second place Johnny Fielden (Ch U6). <strong>The</strong> Senior Girls’ event<br />
saw Alice Colclough (G U6) produce a strong row off the<br />
back of her GB selection in the summer to win the Kitchin Cup.<br />
<strong>The</strong> other event winners were:<br />
Joe Datnow (PH 5) - Sabrina Cup<br />
Robbie Lapping (S 4) - Williams Cup<br />
Sophie Sharman (M 5) - Case Cup<br />
Seren Carter (MSH 4) - Fox Trophy<br />
<strong>The</strong> fastest four scullers from each house are used to<br />
determine the winners of the Senior Challenge Sculls<br />
Trophies. Radbrook won the boys’ event, with Emma Darwin<br />
Hall winning the girls’ event.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Boat Club took an armada of small boats to compete<br />
at the Runcorn Head at the start of October. Thirty-seven<br />
Shrewsbury boats tackled the 3650m stretch of the River<br />
Weaver. Bill Harris (Rt U6) reinforced his strong performance<br />
at the VSW sculling races with a win in the J18 singles event.<br />
Toby Moore (I L6) held off a challenge from five other RSSBC<br />
singles to win the J17 singles event. <strong>The</strong> Senior Girls recorded<br />
wins in the J17 4X- and in the J17 and J18 4X+ events. Katie<br />
Hale (MSH L6) came home with two medals on the day by<br />
winning the WJ17 singles event in the afternoon, following<br />
her success in the coxless quad. <strong>The</strong> two J16 boys’ quads<br />
had a close race between them to decide who won the<br />
silverware, with only three seconds separating both boats on<br />
the finish.<br />
RSSBC<br />
Over the second week of half term, the Senior Boys and<br />
Girls travelled to Ely for a training camp. <strong>The</strong> squads were<br />
hosted by King’s School Ely which proved an ideal location<br />
for accommodation close to the Great Ouse. <strong>The</strong> crews were<br />
training on the stretch of water that hosted the Boat Race in<br />
2021 and provided endless miles of straight river with little<br />
stream. <strong>The</strong> rowers were predominantly out in small boats<br />
with an eye on the upcoming GB Trials and the Fours Head<br />
of the River. It was great to see the pupils making significant<br />
progress through the week and putting that into practice in a<br />
time trial at the end of the camp.<br />
Eleven Shrewsbury crews competed at the Stourport Small<br />
Boats Head in November. <strong>The</strong> event took place over a<br />
3.7kilometre stretch of the River Severn. <strong>The</strong> morning division<br />
saw Senior Boys’ crews placing second in the Open Coxed<br />
Fours event and in the J18 Doubles event. <strong>The</strong> J16 Girls came<br />
third in the Girls’ J16 Quad event. Three J15 boys’ quads<br />
took to the water in the first official race for many of them<br />
and placed an incredible 1st, 2nd and 3rd out of seven crews<br />
in the event. Particular mention to the winning crew for<br />
recording the second fastest time of the morning.<br />
In the afternoon it was the turn of a Senior Girls’ quad, Girls’<br />
J16 double and three J15 Girls’ quads to race. <strong>The</strong> crews<br />
came second in all three events with the second and third<br />
J15 Quads placing third and fifth in their event respectively in<br />
encouraging performances in their first external race.<br />
Over the coach weekend seven Senior crews travelled<br />
to London to take part in the Fours Head of the River.<br />
<strong>The</strong> event saw close to 500 crews tackling the 6.8km<br />
Championship course on the Tideway from Chiswick Bridge<br />
to Putney Bridge. All seven crews coped well with a stretch<br />
of water that was unfamiliar for many of them, to record
SCHOOL NEWS 75<br />
Girls’ J15A at the Junior Sculling Head<br />
Boys’ J15A - Bronze medal-winners at the Junior Sculling Head<br />
Ely Half term camp<br />
Ely Half term camp<br />
Senior Boys’ Eight at Wycliffe<br />
VSW Sculls race<br />
North of England Head
76 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
Boat Club Dinner<br />
some encouraging results so early in the season. <strong>The</strong><br />
Senior boys placed 6th and 19th in the coxed four, 9th in<br />
the coxless four and 24th (of 39) in the quad. <strong>The</strong> Senior<br />
girls placed an impressive 4th in the coxed four and 16th<br />
and 38th in the quad.<br />
In December, six Shrewsbury crews travelled to Chester for<br />
an invitational Head Race with the four local clubs on<br />
the River Dee. It was great to have the J15s, J16s and Senior<br />
crews racing at the same event. Two Senior mixed VIIIs and<br />
the J16 VIII were the fastest three crews down the track. <strong>The</strong><br />
Boys’ J15 octuple posted an encouraging time to place sixth<br />
overall of the 36 crews. <strong>The</strong> J16 Girls’ quad and J15 Girls’<br />
octuple rowed well to place 1st and 3rd out of boats in their<br />
respective age groups.<br />
In the Lent term, the Boat Club Dinner was held just before<br />
the first coach weekend. It was wonderful to have boats<br />
and oars in the hall to set the scene. <strong>The</strong> dinner provided<br />
the Boat Club with the perfect opportunity to show our<br />
appreciation to both Huw Peach and Steve Fox for their<br />
significant contributions to the Boat Club over the past 32<br />
and 29 years respectively. It was a fitting tribute to name the<br />
School’s new coxed and coxless fours after them. Our guest<br />
speaker for the dinner was Will Satch (MBE). Will stroked the<br />
Great Britain Men’s Eight to gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016.<br />
Will spoke with great passion as he shared his story and<br />
inspirational advice with a captivated audience.<br />
At the beginning of February, six Shrewsbury crews raced at<br />
the Wycliffe Head over a 4500m stretch of the Gloucester<br />
and Sharpness Canal. <strong>The</strong> conditions were ideal for racing<br />
and saw the Senior Boys place 3rd, 4th and 8th in the J18<br />
Eights event. <strong>The</strong> Senior Girls placed 4th and 5th in the WJ18<br />
Eights event and the J16 boys placed 3rd in their event.<br />
On the Saturday preceding half term, four J15 crews travelled<br />
to Chester for a match with <strong>The</strong> King’s School Chester.<br />
<strong>The</strong> match saw the crews take part in a time trial over two<br />
legs of a 1500m stretch before facing off in a side-by-side race<br />
against the equivalent King’s opposition. <strong>The</strong> match provided<br />
an ideal opportunity to prepare the crews for managing<br />
themselves on and off the water in a low-stress environment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> crews more than held their own, with some impressive<br />
rowing on show from all involved. <strong>The</strong>re were some very<br />
close margins in the time trials, with the boys’ and girls’ crews<br />
compared by relative gold medal percentage times. <strong>The</strong> first<br />
of the Shrewsbury Girls’ octuples recorded the highest gold<br />
medal percentage time with 85.5% - only 0.1% over the first<br />
of the Shrewsbury Boys’ octuples at 85.4%.<br />
Over the second coach weekend, the Girls’ 1st VIII and<br />
Boys’ 1st and 2nd VIIIs travelled to Chester to race in the<br />
North of England Head of the River on the River Dee. It<br />
was the first opportunity for the selected crews to show<br />
their speed in a race situation. <strong>The</strong> event saw 129 crews<br />
tackling the 5000m course. <strong>The</strong> boys’ crews raced in the<br />
first division and put on a strong performance, with the 1st<br />
VIII winning the J18 category and placing 3rd overall. <strong>The</strong><br />
2nd VIII placed 3rd in the J18 category. In the afternoon<br />
division, the girls relished the chance to get out racing<br />
and produced an impressive row to not only win the J18<br />
category but also claim the overall headship as the fastest<br />
women’s crew at the event.<br />
Six crews travelled to London to race in the Schools’ Head<br />
of the River over the 6.8km course of the River Thames from<br />
Chiswick Bridge to Putney Embankment. Despite little recent<br />
water time due to flooding, the crews coped well in the wet<br />
conditions to record sound early season results:<br />
Boys’ 1st VIII - 9th of 38; Girls’ 1st VIII - 17th of 34; Boys’ 2nd<br />
VIII - 10th of 20; Boys’ 3rd VIII - 4th of 7; Boys’ J16 VIII - 10th<br />
of 14.<br />
On the final Monday of the term, four Shrewsbury J15<br />
crews joined 3,000 other junior rowers to race at the<br />
Junior Sculling Head at Dorney Lake. <strong>The</strong> crews<br />
completed two timed 1800m legs of the lake, which were<br />
combined to work out the results. <strong>The</strong> two Girls’ J15<br />
octuples placed a creditable joint 9th and 22nd out of 25<br />
crews. <strong>The</strong> two Boys’ J15 octuples placed 3rd and 12th out<br />
of 14 crews in their event. It was a fantastic result for the<br />
J15A boys to win the bronze medal.<br />
Sam and Huw Peach<br />
Athol Hundermark
SCHOOL NEWS 77<br />
RSSH<br />
Dominic Weilds<br />
Despite a virulent spate of illness<br />
that laid many pupils and staff<br />
low, the Michaelmas term ended<br />
with the traditional Paperchases<br />
event intact, with Housemasters and<br />
Housemistresses gamely fielding<br />
enthusiastic, if depleted teams. With<br />
the Juniors setting off first, individual<br />
winners came in the form of Monty<br />
Woodhouse (S 4) and Georgia Grant<br />
(MSH 3). Indeed, Georgia led Mary<br />
Sidney Hall to the team title, whilst<br />
Al Weilds (Rb 3), in second, led the<br />
Radbrook boys to victory. In the<br />
Senior races, it was Rosie Morris<br />
(EDH L6) who finished first, steering<br />
Emma Darwin Hall to victory,<br />
whilst Kristian Tung (I U6) put in a<br />
dominant display to deservedly take<br />
his first School race title. Port Hill<br />
were overall winners of both Senior<br />
Boys 1st and 2nd House races.<br />
January saw the traditional foray down<br />
to Sevenoaks for the prestigious and<br />
demanding Knole Run – 5km for<br />
the girls, and a gruelling 10km for the<br />
boys. First up were the girls, with Iris<br />
Downes (G U6) and Sophia Urquhart<br />
(EDH U6), joint Huntswomen, leading<br />
a team including Sophia Coulson (MSH<br />
5), Ellie Leigh-Livingstone (MSH L6)<br />
and Amelia Blackledge (MSH 4). As<br />
expected, Iris found herself very much<br />
to the fore, holding her fast start to<br />
finish in a very impressive 3rd place.<br />
Sophia Urquhart was also high up, 13th<br />
overall, confirming her return to form<br />
following illness. <strong>The</strong> team finished a<br />
highly creditable 4th overall.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hunt fielded two full boys’ teams<br />
on the day – 16 runners in all – and<br />
clearly had a strength in depth that no<br />
other competing school could equal.<br />
Will Singleton<br />
Whilst our A team were beaten to<br />
1st place by the all-conquering Judd<br />
School, our B team were the highest<br />
placed in the category, rivalling a<br />
number of other schools’ A teams. Had<br />
Will Singleton (R U6) more than a few<br />
training runs under his belt, it seems<br />
probable he would have been in the<br />
mix for the win; his 4th place was a<br />
remarkable effort given his minimal<br />
preparation. Kristian Tung’s 6th place<br />
was no less impressive, whilst Harry<br />
Parker McLain (I 5) managed a highly<br />
commendable 18th. A couple of names<br />
for the future, Johnnie Thurstan (Ch<br />
4) and Zac Wasteney (Rb 4), deserve<br />
mention for their 22nd and 32nd place<br />
finishes, respectively. Both have three<br />
more opportunities to race the Knole.<br />
<strong>The</strong> much-anticipated King Henry<br />
VIII Relays at Coventry proved a real<br />
highlight of the season. It was pleasing<br />
to finally have a full-strength squad<br />
and everyone, boys and girls, ran out<br />
of their skins to try and emulate last<br />
season’s impressive showing. <strong>The</strong> girls’<br />
team came home in a highly creditable<br />
10th place, with Iris Downes’ 12m57s<br />
leg good enough for 7th fastest on the<br />
day, and 15th fastest all-time (in the<br />
race’s 23rd year). <strong>The</strong> girls’ B team<br />
managed a very respectable 22nd place<br />
overall, whilst the boys’ B came home<br />
in 19th overall, second B team to <strong>The</strong><br />
Judd School, and 20 seconds or so clear<br />
of Abingdon.<br />
Within the boys’ A team, there<br />
had been a real sense of hope that<br />
Shrewsbury could go one better than<br />
last year and secure a silver team<br />
medal. Will Singleton took over in<br />
3rd, 10 seconds or so down from<br />
Abingdon, with spectators relishing<br />
the duel ahead. Will’s blistering pace<br />
soon extinguished any threat Abingdon<br />
might have posed. In what must be<br />
one of the most impressive runs the<br />
RSSH has ever seen, Will tore round to<br />
finish comfortably in 2nd, with a time<br />
of 10m55s. This was not only the fastest<br />
of the day, but the 6th fastest of the<br />
51-year history of the race. Will’s time<br />
ranks him above the likes of Sebastian<br />
Coe, Richard Nerurkar and the<br />
Brownlee brothers. It was a privilege to<br />
watch, made all the more remarkable<br />
by the considerable battles Will has<br />
had with illness over the last year. It<br />
is worth adding that the boys’ A team<br />
managed to run 2 minutes quicker than<br />
last year’s 3rd placed Hunt team. At<br />
70m50s, their time was, we think, the<br />
8th fastest on record. <strong>The</strong> fastest ever<br />
time now belongs to <strong>The</strong> Judd School,<br />
who came home in an extraordinary<br />
69m05s to claim a record that had<br />
stood for 40 years.<br />
Following considerable team success<br />
at the Shropshire Schools’ County<br />
Championships – a clean sweep of<br />
Junior, Intermediate and Senior team<br />
titles for the boys, and a Senior girls’<br />
title, to boot – the Hunt saw nearly 20<br />
of its runners compete for Shropshire at<br />
the English School’s Cross-Country<br />
Championships at Nottingham. To have<br />
so many compete at such a high level is<br />
an outstanding achievement; it is difficult<br />
to imagine any other single school in the<br />
country having so many representatives<br />
at this blue riband event.<br />
Just prior to the English Schools, the<br />
RSSH hosted the Spring Relays at<br />
Attingham Park. It was wonderful<br />
to see a number of new attendees<br />
travelling up for a relaxed yet
78 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
competitive event, with runners<br />
completing a 2km loop into the Deer<br />
Park, on the opposite side of the estate<br />
from the Tucks course. It was equally<br />
pleasing to see the Hunt finish in the<br />
top 3 in all race categories, winning the<br />
Mixed Relay and the Senior Boys races.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lent term ended in fittingly rousing<br />
fashion, with the running of the annual<br />
inter-House Steeplechases event<br />
seeing out the season. <strong>The</strong> format of<br />
the relay race – the racing of set year<br />
groups on set legs and the contained<br />
campus loop – makes for arguably<br />
the most exciting of the various<br />
School races; the <strong>2023</strong> edition was no<br />
exception. Both boys’ and girls’ races<br />
were ultimately won by the closest of<br />
margins, with battles between Hunt<br />
runners on the final legs – Massimo<br />
Wyatt (PH L6) and Sophia Urquhart<br />
securing victories for Port Hill and<br />
Emma Darwin Hall in the home<br />
straight. In doing so, EDH recorded<br />
an impressive trio of victories across<br />
the main School races: the Tucks, the<br />
Paperchases and the Steeplechases.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hunt’s celebratory-cum-valedictory<br />
lunch proved a fitting occasion to<br />
reflect on another busy and successful<br />
season. It was an important moment for<br />
the Hunt runners to catch their breath<br />
and to enjoy one another’s company,<br />
whilst wishing our leavers the very<br />
best. We were very fortunate to sign<br />
Dan Grinnall (O U6) on a free transfer,<br />
and his almost immediate selection to<br />
the 1st teams for Knole and Coventry<br />
was no mean feat. We will be very<br />
sorry to see Eva Hall (G U6), a stalwart<br />
of the Club, leave. Full of goodwill and<br />
generosity, she has been continually<br />
willing to forgo her own interests and<br />
race for the Hunt this year. George<br />
Hankins (O U6) has been a regular<br />
and very dependable presence, full of<br />
running and nothing if not enthusiastic.<br />
<strong>The</strong> fact that two Huntsmen and two<br />
Huntswomen were appointed this year<br />
serves to illustrate just how blessed<br />
the Hunt has been with its Upper<br />
Sixth. Sophia Urquhart has been a<br />
wonderful servant of the Club. Ever<br />
positive and determined, we will miss<br />
her outstanding service. Iris Downes<br />
has raised the standard of girls’ running<br />
single-handedly to dizzying heights<br />
in her time at Shrewsbury. She has<br />
proved a wonderful ambassador for<br />
the Club and the School – not just in<br />
her racing, but in her broader manner<br />
and attitude. Kristian Tung has been<br />
nothing short of gold dust. His upbeat,<br />
cheerful temperament, combined<br />
with his unwavering commitment and<br />
discipline, makes him a wonderful<br />
role-model for us all. Phoenix-like, Will<br />
Singleton has somehow shrugged off<br />
illness and injury to compete at the very<br />
top of the national running scene, and<br />
he is now posting terrifying times on<br />
the track. We hope our leavers will take<br />
the opportunity of actively engaging<br />
with the Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Hunt in future<br />
years, and we will watch their progress<br />
in future years with great interest.<br />
Finally, it is important to recognise<br />
the tireless efforts of the staff, and<br />
their dedication and passion for the<br />
Hunt. Specifically, Dr Oakley has<br />
been, as ever, an invaluable support.<br />
His Herculean efforts processing and<br />
generating race results are essential to<br />
the smooth operation of the various<br />
races hosted across the year. We are<br />
also indebted to Colin Lancaster, whose<br />
calm and reassuring guidance and<br />
coaching is appreciated by so many.<br />
Lastly, Mr Haworth has been a constant<br />
source of advice and assistance, always<br />
responding positively and generously<br />
to the many calls for help directed his<br />
way this year.<br />
Frank Tickner<br />
Iris Downes Sophia Urquhart Dan Grinall Kris Tung Eva Hall George Hankins
SCHOOL NEWS 79<br />
We have been able to expand our<br />
Hockey programme significantly this<br />
year, with regular fixtures throughout<br />
the Michaelmas term for U18A, U18B,<br />
U16A, U15A, U14A and U14B. Our 1st<br />
XI team played 24 fixtures, starting with<br />
the Nottingham Invitation Pre-season<br />
tournaments over the first weekend in<br />
September 2022. This was a fantastic<br />
opportunity for the girls to learn new<br />
processes, shape our playing identity<br />
and understand the standards we aspire<br />
to achieve.<br />
<strong>The</strong> squad showed notable<br />
improvement week on week,<br />
culminating in reaching round 5 of the<br />
National Plate Knock-out, where we<br />
faced Cheadle Hulme just before the<br />
Christmas break. We are excited about<br />
the potential of this group, particularly<br />
with our incoming Fifth Formers who<br />
will create competition for places<br />
and raise the standard of our hockey<br />
programme.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 2nd XI team also had a good<br />
season, adding depth to our senior<br />
girls’ hockey programme. We hope<br />
to introduce a 3rd XI team soon, a<br />
testament to our growing inclusive<br />
programme. Our U15 team displayed<br />
HOCKEY<br />
fantastic local performances, indicating<br />
potential for some girls to push for a 1st<br />
XI squad place in <strong>2023</strong>/24.<br />
Our Third Form entry, under Miss<br />
Davis’s leadership, proved to be a<br />
talented cohort who were crowned<br />
County Champions after a tense shootout<br />
versus Moreton Hall in the county<br />
final. <strong>The</strong>y progressed into the Midland<br />
Zonals and reached the semi-finals.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir tremendous effort and grit were<br />
evident throughout.<br />
Our pupils have successfully<br />
balanced their academic schedules<br />
with sports, showing remarkable<br />
progress throughout the term. We are<br />
incredibly proud of all pupils who have<br />
represented the School this season.<br />
This summer, we are delighted to<br />
announce that two of our pupils,<br />
Harry Price and Sofia Coulson, have<br />
been involved in Talent Academies<br />
for the highest potential 15 – 18-yearold<br />
players. <strong>The</strong>se academies provide<br />
high-quality coaching across 40-44<br />
weeks of the year, concluding at the<br />
summer tournament at the Nottingham<br />
International Hockey Centre.<br />
Looking ahead, we eagerly anticipate<br />
the <strong>2023</strong>/24 Hockey term, with the<br />
opening of new artificial pitches named<br />
Radbrook and Port Hill. This stateof-the-art<br />
surface will undoubtedly<br />
enhance our pupils’ hockey experience.<br />
Liam Hennessy
80 SCHOOL NEWS<br />
LACROSSE<br />
<strong>The</strong> 1st lacrosse team have had an excellent season and<br />
the girls should be incredibly proud of their efforts, with 25<br />
fixtures played across the Michaelmas and Lent terms and<br />
a new school record set at the prestigious National Schools<br />
Championships.<br />
<strong>The</strong> start of the season witnessed some great results from<br />
the 1st team, with the girls securing a deserved 3rd place<br />
at the North Schools Tournament. With convincing wins<br />
against Harrogate Ladies College (9-2), Birkenhead (10-1),<br />
Queen Margaret’s York (9-2) and Withington (5-3), the<br />
team got off to a very good start. We struggled against<br />
some slightly stronger sides from Moreton Hall (3-6) and<br />
Bolton (0-8), but we left the tournament with plenty to<br />
build on in future training.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next big competition of the season was at Marlborough<br />
College, where the girls played some excellent lacrosse<br />
against tough opposition. This was a great opportunity to<br />
practise our tournament-style lacrosse only a few weeks<br />
before the National Schools Competition. At Marlborough, we<br />
achieved a convincing win against Monmouth Girls’ School<br />
(4-2), draws against a club team from Cheltenham (3-3) and<br />
Cheltenham Ladies College (3-3) and two narrow losses to<br />
Marlborough College (2-3) and Stowe (1-5).<br />
Arguably the highlight of the season was our performance at<br />
the National Schools Championships. With convincing wins<br />
achieved in our pool on the first day against St Paul’s (4-2),<br />
Stowe (6-0), Tudor Hall (6-1), Malvern St James (6-1) and<br />
North London Collegiate School (9-1), it was confirmed that<br />
we would progress forward into the championship division<br />
which consisted of only the top 16 schools out of over 50<br />
initial participants. <strong>The</strong> girls played a final tactical game<br />
against Putney High School resulting in a (1-4) loss in a bid to<br />
save energy for day two.<br />
Day two started with an important match for Shrewsbury in<br />
the quarter-finals against a strong side from Queen Anne’s<br />
School, the firm favourites to win the overall competition.<br />
Playing some excellent lacrosse, the girls managed to<br />
win this match convincingly with a final score of 5-2.<br />
<strong>The</strong> team put in an incredible effort in their semi-final<br />
against an equally strong side from Moreton Hall, which<br />
unfortunately ended in a narrow (1-3) loss. Despite<br />
inevitable disappointment at being knocked out of the<br />
tournament, the girls did themselves and the School<br />
incredibly proud by making the final eight schools in the<br />
competition, setting a new school record. To make the top<br />
eight schools in the UK is a fantastic achievement and a<br />
lovely way to finish off an exceptional season.<br />
NETBALL<br />
A record number of 89 games of netball have been played<br />
this year, with a total of 1,656 goals being scored.<br />
<strong>The</strong> U14 A team scored an impressive 442 goals during<br />
the season and were crowned County Champions. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
progressed to the Midland Regionals where they produced<br />
the best performance of any Shrewsbury netball team.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y also managed to progress to the quarter-finals of the<br />
Sisters in Sport competition.<br />
Our Seniors (U18 A, B and C) had a combined total of 26<br />
wins, scoring 800 goals between them.<br />
A special mention to Scarlett Whittal (EDH U6) who has<br />
been Netball Captain this year. She has led by example and<br />
been a fantastic role model for the junior squads.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Simms Trophy<br />
Named for his father, Commander Hugh Crofton Simms,<br />
D.S.O., R.N., Blake Simms (R 1953-57) instituted an<br />
award in 2018 to recognise the effort of teams or individuals<br />
who just missed out on glory. Nominations are made by<br />
coaches and the award is decided by a small committee of<br />
staff. Since its inception, the trophy has been awarded four<br />
times to teams that have excelled in their sport.<br />
2018 – U15 Girls Cricket Team (runners-up in two national<br />
competitions)<br />
2019 – 2nd VIII Boys Crew (only school 2nd VIII to qualify<br />
for the Temple Cup at Henley and narrowly missed out at<br />
the Schools’ Head and the National Schools’ Regatta)<br />
2020 – Girls Quad Crew (won silver medals at Henley in<br />
L6th but were frustrated to miss out on the chance for gold<br />
in U6th due to COVID)<br />
2021 – U15 Girls Cricket team (runners-up in the national<br />
100-ball competition)<br />
2022 – 1st XI Boys Football team who were unbeaten in<br />
the HUDL League but finished in second place overall.<br />
2019 Winners being presented with the trophy by their coach Philip Lapage
SCHOOL NEWS 81<br />
View from the Boundary<br />
By Quotient<br />
<strong>The</strong> solver must complete the “View from the Boundary” by highlighting a six letter word in the completed grid.<br />
Solution on page 123.<br />
Across<br />
8 I could represent this... (6)<br />
9 ...boss regarding Paddington, perhaps (8)<br />
10 No American adopts a purpose poorly (8)<br />
11 Doomed lover soiled pants (6)<br />
12 Call “Help!” on tee frantically (9)<br />
13 Pour in white wine, we’re told, as and when (2,3)<br />
15 Paul’s excited about beginning of Plan A,<br />
somewhere in Sweden (7)<br />
17 Doctor on Nancy’s bed took on extra duty (7)<br />
20 Grass snake writhed (5)<br />
22 Develop work in US in English tea brewing (9)<br />
25 Collection of animals, in enclosures, sent back to sleep (6)<br />
26 Dramatist’s rodent - extraordinarily giant (8)<br />
27 I cry a river with ice nearly at equal pressure (8)<br />
28 Erasmus distraught without right to conjecture (6)<br />
Down<br />
1 Artist, good in enemy search (6)<br />
2 <strong>The</strong>ir oil protects bats (8)<br />
3 No hope negotiating with returning priest, one<br />
who likes a drink (9)<br />
4 Composer returning from Britain is sorry (7)<br />
5 Headless fawn - that is scary! (5)<br />
6 A minor thoroughfare overseas (6)<br />
7 Party plugs unusual ration for cooking style (8)<br />
14 Inverted function error is mine (5,4)<br />
16 Attribute of weak translation of last of Latin supines (8)<br />
18 <strong>The</strong>y love what they see, on reflection (8)<br />
19 Doctor Gee and heartless lexicographer start to castigate<br />
old artist (2,5)<br />
21 Obama upset about end of the simple life (6)<br />
23 Amtrak almost unsettled over union stress (6)<br />
24 Fruit left for 30 year celebration (5)
82<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
It’s a great privilege to be writing my first report for the<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Magazine. Thank you very much to everyone for<br />
making me feel so welcome in what has been an extremely<br />
busy but enjoyable first few months in post.<br />
I was fortunate to have a long handover period with<br />
Nick Jenkins and am hugely grateful to him for taking so<br />
much time to pass on some of his immense wisdom and<br />
experience.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Headmaster hosted a farewell drinks party for Nick to<br />
commemorate his 30 years’ service to the School. This was<br />
followed by two events hosted by the Club, one in London<br />
and one in Cheshire, to thank not only Nick but those who<br />
have served as Chairman, President or one of the other<br />
major officers of the Club during his time in post. All three<br />
involved delicious food and drink, lively conversation and<br />
an opportunity to reflect on nine happy and successful<br />
years of Nick’s leadership of the Club. Nick graciously<br />
accepted some gentle ribbing from the Headmaster, former<br />
President Nicholas Barber (SH 1953-58) and old friend<br />
and former Chairman Peter Stewart (Ch 1958-63) and<br />
managed to come up with enough material to amuse three<br />
different audiences in three different locations without<br />
anyone hearing the same anecdote twice.<br />
I wish Nick all the very best for his retirement and am<br />
pleased to say he still intends to attend events now that he<br />
can relax while I take the strain!<br />
<strong>The</strong> Directorship of the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club is a very varied role.<br />
So far, my visits have embraced St Paul’s Cathedral and the<br />
stadium of Stoke City FC in the company of Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s<br />
keen to support current students. I have learned the words<br />
to the Carmen Salopiense and revived the Club Instagram<br />
account, chatted with former staff in their 90s and addressed<br />
17- and 18-year-olds at the Leavers’ Assembly.<br />
I have always been impressed by the kindness of Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s and their willingness to offer help and support both<br />
to each other and to current pupils. I have already witnessed<br />
the generosity of Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s in the time spent offering<br />
careers advice and practical help to those starting out in their<br />
professional lives. I’ve seen the strength of the Old <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
From the Director<br />
community overseas where local representatives arrange gettogethers<br />
and offer practical support to <strong>Salopian</strong>s moving to<br />
a new country. I’ve enjoyed the warmth and conviviality of<br />
social events where people are bonded through the shared<br />
experience of attending our School.<br />
At our heart we are a community of more than eight<br />
thousand people who can help each other out, as well as<br />
working together for the good of the School and the wider<br />
community.<br />
My aim is to engage with as many Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s as possible<br />
across the globe. Inevitably this calls to mind online interaction<br />
which is an important part of modern communication. If you<br />
look at social media, please do follow us and please do sign<br />
up for <strong>Salopian</strong> Connect which has huge potential for both<br />
professional and social networking. If you don’t, please do<br />
come to our events, read the magazine and feel free to pick up<br />
the phone and give us a ring in the office.<br />
I am ever mindful that we are a Club which belongs to<br />
its members. My quest is to discover what inspires Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s to keep in touch with School, what you would<br />
like to hear about and what sort of gatherings you would<br />
most like to attend.<br />
Finally, and most importantly, my thanks go out to all<br />
the wonderful volunteers without whom the Club would<br />
not exist, those who sit on the Committee, run the many<br />
and varied sports clubs, the Drivers’ Club, the Young Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s and the Arts Group. So much work goes into these<br />
activities and nothing would happen without the people who<br />
give up their own time to ensure <strong>Salopian</strong>s can continue to<br />
meet up and pursue their interests together long after they’ve<br />
left school.<br />
I very much look forward to meeting as many of you as<br />
possible over the coming months and learning more about<br />
this wonderful community rooted in good will, shared<br />
heritage and the wit and warmth that so often characterises<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s.<br />
Floreat Salopia!<br />
Holly Fitzgerald
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 83<br />
first met Nick in the mid 1950s. Both of us went<br />
I to Stepping Stones pre-preparatory school (now<br />
Shrewsbury High School’s junior school) on Kingsland.<br />
He is a little older than me. Our paths soon parted as Nick<br />
went off to the Old Hall Preparatory School and, a while<br />
later, I went to Kingsland Grange.<br />
From the Old Hall, Nick went to Rugby, excelling at sport<br />
and gaining a place at Trinity College, Cambridge, where<br />
he read classics.<br />
He then joined the Army, serving in the Royal Green<br />
Jackets in Germany, Cyprus, the Falklands and Hong Kong,<br />
with six tours in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.<br />
In 1989, he took command of the 5th Battalion (Shropshire<br />
and Herefordshire) Light Infantry and in 1992 was awarded<br />
the OBE in recognition of his Army service and his work as<br />
Commanding Officer of the 5th Battalion.<br />
He became a master at Shrewsbury in 1992, teaching classics.<br />
His management and leadership qualities were quickly<br />
recognised and after three years, he was asked to become<br />
Housemaster of Oldham’s Hall. <strong>The</strong>re, greatly assisted by his<br />
wife, Bee, he was an enormously competent and successful<br />
Housemaster, exceptionally hard working and caring, with a<br />
great wit and sense of humour. During this time, their three<br />
boys William, Edward and David grew, with William going<br />
to School House and Edward and David to Rigg’s Hall. Nick<br />
stood down as housemaster in 2009, bringing fourteen very<br />
happy, but doubtless tiring, years to an end. For three years,<br />
he then returned to teaching.<br />
Vale NICK JENKINS<br />
Nick had so immersed himself in life at Shrewsbury that,<br />
notwithstanding that he wasn’t an Old <strong>Salopian</strong> himself,<br />
his appointment as Director of the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club came as<br />
no surprise. Sure enough, starting in February 2014, he<br />
completely subsumed himself in all matters <strong>Salopian</strong> Clubwise<br />
for the next nine years.<br />
He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s<br />
and a full understanding of everything about the ethos<br />
and character both of the School and <strong>Salopian</strong>s. He<br />
attended numerous Old <strong>Salopian</strong> events every year<br />
of his time as Director; social events, church services,<br />
football, cricket, fives matches, indeed all the numerous<br />
sporting competitions. He managed to get to the School<br />
and Sabrina lunches at Henley when they didn’t conflict<br />
with Speech Day.<br />
When I became Chairman of the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club in 2018,<br />
Nick had already been in post for four years. He was<br />
hugely supportive and knowledgeable and helped me<br />
find my feet over the first year. He was unfailingly polite,<br />
enthusiastic, efficient and punctual but, most of all, had a<br />
great sense of humour.<br />
On behalf of the whole <strong>Salopian</strong> community, I thank him<br />
for everything he has done for us over the last 30 years and<br />
wish him an enjoyable and fulfilling time in the next phase<br />
of his life.<br />
Miles Preston<br />
Chairman<br />
News and Events<br />
Birmingham Dinner<br />
West Midlands Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s gathered at Edgbaston Golf<br />
Club for the annual Birmingham Dinner on 27th April.<br />
A handful of golfers played the course before joining the<br />
other Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s in the splendid surroundings of the<br />
club house, a Grade II listed Georgian manor house. Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s from several decades were represented and, in<br />
contrast to the stormy weather outside, the atmosphere<br />
was warm and convivial as they enjoyed a three-course<br />
meal with some current staff who had travelled from<br />
Shrewsbury for the evening. <strong>The</strong> after-dinner speech<br />
was given by the new Director Holly Fitzgerald who<br />
talked about her time as a TV News Reporter and the Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s she had encountered in her previous career. A<br />
last-minute request for the School Song led to a search<br />
through the archives in the office. <strong>The</strong> Director grabbed<br />
the music on her way out and some of the younger diners<br />
took the time to handwrite the lyrics for an impromptu<br />
performance. Some remembered it well, some had never<br />
sung it before, but all gave it their best, accompanied by<br />
the Head of Academic Music, Mike Skipper. <strong>The</strong> evening<br />
ended with an impressive performance from Lower<br />
Sixth student Billy Gardiner (SH L6) who is known as<br />
‘Shrewsbury’s answer to Michael Buble’! He charmed the<br />
audience with a smooth rendition of some jazz classics<br />
before the school party departed.<br />
Thanks are due to to Jonathan Mitchell (PH 1980-84)<br />
and the Birmingham Committee for organising an excellent<br />
evening.<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s join current parents to give<br />
Sixth Form students a taste of a real-life job<br />
interview<br />
Around 50 current parents, Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s and friends of<br />
Shrewsbury School came to School to help with a Mock<br />
Assessment Day exercise for the Lower Sixth on 21st April.<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s from professional areas including farming,<br />
telecommunications, web design and surveying took part<br />
carrying out competency-based interviews and advising on<br />
CV presentation. <strong>The</strong> day also included a range of other<br />
activities, including a team exercise, a communications<br />
workshop and practice Situational Judgement Tests. It started<br />
with a talk from <strong>Salopian</strong> Club Director Holly Fitzgerald<br />
about the professional benefits of being a part of the <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
network and her own experience working in both the media<br />
and headhunting.<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s play a leading role in British<br />
Baseball success<br />
Two old <strong>Salopian</strong>s have just returned from the World<br />
Baseball Classic in the USA where the British team won a<br />
historic victory and secured a place in the next WBC in 2026.<br />
Tom Thornhill (I 2008-13) is the President of the British
84<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Baseball Federation. He started playing Baseball at university<br />
but first became interested in the sport after playing softball<br />
at Shrewsbury. Richard Evans (M 1976-78) is the Marketing<br />
and Communications Officer. A chance conversation about<br />
attending boarding school led them to discover recently that<br />
they are both Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s.<br />
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the USA but is<br />
relatively unknown in the UK. <strong>The</strong> GB team chalked up their<br />
first ever win against Columbia to finish fourth in their group<br />
which guaranteed a place at the 2026 competition. <strong>The</strong> WBC<br />
is equivalent to the World Cup in football. Qualifying is worth<br />
six times the annual income of the governing body in Britain.<br />
<strong>The</strong> British team also ran the USA and Mexico surprisingly<br />
close which shocked the World Baseball Community.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Federation led by Tom Thornhill hope this represents a<br />
significant breakthrough for the sport in this country. Tom<br />
and Rich will both be in London in June to see the Chicago<br />
Cubs take on the St Louis Cardinals when Major League<br />
Baseball returns to the London Stadium. It’s only the second<br />
time a series has been played in the UK and this time the<br />
games will be live on the BBC.<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s cheer on crews at the Schools’<br />
Head of the River Race<br />
Parents, Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s and supporters once again assembled<br />
at the Blue Anchor in Hammersmith on 17th March to watch<br />
a sizeable number of School crews row past in the Schools’<br />
Head of the River Race. Six RSSBC crews were among a<br />
record 339 crews who took to the water on a damp, grey<br />
day to compete. <strong>The</strong> event is the culmination of the head<br />
racing season, attracting competitors from across the UK and<br />
Ireland. Full results can be found at https://www.shorr.org.<br />
uk/<strong>2023</strong>/results.html<br />
<strong>The</strong> event provides an excellent opportunity for current<br />
parents and old <strong>Salopian</strong>s to meet together and support<br />
the School crews. <strong>The</strong> shelter of the pub was particularly<br />
welcome on such a wet day. A hearty lunch, organised by<br />
James Russell (PH 1990-95) and the Sabrina Club, was<br />
available to all <strong>Salopian</strong> spectators who were able to view<br />
the racing from the upstairs room of the pub.<br />
70 Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s support the School Chapel<br />
Choir singing Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral<br />
On a truly memorable evening the School Chapel Choir<br />
sang to around a thousand people during the course of the<br />
day at St Paul’s Cathedral, culminating in Evensong at 5 pm<br />
on 24th April. Seventy Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s joined tourists, visitors<br />
and regular worshippers to enjoy the sublime experience of<br />
hearing the singing echo around the famous dome.<br />
Afterwards the School party was entertained at Dion at a<br />
reception hosted by the Marketing Department. It was great<br />
to see so many Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s in attendance including those<br />
working in the music world including the composer Richard<br />
Eteson (G 1989-93), singers Patrick Craig (Ch 1982-87)<br />
and Martin Harris (S 1968-73) Vicars Choral at St Paul’s,<br />
and singer-songwriter Joe Bell (Rb/I 2010-15), alongside<br />
current members of staff, parents and governors.<br />
A tour of the Silk Roads<br />
A party of 30 <strong>Salopian</strong>s and guests had the privilege of a<br />
guided tour at the British Museum on Thursday 16th March<br />
with Nicholas Barber (SH 1954-58). <strong>The</strong> tour concentrated<br />
on the artefacts of India and China and their associated<br />
history and religions and benefitted considerably from<br />
Nicholas’ encyclopaedic knowledge.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ‘Silk Roads’ refer to the network of people, objects and<br />
ideas that moved across Afro-Eurasia particularly during the<br />
first millennium AD. During the 19th century Britain and<br />
Russia vied for control of this region and sought to explore<br />
its lands.<br />
Nicholas Barber is the Honorary President of the charity<br />
Classics for All which supports maintained schools across the<br />
UK to introduce or develop the teaching of classical subjects.<br />
He was a previously a Trustee of the British Museum and<br />
later the Chairman of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tour was enthusiastically received by those who<br />
attended, one old <strong>Salopian</strong> remarked, “Nicholas’s erudition<br />
and witty commentary was superlative” and another former<br />
member of staff said, “Nicholas’ knowledge of those cultures<br />
and the clarity of his delivery was a lesson to us all.”<br />
Sincere thanks are due not only to Nicholas Barber but also<br />
to Peter Fanning (Staff 1981-2012) for organising the tour<br />
and to Kit Oates (PH 2000-05) for his technical support.<br />
A memorable afternoon concluded with some welcome<br />
refreshment at <strong>The</strong> Plough in Museum Street.<br />
Dubai <strong>Salopian</strong>s gather in a stunning location<br />
for the annual get-together<br />
Around 30 <strong>Salopian</strong>s and friends met at the newly opened<br />
restaurant “Mi Amie” in the world-famous Jumeirah Emirates<br />
Towers for supper in March. This is the twelfth consecutive<br />
event in Dubai, one of the most active international Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> groups.<br />
<strong>The</strong> evening was organised by Rupert Connor (S 1992-<br />
97), who has lived in the UAE for the past 16 years. This<br />
year’s event once again coincided with a visit to Dubai by<br />
Shrewsbury School’s Development Director Oliver Jackson-<br />
Hutt, who was able to update <strong>Salopian</strong>s on everything<br />
going on back at HQ. <strong>The</strong>re are a number of <strong>Salopian</strong>s<br />
living in Dubai and the surrounding areas working in a<br />
variety of fields, including financial planning, property,<br />
law, shipbroking, contemporary art dealing, recruitment,<br />
plastic surgery, management consulting and many more.<br />
<strong>The</strong> evening, as always, was filled with laughter, great<br />
conversations, and company, with plenty of <strong>Salopian</strong> tales of<br />
years gone by.<br />
If you happen to find yourself out in the Middle East, please<br />
feel free to reach out and join the network –<br />
rupert.connor@gmail.com.<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> wins major new writers’ prize<br />
In a week bookended by two of Shrewsbury’s strongest<br />
creative challenges, the McEachran and Sidney prizes, it<br />
was a timely and real delight to hear that Will Hunter (Rt<br />
2007-12) has received the #Merky Books New Writers’ prize<br />
for <strong>2023</strong>. A competition that aims to discover unpublished,<br />
underrepresented writers aged 16-30, it was founded by the<br />
musician Stormzy, who also oversees the judging panel. Will’s<br />
novel, People Like Us, tells the story of a boy who falls in love<br />
with a family and into a world in which he doesn’t belong.<br />
Will commented, that “writing is something that I’ve wanted<br />
to do for as long as I can remember, but I’d begun to feel<br />
like that door was closed to me.” As part of the prize, Will<br />
receives a book deal with Penguin Random House, who will<br />
work with him to publish People Like Us. Stormzy added that<br />
he was “so happy to crown Will as the winner of this year’s<br />
prize. An extremely talented writer and I can’t wait to<br />
read more.”
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 85<br />
Will’s creative potential was seen by all who knew him at<br />
Shrewsbury: he was a key figure in both the theatre and<br />
Maidment building, performing in School and House plays,<br />
as well as operas and other concerts over his five years.<br />
Epiphany Service<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong> Club Epiphany Service at St Mary-le-Bow on<br />
Wednesday 18th January had everything. With an Old <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
choir that resounded around the City under the baton of<br />
Patrick Craig (Ch 1982-87), remarkable solo performances by<br />
Andrew Tipple (M 2000-05), Dan Noman (I 1984-88) and<br />
Sophia Price (EDH 2016-18), organ playing of the highest<br />
quality from Anthony Merryweather (I 1986-91), a variety<br />
of readings from <strong>Salopian</strong> personalities, a world première of an<br />
exquisite carol written by Alex Clarke (Rt 1982-87) and a truly<br />
memorable address from Canon Dr Mark Oakley (Rb 1982-87)<br />
who came down from Cambridge to conduct the service, it has<br />
been hailed as the best <strong>Salopian</strong> Club Epiphany Service yet.<br />
Many of the 100 or so <strong>Salopian</strong>s in the church then repaired for<br />
yet more spiritual refreshment at the nearby Williamson’s Tavern,<br />
some evidently in for the long haul! Sincere thanks are due to<br />
Richard Eteson (G 1989-93), Patrick Craig and Peter Fanning<br />
(Staff 1981-2012) for masterminding such an inspiring service.<br />
Open Mic Night<br />
In the atmospheric cellars of the Albany in Fitzrovia,<br />
five talented <strong>Salopian</strong> singer-songwriters entertained an<br />
enthusiastic gathering of young <strong>Salopian</strong>s well into the<br />
evening on Thursday 9th February. Many thanks are due to<br />
Joe Bell (Rb/I 2010-15) for organising the evening as well<br />
his fellow performers Luke Lloyd-Jones (Rb 2011-16),<br />
Jessie Inglis-Jones (EDH 2016-18), Cameron Bates (S<br />
2012-17) and George Bates (S 2009-14). It was a night that<br />
emphasised the wealth of <strong>Salopian</strong> talent that is so evident<br />
across all areas of the musical scene.<br />
Oxford undergraduate gathering<br />
<strong>The</strong> annual gathering of <strong>Salopian</strong> undergraduates at Oxford<br />
and Oxford Brookes universities took place once again in<br />
the Wadham Room at the King’s Arms in Holywell Street on<br />
Saturday 18th February. <strong>Salopian</strong>s at both universities were<br />
well represented and in buoyant spirits, while Paul and<br />
Jane Pattenden (Shrewsbury School) and Nick Jenkins (<strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club) travelled down from Shropshire. Many thanks<br />
are due to Johnnie Dowd (Rb 2015-20) for making the<br />
arrangements at the Oxford end.<br />
Portraiture and Prosecco Cocktails in SE21<br />
Around 60 Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s were treated to a private tour of the<br />
Dulwich Picture Gallery with one of the country’s foremost art<br />
experts and current President of the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club Desmond<br />
Shawe-Taylor (I 1968-73) on 21st June.<br />
Desmond was the Director of the Gallery between 1996 and<br />
2005 before taking on the highly prestigious role of Surveyor of<br />
the Queen’s Pictures between 2005 and 2020. He talked though<br />
some of the highlights of the collection including Saint Sebastian<br />
by Guido Reni and famous works by Rubens and Rembrandt.<br />
<strong>The</strong> group were then free to wander around the gallery with<br />
Desmond on hand to answer questions.<br />
After the tour the Old <strong>Salopian</strong> group enjoyed supper and<br />
cocktails in the grounds of the gallery, the first purpose built<br />
public art gallery in the world. A perfect way to spend a warm<br />
summer evening in Dulwich Village.<br />
Glorious sunny evening for the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> Party<br />
<strong>The</strong> Young Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s were out in force on a glorious<br />
summer evening at Shepherds Bush Cricket Club.<br />
A record attendance of around 100 people gathered for<br />
cricket, cold drinks and a barbecue.<br />
An unofficial link has been established between the Cricket<br />
Club and the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club, as a number of Old <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
cricketers play in the team and help organise events. Over<br />
the past few years the event has been affected by both<br />
COVID and train strikes but this year all things conspired for<br />
the perfect summer party. Year groups from 2022 to the latter<br />
part of the 1960s were represented and it was great to see<br />
some who had travelled from Shrewsbury especially for the<br />
event (not just the Director!).<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a Young Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Committee dedicated to<br />
keeping in touch with those who have left School in recent<br />
years. <strong>The</strong>y organise events and meet-ups through the year.<br />
If you are interested in getting involved, contact the Chair<br />
Becky Home (MSH 2011-13) at becky-home@hotmail.com<br />
or the office at oldsalopian@shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
Young OS return to give advice on<br />
university choices<br />
Some of the youngest Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s returned to School in<br />
the last week of June to speak to the Lower Sixth as part<br />
of a workshop about life after Shrewsbury. It was fantastic<br />
to relaunch the OS Uni Rep drop-in session after a<br />
three-year hiatus.<br />
Twenty Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s currently studying a wide range of<br />
subjects at university, from Classics to Computer Science,<br />
Human Sciences to History, came back to Severn Shore<br />
to talk informally about their experiences and institutions.<br />
More widely, 400 Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s in the Uni Rep network had<br />
already given their time to offer their unique insight into<br />
particular universities and courses<br />
<strong>The</strong> buzz in Quod was almost palpable, as the Lower<br />
Sixth were able to engage directly with those currently at<br />
university, asking the questions they might have been afraid<br />
to ask a teacher or admissions officer.<br />
For more <strong>Salopian</strong> Club news please look out for our<br />
e-newsletter. <strong>Salopian</strong> Connect is regularly updated,<br />
as are the OS News pages of the School website, and<br />
you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and<br />
Instagram.<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>connect.org.uk
86<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 87
88<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Silk Roads and Song Cycles<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Arts <strong>2023</strong><br />
For <strong>Salopian</strong>s in the Arts, it was a huge relief to have finally<br />
shrugged off the Pandemic. <strong>The</strong> annual Epiphany Service<br />
at St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside had been silenced for two<br />
years. In January, the event returned with a glorious revival.<br />
A gathering of more than a hundred saw an all-<strong>Salopian</strong><br />
Choir, conducted by Patrick Craig (Ch 1982-87), with<br />
organist Anthony Merryweather (I 1986-91) give a<br />
wonderful rendering of Alex Clarke’s (Rt 1982-87) World<br />
Premier Light Came Down - with soloists Daniel Norman<br />
(I 1984-88) and Sophia Price (EDH 2016-18) and further<br />
solos by Andrew Tipple (M 2000-05).<br />
Some fine eclectic readings<br />
were spoken by old and<br />
young and the Dean of St<br />
John’s Chapel Cambridge, <strong>The</strong><br />
Revd Canon Dr Mark Oakley<br />
(Rb 1982-87) delivered a<br />
sermon for the ages. It was an<br />
inspiring occasion, polished<br />
off by a crowded post-match<br />
gathering at the nearby<br />
Williamson’s Tavern.<br />
Huge thanks to Richard<br />
Eteson (G 1989-93) for his<br />
tireless preparation.<br />
In February, Joe Bell (Rb/I 2010-15) together with Becky<br />
Home (MSH 2011-13) and the Young <strong>Salopian</strong>s organised a<br />
fantastic Open Mic Night in London featuring an array of Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> talent include Joe, Cameron Bates (S 2012-17),<br />
George Bates (S 2009-14), Jessie Inglis-Jones (EDH 2016-<br />
18) and Luke Lloyd-Jones (Rb 2011-16).<br />
Another memorable event took place in March, when<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s gathered to witness a tour of the British Museum,<br />
led by Nicholas Barber (SH 1954-58). Barber, who had<br />
earlier toured the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, took as his<br />
theme <strong>The</strong> Silk Roads that stretched from China into Europe.<br />
A former Trustee of the British Museum, he led his guests<br />
through the very best of the Chinese and Indian Rooms, with<br />
an impeccable eye for detail, entertainment and anecdote.<br />
In April the King’s Place, London saw yet another World<br />
Première: Richard Eteson’s Song Cycle Under the Hawthorn<br />
Tree, based on a set of poems by Welsh poet Hywel John.<br />
Performed by James Hall, countertenor, and Dylan Perez,<br />
piano, the cycle broods on the mysterious Welsh landscape<br />
around the Preseli Hills.<br />
Proceeds for the concert went to the Children’s Charity<br />
Coram. <strong>The</strong> Coram Foundation is no stranger to original<br />
works by other composers. <strong>The</strong> Foundling Hospital was<br />
partly funded by George Frederick Handel, a branch of<br />
which was once in the Main School Building at Shrewsbury<br />
School.<br />
Are you on the mailing list for Arts Events? If not, please<br />
email a request to the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club Administrator Christine<br />
Stephens clstephens@shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
Plans for the Arts Season <strong>2023</strong>-24 will be published shortly.<br />
Peter Fanning (Staff 1981-2012)
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 89<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong> Drivers’ Club:<br />
Preparations Afoot<br />
<strong>The</strong> Turf Club hosted the SDC’s first event of <strong>2023</strong>.<br />
While autumn and winter are<br />
traditionally quiet seasons in<br />
the motoring calendar, the Club’s<br />
committee has been beavering away<br />
behind the scenes. Our inaugural <strong>2023</strong><br />
event was dinner at the Turf Club in<br />
St James’s, London. After last year’s<br />
event had to be relocated at short<br />
notice, owing to COVID striking down<br />
the kitchen staff (who all, fortunately,<br />
recovered within a few days), SDC<br />
members were looking forward to the<br />
10th of February’s return to Carlton<br />
House Terrace. We were honoured<br />
to have Nick Jenkins join us, who<br />
supported the SDC so strongly during<br />
his tenure as <strong>Salopian</strong> Club Director.<br />
Going Digital<br />
While we remain very grateful to the<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club for permitting us to<br />
post club updates on its website, we<br />
have now created a dedicated online<br />
space to share photographs, promote<br />
our events and make it easier for<br />
members to liaise. Not that the SDC is<br />
going it alone; updates will still feature<br />
on the official School website, but<br />
more information is hosted on www.<br />
salopiandriversclub.org (scan the QR<br />
code opposite).<br />
A Stacked Diary<br />
While SDC members met each other<br />
at car events all around the country,<br />
from the MG Triumph Show at the<br />
NAEC Stoneleigh to the Practical<br />
Classics Restoration Show at the NEC,<br />
Birmingham, the Committee is also<br />
organising dedicated outings.<br />
By the time this magazine goes to<br />
press, many of our regional tours will<br />
have been completed, but we intend to<br />
report on these fully in the next edition.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se include the joint <strong>Salopian</strong> Drivers<br />
Club and Bentley Drivers Club tour<br />
from Shrewsbury to Hawkstone Hall<br />
(21st May), the Yorkshire Tour (11th<br />
June) and the ambitious two-day South<br />
Kent and East Sussex Tour (18th/20th<br />
June).<br />
We also have a unique opportunity to<br />
visit the home of Jack Henley of Henley<br />
Transport fame near Smarden in Kent.<br />
This will be on 2nd September and,<br />
for <strong>Salopian</strong>s wanting to stay overnight<br />
before or after the event, there may still<br />
be places available at a nearby hotel. If<br />
you are interested in spending the day<br />
looking at Jack’s amazing collections<br />
of cars, clocks, toy vehicles, jukeboxes,<br />
Wurlitzers and more, please email John<br />
Sutton at john.sutton@suttonsgroup.<br />
com .<br />
Of course, our main event sees the<br />
SDC return to the School Site for its<br />
fifth AGM, to be held on OS Day<br />
during Saturday 30th September <strong>2023</strong><br />
at 2.00 pm in the upper room of the<br />
Moser Library. As usual, existing and<br />
potential members are invited to<br />
gather that morning with (or without)<br />
their cars at 11.45 am on Central in<br />
front of the Darwin statue. Once the<br />
official activities are over, the fun starts<br />
with dinner at KH, at which all SDC<br />
members are welcome. As per SDC<br />
tradition, the following day will see<br />
an excursion into beautiful Shropshire<br />
countryside, ideal for anyone wishing<br />
to skip chapel!<br />
If you would like to send apologies for<br />
absence from the AGM, or if you are<br />
interested in joining the SDC (and why<br />
wouldn’t you? It is free!),<br />
please e-mail Miles Preston at<br />
miles.preston@milespreston.co.uk<br />
Robert Marshall (R 1994-99)
90<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Freemasons Lodge<br />
2022 was the first year since the arrival of COVID that the Lodge has been able to fulfil its usual schedule of four meetings<br />
each year – three in London and a summer ‘Emergency’ meeting at the Schools.<br />
Our Lodge meetings in London in September and November 2022 and March <strong>2023</strong>, all had full-scale ceremonies, with<br />
March marking the Initiation of a new Brother. Our Installation meeting (effectively the AGM) in November was re-located<br />
to Mark Mason’s Hall, next to St James’s Palace. Robert Talog Davies (I 1985-90) was Installed as Worshipful Master, a<br />
fine time was had by all, and we were the last out of the bar.<br />
With other new joiners, including fathers of <strong>Salopian</strong>s, we combine a<br />
growing membership with a falling average age. Lodge membership covers<br />
leavers from the sixties to the noughties, so we are a multi-generational<br />
group, linked by our bond of affection to the institution of the Schools, as<br />
well as an interest in personal self-improvement. Masonic ritual, and the<br />
degree ceremonies, are intended to inculcate this, and have changed very<br />
little in the last 250 years. As such, we offer something new for the new<br />
normal, as well as a way of maintaining a link with the Schools.<br />
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 26th September at the Civil Service<br />
Club, 13-15 Great Scotland Yard, Whitehall, London SW1. <strong>The</strong> meeting,<br />
at 5.00 pm, is Masons only. <strong>The</strong> dinner afterwards is open to all, either to<br />
anyone interested in finding out more about what we do, or to those who<br />
would enjoy a convivial evening out with fellow <strong>Salopian</strong>s. We are the only<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> group which has dinners in London on a regular basis.<br />
We are a member Lodge of the United Grand Lodge of England (www.<br />
ugle.org.uk - www.londonmasons.org.uk), which has 175,000 members in<br />
some 7,000 lodges in England and Wales. Our Grand Lodge has regular<br />
dealings with the Order of Women Freemasons - www.owf.org.uk - and<br />
with Freemasonry for Women – www.hfaf.org<br />
For further information on what we do and any membership enquiries,<br />
please visit www.oldsalopianmasons.com, follow us on<br />
Twitter @OsFreemasons, or contact the Secretary, Chris Williams<br />
(R 1978-83) on 07956 964937 or at chrisjhwilliams@yahoo.co.uk.<br />
News of Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s<br />
1890-99<br />
John Holt (Chances 1897-99)<br />
Delighted to read, in the Winter<br />
2022/23 edition of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong>, my<br />
grandson Jonathan Russell’s excellent<br />
translation of my presentation on life<br />
at Shrewsbury School to the School of<br />
Commerce in Geneva.<br />
Through Jonathan’s cousin, Charles<br />
Hunter (O 1960-65), I can add to<br />
what I was felt able to say in Geneva. I<br />
enjoyed my time at Shrewsbury School,<br />
but as the 21st century pupils will<br />
note, the School had a somewhat more<br />
robust atmosphere in my time.<br />
In the photos of our bedrooms in<br />
Chances, the chamber pots can be<br />
seen. In addition to their real purpose,<br />
we used them as curling stones, sliding<br />
them across the polished bedroom<br />
floors, attempting to knock our<br />
opponents’ usually empty pots!<br />
In addition to the boarding house<br />
initiation ceremonies for new boys<br />
(new “scum”), each one was asked at<br />
the first assembly of the whole School<br />
to stand up to sing a song. <strong>The</strong> only<br />
song I could recall was<br />
“God Save the Queen”. I was amused<br />
that this led everyone to stand up to<br />
attention.<br />
1940-49<br />
J P Cross (Rt 1939-43)<br />
See Publications on page 108<br />
Keith Ferris (R 1944-48)<br />
A long-retired ENT consultant surgeon,<br />
I am just about “hanging on”, with<br />
any number of pathologies. I have<br />
continued to get an occasional letter<br />
published in the Daily Telegraph as<br />
well as articles for the Charlton Athletic<br />
Supporters Club newsletters. I am<br />
probably one of the last surviving<br />
supporters who went to both the 1946<br />
and 1947 Cup Finals. 100,000 attended<br />
each of these matches at the old<br />
Wembley Stadium.<br />
1950-59<br />
Colin Leach (O 1945-51)<br />
That I am still working enjoyably at 90<br />
is news enough. I make regular visits to<br />
Monaco and Zurich, besides continuing<br />
to review new publications for Classics<br />
for All’s online Journal - we aim to<br />
publish reviews more rapidly than the<br />
admirable, but naturally slower, journals<br />
such as Classical Review.<br />
Graeme Faber (Ch 1949-53)<br />
I am 87 years old, so the few<br />
contemporaries of mine who have not
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 91<br />
passed on might find this of interest. I<br />
am the first Faber since my grandfather<br />
(Huntsman in 1904) to gain a major<br />
school first (PT Special, briefly School<br />
Captain of Gymnastics). I seem to have<br />
inherited grandad’s abilities, running<br />
countless half marathons, in the 1989<br />
London Marathon finishing 20,009th,<br />
in 4 hrs 58 mins. I’ve also done a short<br />
course Triathlon in which, despite a<br />
very slow swim and a puncture on the<br />
cycle leg, I still wasn’t last! National<br />
Service from 1954 to 1956 was spent<br />
as a subaltern in the Kenya Mau Mau<br />
campaign (I could write a whole book<br />
about that, and what a huge waste<br />
of public money it was). Various jobs<br />
in Kenya and Tanzania (tea and sisal<br />
estates) followed. I have twice climbed<br />
Mt Kilimanjaro.<br />
I celebrated my 70th birthday with a<br />
three-week trek in Nepal when it was<br />
still a kingdom. I have also completed<br />
a ten-day 250-mile cycle ride across<br />
a very small part of Mongolia in aid<br />
of Macmillan Cancer Care, finishing<br />
at Ghenghis Khan’s old capital<br />
Karakoram. <strong>The</strong> Mongolians are<br />
amazing people, many living in felt<br />
skin tents between minus 50 and plus<br />
30 degrees celsius. This is only a short<br />
precis of the book of my life story I’m<br />
writing, to be called A Fool’s Odyssey.<br />
he was told he had gone the wrong<br />
way and had to swim back again. This<br />
he did and much to our chagrin still<br />
finished first after sprinting the last<br />
few agonising hundred yards up the<br />
Kennedy Road.<br />
My brother went to Cambridge and<br />
became a heart consultant. I qualified<br />
as a Chartered Accountant in the<br />
mistaken belief that it was something<br />
to do with engineering. (I had a good<br />
friend, Bromley Way (Ch 1949-54)<br />
who taught me about car engines<br />
and crystal wireless sets and who<br />
said he was going to be a Chartered<br />
Accountant). I then spent five very<br />
boring years as an Articled Clerk (but<br />
I did introduce a chap at the Liverpool<br />
Art School who was trying to pinch<br />
my girlfriend, to music and the Cavern<br />
Club. His name was John Lennon and<br />
I understand that not only did he later<br />
become quite famous but he also called<br />
his son Julian!)<br />
for a family party. All Saracens will<br />
know this lovely building well, sitting<br />
on the estuary where the Taw and<br />
Torridge rivers meet. I myself played<br />
there, and my father before me, a<br />
founder member of the Saracens in the<br />
late twenties. <strong>The</strong>re is a photograph<br />
still in the pavilion. My daughter<br />
painted a small watercolour by way<br />
of an invitation. I wore my father’s<br />
old cricket blazer, despite the moth<br />
holes! Hockings drove the ice cream<br />
van round to the pavilion much to the<br />
delight of old and young alike. <strong>The</strong> day<br />
ended with rounders. A great occasion,<br />
and I look forward to the annual<br />
Saracens match in August.<br />
Julian Pilcher (Ch 1949-54)<br />
I followed my elder brother Jeremy<br />
Pilcher (Ch 1948-53) and my father<br />
Humphrey Pilcher (R 1912-16)<br />
to Shrewsbury. My grandfather was<br />
Percy William Pilcher, music master<br />
from 1918-1935 and Housemaster<br />
of the ‘Holding House’ Gorswen.<br />
Notable amongst other cousins and<br />
uncles who attended Shrewsbury was<br />
my cousin John Arthur Pilcher (R<br />
1926-30) who for obvious reasons had<br />
to drop the ‘Arthur’ when he became<br />
Ambassador to Japan from 1967-72.<br />
Here are a few of many memories of<br />
my days at Shrewsbury, which were<br />
happy and fulfilling:<br />
<strong>The</strong> last day of Bumpers was a major<br />
gathering of Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Oars. Dick<br />
the Boatman (who personally built<br />
the Eights) got a 10-shilling tip if he<br />
remembered your name. He never<br />
forgot! So did the House John and any<br />
boy who cleaned his father’s name on<br />
the School Wall.<br />
Inter school Cross Country running was<br />
very competitive. Sedbergh up in the<br />
hills was very tough and always beat<br />
us, so we hatched a cunning plan. As<br />
usual the leader was from Sedbergh so<br />
he was directed across the River Severn<br />
(in full flood). Once he had swum it<br />
Jim Davies (O 1951-56)<br />
I’m savouring a quiet retirement among<br />
the delightful hills of New England after<br />
a career, following Cambridge, partly in<br />
IBM and partly as owner of a small firm<br />
in direct mail. Both were enjoyable,<br />
but running my own firm was the most<br />
satisfying. I remember being among the<br />
sea of boys admiring Her late Majesty’s<br />
walk along her Terrace in 1952, though<br />
alas my likeness in the photo on page 4<br />
of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong> Issue 170 was obscured<br />
by the Headmaster Jack Peterson’s right<br />
elbow. Being sufficiently in favour of<br />
Western civilization as to wish to help<br />
preserve it from nuclear annihilation,<br />
and having noticed that no war was<br />
ever waged but by governments, I<br />
propose their abolition. To that end I’ve<br />
prepared a no-charge “Liberty Banquet”<br />
at TakeLifeBack.com which I augment<br />
weekly with an anarchist Blog.<br />
Christopher Hewetson (R 1951-56)<br />
On Easter Monday this year my<br />
wife and I celebrated our Diamond<br />
wedding. Fifty members of our family<br />
gathered at Instow Cricket Pavilion<br />
Robert Adams (1953-58)<br />
My partner Nikki and I have moved<br />
from a Flemish speaking part of<br />
Belgium to a French speaking part. We<br />
both play golf regularly, do weekly<br />
gymnastics and physiotherapy to<br />
keep us fit and walk in the wonderful<br />
countryside near where we live. I am<br />
on the very active Committee of the<br />
Oxford Society of Belgium. Recently<br />
we have organised a meeting in a pub<br />
to follow the Oxford versus Cambridge<br />
Boat Races, held our annual Oxford<br />
versus Cambridge Croquet Match, and<br />
celebrated the 50th anniversary of the<br />
Oxford Society in Belgium.<br />
Andrew Soundy (I 1953-58)<br />
Andrew sent the photo overleaf of<br />
Ingramites 1953-58 (R to L): Andrew<br />
Bache (CMG, Diplomatic Service<br />
Retired, former Ambassador in<br />
Copenhagen), (Sir) Robert Corbett<br />
(Major-General, KCVO, CB, former<br />
British Commandant, Berlin) and
92<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Andrew Soundy (Retired Senior<br />
Partner Ashurst Morris Crisp, Solicitors);<br />
each with his wife (respectively) Shân,<br />
Susie and Jill (dog at end, ‘Lizzie’<br />
Corbett). Bache’s and Corbett’s fathers<br />
were also contemporaries at Ingram’s in<br />
the 1920s, remaining friends thereafter.<br />
Nicholas Barber (SH 1954-58)<br />
Nicholas Barber has always felt the<br />
standard translation of the school motto<br />
Intus si recte ne labora rather dull, in<br />
fact un-<strong>Salopian</strong>. How about something<br />
lighter, closer to the <strong>Salopian</strong> ethos?<br />
Kek used to favour a version related to<br />
the state of one’s digestion.<br />
Nicholas suggests:<br />
‘If you’re on good form, don’t worry<br />
about top schools’.<br />
Other suggestions welcome. Please<br />
send them to the editor at<br />
rth@shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
David Kempton (M 1955-59)<br />
After a long and varied career, I am<br />
now chairing a Hydrogen company and<br />
actively running my art gallery Kynance<br />
Fine Art www.kynancefineart.com<br />
Any OS interested in ‘investable’ art<br />
from established artists should email me<br />
at dk@kemptonholdings.com.<br />
1960-69<br />
Patrick Balfour (SH 1955-60)<br />
I recently completed a short biography<br />
of my grandfather George Balfour, the<br />
co-founder of Balfour Beatty and an MP<br />
for 23 years.<br />
George Balfour was not a <strong>Salopian</strong> but<br />
sent three of his sons, Hugh Balfour<br />
(Chance’s 1918-23) , David Balfour<br />
(S 1923-27) Will Balfour (SH 1921-24)<br />
to the School. <strong>The</strong>y were followed by my<br />
brother Michael Balfour (SH 1953-58)<br />
and me and we were joined by Will’s son,<br />
Bill Balfour (I 1954-55), on an English<br />
Speaking Union scholarship from the USA.<br />
law is a welcome change.<br />
Two local residents recently made<br />
an application for village green status<br />
for two adjoining pieces of land in<br />
Elmbridge, Surrey where I live. One<br />
was owned by Elmbridge Borough<br />
Council, the other by a developer and<br />
both were used regularly for walking<br />
by local residents. <strong>The</strong> applications<br />
were opposed by both landowners and<br />
I could see substantial legal problems<br />
with the one relating to the land owned<br />
by the Council.<br />
I’m a member of the Council’s<br />
Countryside Consultative Group and,<br />
raising the matter at 2022 meeting,<br />
argued for a voluntary dedication of a<br />
village green by the Council. This was<br />
supported at the meeting and, helped<br />
by the area’s local councillors, we<br />
navigated the proposal through another<br />
two Council committees. In March this<br />
year the Council agreed to withdraw<br />
its opposition to the application and<br />
dedicated the land as a village green.<br />
Stephen Lewis (R 1954-58)<br />
Eleven former Riggites recently<br />
attended a lunch, held annually for<br />
nearly 20 years, to remember their<br />
Housemaster, Hugh Brooke (Brookie):<br />
John Bolton, Francis Grundy, Nigel<br />
Burton, John Ingram, Mark Moody-<br />
Stuart, John Sellers, Michael Palin,<br />
Stephen Lewis, John Gilbert, Mrs<br />
Carol Boscoe, and Robin Hodgson.<br />
All were in RHJB between 1954 and<br />
1962 when Houses were known by<br />
the Housemaster’s initials. We were<br />
all delighted when Carol (Brookie’s<br />
eldest daughter) joined these occasions.<br />
Sadly, this year Geoffrey Saltmarsh<br />
and Oliver Clutton Brock could not<br />
attend. We also keep in touch with<br />
Billy Ward, although he has never yet<br />
been able to attend. We particularly<br />
remembered other founding members<br />
of the group: Geoffrey Fallows,<br />
Francis Ravenscroft, Charles<br />
Edwards and Christopher Cherry.<br />
We are very sorry to have to report the<br />
death of Stephen Lewis on 30th June<br />
<strong>2023</strong>. An obituary can be found on<br />
page 116, together with a photo of the<br />
Riggite lunch he describes here.<br />
Roger Musson (Rt 1955-60)<br />
Pictured above is racehorse Bertie Blue,<br />
bred by me and sold in 2021 to owners<br />
of his trainer Emma Lavelle (daughter<br />
of Richard Lavelle (Db 1949-54) and<br />
niece of John Lavelle (Db 1950-56)<br />
who on 28th April this year won a<br />
hurdle race at Southwell Racecourse in<br />
a field of 13, beating into second place<br />
the favourite, White Rhino, trained by<br />
Oliver Greenhall (Rt 2000-05).<br />
Rodney Whittaker (SH 1961-66)<br />
Rodney is enjoying a retirement role as<br />
the local correspondent for the Open<br />
Spaces Society, the leading pressure<br />
group for the protection of Commons<br />
and Village Greens in England and<br />
Wales. After a legal career largely<br />
involving international law, this area of<br />
Stephen Wright (S 1960-64)<br />
A recent photo of my brother David<br />
Wright (S 1954-59) and myself. <strong>The</strong><br />
lady is Danica Wright, my brother’s wife.<br />
Chris Buckley (I 1964-68)<br />
Here I am with my son Harry on a<br />
recent holiday to Las Vegas, photo<br />
taken by my wife Denise.<br />
I’m off tonight to an Anglican meeting<br />
to try and ‘find new direction for the<br />
church in the Halifax area’. I think this<br />
time I’ll do more listening than talking.<br />
I gave a talk to the men’s group in our<br />
church recently based on the prodigal<br />
son - my favourite parable.
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 93<br />
Alasdair Forbes (SH 1964-68)<br />
After leaving Shrewsbury, I kicked<br />
around aimlessly for a while, before<br />
going into journalism in 1972, starting<br />
as a reporter on the Cheshire Observer,<br />
then as a sub-editor on the rival Chester<br />
Chronicle. In 1978 I was tempted into<br />
a sub-editing job on the Saudi Gazette<br />
in Jeddah. <strong>The</strong>re followed similar jobs<br />
in Bahrain, Cyprus and Dubai before I<br />
landed in Hong Kong in 1988, where I<br />
ended up as editor of Asian Business,<br />
a monthly magazine that circulated<br />
from Australia to Japan and across to<br />
India. After the Asian financial crash of<br />
1997 ruined the publishing business, I<br />
moved to Thailand as managing editor<br />
of the local Phuket Gazette, and then a<br />
similar role at the Phuket News.<br />
Following the 2014 military coup in<br />
Thailand, I was denied a renewal of my<br />
media visa (on which my work permit<br />
depended), so I opted to retire. I was<br />
by then 64, so it seemed the right thing<br />
to do.<br />
Pen, my wife of 43 years, and I now<br />
split our time between our house in<br />
Phuket and another in her home town<br />
in Srisaket, close to the Cambodian<br />
border. I keep myself occupied with<br />
watercolours and she with the gardens.<br />
Robin Harrison (1963-68)<br />
Robin married Rachel Barlow on 26th<br />
November 2022 and is living near<br />
Knutsford in Cheshire. Rachel has two<br />
sons from her first marriage who were<br />
in Oldham’s, Richard Barlow<br />
(O 1988-93) and Charlie Barlow<br />
(O 1990-95).<br />
Francis Argyle (M 1964-69)<br />
See photo on page 59<br />
I was not particularly happy at school,<br />
was useless on the games fields and<br />
ended up with an A-level disaster.<br />
I always enjoyed escaping from the<br />
Site to go bird-watching and this<br />
hobby is still with me and does, on<br />
occasion, provide me with some<br />
gainful employment. My greatest<br />
achievement at school was to qualify<br />
for a UK Bird-ringing licence and I<br />
am eternally grateful to teachers Peter<br />
Mawby, Peter Gladstone and my late<br />
Housemaster Robin Moulsdale for<br />
help and encouragement towards this<br />
achievement. I have kept the licence<br />
up to date and used it continuously.<br />
In 1978 I gained the Israeli equivalent<br />
licence which I also still use and I<br />
am the longest-serving bird ringer in<br />
Israel. I attended the Hertfordshire<br />
College of Agriculture 1970-1973. I<br />
was Bird-ringing Advisor to the Iranian<br />
Imperial Government 1974 to 1978 and<br />
Volunteer lead bird ringer for Israel<br />
Nature Protection Society (SPNI) at<br />
Eilat in 1978 and 1979. I married Nurit<br />
Cohen from Israel in 1980. I was a selfemployed<br />
nurseryman in Tamworth,<br />
UK, from 1980 to 2009. I am now<br />
retired in Israel, and a dual UK/Israel<br />
citizen. I was volunteer lead bird-ringer<br />
on a part-time/seasonal basis for the<br />
SPNI between 2004 and 2015 working<br />
mostly in the Hula Valley. Between<br />
2010 and 2020 I was employed by<br />
three Israeli Universities on shortterm<br />
contracts to assist PhD and MSc<br />
students with ornithological field work.<br />
I am currently employed at Hefer Valley<br />
birds research station in Israel. Over the<br />
course of my life I have birdwatched<br />
in 40+ countries, bird-ringing in 14 of<br />
them, with a world list of over 5,000<br />
bird species seen so far. My latest<br />
destination has been Mongolia to help<br />
develop bird-ringing there. A third trip<br />
there is planned for this summer.<br />
Simon Morris (DB 1964-65,<br />
Rt 1965-69)<br />
I qualified as an ACA with the Institute<br />
of Chartered Accountants in England<br />
and Wales in 1975. Following a cabaret<br />
session, I was invited to teach students<br />
in London with an accountancy trainer<br />
for their professional accountancy<br />
exams, later joining Financial Training<br />
plc. In 1984 KPMG, a client asked us<br />
to assist their Zambian office students<br />
for the ACCA exam preparation. This<br />
was an epiphany. I learnt in Africa<br />
that skills transfer in developing<br />
countries can transform lives and bring<br />
empowerment. From 1988 I spent five<br />
years with the ILO and KPMG Ireland<br />
and Price Waterhouse starting aidfunded<br />
accountancy schools in Zambia<br />
and Botswana geared to professional<br />
and technical exams. In Botswana I<br />
started an MBA with the University of<br />
Manchester, graduating in Vanuatu,<br />
when with British Aid, we designed<br />
a certificate course, which articulated<br />
into Australian further education,<br />
then making ourselves redundant by<br />
training Ni-Vanuatu to take over. I<br />
migrated to Australia in 1998, moving<br />
to Darwin in 2005. <strong>The</strong> 1999 vote for<br />
independence in Timor-Leste brought<br />
the destruction of 70% of homes<br />
and 80% of schools and government<br />
buildings. Most Timorese live in the<br />
country areas as subsistence farmers,<br />
with 50% of children under five having<br />
stunted growth due to malnutrition. I<br />
have been visiting Timor-Leste since<br />
2009, with their Ministry of Finance<br />
students completing accounting and<br />
business degrees at Charles Darwin<br />
University in Darwin. I hope to start<br />
an aid-funded project in Timor-Leste<br />
bringing accountancy skills to the<br />
wider community and strengthening<br />
the capabilities of existing accounting<br />
graduates.<br />
John Tattersall (O 1965-69)<br />
John was delighted to be honoured by<br />
the King in the New Year’s Honours<br />
List with a CBE for service to the<br />
finance sector. This was principally in<br />
respect of his role as Chair of UK Asset<br />
Resolution since 2016, and a board<br />
member since 2010, with responsibility<br />
for returning the former mortgage<br />
lenders Bradford & Bingley plc and<br />
NRAM (formerly Northern Rock plc)<br />
to the private sector, selling off their<br />
mortgage and personal loans, and<br />
repaying the taxpayer in full for the<br />
cost of the bail outs of both banks<br />
during the financial crisis of 2008-10.<br />
His service to the finance sector also<br />
includes his work in financial regulation<br />
as a partner at PwC until his retirement<br />
in 2009, and subsequently in various<br />
other roles, including as a member<br />
of the Independent Commission on<br />
Equitable Life Payments, advising the<br />
UK Government on compensation<br />
to Equitable Life policyholders, and<br />
as Chair of the Financial Services<br />
Commission, the financial regulator<br />
in Gibraltar. <strong>The</strong>se roles have been<br />
alongside his work as a non-stipendiary<br />
priest in the Oxford Diocese of the<br />
Church of England since 2007.<br />
1970-79<br />
Paul Blackburn (M 1968-72)<br />
Pictured overleaf are myself and Dr<br />
Huon Gray (M 1968-72) (on right<br />
in picture) partaking in Sporting<br />
Clays in an Edmonton club during<br />
the marvellous Prairie summers of<br />
2022. I’m now retired from a lifetime<br />
of global consulting work, having<br />
undertaken major projects in Canada,
94<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
the US, Middle East, Europe, Japan<br />
and Australia. I now spend my time in<br />
Alberta, Canada - and Seychelles where<br />
my wife Josemee still has friends and<br />
family. This perfectly balances the cold<br />
winter months of -30 o weather that one<br />
encounters here on the Prairies, with a<br />
more tropical outlook (+30 o degrees)<br />
that can be found amongst the Indian<br />
Ocean archipelago. Pastimes include<br />
mountain biking, golf, swimming, deep<br />
sea fishing and sporting clays.<br />
Travelling Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s are most<br />
welcome to drop by.<br />
Desmond Thomas (DB 1967-72)<br />
I left Shrewsbury to follow a career in<br />
the electronics industry with, what was<br />
then, the Ferranti company, most of my<br />
time with the electronic components<br />
division in Chadderton (Oldham,<br />
Greater Manchester). Following a<br />
number of mergers and acquisitions<br />
(four employers in the same business<br />
over 26 years), we were ultimately<br />
‘asset stripped’, with the main part of<br />
the business being absorbed into the<br />
GEC organisation in the south west of<br />
England.<br />
<strong>The</strong> decision faced by many of us was<br />
whether to move with the company,<br />
or to change direction. I chose the<br />
latter option, moving into IT network<br />
management for the second part of my<br />
working life, retiring in January 2020,<br />
shortly before the world was hit by the<br />
Covid pandemic. Retirement did not,<br />
however, follow the planned path for a<br />
couple of reasons.<br />
We had planned to spend much of<br />
our retirement time at our home in<br />
Cirella, southern Italy, however travel<br />
restrictions put an end to this plan<br />
for a couple of years (only managing<br />
to visit 2/3 times, and with many<br />
restrictions). As Covid eased, and<br />
seemed to go away (we think/hope),<br />
my wife unfortunately suffered a stroke<br />
in the autumn of 2022 which finally<br />
ended the Italian dream such that we<br />
have to remain at home and close<br />
to the medical care which we have<br />
here. <strong>The</strong> upside though means that<br />
we are able to spend time with the<br />
family/grandchildren, but having to<br />
restrict ourselves to UK holidays for the<br />
immediate future. We have learnt to<br />
accept the cards which life has dealt us,<br />
and make the most of what we have.<br />
Giles Wood (SH 1969-74)<br />
I am enjoying a bit of late-flowering<br />
attention. Mary Killen - my wife and<br />
Spectator agony aunt - and I are<br />
featured on the cover of You Magazine<br />
(23 April <strong>2023</strong>) modelling Italian<br />
clothes. A three-page article ends<br />
with a plug for our second book, (see<br />
Publications on page 109). Country<br />
Life: A Story of Peaks and Troughs is<br />
illustrated with pen and ink drawings<br />
by me and features a drawing of<br />
Portmeirion, when I must have been<br />
at School. I joke in the book about<br />
Shrewsbury being a minor public<br />
school … which it isn’t … but is the<br />
result of having too many friends who<br />
went to Eton. I have recently contacted<br />
an Old <strong>Salopian</strong> schoolfriend and we<br />
enjoy an email correspondence. Lord<br />
Marland recently commissioned me to<br />
paint an interior in oils of his manor<br />
house drawing room near Salisbury. I<br />
may be the only Old <strong>Salopian</strong> currently<br />
involved in the cast of a reality<br />
television series, not a career option at<br />
my time at Shrewsbury.<br />
Nick Gill (O 1970-75)<br />
After a career working in the utility<br />
sector, I am now enjoying a retired<br />
lifestyle. As a chartered electrical<br />
engineer, I fulfilled various engineering<br />
roles in the electricity utility company<br />
in the northwest. When it merged<br />
with the water company (who said<br />
electricity and water don’t mix?!) I<br />
diversified into health and safety and<br />
then into business risk. Leaving the<br />
utility company, I then eased myself<br />
into retirement by working on my<br />
own in risk consultancy before fully<br />
finally winding up a couple of years<br />
ago. I now enjoy a retirement whilst<br />
keeping my “working eye” in, through<br />
being a trustee on a nearby multiacademy<br />
trust for SEND education.<br />
My retired life has scared away our<br />
family as all three children work and<br />
live in London, whilst I remain in the<br />
northwest! I recently visited Gambia<br />
to see a school built by a charity in<br />
my late sister’s name. Very humbling,<br />
the visit reminded me how we take<br />
everyday things in the West for granted,<br />
especially education and good health.<br />
William Marston (DB 1972-77)<br />
I retired as a Priest in the Church of<br />
England in May 2021, after which I<br />
have published a semi-autobiographical<br />
novel Confessions of a COVID Cleric.<br />
(See Publications on page 109)<br />
Philip Williamson (DB 1973-78)<br />
On leaving Shrewsbury, I studied to<br />
be a professional violinist at the Royal<br />
Academy of Music, but subsequently<br />
re-trained as an osteopath at the British<br />
School of Osteopathy, my interest<br />
piqued by treatment for a shoulder<br />
injury sustained at music college. I<br />
assumed that I would probably end up<br />
treating crocked-up musicians for the<br />
rest of my working life, but in fact I was<br />
drawn more towards general practice,<br />
treating patients with a wide range of<br />
conditions and of all ages from babies<br />
to the very elderly. I have lived and<br />
worked in Kent ever since qualification,<br />
and married my wife, Sophie, in 1984.<br />
We met on a music course when<br />
we were 17, and then subsequently<br />
reconnected at music college two years<br />
later. We have one daughter, who is a<br />
qualified vet, and also a keen amateur<br />
musician.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pandemic was an interesting time<br />
to be performing hands-on treatment<br />
with patients, and the initial injunction<br />
to ‘work remotely’ just didn’t seem<br />
to cut it, given the nature of the job.<br />
Things have gradually got back towards<br />
normal, but I am trying to do a little<br />
less to improve the work-life balance.<br />
I have always kept my violin playing<br />
going, and play regularly in orchestras<br />
and ensembles. I also enjoy (very<br />
amateur) photography.<br />
Robin Copestick (M 1976-79)<br />
Robin is Managing Director of Freixenet<br />
Copestick which is the largest importer<br />
of Sparkling Wine in the UK. Freixenet<br />
Copestick wholly owns the directto-consumer<br />
website called Slurp as
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 95<br />
well as the renowned English Winery,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bolney Estate, based in Sussex.<br />
Additionally Robin also helps oversee<br />
the group’s offices in <strong>The</strong> Nordics<br />
and Benelux area. Robin would be<br />
delighted to arrange a visit for any<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s who would like to visit<br />
Bolney. Contact Robin.Copestick@<br />
fxcbranding.com<br />
stayed until my retirement at the end of<br />
2021. I still live in Belgium and became<br />
a Belgian citizen in 2019. I have added<br />
a picture of me during my time in<br />
the care of Paddy Knox, who ran an<br />
‘overflow’ just off Ashton Road.<br />
business in Nantwich, Manchester,<br />
Leigh, Bury and Southport, we also<br />
look after three Yorkshire Building<br />
Society Agencies.<br />
Graham van’t Hoff (Rt 1975-79)<br />
Graham went on from Shrewsbury<br />
to study Chemistry at Exeter College,<br />
Oxford, and from there joined Shell.<br />
He was at Shell for 35 years, serving<br />
as Chairman of Shell UK, EVP of<br />
Alternative Energies and Climate<br />
Change, and global head of Shell<br />
Chemicals from 2013 to 2019. Graham’s<br />
wife Maggie comes from Dallas and<br />
they moved to Naples, Florida in 2017<br />
where they now live. Graham has a son<br />
Jake from his first marriage who lives<br />
in Edinburgh, and three more children<br />
- Josh, who is studying Engineering at<br />
Purdue University in Indiana, Rebecca<br />
and Benjamin. Graham is now semiretired,<br />
working on several boards in<br />
the energy, gases and chemicals spaces.<br />
Graham sailed his boat across the<br />
Atlantic with three friends in 2011, and<br />
continues to sail from Florida around<br />
the Bahamas and Caribbean. He is also<br />
a qualified dive instructor, technical and<br />
rebreather diver, and pilots his own<br />
single engine propeller aircraft around<br />
the US, mostly to travel, see friends and<br />
play golf.<br />
1980-89<br />
Crispin Mason-Jones (M 1975-80)<br />
In January 2022 I retired from my<br />
architectural practice in Newcastle<br />
upon Tyne and joined my wife<br />
Ellie on her sabbatical as the Valley<br />
Doctor in Mfuwe in North East<br />
Zambia. Here I became involved<br />
with a sports club which had grown<br />
out of an arts project for orphaned<br />
and underprivileged children. This<br />
has quickly taken over my life! What<br />
began with raising funds to supply<br />
some boots and equipment has<br />
grown into a full-time job. Thanks<br />
to generous donations from friends<br />
and sponsors we have kitted out<br />
and secured the future of ‘our’ club,<br />
‘the Mfuwe Mags’ and are now<br />
committed to supplying kit to all<br />
the teams in the local district - we<br />
are just back from a fantastic trip<br />
where we presented kit to over 170<br />
children from 16 teams to facilitate<br />
the re-start of the junior leagues<br />
halted by the pandemic - as well<br />
as hopefully building some decent<br />
facilities so that these very talented<br />
boys and girls can showcase their<br />
considerable talents. If anyone<br />
would like to know more about the<br />
project or might be able to help in<br />
anyway, then please get in touch!<br />
www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/<br />
start-artss<br />
Warwick Hawkins (S 1978-83)<br />
Warwick Hawkins MBE has finally<br />
returned to the West Midlands after 35<br />
years in London. His social enterprise,<br />
Faith in Society, continues to support<br />
community relations projects across the<br />
country.<br />
Will Campion (M 1980-84)<br />
Will is a very proud Old <strong>Salopian</strong>,<br />
like his father, uncle and great uncle<br />
before him. He still represents the Club<br />
in the Halford Hewitt and Mellin golf<br />
tournaments. He is also a keen fives<br />
player, representing the Jesters and the<br />
North Oxford Eton Fives Club. After a<br />
distinguished career in the city working<br />
for JP Morgan, he founded www.<br />
campioncapital.com in 2003 and www.<br />
moneymazepodcast.com in 2020.<br />
He has four children and lives outside<br />
Oxford. Like many Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s, he<br />
has a holiday home in Anglesey.<br />
David Wood (SH 1977-79)<br />
After Shrewsbury, I took degrees<br />
in politics and law, followed by<br />
qualification as a solicitor in 1989. I<br />
moved to Belgium in 1991 and shortly<br />
afterwards joined DG Competition of<br />
the European Commission. I spent ten<br />
years there specialising in competition<br />
law enforcement in the transport,<br />
financial services and media sectors.<br />
In 2002, I returned to private practice<br />
joining Gibson Dunn in 2004 where I<br />
Andrew Hollings (DB 1976-81)<br />
Still working as a GP in North Cumbria<br />
as well as beekeeping, playing golf<br />
(Brampton and Silloth) and a spot of<br />
tennis. Hadrian’s Wall is close by as<br />
well as the opportunity to cycle coast to<br />
coast. www.cumrewhouse.co.uk<br />
All Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s welcome.<br />
Philip Robinson (DB 1976-81)<br />
I have just joined KBA <strong>The</strong> Financial<br />
Planning Company and am based in<br />
the Nantwich office. My specialism is<br />
helping Business Owners shape their<br />
future with forward thinking Financial<br />
Planning. As well as running our core<br />
Clive Hayward (SH 1979-84)<br />
Clive is still working as an actor but<br />
fame and fortune have eluded him!<br />
However, the last two years have seen<br />
him at work at the Barbican <strong>The</strong>atre<br />
in Anything Goes and at the RSC in A<br />
Christmas Carol. He works mainly in<br />
theatre, radio and audio drama but<br />
does occasionally pop up on television.<br />
His wife, Claire, has a successful pianoteaching<br />
business and still performs as<br />
an accompanist. His two children, Elsa<br />
and Leo, are at school and showing<br />
early promise of not following in their<br />
father’s footsteps.
96<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
publishing for 20 years I felt the time<br />
was right to publish my own books.<br />
Townhouse specialises in children’s<br />
novelty board, sound books, preschool,<br />
and colour & activity. I live in<br />
Cheltenham, am married to Lisa and<br />
have two sons, Otis and Ralph, and<br />
a dog called Trevor. As a keen golfer<br />
I am a member of the Old <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
Golfing Society and enjoy the meetings<br />
and knockout competitions that run<br />
throughout the season. It’s great to play<br />
the game and meet interesting Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s of various ages.<br />
Rob Yorke (R 1981-86)<br />
Rob Yorke is branching out into new<br />
fields. With over 30 years working<br />
as a rural chartered surveyor, he’s<br />
now pushing his specialist role as an<br />
Environmental Dialogue Broker. What’s<br />
that? It’s about creating the space and<br />
the people to have conversations we<br />
need to, rather than want to have. He<br />
curates, facilitates, moderates events (in<br />
person - indoors or outdoors) around<br />
land, trees, wildlife, conservation,<br />
hunting, water, food, wilding etc by<br />
moving around chairs on stage and<br />
mics in the audience. Oh, and he’s still<br />
annoying <strong>The</strong> Times Letters editor with<br />
133 letters published to date. Find him<br />
at www.robyorke.co.uk or on twitter<br />
www.twitter.com/blackgull<br />
Simon Frew (PH 1982-87)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Restaurant & Bar at Four Seasons<br />
at Park Lane in Mayfair, London are<br />
being refurbished and Simon took part<br />
in this publicity shot for Chef Yannick<br />
Alleno’s new culinary venue.<br />
Simon continues to enjoy being a<br />
Brand Ambassador for Four Seasons<br />
Hotels & Resorts, as well as sitting on<br />
the Board of Jordan International Bank<br />
plc, based in London.<br />
William Ransford (O 1982-87)<br />
has been commissioned as a Deputy<br />
Lieutenant of Powys by HM <strong>The</strong> King.<br />
<strong>The</strong> photo above shows William with<br />
Alex Trevor (R 1999-04),<br />
Damian Richards (R 1986-91)<br />
and James Harvey (S 1983-87) at an<br />
annual Family Shoot at Powis Castle,<br />
Christmas 2022.<br />
Johnny Holland (O 1983-88)<br />
Johnny lives on a small farm in rural<br />
West Dorset with his family and an<br />
ever-expanding menagerie of animals,<br />
including dogs, donkeys, ducks and<br />
chickens.<br />
During the week Johnny works in<br />
London as the head of Hackett Holland,<br />
a successful boutique Architecture and<br />
Interiors Practice which he founded<br />
with wife Jane Hackett. Hackett<br />
Holland specialize in residential<br />
refurbishment and extension for private<br />
clients. Johnny is passionate about<br />
‘recycling’ older buildings and creating<br />
highly energy efficient new builds.<br />
Hackett Holland are currently working<br />
on five separate Listed houses in RBKC,<br />
as well as developing three new build<br />
country houses in traditional style with<br />
sustainable credentials.<br />
Johnny remains in close contact with<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> contemporaries including<br />
Simon Bevan (O 1983-88),<br />
Charles Davies (O 1983-88),<br />
Tim Dams (PH 1983-88) and<br />
Charlie Goddard (PH 1983-88).<br />
1990-99<br />
Tom Oakes (S 1990-92)<br />
In 2021 I set up children’s book<br />
publishing house, Townhouse<br />
Publishing Limited. Having worked in<br />
Ed Godrich (I 1988-93)<br />
Ed Godrich has been working with<br />
singer and celebrity Robbie Williams<br />
as his creative partner on a major art<br />
project. <strong>The</strong>y held their first exhibition<br />
at Sotheby’s in May 2022 and went<br />
on to show their work in Dubai in<br />
December. Ed and Robbie have been<br />
working together for several years.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y met when Ed, who used to be<br />
an interior designer, was enlisted to<br />
decorate Robbie’s London home. Ed<br />
founded Godrich Interiors with fellow<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Rupert Hunt (M 1988-<br />
93) who still runs the company. Robbie<br />
Williams has collected art for some time,<br />
after becoming inspired by album covers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pair are inspired by their mutual love<br />
of art, music and all things ‘80s.<br />
James Smith (Ch 1990-95)<br />
My news is I have a son in the Fifth<br />
Form in my old house Churchill’s Hall<br />
about to do GCSEs, coincidentally<br />
sharing a dorm with the son of one of<br />
my old friends and dorm mates from<br />
when I was at Churchill’s in the 1990s;<br />
and a daughter starting in the Third<br />
Form at Queen’s Hall next September.<br />
I’ve recently started a new job as<br />
CFO of TalkTalk, the internet service<br />
provider, headquartered in Manchester,<br />
although my family home remains in<br />
Scotland with my wife Camilla, who<br />
teaches at Fettes, and our seven lovely<br />
children.
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 97<br />
Rob Barber (SH 1995-97)<br />
I have been appointed to the<br />
Board of Atta, the African Travel<br />
and Tourism Association. My wife<br />
Charlotte Bennett-Diver and I also<br />
welcomed our firstborn child, a baby<br />
girl Rose Elizabeth Jane Zia on 19th<br />
October 2022. We continue to live and<br />
operate our luxury safari business in<br />
Maun, Botswana, the gateway to the<br />
Okavango Delta, a UNESCO world<br />
heritage site, and as per the Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> business directory, we are<br />
happy to extend a 10% discount to<br />
all Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s and their travelling<br />
parties.<br />
James Matheson (G 1992-97)<br />
is engaged to marry Alison Lois on 8th<br />
July <strong>2023</strong> in Chester.<br />
Dominic Gill (G 1993-98)<br />
While summer regularly brings with<br />
it the risk of forest fires around our<br />
home in Truckee, California (near<br />
Lake Tahoe), this year saw the biggest<br />
winter on record, with approximately<br />
75 feet of snow burying our house<br />
and production company. This is not<br />
a complaint: while digging everything<br />
out became tedious, I’d welcome<br />
this every year to reverse California’s<br />
drought conditions, and of course for<br />
the skiing. Our four-year-old Husky<br />
enthusiastically agrees. Between<br />
shovelling, we have been working on<br />
a feature-length documentary entitled<br />
<strong>The</strong> Messengers, shedding light on four<br />
Republican environmentalists who<br />
are trying to work hard in their own<br />
fields to mitigate the effects of climate<br />
change. For too long we believe liberal<br />
filmmakers (which include us) have<br />
been preaching to the choir. In order<br />
to harness the power of the entire US,<br />
Republicans need role models in the<br />
public domain who speak their own<br />
dialect. Platforming those role models is<br />
our intention with this film, which we<br />
hope to complete and release during<br />
the 2024 US Presidential Elections. For<br />
more info go to<br />
www.encompassfilms.com<br />
Jon Pendergast (PH 1993-98)<br />
John continues to live in Ontario<br />
Canada with his wife, Jen, and his<br />
two boys Sebastian (10) and Dominic<br />
(8). Last summer, they moved out<br />
of Toronto city and into the rolling<br />
hills to the East. Jon leads the Sales<br />
Engineering organization for North<br />
and South America within a large<br />
global software firm, and Jen is<br />
Executive Director of a local charity.<br />
Jon continues with his ‘extreme science’<br />
hobbies, and at the time of writing,<br />
he is chasing storms in the American<br />
mid-West.<br />
Hamish Clegg (SH 1994-99)<br />
Hamish and William Ewart (SH<br />
1994-99) have founded one of the first<br />
medical cannabis companies in the UK<br />
and we are now supplying UK patients<br />
with much-needed medicine.<br />
www.hilltopleaf.com<br />
2000-09<br />
Tom Graham (Rt 1996-01)<br />
Tom Graham is cycling from John O’<br />
Groats to Lands’ End in May, pedalling<br />
up to 108 miles per day for ten<br />
consecutive days. His team are raising<br />
money for Parkinson’s UK, with the<br />
total standing at just over £60,000 two<br />
weeks before the challenge.<br />
Edward Shorthouse (S 1996-01)<br />
After several years of running the<br />
training team at the National College for<br />
Nuclear in Somerset, I have joined the<br />
Nuclear Skills Alliance working for EDF<br />
at the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant.<br />
Ann is continuing her Kinesiology<br />
practice and Eleanora is heading to<br />
Taunton School, around the corner<br />
from us, this September.<br />
Chris Moore (Rb 2000-02)<br />
I have become a Chartered<br />
Aeronautical Engineer with the Royal<br />
Aeronautical Society.<br />
Patrick Higham (O 2003-08)<br />
Our second child, Charles Patrick<br />
Séamus Higham was born 25th<br />
February to join our daughter Florence<br />
Catherine Rose Higham who was<br />
born in 2020. Florence is named after<br />
my mother who was organ teacher<br />
at Shrewsbury for many years and<br />
died on Christmas Eve 2020. Charlie<br />
takes my grandfather Séamus Ennis’<br />
name - a celebrated Irish folk musician<br />
and collector. Professionally I am an<br />
Associate at DWF Law specialising in<br />
counter insurance fraud.<br />
Harry Phillips (G 2004-09)<br />
After a six-year period of working in<br />
the London luxury real estate market,<br />
Harry has moved to South Wales where<br />
he has taken up a key role within the<br />
family business, Family Finance. Due to<br />
wed his partner Alice in December later<br />
this year, Harry remains an avid fan<br />
of Welsh rugby and can frequently be<br />
found at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium<br />
on match day.<br />
Jake Greenall (Rt 2005-10)<br />
I am now working as General Manager<br />
at Sun Street Hotel near Liverpool<br />
Street, London.
98<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
2010-19<br />
Daniel Bradshaw (M 2005-10)<br />
Daniel and Charlotte Bradshaw<br />
(née Finley (MSH 2008-10) are<br />
delighted to announce the birth of<br />
their son, Edward, born in April <strong>2023</strong>.<br />
With a christening booked in at the<br />
School chapel and two Old <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
godparents, Ned is off to a strong start!<br />
Sebastian Pope (PH 2008-13)<br />
Erratum: <strong>The</strong> Editor apologises for the<br />
incorrect identification of Sebastian<br />
as one of the four people in the<br />
photograph at the top of the right-hand<br />
column on page 82 of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
Issue 168. <strong>The</strong> Old <strong>Salopian</strong> pictured is<br />
in fact Evan Rolfe (S 2010-15).<br />
Harry Sargeant (M 2009-14)<br />
Harry has married US-born Vanessa<br />
Woods at a ceremony near her family<br />
home in Chicago in February. Harry’s<br />
close family flew out to join the<br />
celebrations. <strong>The</strong> couple met when<br />
Vanessa was in the UK on a catering<br />
school scholarship. <strong>The</strong>y have made<br />
their home in London where Harry<br />
is progress leader for music at an<br />
academy school and Vanessa is a<br />
Cordon Bleu pastry chef.<br />
Rob Hartwell (R 2012-17)<br />
I have recently completed my basic<br />
officer training with the Royal Marines<br />
at Commando Training Centre Royal<br />
Marines in Lympstone, Devon.<br />
Subsequently I was commissioned<br />
into the Corps in December 2022 and<br />
I am now a troop commander at 42<br />
Commando Royal Marines.<br />
Thomas Kirk (SH 2015-17)<br />
While at Shrewsbury my chosen<br />
Thursday afternoon activity was<br />
travelling to Welshpool to learn to fly<br />
helicopters. I did this over my two<br />
years of Sixth Form until I obtained my<br />
private pilot’s licence. I then spent the<br />
next three years at Newcastle University<br />
studying offshore engineering.<br />
Throughout the COVID lockdowns I<br />
studied for the 13 theory exams to pass<br />
the Commercial Pilots’ Licence which I<br />
finally passed in December of 2021.<br />
I now work for a company called UNI-<br />
FLY, who provide critical passenger<br />
and cargo flight operations support<br />
to the Hornsea 1 and 2 offshore wind<br />
farms, using the Leonardo Helicopters<br />
AW169 for helicopter hoist operations.<br />
As a member of UNI-FLY you are a<br />
part of a team that plays a vital role in<br />
ensuring the smooth operation of the<br />
UK’s national energy infrastructure. <strong>The</strong><br />
Hornsea wind farms are a major source<br />
of renewable energy for the UK and as<br />
a pilot supporting this operation, I am<br />
proud to be contributing to the growth<br />
of an important industry.<br />
Bertie Watts (Ch 2013-17)<br />
I completed my first ultra-marathon<br />
recently, <strong>The</strong> Pennine Barrier. This<br />
was a 50-mile loop encompassing the<br />
Yorkshire three peaks. I finished in 11<br />
hours 20 minutes. It was incredibly<br />
tough, but I’ve got my eyes on a few<br />
more for the future …<br />
Andrew Zuo (R 2016-18)<br />
I have completed my first four-year<br />
degree in Mechanical Engineering<br />
at the University of Manchester.<br />
I am now studying for an MSc in<br />
Engineering Project Management<br />
and hopefully will start a career in a<br />
postgraduate research programme for<br />
a PhD in circular economy.<br />
2020-<br />
Antoine Ceolin (Rt 2015-20)<br />
I am in my third year at IE Madrid<br />
University and set to graduate in<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> 2024. Right now, I’m on a<br />
six-month exchange program in Brazil,<br />
writing this email from Rio de Janeiro.<br />
I will also be starting an internship in<br />
Finance in July.<br />
Grace Richards (G 2019-21)<br />
Currently I am in my second year at<br />
Oxford Brookes University. I was the<br />
rowing scholar and after a successful<br />
first year rowing in the 1st VIII last<br />
year, I have retained my seat this year<br />
and alongside have been trialling for<br />
the GB squad as an U23. I am hoping<br />
to represent Great Britain in an VIII<br />
at the World Championships. <strong>The</strong> first<br />
set of trials was in a pair in February.<br />
I was placed 1st U23 boat. April trials<br />
followed and I was placed 2nd U23<br />
pair, missing out on 1st place by 0.8<br />
of a second. I now await the next trial<br />
and continue to race for Brookes in<br />
VIIIs. With me at Brookes are Louis<br />
Nares (I 2015-20) and Matt Rowe (SH<br />
2015-17), who are also trialling for the<br />
GB team.<br />
Andrew McDonald (Ch 2021-22)<br />
I have been appointed as Director<br />
of Partnerships at Fair Money (www.<br />
fairmoney.com) and the Campaign<br />
For Fair Finance, the first AI powered<br />
and informed loan comparison service.<br />
I will be working with Independent<br />
Financial Advisers, Affiliate Marketers,<br />
and a vast array of financial<br />
organisations to ensure that consumers<br />
get a fair deal.<br />
Henry Corbett (Warden,<br />
Shrewsbury House 1987-<strong>2023</strong>)<br />
Henry is now a retired or freelance<br />
vicar in the Toxteth area of Liverpool,<br />
helping out in Churches, Schools and<br />
the community there. He has reflected<br />
on his time at the Shewsy and as a vicar<br />
in Everton in a Grove booklet titled<br />
Leadership for the Long term: affirming<br />
the value of staying. https://grovebooks.<br />
co.uk/products/l-41-leadership-for-thelong-term-affirming-the-value-of-staying<br />
Henry came to the Shewsy as a<br />
volunteer in 1975 for a year, then<br />
came back as curate and helper at<br />
the Shewsy in 1978 before becoming<br />
Warden of the Shewsy and Vicar of<br />
St Peter’s and St John Chrysostom<br />
Churches in Everton. His wife Jane<br />
is Labour Councillor for the Everton<br />
West ward, and his daughter Sarah has<br />
written How to be a Craftivist: the Art<br />
of Gentle Protest which also includes<br />
stories of Everton campaigns in which<br />
the Shewsy was involved.
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 99<br />
100 Years Ago<br />
A fascinating editorial, reflecting a very different world view from our own, concluding with wise<br />
advice. Readers of a certain age will be interested to read the obituary of H W Adnitt of Adnitt and<br />
Naunton, on whose stationery our fortunes were built (or not).
100<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 101<br />
It has always been<br />
difficult to encourage<br />
busy <strong>Salopian</strong>s to find<br />
time to get involved<br />
in their chosen Old<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Sports Club,<br />
but the Old <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
Hunt maintains healthy<br />
interest of its members<br />
by email contact and<br />
social media. If any of<br />
you reading this have<br />
any desire to rejuvenate your memory of <strong>The</strong> Hunt, whether a<br />
previous participant or not, then please do get in touch with me<br />
(email info@crbirch.com ).<br />
We created another memory on Saturday 26th November<br />
2022, when an OSH Team of 11 assembled on <strong>The</strong> Drum,<br />
in front of <strong>The</strong> Main School Building, to run with 20 of <strong>The</strong><br />
RSSH in this annual event that is well supported by many<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong>s, staff, parents and friends. Our Team photo shows<br />
(from left) James Adney (Rb 1991-96), Phil Robinson<br />
(Db 1976-81), Ed Booth (PH 2002-05), Ed Hector (PH<br />
1991-96), Ed Mallett (S 2008-13 & Huntsman), Pete<br />
Beer (behind) (Ch 1991-96), George Mallett (S 2007-<br />
12 & Huntsman), Liv Papaioannou (EDH 2014-16 &<br />
Huntswoman), Oli Mott (Rb 1998-03 & Huntsman),<br />
Henry Exham (R 1997-02), Adam Booth (PH 1995-2000<br />
& Huntsman).<br />
Just under 20 minutes after the start, brothers Ed and George<br />
Mallett came into view, down Central, to finish, before our<br />
Captain Oli Mott and then the Booth brothers, Ed & Adam, and<br />
Pete Beer completed the course as our winning six counters.<br />
At Tea in the Quod, the retiring Master-in-Charge of the RSSH,<br />
Ian Haworth, was presented with a decorated Gents Baton, in<br />
appreciation of his six years of leadership, before he carried out<br />
presentation of Cups. <strong>The</strong> new Master-in-Charge of the RSSH,<br />
Frank Tickner, announced that the OSH had won the Run for<br />
the second consecutive year, with 32 points to the Hunt’s 46<br />
points. Ian handed the David Loake Memorial Trophy to Oli,<br />
before then presenting the Will Ramsbotham (O 1980-85)<br />
Cup to Ed Mallett, who celebrates his third year of winning the<br />
run, and lastly, the Peter Middleton Cup to our Hon. Secretary,<br />
Liv Papaioannou, for her second time win.<br />
Shortly after, our Committee met in the Hardy Room of<br />
Kingsland House to go through the Agenda of our AGM,<br />
where, during elections, Oli stepped down as our Captain,<br />
OLD SALOPIAN HUNT<br />
and Ed Mallett agreed to be our next team leader. At 7.30pm,<br />
16 diners came to the Peterson Room for our Annual Dinner,<br />
which included our guests, Huntswoman Sophia Urquhart<br />
(EDH), Huntsmen Kristian Tung (I) and Will Singleton (R).<br />
A full report (with photos and results) can be found on the<br />
OSH website page, that now has a new address<br />
www.shrewsbury.org.uk/salopian-club/os-sport/os-hunt .<br />
Looking towards winter, as planning starts for our next OSH<br />
Day, there are some School Fasti clashes that may mean that<br />
our return to the Site for our big day will be pushed back a<br />
week, to Saturday 18th November <strong>2023</strong>, when we gather for<br />
the OSH v the RSSH Run, followed by Tea & Presentations,<br />
then the AGM before the Annual OSH Dinner that evening.<br />
Do get in touch with me if you are interested in coming<br />
along. I will confirm the date in good time.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Thames Hare & Hounds Running Club has been the<br />
organiser of the<br />
Annual Alumni Race<br />
since its inception<br />
in 1953, when<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> (and<br />
one of our club<br />
founders) Ian Fraser<br />
was in charge of the<br />
TH&H Club. This<br />
year is the 71st Race<br />
for Alumni of Schools and it is being run over the traditional<br />
five-mile course at the Roehampton end of Wimbledon<br />
Common on Saturday 16th September <strong>2023</strong>. Last September<br />
the OSH Team of 12 ran amongst 34 other teams, to finish<br />
3rd Place in the Open Race. It is hoped that this year we can<br />
achieve a Gold podium position. Liv P. has won the female<br />
category race for two years now, but needs three more girls<br />
(of any ability) to make a team that would probably win that<br />
category.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Hunt welcomes enquiries and observations<br />
from all <strong>Salopian</strong>s, so don’t hesitate to contact me or Liv<br />
(livpapaioannou@gmail.com) and don’t forget to keep an eye on<br />
our OSH “<strong>Salopian</strong> Connect” page, as well as the OSH website<br />
page, OSH Facebook & Twitter pages. You can also email me<br />
on info@crbirch.com for purchases of OSH silk ties & scarves,<br />
the OSH running vest and the digital records of the RSSH from<br />
1831 onwards (see all the details on our website page).<br />
Peter Birch, OSH Chairman<br />
(DB 1966-71 & Huntsman)
102<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Young OS rowers have been making exciting moves in<br />
recent months. Louis Nares (I 2015-20), Matt Rowe<br />
(SH 2015-17) and Grace Richards (G 2019-21) performed<br />
on the highest stage, taking part at the recent GB Senior Trials<br />
held at the Redgrave and Pinsent Rowing Lake in Caversham.<br />
Three <strong>Salopian</strong>s also took part in this year’s Oxbridge Boat<br />
Races, two of them even going head-to-head. Lewis Gray<br />
(Rt 2020-21) stroked the Light Blues to victory against Adam<br />
Pattenden’s (S 2014-19) Dark Blues in the Lightweight race.<br />
Juliet Russell (G 2014-19) stroked the Oxford women’s<br />
reserve boat, Osiris, for the Boat Race.<br />
SABRINA<br />
degree and further emulate the success of Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s, both<br />
past and present rowers who have achieved amazing things in<br />
the sport.”<br />
On the weekend of the King’s Coronation, Shrewsbury<br />
Regatta took to the Severn once more and the School<br />
Lewis shared some thoughts with us on his experience:<br />
“Joining Cambridge University Boat Club following on from<br />
my time at RSSBC was an immense privilege. To be able to<br />
have been a part of two incredibly historic boat clubs has<br />
helped my rowing career invaluably. Being part of the squad,<br />
whilst gruelling, was incredibly rewarding, and was<br />
capped off by a win in my first lightweight Boat Race.<br />
<strong>The</strong> race on the championship course was not short of excitement,<br />
with early clashing of blades along the Putney embankment.<br />
But full of adrenaline and determination to beat our Dark Blue<br />
counterparts, we were able to pull away and take open water<br />
within the first three minutes. Throughout the rest of the race we<br />
were able to relax into a stronger rhythm and push away from<br />
our opposition, extending our lead across the whole course to<br />
win with a dominant 11 lengths of clear water over OULRC:<br />
the biggest ever winning margin in the men’s Lightweight Boat<br />
Race history.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lightweights’ success was replicated by the rest of the<br />
squad the next week, resulting in a Cambridge clean sweep,<br />
being only the third to take place (1983, 2018 and <strong>2023</strong>). This<br />
made the opportunity to share this year’s experience with my<br />
teammates even more of a privilege. I hope to carry on this<br />
success in future Boat Races as I complete my undergraduate<br />
welcomed Sabrina members of all generations. A total of 44<br />
enjoyed lunch in Kingsland House, including members who<br />
left School between 1963 and 1972, along with their guests.<br />
Though lunch was originally planned to take place in the<br />
Boathouse, the event was fully booked; testament to the<br />
lifelong connection and fondness that is felt by OSs for the<br />
School and their memories of rowing.<br />
All the Senior crews of those years were represented, with<br />
many who had subsequently gone on to distinguished<br />
rowing careers. Former Presidents of both Oxford and<br />
Cambridge University Boat Clubs were present, along with<br />
others who had represented Oxbridge, as well as many other<br />
Universities and Clubs. A variety of blazers were sported,<br />
including OUBC, CUBC and Leander Henley winners.<br />
Sabrina Club President Charles Wright (S 1963-68)<br />
commented: ‘<strong>The</strong>re were there also many of us who did not<br />
rise so high, but are very glad to have enjoyed our time on<br />
the water and are glad to meet our old friends.”<br />
School House was particularly well represented and there was<br />
a popular request to remember Bill Grant (SH 1961-65) , who<br />
was a hugely popular member of that group. We could also<br />
toast a new reign as well as the health of the RSSBC. <strong>The</strong> meal<br />
closed with a hearty rendition of the Carmen, as advocated<br />
by Peter Saltmarsh. After lunch the group migrated to the<br />
Boathouse to enjoy coffee and spectate at the Regatta, with the<br />
added pleasure of supporting a good number of RSSBC crews.<br />
Sincere thanks go to the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club who supported the event.<br />
Liz Collins (MSH 2012-14)
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 103<br />
SKIPPY’S TERRIERS REASSEMBLE<br />
In Ed Shropshire’s typewritten report of the 1990 Runcorn<br />
Regatta (held on a particularly ‘industrial’ stretch of the<br />
River Weaver) he started with an excellent joke - that a<br />
Geiger Counter might be as useful as anything to monitor<br />
stroke rates. His report was also the first to mention<br />
‘Skippy’s Terriers’, the adopted name of that season’s 2nd<br />
VIII. That day, we had scooped our first pots.<br />
‘Skippy’ was the easy-going Australian coach Richard<br />
Ponsford, over from Melbourne to teach for five terms. We<br />
were his crew, fearlessly competitive despite the size of<br />
the opposition, hence ‘Terriers’. That magical season, we<br />
Terriers were very successful, including an unforgettable<br />
victory over St Edward’s (Teddy’s) 1st VIII at Evesham.<br />
Skippy was a brilliant coach, enormously proud of us all,<br />
who radiated an infectious belief in our potential. <strong>The</strong><br />
crew’s other secret weapon was cox Matt Capps (PH<br />
1986-91), whose start-line motivational speeches and welltimed<br />
pushes undoubtedly added boat speed. Very sadly,<br />
Matt died whilst studying at Durham University.<br />
In 2020, John Cooper (PH 1986-91) our stroke mooted<br />
a 30th anniversary reunion which COVID quickly stymied.<br />
But the enthusiasm with which crew and coach (now<br />
resident in Melbourne) reconnected made it clear that<br />
our team spirit had endured and that the Terriers needed<br />
to row again! Finally, on 7th May <strong>2023</strong>, thanks to the<br />
determined efforts of Caroline and Nick Scott (Rt 1986-<br />
91), the patient support of our families, the generosity<br />
of Athol Hundermark and the Pengwerne Boat Club<br />
committee, the Skippy’s Terriers reassembled to row over<br />
the course at Shrewsbury Regatta.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sun shone, the years melted away and the crew, if<br />
a little balder, were surprised and delighted at the speed<br />
at which our technique returned and the boat moved.<br />
Skippy woke up at 2am for a pre-outing video call from<br />
Melbourne. Cameron Gilby (O L6) kindly stood in for Matt<br />
Capps, whose mother and brother, Martin came to cheer us<br />
on. Martin managed to avoid cycling into the river whilst<br />
filming, and Cameron earned Honorary Terrier status with<br />
his fearless handling of a crew with a combined age of 400.<br />
It was an unforgettable day.<br />
During reunion preparations, Skippy shared the transcript<br />
of a motivational poem, If (not Kipling’s) that he’d first<br />
recited on the banks of the River Dee. It is a brilliant<br />
paean to the power of belief and deserves reproducing<br />
here (below). But, the fact that we could all still remember<br />
so much of what Skippy said (I recently used his ‘your<br />
legs keep on keeping on’ line to help my daughters<br />
up a Scottish mountain); the fact that we so willingly<br />
reassembled to enjoy our friendship and not-too-shabby<br />
rowing; the fact that it was this crew that reunited (despite<br />
quite a few of the Terriers going on to far greater rowing<br />
heights); well, that is a demonstration of the power of<br />
shared belief and purpose fostered by a great coach over<br />
33 years ago.<br />
Thinking by Walter D. Wintle<br />
If you think you’re beaten, you are<br />
If you think you dare not, you don’t<br />
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t<br />
It’s almost certain you won’t.<br />
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost<br />
For out of the world we find<br />
Success begins with a fellow’s will –<br />
It’s all in the state of mind.<br />
If you think you’re outclassed, you are<br />
You’ve got to think high to rise<br />
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before<br />
You can ever win a prize.<br />
Life’s battles don’t always go<br />
To the stronger or faster man<br />
But sooner or later the man who wins<br />
Is the one who thinks he can.<br />
Scan the QR code to enjoy<br />
a video of the occasion.<br />
Tom Lewis (R 1986-91)<br />
Henley 1990 (bow-cox): Hamish Smith (I), Tom Lewis (R), Ben<br />
Hebbblethwaite (R), Jim Dale (O), Nick Scott (Rt), Hugh Mowat (O), Ed<br />
Gormley (SH), John Cooper (PH) and Matt Capps (PH)<br />
Shrewsbury <strong>2023</strong>: crew as in 1990 but coxed by Cameron Gilby (O L6)
104<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>2023</strong> season started on 23rd March with our usual<br />
Southern Spring Meeting at Denham Golf Club in<br />
Buckinghamshire, where 15 players competed in two<br />
divisions in an individual stableford competition playing in pairs,<br />
courtesy of James Shaw, who helped to organise the day. We all<br />
then enjoyed the famous Denham three-course lunch.<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Golfing Society<br />
Seated L to R: James Butler (S 1960-65), John<br />
Rowlinson (S 1962-66), Simon Shepherd (O 1977-<br />
82), Michael Cox (M 1961-66), Will Painter (R 1967-<br />
71), Anthony Parsons (Rt 1959-64), James Shaw (R<br />
1964-68), Andy Pollock (I 1971-74), Peter Thwaites (R<br />
1960-64), Michael Smart (R 1966-70), Charles Hill (SH<br />
1980-84), David Moorhouse (I 1965-69), Rob Cutler<br />
(Rt 1984-89), John Bolton (R 1956-61), Richard Boys-<br />
Stones (SH 1968-73) and Stephen Shaw (M 1956-61).<br />
Prizes were awarded for the golf at lunchtime. Anthony<br />
Parsons, who sadly can no longer play golf due to failing<br />
health, joined us for lunch. He was congratulated on being<br />
given the honour of being appointed as the first President<br />
of the G.L. Mellin Tournament for a three-year term, in<br />
recognition of his contribution as a player and officer of<br />
the Mellin. Anthony was not only a very successful player<br />
for Shrewsbury in the Mellin, but he helped to run the<br />
tournament for many years too, after his retirement from<br />
competition golf.<br />
After lunch six people played a fun three-ball sixsome to help<br />
work off our lunch before tea and our homeward journeys.<br />
Our Northern Spring Meeting took place at Royal Liverpool<br />
Golf Club, Hoylake on 14th April. This will be the venue<br />
for the 151st Open Championship in July.<br />
As a result, we could only take 24 players this year, as the<br />
Club is very busy preparing. <strong>The</strong> grandstand infrastructure<br />
for <strong>The</strong> Open was being built when we played. As you<br />
played your shot into the 18th green, you could imagine<br />
the crowds cheering and clapping! All those who played<br />
will enjoy <strong>The</strong> Open even more having been a part of this<br />
day out.<br />
After the golf we had drinks and a snack in the bar with<br />
prize-giving. Mark Ferguson (Rt 1992-97) won the<br />
Todwick Tankard by coming first overall. <strong>The</strong> photograph<br />
shows Mark being presented with his prize by Charles<br />
Hill (SH 1980-84). Thank you to the six members of<br />
Royal Liverpool for helping to host this meeting.<br />
On 23rd April, I am pleased to be able to report that<br />
the OSGS vs <strong>The</strong> Schools Match at Hawkstone Park in<br />
Shropshire was resurrected after a gap of a few years.<br />
Both teams met in the new clubhouse for lunch, and we<br />
were joined by the new Director of the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Shrewsbury team included ten boys and two members<br />
of staff: Paul Pattenden and Adam Duncan (Housemaster<br />
of Severn Hill). <strong>The</strong> OSGS team included a new member,<br />
Sinead McGrath, who now works in golf for <strong>The</strong> Legends<br />
Tour. Claire Painter, wife of our current OSGS President,<br />
also played in our team. I hope that other female OS<br />
golfers will also be encouraged to join the OS Golfing<br />
Society to bolster our numbers of wives and a few female<br />
OS members.<br />
After a hearty lunch, we played Pinehurst Foursomes for<br />
the BWD Rensburg Bowl.<br />
We then had drinks and prize-giving on the clubhouse<br />
terrace. My thanks to OS, Mark Davies, who brought along<br />
some bottles of wine for prizes too. On this occasion the<br />
OSGS team prevailed 4 ½ to 1 ½.<br />
L to R in the photograph the Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Members and<br />
others are: Adam Duncan, Chris Dickson (R 1972-77),<br />
Paul Pattenden, Claire Painter, Will Painter (R 1967-<br />
71) – OSGS President, Jonathan Mitchell (S 1973-78)<br />
– holding the Trophy, Tim Phillips (Rt 1966-71) - at<br />
the back, Charles Hill (SH 1980-84), Charles Tustain<br />
(O 1998-2003) - in cap, Tim Dakin (Father), Sinead<br />
McGrath (MSH 2009-11), Anthony Smith (I 1954-59),<br />
Mark Davies (R 1993-98), Allan Kerr (M 1964-69). <strong>The</strong><br />
boys playing were George Battersby (O), Ed Carryer (Rb),<br />
Elijah England (Rb), Harry Marshall (Rb), <strong>The</strong>o Wild (SH),<br />
Henry Hawkswell (S), Tom Hughes (S), Tim Manka (SH),<br />
Sash Petukhov (SH) and Alex Capanni (S).<br />
All those who played agreed it was a great day. Some of<br />
the boys said it was their best experience of golf at any<br />
club. It was agreed to endeavour to keep this match going<br />
to encourage more golf to be played at <strong>The</strong> Schools, so<br />
that the OSGS will have more players to call on in future<br />
matches and meetings against other schools.<br />
<strong>The</strong> annual Match between the OSGS and the OSFC at
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 105<br />
Huntercombe was cancelled as it clashed with the King’s<br />
Coronation. However, the date for next year is Sunday 5th<br />
May 2024 and we are hoping to involve the Saracens too,<br />
to make it a three-way foursomes match. Please put the<br />
date in your diary now.<br />
<strong>The</strong> OSGS had a mini meeting at Edgbaston Golf Club<br />
prior to the Midlands Branch Dinner held there on 27th<br />
April. <strong>The</strong> following day, Stephen Shaw organised the<br />
Triangular Match between Shrewsbury, Dulwich and<br />
Tonbridge and eight OSGS members played. However, we<br />
were unable to hold on to the trophy this year and had to<br />
give it back to Tonbridge. Everyone enjoyed the Tandridge<br />
pudding nonetheless!<br />
If anyone is interested in joining the OSGS, I would be<br />
delighted to hear from you. Those Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s who<br />
are under 30 years of age can join for as little as £10 per<br />
annum and play some magnificent championship courses<br />
at a very subsidised rate - please have a look at our<br />
website: www.oldsalopiangolf.co.uk<br />
Halford Hewitt<br />
Charles Hill, Hon Sec OSGS<br />
(R 1989-94)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Golf Team returned to Royal St George’s<br />
at the end of March for the 99th edition of the Halford<br />
Hewitt Cup.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Halford Hewitt is the largest amateur golf competition<br />
in the world, in terms of number of participants, and is<br />
widely considered one of the top events of the amateur<br />
golfing calendar. Founded in 1924 and played across<br />
Royal Cinque Ports and Royal St George’s golf courses, it<br />
is competed for today by the old boys of 64 English and<br />
Scottish public schools, which each field five foursomes<br />
pairs in a scratch knockout competition. <strong>The</strong> tournament<br />
has a rich history, frequently pits average golfers against<br />
famous internationals and produces moments of golfing<br />
pressure simply not experienced by amateur players<br />
elsewhere. As described by golf writer Nick Tremayne,<br />
it is “the greatest of all truly amateur tournaments”.<br />
Although we had a relatively kind first round draw, pitting<br />
us against St Paul’s, the weather in Hewitt week was<br />
horrendous - combining strong winds gusting up to 60mph<br />
and bursts of torrential rain (not unusual for Hewitt golf in<br />
late March!), making scratch foursomes a serious challenge.<br />
St Paul’s has a similar track record to our own in recent<br />
years, so on paper we were evenly matched teams, and<br />
so it proved out on the course.<br />
<strong>The</strong> strategy for the day was to ‘front load’ the team with<br />
our experienced and power players in an attempt to<br />
deliver a quick win, and to leave our new recruit Xander<br />
Haspel (Rb 2010-15) in the capable hands of Mark ‘Ferg’<br />
Ferguson (Rt 1992-97), who was returning to Hewitt golf<br />
after a lay-off of almost ten years, in reserve at number<br />
five and hoping not to be put to the test. Best laid plans,<br />
however, often go awry.<br />
Although there were wins for first pair Jon Howse<br />
(R 1998-03) and Richard Roberts (R 1989-94), and third<br />
pair Will Campion (M 1980-84) and Stefan Hindmarsh<br />
(Ch 2006-11), we lost the second and fourth matches. James<br />
Mainwaring (R 2005-10) and Alex Stewart (O 2006-09),<br />
playing second pair, had an extremely tough, see-saw match<br />
and were unfortunate to lose one down on the 18th hole;<br />
while fourth pair Jonty Campion (M 1980-84) and Ted<br />
Williams (R 2014-19) came up against strong opposition<br />
and suffered a heavy defeat.<br />
Match in the balance at 2-2. Crowd gathering and pressure<br />
now fully on the ‘rookies’ to bail the team out. After being<br />
three down with four to play, Xander and Ferg managed,<br />
through some tenacious and sometimes brilliant golf, to<br />
claw the momentum back to take the match down the<br />
18th hole but needing a win to keep the match going. 456<br />
yard par 4 into a howling wind, Xander trying to reach<br />
the green in two to put some pressure on the opposition,<br />
pulled his 3 wood second shot left of the green into the<br />
rough, leaving two bunkers between the ball and the hole<br />
– dead. Advantage St Paul’s, who were long of the green<br />
but with a tricky downhill chip. Ferg, however, is the<br />
ultimate competitor and always responds to a challenge,<br />
especially when on show. On the side of 18 he delivered a<br />
unique ‘Hewitt Moment’ under the most extreme pressure<br />
by landing his pitch on a dinner-plate-sized spot over the<br />
bunkers and running it to within a foot, to win the hole<br />
with a par four to St Paul’s five.<br />
Off down the 19th hole for sudden death, and hopefully<br />
to take advantage of the swing in momentum. At this point<br />
the nerves on both sides were beginning to show and the<br />
quality of golf began to diminish rapidly, with the St Paul’s<br />
pair topping their second and leaving the door open for us<br />
to take advantage by hitting the green. Unfortunately the<br />
feats of the 18th couldn’t be repeated, and with a miss and<br />
a couple of three putts, the hole ended in a scrappy half in<br />
six. Frustratingly, after all the effort from Xander and Ferg<br />
to keep the match alive, we lost on the 20th hole after an<br />
errant tee shot into the fairway bunker put paid to our<br />
chances, and we lost to a par four.<br />
So, a disappointing first round loss and off to the Plate<br />
Competition for the second time in a row, leaving the team<br />
with a summer thinking back of “what could have been”,<br />
and “if only’s”…<br />
Richard Roberts<br />
(R 1989-94)<br />
Appeal for Players<br />
We are continually searching for new talent to widen the<br />
player pool. If you are a low handicap golfer, this is an<br />
event which you must experience and which you will<br />
definitely enjoy, both on and off the course. We do make a<br />
contribution towards people’s expenses to help with travel<br />
and accommodation for the week. If you would like to<br />
know more, please get in touch with our Hon Sec. Charles<br />
Hill at CharlesGCHill@hotmail.com or captain Richard<br />
Roberts at glynswood@gmail.com .
106<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
<strong>The</strong> Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Squash Club has<br />
survived another season of strokes,<br />
saunas and Claret. Moderate success<br />
was had despite the team’s beefedup<br />
fixture list, with 12 competitive<br />
matches played in total; six were<br />
won, six were lost.<br />
<strong>The</strong> opener saw our side up against<br />
the RAC in Pall Mall. Especially strong<br />
performances by Will Street (SH<br />
2011-16) and new recruit Harry<br />
Bullock (S 2009-14) pushed us over<br />
the line and the match was won 3-2.<br />
This early victory was somewhat<br />
unexpected, as some members of<br />
the team appeared to have spent the<br />
summer months more preoccupied<br />
with gastronomy than the looming cost<br />
of living crisis. Safe in the knowledge<br />
that the next fixture was several weeks<br />
away, the team continued to work<br />
their way down the Long Bars canapé<br />
menu long after the match.<br />
Unfortunately the tapenade had<br />
its revenge, as the team were<br />
comprehensively beaten by a strong<br />
Lansdowne side (away) on their<br />
next outing (0-5). To compound the<br />
team’s misery, our first string Jonny<br />
Williams (R2004-09) suffered a<br />
hamstring tear and skipper Rupert<br />
Parry (Ch 2004-09) announced that<br />
he’d soon be moving to Cheshire<br />
after putting up a strong fight in his<br />
final performance of the season. <strong>The</strong><br />
squad’s partial depletion didn’t seem<br />
to faze the team in the least, however,<br />
as they performed disconcertingly<br />
well in the next couple of games; and<br />
victories over Tonbridge (4-1) and<br />
Roehampton (3-2) at home came in<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Squash<br />
quick succession.<br />
<strong>The</strong> annual Londonderry Cup game<br />
was up next. Run by the RAC, this cup<br />
is the official public schools’ old boys’<br />
competition and is one of the oldest<br />
squash tournaments in the country.<br />
Shrewsbury are yet to make the second<br />
round of the main draw in this bitterly<br />
fought battle for toff supremacy; although<br />
it must be said that being routinely drawn<br />
against Lancing and Millfield hasn’t been<br />
helpful. This year we were pitted against<br />
a strong Cranleighan side and lost 4-1,<br />
but kudos must be given to Henry<br />
Brown (M 1997-2000) who put on an<br />
impressive display to secure the only<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> win of the night.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Christmas break rolled by before<br />
the team took on Lloyd’s of London in<br />
their next home fixture. After a rough<br />
start, Will Briggs (O 2005-10) and<br />
Nick Davies (Rb 2004-09) bagged two<br />
gutsy victories against their opposing<br />
strings to restore some <strong>Salopian</strong> pride<br />
and set the final score at 2-3.<br />
Our next scheduled bout pitted us<br />
against Eton. Determined not to see<br />
us get outdone by our old rivals,<br />
the team’s non-executive director,<br />
Ben Stirk (M 1991-96), cleared his<br />
schedule to lead from the front. A<br />
series of lung-busting rallies and some<br />
textbook ‘attritional’ squash saw him<br />
overcome his opponent in five games.<br />
<strong>The</strong> deft footwork of Sam Welti (I<br />
2007-12), another key member of the<br />
team, likewise proved to be too much<br />
for his opposite number. But sadly it<br />
was not to be our day, as the rest of<br />
the team<br />
floundered and we had to accept a<br />
close fought loss (2-3).<br />
Quickfire losses against Lansdowne (2-<br />
3) and the RAC (1-4) followed despite<br />
some strong performances from the<br />
ever-improving James Kidson (O<br />
2003-08) and Robert Cross (S 2008-<br />
13), before the team regained its form<br />
to bag wins against Tonbridge (4-1) and<br />
Roehampton (3-2).<br />
In March, a slightly reduced team took<br />
on the School. None of the usual team<br />
were available to play, but George<br />
Carver (S 2008-13), Henry Bateson<br />
(R 2016-21), Luke Russell (R 2016-<br />
21) and Seb Cooley (Hon OS) took on<br />
the mantle and achieved a clean sweep<br />
of victories in a match contested in<br />
great spirit.<br />
All in all, the team represented their<br />
alma mater with sweaty browed<br />
aplomb. As ever, we are looking to<br />
enlist new members who are interested<br />
in dusting off their rackets for some<br />
social squash. Home games are played<br />
at Lord’s Cricket Ground (many thanks<br />
to the MCC) and are a great way to<br />
keep fit while enjoying good company,<br />
food and drink if you are based in<br />
or around London. In addition to the<br />
usual fixtures, we will also be doing<br />
a tour (after the success of our last<br />
tour to Dublin) as well as putting on<br />
social gatherings and attending some<br />
professional cricket.<br />
If this sounds of interest, please<br />
get in touch with Jonny Williams at<br />
jonnywilliams13@gmail.com.<br />
Floreat Salopia!<br />
Jonny Williams (R 2004-09)
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 107<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Football<br />
Another season in the Arthurian League has passed. Our<br />
incomparably named 4G pitch in London ‘King’s<br />
House’ has been well-trodden and, as always, we must<br />
first give thanks to our loyal fans around the globe.<br />
To summarise the season in terms of numbers: 32 league<br />
matches were played across both our teams, including an<br />
Arthur Dunn Cup quarter-final against Carthusians, who<br />
narrowly lost in the final to Reptonians on penalties, and a<br />
revitalised Veterans squad pushing for silverware. In terms of<br />
league positions, we ended in mid-table (8th and 4th) for our<br />
1st XI and 2nd XI respectively. <strong>The</strong> 2nd XI were unlucky with<br />
their final position, after a close promotion charge all season<br />
long. A shout-out to Harry Gregson (Rb 2012-15). who<br />
netted top goal-scorer award in the division for the 2nd XI.<br />
After the success that the School have shown this season,<br />
we are excited to welcome the next crop of players. Like<br />
Man United’s class of ‘92, this could be the start of something<br />
special in the coming years.<br />
Looking on to preparation for next season, training starts<br />
from mid-July and several pre-season fixtures in London are<br />
lined up in Augus.<br />
Our tour this year sees 22 fine gentlemen travel to Prague,<br />
where we will play two fixtures against Czech opposition whilst<br />
embracing the local culture.<br />
For more information on how to join the OSFC , please<br />
contact us on oldsalopianfc@gmail.com or Instagram<br />
oldsalopianfc. We have weekly fixtures on a Saturday in<br />
London, with training midweek in Marylebone. We welcome<br />
all levels of ability and would love to see the Club continue<br />
to flourish and push for silverware next season.<br />
Guy Williams (Rb 2008-13)<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Rugby<br />
<strong>The</strong> OS Maps had a quiet off-season in the run up to what<br />
should be a busy summer. <strong>The</strong> highlight has been the<br />
Christmas AGM and social, which was hosted at School on<br />
3rd December. This was a great opportunity to welcome<br />
the newest cohort of Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s to our ranks and discuss<br />
future plans for the Club over lunch in Kingsland House.<br />
An integrated training session with the current school 1st XV<br />
allowed us to strengthen our links with the players, whilst<br />
also giving many members of the Club a reality check on<br />
their fitness!<br />
We look forward to playing in two new tournaments this<br />
summer, Cheltenham 7s and the Jack Fishwick 7s in London,<br />
as we look to continue our two-year streak of adding<br />
silverware to the cabinet. If you are interested in joining OS<br />
Rugby, please get in touch at t.plaut@outlook.com.<br />
Tom Plaut (S 2014-19)
108<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Publications<br />
James Irvine (S 1970-75)<br />
Where’s <strong>The</strong>re’s Brass, <strong>The</strong>re’s Muck<br />
Austin Macauley Publishers<br />
ISBN 978-1-398 46604 – 3<br />
In the glorious May of 1998, the governors of the Tanswold School Trust are looking forward<br />
to a new era in which they are about to build a new dining hall for their independent school.<br />
However, the unbridled optimism soon turns to despondency as they realise that the bursar has<br />
been doing DIY stock-broking with a very large bequest which has provided security for the<br />
school.<br />
For the band of elderly socialites that form the governing body this is not just a disaster,<br />
but a scandal that attracts the attention of the fraud squad of the Middle Riding of Yorkshire<br />
Constabulary who open up a financial can of worms. And it’s not just financial; the appalling<br />
standard of hygiene in the school dining hall leads to a serious outbreak of food-poisoning with<br />
heart-breaking consequences.<br />
<strong>The</strong> headmaster is placed under the spotlight and his management becomes more and more<br />
capricious as the spotlight is shone on him. <strong>The</strong> remaining part of the summer term becomes<br />
more and more of a comedy of errors as he loses his grip. As for speech day…<br />
John Cross (Rt 1939-45)<br />
Operation Tipping Point<br />
Monsoon Books<br />
ISBN 978-1-915310014-9<br />
Operation Tipping Point is the eighth in a series of standalone historical military novels set<br />
in Southeast Asia that may be read in any order, including Operation Black Rose, Operation<br />
Janus, Operation Red Tidings, Operation Blind Spot, Operation Stealth, Operation Four Rings<br />
and Operation Blowpipe. <strong>The</strong> series features Gurkha military units, and the author draws on<br />
real events he witnessed and real people he fought alongside in various theatres of war in<br />
Southeast Asia and India.<br />
Richard Bevan (O 1957-61)<br />
Alter retiring from consulting and teaching about ten years ago I found myself<br />
newly occupied with writing and publishing through my own imprint ChangeStart<br />
Press. So far I’ve produced five books of my own and helped three other writers<br />
publish their work. My books are Changemaking (2011) and <strong>The</strong> Changemaking<br />
Checklists (2015), both dealing with the management of change; <strong>The</strong> Galley Slave’s<br />
Handbook (2010, revised edition 2020) on provisioning and cooking for an ocean<br />
voyage – based on a wonderful transatlantic adventure led by Charles Tongue<br />
(S 2010-15); and <strong>The</strong> Hidden Triceratops (2021) and <strong>The</strong> Tangled Pteranodon<br />
(2022), stories for children in the 4-to-8 age range. <strong>The</strong> first of these two, a COVID<br />
lockdown project, is illustrated splendidly by 12-year-old lo Shepard. <strong>The</strong> two<br />
Changemaking books, if not best-sellers, are still selling steadily.<br />
Gareth Williams (Rt 1986-91)<br />
Happiness in Your Head – From Hong Kong Banker<br />
to Sunny Coast Chancer<br />
ISBN 13-978-02288866-7<br />
From school to university to working in a global corporation, my life path had been conventional.<br />
What society has primed us to strive for. I was peaking in my career, based in Hong Kong. I was<br />
flying around Asia Pacific inside the world of high finance. However, I knew I had to search for a<br />
more authentic happiness. <strong>The</strong> COVID craziness helped crystallise an array of deep philosophical<br />
thoughts gleaned from the wealth of wisdom now so easily accessible. Thoughts and impulses that<br />
I could no longer ignore. <strong>The</strong> decision was made: a world detour! One that would see our family<br />
travel the diameter of the world during a time of huge disruptions. This is a story of that journey.<br />
That search. Physically, from Hong Kong through Europe to the Sunshine Coast. Career-wise, from<br />
banker to chancer. Philosophically, from conventional to counter-narrative.
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 109<br />
Dr John Godwin (Staff 1984-2019)<br />
Juvenal Satires – A Selection<br />
Bloomsbury Academic<br />
ISBN 978 1 35015652-4<br />
This is the OCR-endorsed edition covering the Latin AS and A-Level (Group 3) prescription of<br />
Juvenal, Satire 6 and the A-Level (Group 4) prescription of Satires 14 and 15, giving full Latin text,<br />
commentary and vocabulary, with a detailed introduction that also covers the prescribed material<br />
to be read in English for A Level.<br />
Juvenal was the last and the greatest of the Roman verse satirists and his poetry gives us an<br />
exuberant and outrageously jaundiced view of the early Roman Empire. This book contains a<br />
selection from three of his satires: Satire 6 attacks women and marriage, Satire 14 critiques the<br />
role played by parents in the education of children and Satire 15 describes all too vividly the<br />
cannibalism perpetrated by warring Egyptians. <strong>The</strong>se Satires expose the folly and the wickedness<br />
of the world in some of the finest Latin to have survived from antiquity.<br />
John Patterson (Ch 1961-65)<br />
Eight Questions About Sexuality<br />
Grosvenor House Publishing<br />
ISBN 978-1-83975-156-1<br />
In recent years there has been a revolution in views about human sexuality. Long-held certainties<br />
about sexual behaviour have been swept aside by some. Others feel that the old certainties were<br />
the right ones, whilst yet others just feel confused about so many conflicting views. In this booklet<br />
John Patterson, a retired minister within the Church of England, briefly addresses eight questions<br />
about sexuality including gay marriage, transgender and homophobia. He seeks to explain why<br />
the Bible is the foundation of a Christian’s understanding and how the Bible answers the questions<br />
he raises.<br />
Giles Wood (O 1969-74)<br />
Country Life: A Story of Peaks and Troughs<br />
Ebury Spotlight<br />
ISBN 978-1-52990015-6<br />
Are you considering escaping the city for a blissful new way of life in the countryside? Estate<br />
agents may be feeding you with persuasive visions of Arcadia, but realities are more helpful.<br />
Former townies Giles and Mary have embraced country life for over 30 years, each in their own<br />
different way. Mary is more inclined to engage in the social opportunities offered by the local<br />
community. While Giles’s pre-occupations include his organic no-dig veg patch and regenerative<br />
agriculture as ‘the only method that could save the ecosystem from imminent disaster’. Together<br />
they sift through the unhelpful dreamy myths and offer their own, two-handed pragmatic reality,<br />
obtainable for all. In robust back-and-forth exchange, they de-mystify every aspect of life in rural<br />
outposts, celebrating the peaks and navigating the troughs, from planning wars and ghost hunting<br />
to dog walking and bargain hunting.<br />
William Marston (DB 1972-77) (Liam Thornton)<br />
Confessions of a COVID cleric<br />
ISBN 978-1-91659609-2<br />
Father Matthew is an ordinary vicar in an ordinary parish. He is a Freemason. Our tale starts in<br />
2019 with some wry humour, as to what Christmas can be like for a cleric. <strong>The</strong>n COVID strikes the<br />
nation. Father Matthew’s routine, like that of everyone else, is turned upside down. Soon there is<br />
even an official complaint made against him. A downward spiral starts. How was the working life<br />
of clergy changed by COVID? How did society change in its’ daily workings? What can stress do to<br />
you? Memories are seen as sometimes guests, but at other times ghosts.<br />
Peter Caddick-Adams (Ch 1974-78)<br />
A recent article by Peter Caddick-Adams in <strong>The</strong> Critic features the School and Old <strong>Salopian</strong> novelist Nevil Shute Norway. See<br />
https://thecritic.co.uk/Putin-Shute-and-nukes/
110<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
OBITUARIES<br />
An obituary for those marked with an asterisk* is being prepared and will be published in the next edition of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong>.<br />
P R H Adie SH 1957-50<br />
*J Alexander I 1955-60<br />
R Auger Staff 1969-03<br />
M S Baker-Bates M 1953-58<br />
C Beddow I 1959-64<br />
C Campbell I 1940-44<br />
A Champion R 1941-46<br />
F W Cooper I 1944-49<br />
J Cuthbert SH 1959-64<br />
P R H Dixon Rt 1945-50<br />
R Fallows O 1954-59<br />
M R P Fleming O 1960-64<br />
D O Forshaw Rt 1941-44<br />
C E J S Godwin Ch 1949-43<br />
D Harrison Governor 1980-03<br />
J R C Higgins Rt 1936-41<br />
*C R Holt I 1976-81<br />
J Holyoake DB 1937-41<br />
M C Hughes DB 1941-44<br />
E M Hulme DB 1947-51<br />
J M H Hunter SH 1950-55<br />
A Jones Ch 1997-02<br />
J N Kay Ch 1969-74<br />
*R H Ker M 1965-69<br />
R G Lee R 1960-64<br />
S Lewis R 1954-58<br />
G R Marshall DB 1964-69<br />
J McCarter Rt 1951-54<br />
G McCracken JHT 1938-43<br />
H R W Peach Staff 1991-23<br />
J C Peat Staff 1980-08<br />
A G Phillips O 1944-49,<br />
Staff 1960-76<br />
G J Roberts DB 1947-51<br />
S Sandford SH 1948-53<br />
D Sargeant DB 1952-57<br />
*P Scales Staff 1988-04<br />
M Simmonds S 1946-49<br />
G Silvester DB 1964-65<br />
F A Sporer I 1986-87<br />
J L Talbot O 1949-53<br />
C Taylar 1948-53<br />
W Thomas S 1945-50<br />
R J G Waldron R 1950-54<br />
Edward Robert Graham Anderton (I 1951-56)<br />
Edward Anderton (‘Ted’) was born in Leeds and educated at<br />
Drighlington Village School, Fulneck School in Pudsey and<br />
then at Charney Hall prep school in Grange-over-Sands. He<br />
boarded at Shrewsbury School from 1951 to 1956. He became<br />
a praepostor and Head of House in Ingram’s Hall, and made<br />
many good friends there, including the comedian and actor<br />
Willie Rushton.<br />
He told his family that he enjoyed his time at school - but<br />
perhaps not the daily cold showers. He recalled there was a jam<br />
jar of water in the shower block and the boys were excused<br />
from showering if the water had frozen!<br />
From school he went up to Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1956,<br />
to read Medicine, following in his father’s footsteps. He also<br />
enjoyed life in Cambridge, although, as at school, his college<br />
was an all-male environment. He talked fondly of summer<br />
afternoons on the boundary at Fenner’s, near his digs, watching<br />
cricket, with a pint of beer in his hand. He completed his clinical<br />
training at Westminster Medical School, many years before<br />
Addenbrooke’s had a Clinical School.<br />
Ted met his wife Mary when they were both doing house jobs<br />
in Lancaster Infirmary, and they had three children: twin boys<br />
John (who also read Medicine at Christ’s) and Richard, and a<br />
daughter, Sarah.<br />
Ted practised as a GP in Lancaster from 1967 to 1993,<br />
contributing several articles to the British Medical Journal’s<br />
‘Materia non Medica’ section, on topics as diverse as his<br />
addiction to crosswords, and Mary’s knitting machine! <strong>The</strong>y<br />
retired to nearby Littledale and enjoyed over 20 very happy<br />
years of retirement together.<br />
After a period of increasing frailty, Ted died peacefully<br />
surrounded by his family on New Year’s Eve 2022.<br />
[Dr John Anderton]<br />
Richard Auger (Staff 1969-2006)<br />
Richard Auger, who died peacefully at home in April after a<br />
two-year battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, was a central<br />
figure in Shrewsbury School from his arrival in 1969 to his<br />
retirement in 2006.<br />
He was born in 1943, when his father, a doctor, was serving in<br />
the army in North Africa and Sicily. He grew up with his three<br />
brothers in Farnham, Surrey, going on to board at Berkhamsted<br />
School, where he became Head of School. In 1962, having<br />
already set his sights on teaching, he went on to study Natural<br />
Sciences at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.<br />
After a Dip Ed., he spent three years teaching chemistry at Mill<br />
Hill in North London. During this time he met Caroline, and the<br />
two were married on 2nd August 1969. With encouragement<br />
from Michael Hart, ex-Housemaster of School House and<br />
Headmaster at Mill Hill, he applied for a job at Shrewsbury the<br />
same year. It was the moment when he had to swap allegiance<br />
from the oval ball to the round one! Richard went on to become
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 111<br />
Head of Chemistry, Housemaster of Rigg’s Hall for 11 years, and<br />
finally Director of Studies. One theme which stands out time and<br />
again in recollections is the dedication he showed to mentoring<br />
and supporting boys and colleagues.<br />
Richard was always active, practical and competitive. He<br />
masterminded some notable sporting victories for Rigg’s over the<br />
years and was involved in numerous activities, including Basic<br />
Year, athletics, shooting and staff football. As Director of Studies,<br />
he played a central role over many years in ensuring high<br />
standards of teaching and strong exam results. He was someone<br />
to whom everyone turned for advice, who ‘just knew how<br />
everything worked’! He led the School through Ofsted’s first<br />
inspection of an independent boys’ boarding school and was<br />
instrumental in the introduction of computer systems. Figuring<br />
out how to programme the School timetable efficiently was no<br />
mean feat!<br />
Retirement was only a partial concept. Richard became a<br />
Governor at Moreton Hall, teaching there for some time<br />
as well. His biggest undertaking was to be the clerkship of<br />
the Shrewsbury Drapers Guild, a role to which he brought<br />
steadiness, diplomacy and perseverance for many years. His<br />
crowning achievement was his involvement in the planning<br />
and building of a new set of almshouses, which required<br />
fund-raising, negotiations with government officials and<br />
constant site visits.<br />
He continued to live just outside the School Gates in Porthill<br />
Gardens, and many of his former colleagues became golfing<br />
and walking companions. His love of galleries and historic<br />
sites had been deepened by his enjoyment of School art trips<br />
across Europe. Walking and the geology of Shropshire were<br />
also passions, and he continued to walk the hills until his final<br />
weeks. He played golf keenly, albeit with self-declared modest<br />
talent. Regular golfing tours to North Wales and further afield<br />
were much enjoyed in the company of other former Shrewsbury<br />
staff including Richard Raven, Hugh Ramsbotham and Chris<br />
Conway. Family life was always central, and long school<br />
holidays allowed Richard to drive Caroline and their children,<br />
James and Bridget, on many extended camping trips around<br />
Europe in a lime-green VW camper. In his retirement he devoted<br />
huge energies to DIY projects in his children’s homes, never<br />
able to sit still. He loved being around his four granddaughters,<br />
Zoe, Jenny, Hazel and Cora.<br />
Richard remained engaged, practical and a reliable soundingboard<br />
to the end. His lasting influence on Shrewsbury and<br />
the hundreds of boys who passed through during his time<br />
is exceptional and he will be much missed by the <strong>Salopian</strong><br />
community. as well as by his family and friends.<br />
[James Auger (Rb 1986-91)]<br />
Merrick Stuart<br />
Baker-Bates<br />
(M 1953-58)<br />
Merrick Baker-Bates was<br />
born in Crosby, then in<br />
Lancashire, in 1939, six<br />
weeks before the start of the<br />
Second World War. He was<br />
the second of five children<br />
of Norah (née Stuart) and<br />
Eric Baker-Bates. His parents<br />
separated when he was ten<br />
and he was sent to live with<br />
a friend of his father’s whom<br />
he called ‘Auntie Kath’. He was educated at a prep school in the<br />
Lake District before arriving in Moser’s Hall in 1953.<br />
At Shrewsbury, his experiences of the legendary schoolmasters<br />
Anthony Chenevix-Trench and Frank (‘Kek’) McEachran<br />
made a great impression on him. He recalled the former’s<br />
habit of making boys recite Latin verse outside his window<br />
while he was shaving in the early morning, and a trip to<br />
Italy with the latter, during which Kek became locked inside<br />
a toilet, the eventual escape prompting Kek to say, “O! It’s<br />
broken the lock and splintered the door”, a quotation from<br />
McEachran’s anthology Spells.<br />
Merrick went on after Shrewsbury to read history at Hertford<br />
College, Oxford. On graduating, he spent a year at the College<br />
of Europe in Bruges, followed by a spell in Brussels as a<br />
journalist, before he passed the civil service exam and joined the<br />
Foreign Office.<br />
Posted to Japan in 1963 at the start of his diplomatic career,<br />
he later became one of his generation’s most accomplished<br />
speakers of Japanese. He and his wife Chrystal narrated the live<br />
satellite broadcast of the wedding of Charles and Diana on NHK<br />
Television. In the English language he was also an impressive<br />
orator – the style of his delivery often able to bring a rapt silence<br />
to a crowd.<br />
His witty, gentlemanly manner, occasionally sprinkled with a<br />
certain Northern English grit, gained him a wide circle of the rich<br />
and famous, particularly during his time in Los Angeles. He was<br />
credited among other things with introducing Elizabeth Taylor to<br />
John Warner, her sixth husband. His charitable involvement with<br />
the homeless in Long Beach, California, also led him to strike up<br />
an unlikely if brief friendship with one Calvin Broadus, later to<br />
become the rapper Snoop Dogg.<br />
But perhaps unusually for someone with a position at the heart<br />
of the British establishment, he was always more enthusiastic<br />
about the ordinary people in the countries in which he lived. He<br />
befriended taxi drivers, mechanics, golf caddies and teachers -<br />
often becoming intimately involved with their lives. In Japan, this<br />
gave him a subtle understanding of the way the Japanese saw<br />
Britain and the West, a quality often overlooked by the office<br />
in London as the ‘economic miracle’ played out. It was because<br />
of this that he was perhaps the best ambassador to Japan that<br />
Britain never had.<br />
While a member of several philanthropic charities in his<br />
latter years, he also assumed a largely independent and selfdirected<br />
role as mentor, teacher or simply a good friend of the<br />
disadvantaged. His almost daily involvement with drug addicts,<br />
former gangsters and thieves sometimes alarmed his family. A<br />
habit of offering accommodation to otherwise homeless people<br />
at his house in the rural village of Creaton, Northamptonshire,
112<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
eventually had to be reconsidered when one such guest lapsed<br />
into an alcohol-fuelled attempt to steal as many possessions as<br />
he could carry out of the house and into his car, before being<br />
found by police the next morning in a ditch. Unperturbed,<br />
Merrick immediately visited the consequently reincarcerated<br />
former houseguest in prison – to discuss what to do on release.<br />
He died on 24th February <strong>2023</strong> and is survived by his wife,<br />
Chrystal, and children, Jonathan and Harriet.<br />
David Luard Boult (R 1938-42)<br />
Born in Hoylake on 6th December 1924, David Boult went<br />
to prep school at Dunchurch Hall and then followed his<br />
brothers, Peter and Rex, to Shrewsbury, having won a Maths<br />
Exhibition. He later won the Powell Maths prize and left in 1942<br />
to start a six-month engineering course for would- be Royal<br />
Engineer officers at Birmingham University. After training, he<br />
was commissioned in December 1944. He was first posted to<br />
Ripon to work on bridge design and to test explosives. As the<br />
war ended, he was sent to Austria, then to India twice (where<br />
he gained great respect for the Gurkhas) and Malaya. He was<br />
promoted to Captain.<br />
On leaving the army, he embarked on a 35-year career with<br />
BICC, starting on a two-year apprenticeship course. He also<br />
gained a degree in business management and eventually<br />
became a Fellow of the British Institute of Management.<br />
After progressing through the company, he took over the<br />
management of the Metals Group and became Executive<br />
Director of BICC Cables at Prescott. He liked to tell of his<br />
involvement in the manufacture of the TV cables for the late<br />
Queen’s first Christmas broadcast from Sandringham. Later he<br />
enjoyed an inaugural flight on Concorde to New York, telling his<br />
American business hosts at lunch that he had left London after<br />
breakfast! One day he came home with a small sample of the<br />
first fibre optic cable ever made.<br />
Retiring from BICC at the end of 1982, he was headhunted<br />
by Pilkingtons to be Director of <strong>The</strong> Community of St Helen’s<br />
Trust, a consultancy for small businesses, where he became an<br />
expert on the Business Expansion Scheme. He joined the board<br />
of MANWEB as a non-executive director and thus was on the<br />
committee proposing the building of a Mersey barrage, but it<br />
was turned down by the government as too expensive. (Which,<br />
today might be seen as short-sighted.) He finally retired in 1990.<br />
He was also asked to set up and be chairman of two charities:<br />
in 1978, of the successful Merseyside Playing Fields Association;<br />
and later, of Lazers for Life.<br />
Sport was a major part of David’s life, including tennis,<br />
cricket, football and golf. He always said that his family home<br />
in Hoylake was a 9 iron to <strong>The</strong> Royal Liverpool Golf Club<br />
clubhouse. In the army, he enjoyed horse riding in Austria,<br />
learned to play hockey in India and played many sports in<br />
Malaya, including rugby for a state team. Rugby became his<br />
main game on leaving the army. He joined Liverpool RUFC<br />
in 1947, becoming captain for four successful years and later<br />
chairman and president twice. He played rugby for Lancashire,<br />
Cheshire and the TA. Golf took over later, and he enjoyed<br />
meetings of the Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Golfing Society.<br />
Family was very important to him. He married Anne Collett in<br />
1957 and they had three children and later six grandchildren.<br />
He took great interest in the careers of them all, always offering<br />
advice and help. He was an enthusiast. His interests included<br />
gardening, a knowledge of wine, keeping sheep as mowers<br />
when living in Cheshire, model yacht sailing in Southwold and<br />
he was always planning parties, holidays and other projects.<br />
Sadly, he struggled with dementia for his last few years and<br />
died peacefully on 15th July 2022. He is greatly missed by<br />
family and friends.<br />
[David’s family]<br />
David Campbell Clark (I 1942-44)<br />
David Clark was born on 5th August 1926 in Upperlands,<br />
County Londonderry, the middle of three brothers, Roddy being<br />
older and Desmond (now aged 95) younger than he; David also<br />
had a younger sister, Victoria. <strong>The</strong>y were born into the William<br />
Clark & Sons linen business based in Upperlands. By right of<br />
birth, his older brother Roddy should have gone into the family<br />
linen business, but sadly he was killed in the war, his naval ship<br />
being scuttled in 1944. David subsequently left the Army to join<br />
the family business.<br />
He always spoke of his time at his North Wales prep school<br />
‘Woodlands’ very fondly. He then went on to Campbell College,<br />
Belfast between 1940 and 1942, finally arriving at Shrewsbury,<br />
like his brothers and quite a number of his Clark cousins.<br />
David met Gillian Atkinson when she came over from York to<br />
play golf in the Home Internationals at Royal Portrush in 1955.<br />
It was love at first sight. <strong>The</strong>y were married months later, and<br />
the rest is history. <strong>The</strong>y were married for 66 years and had two<br />
children: Roger, who became a GP on the Isle of Bute; and<br />
Diana, who lives in Buckinghamshire.<br />
A move to England took place in 1975, with a variety of new<br />
roles for David, including owning <strong>The</strong> Durham Ox, Crayke<br />
in North Yorkshire, and owning holiday cottages. David was<br />
a natural with people and a very popular landlord. When<br />
time allowed, he would regularly go on hikes and enjoyed<br />
being a guide at National Trust properties in York. He loved
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 113<br />
people and enjoyed every opportunity he could to make a<br />
connection, especially through travel. He always had a very<br />
positive approach to life, was even-tempered with a genuine<br />
zest for life, non-judgmental and always willing to help others<br />
in any way he could.<br />
His passion for cricket was only rivalled by his passion and<br />
commitment for the Royal British Legion; he reached an eminent<br />
position in Northern Ireland, where he was elected Chairman<br />
of the Northern Ireland British Legion and became a member<br />
of the National Executive. He was awarded the gold badge in<br />
recognition of his long years of service.<br />
David died peacefully, after a short illness, in York Hospice on<br />
10th December 2022 aged 96, having had a very long, happy<br />
and healthy life.<br />
He will be greatly missed in his York community where he<br />
was much loved. He was extremely proud of his family and is<br />
survived by his loving wife Gillian, and by Roger, Diana and his<br />
six grandchildren.<br />
[Diana Whipp]<br />
Mark Roger<br />
Patrick Fleming<br />
(O 1960-64)<br />
Mark Fleming was<br />
born in Aberdeen in<br />
1947 to Roger and Judy<br />
Fleming, as the eldest<br />
of three siblings. One<br />
of Mark’s passions as<br />
a child was building<br />
‘karties’, in which he<br />
would ‘drive’ his two little sisters. <strong>The</strong>y had such confidence in<br />
the road-worthiness of his creations that he had both on board<br />
when going down a nearby hill, sailing across the main Deeside<br />
Road with reckless abandon, quite unable to stop!<br />
Mark went to Cargilfield in Edinburgh, before coming on to<br />
Shrewsbury, following his father Roger in Oldham’s. Mark coxed<br />
the Oldham’s 1st Boat in Bumpers in 1961 and the Shrewsbury<br />
1st VIII in 1962. <strong>The</strong> crew, coached by Peter Gladstone, won at<br />
Nottingham, Chester and Hereford Regattas and also competed<br />
in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.<br />
<strong>The</strong> School had won in 1955, 1960 and 1961, so there was<br />
pressure to win again. Race commentary shows that the crew<br />
set new records to Barrier and Fawley, but sadly the competing<br />
Radley crew pushed through at the final stretch to win, setting a<br />
new course record and going on to win the event.<br />
On leaving Shrewsbury, Mark taught at a school in Madras<br />
which had ties with Shrewsbury. He chose to return home<br />
overland, travelling through Persia and Turkey either by bus or<br />
hitch-hiking. After Shrewsbury, not only was he offered a place<br />
at Aberdeen University, but more colourfully left school with a<br />
scholarship to join the university air squadron and later became<br />
the Scottish Universities Acrobatic Champion. In celebration,<br />
and to his mother’s consternation, he flew a chipmunk, upside<br />
down, over the family home!<br />
From Aberdeen University, Mark went on to qualify as a<br />
Chartered Accountant in Edinburgh, before joining Deloitte,<br />
spending his first period of employment in Paris, but then<br />
returned to Scotland, where he joined the family timber<br />
merchants, John Fleming and Co Ltd, in 1974. He met and<br />
married his wife Elspeth in 1982, and their home for the first<br />
year was back in France in Fontainebleau, where Mark had<br />
secured a place to study for an MBA at INSEAD.<br />
On returning to the UK, Mark and Elspeth quickly moved<br />
up to Aberdeenshire. Sarah was born in 1988, followed by<br />
Rachel in 1992. Of all Mark’s achievements in life, the most<br />
important to him was the love and success of his family. He was<br />
unquestionably proud of his two daughters, and it didn’t matter<br />
what sort of trouble they got themselves into, the recourse was<br />
always the same – phone Dad!<br />
Mark was the fourth generation of Flemings to run the family<br />
company. He had a challenging task looking after the group<br />
of diverse businesses, but although it was a tough decision to<br />
sell the family firm, his timing was spectacular – achieving a<br />
successful sale soon before the financial crash of 2008.<br />
Mark had many interests. He learned to ski young, and skiing<br />
remained a joy throughout his life. He taught his daughters<br />
to ski in Scotland, enjoyed ski touring in the Alps and latterly<br />
cross-country skiing in Aberdeenshire during lock-down. But he<br />
equally enjoyed stalking, sailing and walking. His love of fourwheeled<br />
transport also matured with the years. Ultimately the<br />
karties were replaced by a vintage Rolls Royce and a Bentley,<br />
and in his retirement he took on chairmanship of the Grampian<br />
Transport Museum.<br />
Mark was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in Autumn<br />
2022. An otherwise extremely fit and healthy 75-year-old, he<br />
bore the news and faced the remaining few months of his illness<br />
with dignity and fortitude.<br />
[Sarah Fleming, with grateful thanks to Nicholas Randall<br />
for the Sabrina records]
114<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
David Oliver Forshaw (Rt 1941-44)<br />
David Oliver Forshaw, known as Oliver (his father was a fan of<br />
Oliver Cromwell), was born in Cheam in Surrey on 12th June<br />
1927, but his family roots were in Lancashire and he lived in the<br />
north of England for most of his life.<br />
He enjoyed his days at Shrewsbury, where his love of rowing<br />
began. Cambridge and National Service followed and then,<br />
finding his vocation, he was ordained as a priest in the Church<br />
of England. He served his curacy in Leicester, before becoming<br />
chaplain to St Andrew’s School in Singapore. <strong>The</strong>reafter, he<br />
served in West Yorkshire, West Cumbria and in South and North<br />
Manchester. Oliver felt called to areas of deprivation and he<br />
lived out his faith working tirelessly in parishes where there was<br />
often great need. <strong>The</strong> sacramental life was important to him and<br />
he was also a dedicated pastor, visiting people as much as he<br />
could. Many have commented on the profound impact he had<br />
on their lives.<br />
In many ways a kind, quiet and gentle man, Oliver was also<br />
fiercely independent and strong-minded. He certainly was ready<br />
to challenge authority and fight for what he thought was right.<br />
He has been described as “a doughty warrior for the truth”.<br />
A great admirer of the psychiatrist Frank Lake, Oliver was<br />
interested in pastoral counselling and became an accredited tutor<br />
with the Clinical <strong>The</strong>ology Association. He and his wife Jean led<br />
many groups and served on a regional panel of counsellors for<br />
clergy and their families.<br />
Oliver maintained his active interest in theology to the end of<br />
his life. In 2010, at the age of 82, his book Personhood and<br />
Christianity was published, reflecting his interests in theology<br />
and psychology.<br />
Oliver’s father was a well-known architect and Oliver too<br />
was interested in buildings, especially church buildings. His<br />
imaginative and creative nature came to the fore when he<br />
oversaw major church reordering schemes while vicar of St<br />
Thomas’ Heptonstall in West Yorkshire and St Luke’s Benchill in<br />
Manchester. In Benchill, he was also instrumental in setting up<br />
an ecumenical counselling and community project.<br />
As well as endlessly drawing plans and coming up with ideas,<br />
Oliver was also a practical man who enjoyed woodworking<br />
and creating new things from bits of old furniture or remnants<br />
of church buildings. His creativity also found expression in the<br />
garden he created when he retired to the Lake District and he<br />
became a skilled plantsman, particularly fond of conifers and<br />
other trees. He lived out most of his last years in his beloved<br />
Lake District which had always been part of his life.<br />
He died on New Year’s Eve 2022 and is survived by Jean,<br />
to whom he was married for 69 years, and by myself and<br />
my brother Daniel, four grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren.<br />
{Judith Forshaw}<br />
Henry Joseph Millington Hambrook (SH 1942-46)<br />
Joe Hambrook was born in 1928 in Sumatra, where his father<br />
was the manager of a rubber plantation. When Joe was three,<br />
he and his sister were taken to England and left to be shuttled<br />
between boarding school and friends of their mother’s.<br />
Joe came to Shrewsbury and to School House in 1942. He<br />
kept some of his school exercise books, with neat diagrams of<br />
Greek naval battles. His stories about his schooldays included<br />
his performance of reading Ecclesiastes in the School Chapel,<br />
and the wartime sausages that contained bits of machinery! He<br />
was appointed a praepostor and won a scholarship to Trinity<br />
College, Oxford. Athletics was an important part of his university<br />
life, and he ran with the record-breaking Roger Bannister.<br />
After finishing his degree, Joe led a rather nomadic life, spending<br />
time in Spain and Italy. One Spanish trip included train crashes,<br />
avoiding the secret police and running parcels to the anti-Franco<br />
resistance. He then spent time in Ibiza and Mallorca with the expatriate<br />
communities of artists and writers and did research for<br />
the poet and novelist Robert Graves.<br />
In the mid-1950s, Joe spent three years teaching Latin and Greek<br />
at Eton. He found Eton a fascinating place to be at a time when<br />
British global power and influence were declining, particularly<br />
during the Suez Crisis.<br />
All through these years, he had also been doing bits of work<br />
in advertising, and he left Eton to work with the animator
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 115<br />
Richard Williams. <strong>The</strong>y set up a cartoon film studio in Rome,<br />
mostly making commercials. Joe met his wife, Maureen,<br />
in Rome; they returned to England, married and had two<br />
children, Katie and Dan.<br />
Joe became a television producer for the BBC’s English by<br />
Television, making highly regarded programmes for teaching<br />
English as a foreign language. His series Follow Me was watched<br />
by one hundred million people in China in 1983. <strong>The</strong> muchloved<br />
children’s cartoon, Muzzy in Gondoland, was later<br />
adapted for teaching many other languages.<br />
After Joe left the BBC, he was engaged in several languagelearning<br />
video and multi-media course designs, including<br />
projects to use the Muppets and Postman Pat for teaching<br />
English. He was influential in promoting the use of video in<br />
English language teaching.<br />
As his work began to take up less of his time, he and Maureen<br />
took up life in Italy again, spending a part of each year in an<br />
apartment in an old convent in Umbria. Sadly, Maureen was<br />
diagnosed with cancer and died in 2010.<br />
Joe died on 25th September 2022, and tributes from colleagues<br />
described their admiration for his talent, expertise, hard work<br />
and sharp mind. Many remembered him as an inspirational<br />
influence and mentor. He had a great gift for friendship and was<br />
remembered as warm and generous, entertaining and full of<br />
fascinating stories.<br />
[Katie Hambrook]<br />
Sir David Harrison (Governor 1980-2003;<br />
Chairman of Governors 1989-2003)<br />
David Harrison was born in Essex on 3rd May 1930, the son<br />
of Harold Harrison, a civil engineer, and his wife Lavinia. Part<br />
of David’s schooling took place in Sunderland, where he<br />
lived with an aunt, as an evacuee during the war. He showed<br />
an early interest in history; but science, in which he showed<br />
outstanding ability, finally claimed his allegiance and he became<br />
one of the most distinguished chemical engineers and scientists<br />
of his generation. After National Service in the Royal Electrical<br />
and Mechanical Engineers, he began his long association with<br />
Selwyn College in 1950, as an undergraduate. His PhD in<br />
Physical Chemistry in 1956 earned him a swift promotion to a<br />
Fellowship, in which he specialised in the study of fluidisation.<br />
In 1962 he married Sheila Debes, a teacher, whom he had met at<br />
a Cambridge party. She survives him, with their son, Michael, an<br />
accountant, corporate financier and civil servant, and a daughter,<br />
Sarah, a solicitor and magistrate. Another son, Tony, died, while<br />
a student, in 1986.<br />
As admissions tutor, Harrison made great efforts to encourage<br />
state schools to send candidates to Oxbridge. His intervention<br />
and personal encouragement transformed many lives.<br />
Harrison’s charm was matched with a steely determination to<br />
run things efficiently. His approach was always calmly analytical;<br />
he was a superb chairman. His administrative and networking<br />
skills equipped him well for a career beyond academic research.<br />
In 1979 he became vice-chancellor of the University of Keele<br />
and in 1984 he moved to the corresponding position at Exeter.<br />
In 1994 he returned to Selwyn College as Master, and from<br />
1997 was also deputy and pro-vice-chancellor at Cambridge<br />
University, as it sought to modernise its governance. He also<br />
worked over several decades with Homerton College in<br />
Cambridge, helping it to achieve full college status. <strong>The</strong> college<br />
named Harrison House and Harrison Drive after him.<br />
In broader public life Harrison was a keen advocate of gender<br />
equality and social opportunity, always anxious to improve the<br />
quality of scientific education and awareness and to provide<br />
better access to higher education for disadvantaged social groups<br />
and for women. “Teachers make the difference,” was one of his<br />
recurring mantras.<br />
His knighthood in 1997 was awarded both for services to<br />
education and for his contribution to nuclear safety. He<br />
headed an advisory committee giving guidance to government<br />
and parliament on the role of nuclear power generally, as<br />
well as on specific areas including the siting, operation and<br />
decommissioning of nuclear facilities.<br />
Harrison retired, up to a point, at the age of 70, though was<br />
still greatly in demand. However, there was now more space<br />
for other interests, including Lake District walking, cycling and<br />
reading history. He was a devoted churchgoer and he chaired<br />
the council of the Royal School of Church Music.<br />
A formidable member of what some would term “the great and<br />
the good”, Harrison had also greatly valued his work with those<br />
starting out from the bottom of the social pile, knowing the huge<br />
difference educational opportunity could make. <strong>The</strong> novelist<br />
Robert Harris, who had known Harrison since the age of 17,<br />
described him simply as “a wonderful educator — generous,<br />
wise, humane”.<br />
[With grateful acknowledgement to <strong>The</strong> Times]<br />
Ted Maidment (Headmaster 1988-2001) adds:<br />
I feel hugely privileged to have worked with David Harrison in his<br />
role as Chairman during 12 of my 13 years at Shrewsbury. He<br />
was the most perceptive and thoughtful of men. A distinguished<br />
scientist with a sharp, analytical mind, he was also utterly<br />
committed to helping younger generations find their way. To<br />
have been vice-chancellor of two universities and master of his<br />
college in Cambridge says everything in this respect.<br />
David’s handling of Shrewsbury’s governing body meetings<br />
was memorable. Brisk, well informed, always open to debate,<br />
courteous - and remarkably successful at achieving consensus.<br />
On a personal level he was immensely supportive. Always happy<br />
to make the long journey to Shrewsbury - first from Exeter and<br />
later from Cambridge - whenever required. Superb on the<br />
telephone. Mind immediately focussed and always shrewd.<br />
Often he would end his call on a much-appreciated personal<br />
note. “And you, Ted, how are you?” Lonely headmasters value<br />
these things!<br />
Sir David Harrison died on 27th March <strong>2023</strong>, aged 92.
116<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Stephen Lewis (R 1954-59)<br />
Stephen Lewis was born in Bedford in 1940 but moved with<br />
his family to Windermere in 1944, where his father became<br />
headmaster of Windermere Grammar School. A supremely<br />
happy childhood included early education at the Craig School<br />
under the generous guidance of its Headmaster, Edward<br />
Hewetson (Ch 1915-21).<br />
Shrewsbury took over in 1954. Scholarship took priority over<br />
sport, although he represented Rigg’s with enthusiasm in most<br />
games. Stephen, along with his brothers Tim (R 1950-55) and<br />
Anthony (R 1952-56) were under the care of Hugh Brooke, a<br />
talented Housemaster and great influence on all three.<br />
Stephen became a Praeposter and Head of House and excelled<br />
in history, particularly under Michael Hart. He won an Exhibition<br />
to Peterhouse, Cambridge, following in his father’s footsteps. His<br />
father tragically died before hearing news of this achievement.<br />
Recently, Stephen was delighted to continue his education with<br />
Mr Hart at the annual Marlborough <strong>Summer</strong> School.<br />
After Cambridge, Stephen enjoyed a spell in the paper industry<br />
in the UK and Brazil. However, the invitation to travel home<br />
by boat to attend brother Anthony’s wedding proved a greater<br />
temptation and he accepted with alacrity.<br />
After a brief spell teaching, Stephen decided to become a<br />
Chartered Accountant, joining Anthony at a small but highly<br />
respected firm, Hodgson Morris & Co, in Liverpool. He was<br />
placed 22nd in the country in his exams and, after widening his<br />
experience with Coopers, he returned to Hodgson Morris. He<br />
and Anthony remained in partnership until the mid-1990s when<br />
the firm was taken over. Stephen left to build his own practice.<br />
Clients followed and became not only business associates but<br />
firm friends. He was still working for them from his hospital bed.<br />
At Anthony’s wedding, Stephen met and subsequently married<br />
Gillie Travis, younger sister of the bride. Anthony and Stephen<br />
were therefore brothers, brothers-in-law and business partners.<br />
Married life suited Stephen perfectly. He and Gillie became<br />
proud parents of Sally, Ros and Tom (R 1986-91), with eight<br />
grandchildren arriving in due course. Holidays were taken<br />
in Abersoch, where sailing became a pastime. However, for<br />
Stephen, the land and golf provided the stronger calling. At<br />
Royal Birkdale Golf Club, he was both Treasurer and Captain of<br />
that famous course, a role which Gillie also fulfilled for the lady<br />
members, emulating her mother and her aunt.<br />
When he wasn’t dreaming of splicing the fairways at Birkdale,<br />
Stephen found his way to Formby Golf Club, where he also<br />
served on the finance committee. He was a keen and regular<br />
player until shortly before his death and loved the repartee of<br />
the 19th hole.<br />
He never once complained about his bad luck in contracting a<br />
rare and aggressive cancer. Instead, he whiled away his time in<br />
hospital with work, crosswords and the horses. He might have<br />
become a bookie if he had his life all over again; changing from<br />
chartered to turf would have amused him. Like all gamblers, he<br />
didn’t disclose his losses, although he was proud to proclaim his<br />
winners on courses ranging from Aintree to Punchiestown!<br />
Stephen was a man of many parts - charming, warm-hearted,<br />
witty, informed and generous. He will be greatly missed but was<br />
the first to admit that he had had a good life.<br />
[Anthony Lewis (R 1952-56)]<br />
Shortly before he died, Stephen sent a brief account of a lunch<br />
attended by 11 former Riggites, held annually for nearly 20<br />
years, to remember their Housemaster, Hugh Brooke (Brookie)<br />
(see page 92). Pictured from L to R are: John Bolton, Francis<br />
Grundy, Nigel Burton, John Ingram, Mark Moody-Stuart, John<br />
Sellers, Michael Palin, Stephen Lewis, John Gilbert, Mrs Carol<br />
Boscoe (Brookie’s daughter) and Robin Hodgson. All were in<br />
RHJB between 1954 and 1962.<br />
John Alexander Salmond<br />
Mackenzie-Grieve<br />
(M 1951-56)<br />
John Mackenzie-Grieve was<br />
born in 1938 in London, where<br />
his Royal Naval father was in<br />
the Admiralty. After the war, the<br />
family moved to north Essex,<br />
where John was able to indulge<br />
his love of everything equestrian,<br />
with family friends who nobly<br />
allowed him and his sister to<br />
help with mucking out (and<br />
riding the steeds responsible).<br />
In due course John was dispatched to Shrewsbury. He devoted<br />
his sporting time to the RSSH (of which he became Hunt<br />
Secretary) and swimming, in which he also represented the<br />
School. For his last year he was Head of House in Moser’s.<br />
National Service in the Royal Navy followed. Adding fencing and<br />
shooting to his talents for running, riding and swimming, he was<br />
quickly involved in the Navy’s pentathlon team and won the<br />
inter-services competition.<br />
On leaving the Navy, John joined British American Tobacco<br />
(BAT), with which he spent ten years in East Africa. He devoted<br />
much of his spare time to another of his interests, natural history.<br />
His enthusiasm extended to pretty much everything wild, to the<br />
extent that when his fiancée, Jo Chevalier, first visited from the<br />
UK, after one look at the containers on the verandah she quickly
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 117<br />
issued an ultimatum – either the snakes went or she did!<br />
John’s last posting in East Africa was to the West Nile District of<br />
Uganda. At that time, probably the area’s best-known son was<br />
Idi Amin, who had risen to command the Ugandan Army. One<br />
weekend the Army organised a tribal dancing competition and<br />
Amin hosted the affair. <strong>The</strong> writer of this piece, John’s younger<br />
brother Colin, was staying with John and his wife, as were<br />
Colin’s Housemaster, Robin Moulsdale, his wife Julie and their<br />
children. We were all spectators at the dancing competition<br />
and, seeing our group as almost the only Europeans present,<br />
Amin came over to John and invited all of us to cocktails at<br />
his compound. Halfway through the evening, Amin’s pilot<br />
arrived on a stretcher, covered with blood, having “fallen<br />
off a pavement”. But the event ended on a high note with a<br />
conga round the grounds, led by Amin, with John’s wife Jo<br />
immediately following and therefore gingerly clutching Amin<br />
(who was dressed in his regulation boiler suit) round his already<br />
ample waist.<br />
John left BAT when an opportunity arose back in the<br />
UK, to be full-time Hunt Secretary of the Pytchley Hunt<br />
in Northamptonshire. John and Jo (herself a very able<br />
horsewoman) never had fewer than six horses in their stables.<br />
Those years were followed by several at a veterinary science<br />
charity, <strong>The</strong> Animal Health Trust, and latterly by another<br />
spell as Hunt Secretary, this time for the Beaufort Hunt in<br />
Gloucestershire.<br />
John’s retirement years were almost as full as those that<br />
preceded them. Losing Jo to leukemia far too young (but<br />
some years later teaming up with Leila, who was to be his<br />
partner for the rest of his life), John threw himself into the<br />
work of conservation charities across the world, including<br />
several expeditions led by Colonel John Blashford-Snell, to help<br />
indigenous peoples in Amazonia. At the age of 79, John was<br />
sleeping in hammocks in the rainforest, as well as, much closer<br />
to his Wiltshire home, assisting with the re-introduction of Great<br />
Bustards to Salisbury Plain. In his early 80s, his previously good<br />
health failed him and he died, aged 83, on 21st August 2021.<br />
[Colin Mackenzie-Grieve (M 1964-68)]<br />
Philip Gale Marshall (DB 1960-65)<br />
“I am not a man, I’m dynamite!” was one of Philip Marshall’s<br />
favourite phrases, although it was borrowed respectfully from<br />
the legendary Frank McEachran’s book of Spells. ‘Kek’, in<br />
turn, leant upon Nietzsche for inspiration. Like the explosive,<br />
Philip Marshall made his mark. Born in Shrewsbury in 1946,<br />
the second of four brothers, Philip arrived fresh-faced from<br />
Prestfelde to join Stacy Colman’s Day Boys’ Hall in 1960. Within<br />
that decade of change, Headmaster Jack Peterson gave way<br />
to the reformer, Donald Wright, while Colman gave way to<br />
‘Jock’ Saint as Housemaster of Day Boys. Yet, like many boys,<br />
Philip was influenced particularly by his form master, D.J.V<br />
Bevan, about whom he reminisced fondly and frequently.<br />
Philip was a solid performer on the sports field. His triumphs<br />
included gaining his Army Proficiency Certificate in 1963,<br />
being in the cadet force and earning his novice boxing medal.<br />
After knocking a boy unconscious during one match, Philip<br />
became disillusioned with the sport, preferring the slightly more<br />
gentlemanly options of football and cricket.<br />
While Shrewsbury’s broad education stoked Philip’s lifelong<br />
interest in history and art, he was not a starring academic.<br />
Indeed, throughout his life, he held a healthy suspicion of<br />
academics generally, preferring common sense, worldliness and<br />
hard work above examination grades. Perhaps this attitude came<br />
from his time at Shrewsbury? Almost immediately after becoming<br />
a <strong>Salopian</strong>, Philip’s masters expressed doubts about his ability to<br />
join the family’s accountancy practice. In his summer 1961 end<br />
of term report, Housemaster Colman confirmed that his initial<br />
doubts about Philip’s mathematical skills were justified. By 1964,<br />
his maths teacher, ‘Percy’ Childs, confirmed that he was weak at<br />
this subject.<br />
Yet, as Shrewsbury’s motto confirms, if all is right within, trouble<br />
not, and all was right within Philip. Against the advice of his<br />
teachers, he aimed high and knuckled down to his professional<br />
accountancy qualifications, leaving Shrewsbury for Birmingham<br />
to work for Peat Marwick and Mitchell, now KPMG, en route to<br />
becoming chartered. He joined the family accountancy business<br />
in 1971 but his heart was really in business, which explains why<br />
he joined a struggling engineering and car sales firm, becoming<br />
a director in 1972 and chairman later, until his retirement. Thanks<br />
largely to Philip’s shrewd financial management, common sense<br />
and sound people skills, Lewis Marshall Holdings grew into one<br />
of the largest and most respected engineering businesses and<br />
retail car sales outlets in the county, scooping several national<br />
awards. It also brought Shropshire representation to some of the<br />
most well-known motorcar brands for the first time, including<br />
Volvo, Subaru and Hyundai. His contribution was recognised<br />
with an invitation to join the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures<br />
and Commerce.<br />
Philip married Sheena Kinnear in 1975 and they settled in Great<br />
Ness, just outside Shrewsbury. Two children followed, Robert<br />
(R 1994-99) and Suzanna (b. 1984). Philip threw himself into<br />
a well-deserved retirement, enjoying history, art and travelling<br />
and being a loving grandpa to his three granddaughters, before<br />
encroaching Alzheimer’s restricted his ambitions, although<br />
pneumonia ensured that he did not succumb to it ultimately.<br />
Like dynamite, his sudden passing in August 2022 leaves a huge<br />
hole in the Marshall family, which is also reeling from the deaths<br />
of his brothers, Keith (b. 1943) and Garth (DB 1964–69) nine<br />
months later.<br />
[Robert Marshall (R 1994-99)]
118<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Garth Roger Marshall (DB 1964-69)<br />
Garth Marshall was born on 6th August 1950, following his<br />
identical twin, Russell, into the world; they were the youngest<br />
of four brothers and lived with their parents, Mick and Vida, in<br />
Mayfield Drive, Shrewsbury.<br />
After attending Prestfelde Preparatory School, they came on to<br />
Shrewsbury School as Day Boys in 1964. Garth always had the<br />
fondest memories of Shrewsbury and formed many lifelong<br />
friendships there. Whilst at School, Garth and Russell discovered<br />
their need for spectacles - somewhat worryingly whilst on the<br />
shooting range! In their final year, since the School had two<br />
sets of identical twins at the time, they were asked to take part<br />
in Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors, a production that is still<br />
remembered to this day by those who saw it.<br />
Upon leaving School in 1969, Garth and Russell started their<br />
first business venture together, opening a supermarket in Wem,<br />
Shropshire. Within a few years they opened two larger stores<br />
in Shrewsbury, located in Copthorne and the town centre,<br />
which both gained a loyal customer base. <strong>The</strong> stores proved<br />
a great success due to the twins’ enthusiastic personalities. In<br />
1985 they purchased the Longden Coleham Shopping Centre,<br />
and this marked the beginning of their transition into Property<br />
Management, which has been their main focus for the last 35<br />
years. Marshall & Marshall Ltd moved their administrative head<br />
office into premises on College Hill, Shrewsbury in 1987, and<br />
from there they have continued to build their Residential and<br />
Commercial Property Investment businesses.<br />
Family has remained at the heart of the business, and Garth’s<br />
elder brothers, Keith and Philip (DB 1960-65) worked alongside<br />
the twins for many years. Russell’s son, Oliver (Rb 2008-13), also<br />
joined the business upon leaving university.<br />
Away from work, Garth was a devoted family man, a committed<br />
Christian who worshipped at St Chad’s Church and he was<br />
a wonderful friend to many. He served on the Shropshire<br />
Horticultural Society Committee from 1978 to the present day<br />
and was a very well-known face at the annual Shrewsbury<br />
Flower Show, not least because he was such a genial host at<br />
Quarry Lodge. Garth was made a Vice-President in 2010 and<br />
his work on the Committee was recognised in 2018 when he<br />
attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Club played an important part throughout<br />
Garth’s life. He relished returning to the School for the various<br />
events and found it a tremendous opportunity to rekindle<br />
old friendships and start new ones. Having been a passionate<br />
supporter of the School, one of his proudest moments was<br />
when his son, Harry, was awarded a Butler Scholarship and<br />
entered Radbrook in 2018; Garth was then able to continue his<br />
relationship with the School as a parent and he quickly became<br />
a familiar face to the current <strong>Salopian</strong> community.<br />
Garth was the beloved husband of Penny, a devoted father<br />
to Sarah, Daisy and Harry and proud grandfather to Charlie.<br />
He passed away peacefully on 13th April <strong>2023</strong> aged 72 years,<br />
following a short illness. As has been so clearly demonstrated<br />
in the many hundreds of cards and letters received since his<br />
death, Garth was a true gentleman, a treasured friend and a very<br />
special person who will be missed by many.<br />
[Robert Marshall (R 1994-99)]<br />
Bob Parker (Staff 1975-97)<br />
Bob Parker, an explorer and mountaineer, climbed with many<br />
of the big names of his generation on crags from the Derbyshire<br />
Gritstone to the European Alps and Dolomites, as well as further<br />
afield in the Himalayas. But, of course, at Shrewsbury, he was<br />
best known for the indelible contribution he made to crosscountry<br />
running and athletics.<br />
When Bob arrived at Shrewsbury in 1975, Huntsman Kim<br />
Walker remembers his “new-fangled training ideas” as something<br />
of a shock to Hunt runners, who were used to a gentler and<br />
more civilised regime from former RSSH Masters-in-Charge,<br />
Willie Jones and the eccentric ‘Mort’!<br />
Bob transformed the School into a formidable force in crosscountry<br />
running and athletics, including ‘back-to-back’ victories<br />
in the prestigious King Henry VIII relays in Coventry. He<br />
coached numerous County Champions, some of whom went on<br />
to compete at international level.<br />
Bob was born in Chesterfield in 1938, educated at King Edward<br />
VII School in Melton Mowbray and Imperial College London. He<br />
married Heather in 1965, with Neil and Lynn arriving soon after.<br />
He was the proud grandfather of two granddaughters.<br />
In his younger days Bob was a very good middle-distance<br />
runner himself, and at the age of 42, he ran the London<br />
Marathon in under three hours.<br />
Bob came to teach ‘O’ and ‘A’ level physics at Shrewsbury.<br />
Head of Science, John Furniss, described him as an<br />
“outstanding physicist” and a “brilliant problem-solver”, who<br />
was able to tailor his teaching approach to both the cleverest<br />
and the less able pupils.<br />
He was also a House Tutor in Ingram’s.<br />
Bob loved the outdoors and the quiet enjoyment and profound<br />
experiences that wild spaces bring, a passion that he passed on<br />
to numerous <strong>Salopian</strong>s through his involvement in Basic Year<br />
with the egregious ‘Fred Hall’, as well as leading many Rovers<br />
expeditions into the wilds of Wales. He taught rock climbing<br />
as one of the Thursday afternoon CCF activities on the gym<br />
climbing wall, which he had designed. He cheerfully gave his<br />
time to coach, instruct and enthuse not just those who were<br />
good, but also those who were prepared to have a go; he<br />
epitomised “Just do it” before Nike had ever thought of it!<br />
He instilled in us that the key to being successful in life was<br />
sheer hard work: put the preparation in, then reap the rewards:<br />
“A lot of plodding makes you a very good plodder!”<br />
A kind, straightforward man, he was as understated as he was<br />
capable, and we all loved his dry sense of humour. Another of
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 119<br />
his great admonitions was in response to our complaints about<br />
the shower facilities at a cross-country event. Bob told us that he<br />
used to be grateful for “a bath in a puddle”!<br />
One of his well-known habits was to rub his hands together<br />
when he was pleased or excited about something, which he<br />
explained had emanated from trying to keep warm in the<br />
mountains. He was definitely ‘one of a kind’.<br />
Bob retired early in 1997 due to ill health, but he continued to<br />
be involved with the RSSH throughout his retirement, attending<br />
races and quietly advising and encouraging pupils. He was<br />
a Past Chairman of the Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Hunt, and we were all<br />
pleased to celebrate his 80th birthday with him and Heather at<br />
the annual OSH dinner in November 2018.<br />
<strong>The</strong> RSSH was recently honoured by World Athletics as the<br />
birthplace of cross-country running, and Bob was a great<br />
supporter of the Hunt’s traditions. He would also run with the<br />
hounds (pupils) on the weekly runs, so I leave you with a<br />
vision of him running with the Hunt on foot, just like they did<br />
originally over 200 years ago, across fields, through woods and<br />
streams, and over the hedges and farm gates of the spectacular<br />
Shropshire countryside<br />
[Tim Bedell (S 1974-78, Huntsman 1977-78)]<br />
Professor Sir Eldryd Hugh Owen Parry KCMG OBE<br />
(SH 1944-48)<br />
Eldryd Parry was born in Cardiff on 28th November 1930, the son<br />
of Owen and Constance Parry, who were both GPs in the city.<br />
Eldryd loved Shrewsbury, but he was not so sure about the<br />
general assumption that he would become a doctor. In a letter<br />
to his father, written when he was 16, he made it clear that he<br />
wanted to pursue an interest in old furniture and work at the<br />
Victoria and Albert Museum. <strong>The</strong> reply was sent by telegram.<br />
“Don’t dare shirk Cambridge exam. Father.” Eldryd took the<br />
exam, abandoned the idea of working with old furniture,<br />
and was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to study<br />
medicine, in 1948.<br />
Eldryd’s pioneering approach to treatment was shaped,<br />
however, in Cardiff, where on one occasion, he accompanied<br />
his parents as they examined an emaciated patient, living in a<br />
derelict tenement close to the city’s docks, who was suffering<br />
from respiratory disease. For the first time, Parry appreciated the<br />
social determinants of disease.<br />
After Cambridge, Eldryd trained at the Welsh National School of<br />
Medicine in Cardiff, where he also experienced life as a patient.<br />
He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and had to undergo a<br />
thoracotomy as well as treatment with drugs. After recovering,<br />
he moved to Hammersmith Hospital. In 1959, he met Helen<br />
House at a bible study group in London. <strong>The</strong> daughter of literary<br />
scholars, Helen was an English teacher and university lecturer.<br />
Six days after their marriage in Cambridge in 1960, they sailed<br />
from Liverpool to Lagos on a voyage that would change their<br />
lives and eventually have a profound impact on the treatment of<br />
patients in many parts of Africa. <strong>The</strong> couple had four children:<br />
David, who is a gardener based in Japan; Julia, an English<br />
teacher and author; Anna, who is a screenwriter; and Tiggy,<br />
who is director of the charity Project Food and played a role in<br />
the development of Parry’s Trust.<br />
In Nigeria, Eldryd joined the medical staff at University College<br />
Hospital. He had agreed to spend a year there on secondment<br />
from the cardiology department at Hammersmith Hospital in<br />
London to study endomyocardial fibrosis, a form of heart disease<br />
that was prevalent in southwest Nigeria.<br />
He would spend three years in Ibadan and most of the next<br />
60 teaching African doctors, influencing the development of<br />
medical services in the region — and learning several languages<br />
along the way, including Amharic and Hausa.<br />
He recorded that “we were dealing with diseases that had never<br />
even been properly described…… at times I had to look after 30<br />
acute medical beds: in my sixth year out of medical school: this<br />
was quite a challenge.” He “began to distinguish between the<br />
classic notion of tropical medicine and what he calls ‘medicine<br />
in the tropics’. <strong>The</strong> former is concerned with a group of diseases<br />
found in particular regions; the latter with the practice of general<br />
medicine but modified by infection and poverty.”<br />
Subsequently he returned to Hammersmith for two years, but<br />
then took up a post at the Haile Selassie University in Addis<br />
Ababa, Ethiopia, before returning to Nigeria, where he spent<br />
eight years from 1969 as professor of medicine at Ahmadu Bello<br />
University in Zaria in the north of the country. Subsequently<br />
he become founding dean of the faculty of health sciences at<br />
the University of Ilorin in western Nigeria, and then dean and<br />
professor of medicine at the Kwame Nkrumah University of<br />
Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.<br />
In 1976 he produced Principles of Medicine in Africa. Whereas<br />
English textbooks catered mainly for doctors working in urban<br />
hospitals, Eldryd concentrated on the needs of medical staff<br />
caring for impoverished rural communities, and demonstrated<br />
how different diseases presented in different circumstances.<br />
In designing treatments, Eldryd believed that the patient’s<br />
home and working environment were all-important, taking<br />
into account geography, climate, the availability of food, water<br />
and sanitation, and the cultural background of the patient. He<br />
identified the core question for good clinical practice in Africa:<br />
“Why should this person, from this place, present in this way, at<br />
this time?”<br />
By 1988 Eldryd was back in Britain as director of the Wellcome<br />
Tropical Institute in London and preparing to make his next<br />
great contribution to the development of medical services in<br />
Africa: he founded the Tropical Health and Education Trust,<br />
which aimed to tackle the shortcomings in the training of all<br />
health workers throughout east and west Africa.
120<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Initially the Trust was run by a small group of people, with<br />
Eldryd as chairman, and a handful of close associates, including<br />
his wife, who became trustees. <strong>The</strong>y established partnerships<br />
between institutions in Britain and Africa, to train health workers.<br />
NHS hospitals in Nottingham and Leicester supported new<br />
medical schools in Jimma and Gondar, in Ethiopia. <strong>The</strong> trust<br />
flourished and expanded, working in five African countries as<br />
well as Myanmar, then known as Burma. Eldryd’s achievements<br />
were “colossal . . . Eldryd shaped undergraduate medical<br />
education in the whole African region”. Recognition came<br />
in 2011: he was knighted for his contributions to healthcare<br />
development.<br />
Although he had long given up the idea of working at the<br />
V&A, Eldryd held an interest in traditional Welsh furniture and<br />
collected pieces throughout his life; he read voraciously, loved<br />
poetry and would always pack a Shakespeare play in his case<br />
on a trip. A keen gardener, he had an allotment in Fulham, not<br />
far from his London home. He never lost his love of Wales. In<br />
later life, he learned the language and read a psalm in Welsh<br />
each day. <strong>The</strong> family had a cottage on the Ceredigion coast.<br />
Eldryd continued working almost to the end of his life. He<br />
remained chairman of his Trust until 2007 and was a special<br />
professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of<br />
Nottingham until 2018. In his eighties, he was still delivering<br />
lectures at King’s College, London and would lock the doors of<br />
the lecture theatre to prevent latecomers from entering. In his<br />
view, students needed to be professional and on time, ready for<br />
their roles as doctors in the health service.<br />
He raged against quick fixes and, like a Welsh nonconformist<br />
preacher, urged his audiences to prepare for the long haul.<br />
Among his favourite poems was Up-Hill by Christina Rossetti,<br />
which he would sometimes quote at the end of speeches.<br />
“Does the road wind up-hill all the way?/ Yes, to the very end./<br />
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?/ From morn to<br />
night, my friend.” He died on 13th November 2022, aged 91.<br />
[With grateful acknowledgement to <strong>The</strong> Times.]<br />
With his wife, Helen, on their wedding day, just before sailing to Lagos in 1960<br />
Jonathan Charles Peat (Staff 1980–2008)<br />
Mere weeks before he was taken from us untimely, and<br />
despite being ravaged by cancer and its failed chemo cure, JCP<br />
remained his own inimitable witty and stubborn self. He may<br />
have been content to plough his own furrow at times, but he<br />
certainly relished, and enormously contributed to, the friendship<br />
of others.<br />
Educated at William Hulme Grammar School, he gained a<br />
seventh-term physics scholarship to Brasenose, aged just 17.<br />
After a PGCE in sport at Loughborough, he was appointed to<br />
Shrewsbury in 1980, where he quickly earned respect for his<br />
engaging, philosophical intellect. As the top-squad rugby coach,<br />
member of the Chapel Choir, and Tutor in Rigg’s Hall and then<br />
Ridgemount, he was rapidly integrated into the wider school life,<br />
while his trips to Tally and peer hospitality revealed generosity<br />
and substantial culinary skills.<br />
Jonathan is survived by Cathy, née Duffield and daughter of the<br />
then Director of Studies, whom he married in 1981, and their<br />
two sons Christopher and Andrew. Appointed to Radbrook in<br />
1987, Jonathan strove with them to provide an environment<br />
in which the pupils could flourish. Abiding by his own high<br />
standards, he demanded them in others, all the while fostering<br />
the whole person; House and School music and drama were<br />
strongly encouraged at a time when the average <strong>Salopian</strong> diet<br />
was comprised substantially of academia and sport.<br />
It was not all plain sailing. <strong>The</strong> tragic dissolution of his first<br />
marriage led Jonathan along a difficult personal path, including<br />
the premature relinquishing of his housemastership of<br />
Radbrook in 1995. But by turning down the offer of a Deputy<br />
Headship elsewhere, his continued presence at Shrewsbury<br />
ensured the smooth running of some demanding tasks, for<br />
strong organisational skills and mastery of complex, innovative<br />
technology were his trademarks; he also tutored and produced<br />
musicals in Churchill’s. It brought him, too, into contact with<br />
Susie Tait, a widowed teacher, and a lively friendship evolved.<br />
Despite an apparently well-armoured, almost bristling, exterior,<br />
Jonathan was an erudite and jovial raconteur, and if occasional<br />
minor exaggerations led to the gentle embellishment of a story,<br />
so much the better; Susie was highly amused with his school<br />
nickname ‘Bouche’. <strong>The</strong>y married in 2000 in Clive Church,<br />
Jonathan also becoming the father figure, and inspirationally, to<br />
Susie’s then 12-year-old son, Matthew.<br />
Jonathan moved in 2008 to Moreton Hall as Director of Studies,<br />
following his wife’s appointment there as Head of Mathematics.<br />
Retirement in 2011 allowed them both to settle near Limoges<br />
in their house renovation project, where Jonathan could work<br />
on his rudimentary linguistic skills, indulge his wide interest<br />
in classical music, develop his considerable craftsman’s ability,<br />
and continue his culinary magic. Susie remains there with the<br />
labradors.<br />
As producer, Jonathan’s favourite musical was Jesus Christ<br />
Superstar, and his production featured a three-metre-high cross<br />
from which intense white light could emanate. <strong>The</strong>re was a<br />
lovely occasion when, grinning with anticipation in the empty<br />
gloom of a dimly lit theatre, he said, “Watch this” and switched it<br />
on. His faith, never overt, was sure.<br />
[Philip Lapage (Staff 1982-2018)]
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 121<br />
Alan Geoffrey Phillips (O 1944-49, Staff 1960-76)<br />
Geoffrey Phillips was born in 1931, the son of Alan and Ethel.<br />
Alan was a Master at Shrewsbury, who taught Chemistry from<br />
1929 to 1964 and was Housemaster of Moser’s from 1939<br />
to 1956. Geoffrey was an avid sportsman during his time in<br />
Oldham’s, playing 1st XI cricket, football, and as a member of<br />
the first or second pair in fives. He particularly excelled in cricket<br />
as a number 3 bat, and in fives.<br />
Geoffrey‘s enthusiasm for sport continued after he left school: he<br />
played cricket for the Saracens in the Cricketer Cup and fives for<br />
the Jesters. His all-round sporting activity also included tennis,<br />
squash and golf. After leaving school, Geoffrey did National<br />
Service and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the<br />
Royal Artillery. <strong>The</strong> Army tried to keep him longer, as he was<br />
such an asset to their cricket team. Whilst at Worcester College,<br />
Oxford, having gained entry on languages, Geoffrey changed<br />
to Geography and Geology after his first year. He never lost his<br />
linguistic talents, and he remained fluent in German and could<br />
manage well in French. He continued to play squash and 1st XI<br />
cricket at the university.<br />
Geoffrey started his teaching career at St Paul’s, London, after<br />
marrying Betty, whom he had met while at Oxford and he<br />
remained in London for four years. In 1960, he returned to<br />
Shrewsbury, where he taught Geography and was heavily<br />
involved in coaching sport. He coached 1st XI cricket, U16<br />
football, fives and squash. He enjoyed a two-year Sabbatical<br />
from 1968 to 1970 at Tripoli College in Libya. This was an<br />
English-speaking school, which followed the UK syllabus up<br />
to A-level.<br />
From 1970 Geoffrey was Housemaster of Rigg’s Hall. His first<br />
three sons were all educated at Shrewsbury and in Day Boys.<br />
Geoffrey left Shrewsbury in 1976 and remarried, after divorce<br />
from Betty. Subsequently he had two more sons, who were<br />
educated at King’s School in Stamford. Geoffrey’s subsequent<br />
teaching posts included Witham Hall prep school in Lincolnshire<br />
from 1976 to 1991 and also in Oman from 1991 to 1993, where<br />
he taught English as a foreign language to the Royal Guardsmen.<br />
He died on 11th May <strong>2023</strong>, in Kempsey, Worcestershire.<br />
[Dr Peter Phillips (DB 1970-75)]<br />
Richard Oliver Quibell (S 1951-56)<br />
Richard Quibell was born in 1938 in Lincoln and had three older<br />
sisters. He was educated at <strong>Summer</strong>fields in East Sussex before<br />
arriving at Shrewsbury in 1951. Richard enjoyed his school days,<br />
especially his time on the sports fields. During the holidays, he<br />
played cricket and football for the Lincolnshire teams. He served<br />
as Head Boy in 1956.<br />
His national service was spent in the Malayan jungle with the<br />
Cheshire Regiment. He said eating snake steak was like eating<br />
chicken but very bony! On return, Richard joined Gonville and<br />
Caius College, Cambridge, where he read Chemistry and Natural<br />
Sciences. He then completed a Diploma in Education. He was<br />
an active member of the Hawks’ Club and a keen fly fisherman.<br />
Richard served as a master at Eton for 36 years,15 of those as<br />
a housemaster. He found teaching and being a school master<br />
challenging but very rewarding. His mantra, ‘friendly, firm<br />
and fair’, was well known and his approach garnered respect<br />
among the boys. In 1970, with support from the students,<br />
Richard established the first Eton Christian Forum Society, which<br />
continues to thrive today.<br />
His choice of a career in teaching was in part influenced by his<br />
love of sport, as the longer holidays enabled him to continue<br />
with his own sporting interests and to enjoy his 64-year<br />
membership of Lord’s, as well as to support football at White<br />
Hart Lane and Wembley stadium. He was present at the football<br />
World Cup victory in 1966.<br />
He met his wife Sue on a ski holiday and they married<br />
in 1967. She survives him, together with their three sons<br />
and six grandchildren. <strong>The</strong>ir married life was founded on<br />
the principles of the Christian faith; their 55 years together<br />
reflected their decision to walk humbly in joy, peace,<br />
kindness, generosity and love.<br />
Richard retired to his beloved Dorset countryside in 1999. He<br />
was a lay reader for over 50 years and helped in the local<br />
Benefice and particularly through two interregna. He played<br />
golf, walked, travelled and continued to fly fish and enjoyed<br />
watching sporting events. Richard and Sue moved to West<br />
Sussex in 2016 in order to be nearer to their family. He died<br />
peacefully on 10th December 2022.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Quibell armorial motto ‘Deo Confido’ serves as an accurate<br />
depiction of Richard’s lifelong faith. During his well-attended<br />
service of thanksgiving, Richard’s family affirmed their intention<br />
to take up his baton of trust in God as a tribute to Richard’s<br />
faithfulness to them and to his belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.
122<br />
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS<br />
Michael John Anthony Rhodes (DB 1947-51)<br />
Michael Rhodes was born in 1933. At the age of eight, the family<br />
moved to Uffington, Salop, where his father was Rector, and<br />
Michael first went to Prestfelde and then came to Shrewsbury<br />
as a Day Boy. He was immensely proud of the School, where<br />
he was a ‘wet bob’ - enjoying rowing, sailing and canoeing<br />
(albeit modestly) for most of his active life. Although not a great<br />
academic, he read widely, having been greatly influenced by<br />
‘Kek’ (Frank McEachran), and he would often recite his favourite<br />
‘spells’ to his family and friends after a convivial meal.<br />
He left Shrewsbury to study Chemical Engineering at<br />
Loughborough, and in 1954 he moved to the North West to<br />
take up a role with Shell at their Carrington works, first as<br />
technologist and later as a Chartered Engineer. During his time at<br />
Shell he became involved in the Shell Motor Club, taking part in<br />
rallies as driver, navigator or marshal, as needed. It was here that<br />
he made many friendships, which lasted throughout his life.<br />
Michael was an active member of the Scouting community.<br />
He started as a Scout Leader, became Warrington District<br />
Secretary, a post he held for over 20 years, and finally Honorary<br />
President, receiving the Silver Acorn Award and Bar for<br />
distinguished service. During his time in Scouting, he instilled<br />
into innumerable boys his love of the outdoors, of canoeing, hill<br />
walking and map reading, as attested by the many friends who<br />
attended his funeral.<br />
After retirement, travelling became an important feature of his<br />
life, and with his wife, Kathryn, he spent many holidays abroad,<br />
mainly in France but also in most other European countries.<br />
Michael always said he had had a wonderful life. He rejoiced in<br />
his love of the family, who will always remember his extensive<br />
knowledge and his wide interest in every aspect of life. He died<br />
peacefully at home in Lymm, Cheshire on 29th November 2022,<br />
and is survived by his wife, Kathryn, their two sons, Tim and<br />
Nick, and three grandchildren.<br />
[Kathryn Rhodes]<br />
Richard John Graham Waldron (R 1950-54)<br />
Richard Waldron was born on 4th May 1936 and attended<br />
schools in Wales, Switzerland and Australia, before settling into<br />
the Shrewsbury family of Rigg’s Hall. Richard gained his love<br />
of rowing at Shrewsbury and although a bout of pneumonia<br />
denied him a place in the 1st VIII, he always enjoyed whatever<br />
oar he pulled, whether in an eight or in a sculling boat: he<br />
was at home on the water. This love-affair would continue<br />
throughout his life as he rowed for other institutions, including<br />
the Hong Kong Rowing Club some years later.<br />
He loved his time at Shrewsbury and recalls a time when, as<br />
the School’s tug-of-war team anchor, he had been caught tying<br />
off the rope to a tree during training, making victory against<br />
his friends assured. His time in the Combined Cadet Force,<br />
reinforced by his father’s example, gave him an interest in<br />
joining the services. After Shrewsbury he travelled to Kenya to<br />
stay with family and, after a while as a farm hand, he enlisted for<br />
two years’ voluntary service with the Kenya Regiment.<br />
Subsequently, he continued his global travels from Kenya to<br />
Hong Kong, to Malaya and around Europe, before settling back<br />
into the UK where he became a wine merchant, life assurance<br />
salesman, equipment salesman and many other roles to boot.<br />
He fell in love with Lynne Susan Campbell at an RNLI ball in<br />
Trearddur Bay, Angelsey and they went on to have a long and<br />
happy life together, travelling the country in the pursuit of work.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y lived in Cheshire, Henley, Wales and Oxfordshire, finally<br />
retiring to Somerset. After a short but tough battle with old age,<br />
dementia and physical ailments, Richard passed away peacefully<br />
on 7th March <strong>2023</strong> at the age of 86.<br />
Richard was a staunch supporter of the RNLI and had asked<br />
for donations to be made by any who wanted to honour his<br />
memory. Donations so far have now resulted in Richard ‘Walrus’<br />
Waldron being placed on the side of the new Whitby lifeboat.<br />
He is remembered by his loving wife of nearly 50 years,<br />
Lynne, by his two children, James and Katie, and by his four<br />
grandchildren, Isaac, Jacob, Ivy and Matthew.<br />
[James Waldron and Katie Baker]
SALOPIAN CLUB NEWS 123<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club Contacts<br />
Sport<br />
Cricket (Saracens) – Tom Cox tom.cox@gowlingwlg.com<br />
Rowing (Sabrina) – Rod Spiby rod.spiby@bulleys.co.uk<br />
Football – Guy Williams guy.d.williams@hotmail.com<br />
Golf – Charles Hill charlesgchill@hotmail.com<br />
Hunt – Peter Birch info@crbirch.com<br />
Rugby – Tom Plaut t.plaut@outlook.com<br />
Fives – Sam Welti swelti@advantainvest.co.uk<br />
Squash – Ben Stirk benstirk@hotmail.com<br />
Racquets Club – Tom Gerrard tdgerrard@yahoo.co.uk and Will Briggs briggsy999@gmail.com<br />
Yacht Club – William Matthews wjmatthews89@gmail.com<br />
Basketball – Bryan Yick bryanyick@gmail.com<br />
Women’s Sport – Elle Gurden e.gurden@hotmail.co.uk<br />
Social, business and recreational<br />
Young Old <strong>Salopian</strong>s – Becky Home becky-home@hotmail.com<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Arts – John Moore jufum123@gmail.com or Henry Southern henry.southern@gmail.com<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Magazine – Richard Hudson rth@shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Salopian</strong> Drivers’ Club – Miles Preston miles.preston@milespreston.co.uk<br />
Head of Futures (Careers) – Chris Wain cwain@shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
Property Group – Toby Clowes tobyclowes@me.com<br />
Solution to Crossword on page 81
SALOPIAN CLUB FORTHCOMING EVENTS<br />
• More details can be found on <strong>Salopian</strong> Connect salopianconnect.org.uk<br />
• Except where stated, email oldsalopian@shrewsbury.org.uk<br />
• Follow us on Social media: Facebook.com/oldsalopians Twitter.com/Old<strong>Salopian</strong>s Instagram.com/salopianclub<br />
Linkedin.com/company/the-old-salopian-club<br />
All Shrewsbury School parents (current and former) and guests of members are welcome at the<br />
majority of our events.<br />
Email is still our principal method of communication, so please do make sure we have your contact<br />
details which can be updated via the <strong>Salopian</strong> Club section of the School website and by scanning<br />
the QR code opposite.<br />
Friday 25th – Monday 28th August<br />
Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Football Club Tour to<br />
Prague<br />
Prague<br />
Saturday 2nd September OSFC Season starts in Arthurian League Various<br />
Saturday 2nd September SDC Visit to Car Collector Jack Henley Marden, Kent<br />
Saturday 16th September Annual OS Hunt Alumni Race Roehampton<br />
Tuesday 26th September<br />
OS Freemasons Lodge meeting<br />
and dinner<br />
Civil Service Club 13-15 Great Scotland<br />
Yard, London SW1<br />
Saturday 30th September Old <strong>Salopian</strong> Day Shrewsbury<br />
Saturday 14th October OSFC v School Matches Shrewsbury<br />
Sunday 12th November Remembrance Sunday Shrewsbury<br />
Wednesday 15th November<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club AGM and City Drinks<br />
Cavalry and Guards Club, 127 Piccadilly,<br />
London W1J 7PX<br />
Saturday 18th November OS Hunt v RSSH Run and Dinner Shrewsbury<br />
Thursday 23rd November Birmingham Drinks All Bar One, 43 Newhall Street B3 3NY<br />
Friday 24th November<br />
Saturday 25th November<br />
Durham and Newcastle University<br />
Gathering<br />
Edinburgh Gathering<br />
Durham TBC<br />
Sunday 3rd December Carol Service and Christmas Drinks Shrewsbury<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wally Dug, 32 Northumberland<br />
Street, Edinburgh EH3 6LS<br />
Sunday 21st January 2024 Epiphany Service St Mary-le-Bow, London EC2V 6AU<br />
Monday 22nd January<br />
<strong>Salopian</strong> Club Full Committee Meeting<br />
Stephenson Harwood, 1 Finsbury<br />
Circus, London EC2M 7SH<br />
Saturday 17th February Oxford Gathering Oxford TBC<br />
Friday 23rd February SDC Annual Dinner Turf Club, London SW1 5AQ<br />
Wednesday 20th March<br />
Schools’ Head of the River Race<br />
Blue Anchor, Hammersmith, London<br />
W6 9DJ<br />
www.shrewsbury.org.uk