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21 St Edward’s r hubarb
OSE News
1941
M Gervase Peel (C, 1937-1941)
Son Philip (C, 1963-1968), contacted
the office to let us know that his father
Michael Gervase Peel (C, 1937-1941) was
a Lancaster Bomber pilot in WWII who
was shot down and became a POW.
“Now I’ve been sent the newly
issued Bomber Campaign Bar and was
looking for a way to make some sort of
ceremony for him to be given it.”
“He’s now 91 so it’s a bit of a long
way to go over to the RAF airfields he
flew from in East Anglia, though we did
take him on a taxi ride in a Lancaster last
year for his 90th birthday.”
“He thinks he first flew with the air
cadets at St Edward’s. It’s certainly why
he joined the RAF. (I have recorded a
long interview with him including his
school days) and I wondered whether it
might be possible to have some sort of
little ceremony at St Edward’s with the
CCF and have his medal bar presented to
him. He lives not too far from Oxford.”
Mr Peel was presented with his Bar in a
School assembly on 10th November 2014
and will be Guest of Honour at the CCF
Parade in May 2015, subject to his health.
1960
PeterTucker (C, 1955-1960), writes:
“I came to Teddies in the first place because
my uncle, Peter Standfast (E, 1925-1930),
had been there, which gave my parents a
reduction in the cost of tuition. Peter (after
whom I am named) went to RADA and had
just made his first break in the West End
when war broke out. He joined the RAF and
flew as a pilot officer in a Blenheim squadron.
Sent to Malta he died making a successful
bombing run over an Italian freighter taking
supplies to Rommel’s army in North Africa.
I found his name on a memorial in Malta and
followed up this clue, visiting the airbase he
flew from and finding information on his time
on Malta and his crewmates.
After my time at Teddies I studied at the
School of Architecture in Headington.
I moved to Sweden in 1969, as a guest
student at the Royal Academy School in
Stockholm. After several years living in the
countryside painting the landscape, I moved
back to the city. After further studies at the
Dramatic Institute in Stockholm I worked for
some years as a set designer in theatre, on
both a national and local level, and especially
with children’s theatre. For a short while I
had my own experimental theatre. The 80s
and 90s were spent teaching children to
paint, both at primary and higher levels in
the school system. My wife Cilla and I have
1939
Theodor Abrahamsen (D, 1933-1939)
Theodor celebrated his 95th birthday
last year, which was attended by the
Warden in Norway. As well as playing
in the school’s 1st XI and 1st XV, he
was selected for the English Schools’ XV
in 1938. By 1940, he was a student at
Oslo University and, like many students,
became involved in the resistance
movement, helping to distribute illegal
news-sheets. Teddy and his friends were
at the University on 30th November
1943 when news came that the campus
had been surrounded. All students
from Nazi-supporting families and all
female students were released; the men,
including Theodor, were imprisoned and
underwent interrogation by the Gestapo.
As a result, Teddy was sentenced to
life in a camp and was dispatched – on
the notorious prison ship Donau – to
Buchenwald, the largest concentration
camp in Germany. Eventually, at the
end of April 1945, Teddy found himself,
along with all Norwegian and Danish
prisoners, first exempted from work and
soon afterwards transported to Sweden,
arriving on 4th May 1945, four days
before Germany surrendered. He spent
almost a month in a Swedish hospital
regaining his strength and finally arrived
home in Norway in June. After the war,
Teddy became a teacher in Lillehammer,
taking further teaching roles in Montreal
and Seattle in the 50s. He was a lecturer
at the British Institute of Oslo from 1966
– 1971 and a Headmaster in Norway until
his retirement in 1987. Teddy stays in
close contact with St Edward’s attending
many of the school’s significant events.
Many happy returns to Theodor.
The Royal Palace, Drottningholm, Autumn 2009- 2011,
by Peter Tucker
Right: Head Boy Oscar von Hannover (A), M
Gervase Peel (C, 1937-1941) and the Warden,
at the presentation of the commemorative Bar.
Theodor Abrahamsen’s birthday
O S E n e w s