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7
Address by Stephen Jones,
Warden
Gaudy once more and I am delighted to
see you all here on this great 4th July –
Independence Day for our transatlantic
cousins…
The hand of History is clearly upon us
all, as it was in September with the
Centenary of the start of the First World
War. The St Edward’s Roll of Honour now
stands (after much recent research by our
archivist Chris Nathan) at over 120, and
on, or near, the anniversary of every one
of the OSE who fell, we have, as a school,
remembered them in Chapel, or in
Assembly. The first 16 are recorded in the
Gaudy programme, in place of honour,
and I would remember them again now.
Robert Parker
Aubrey Hudson
Arthur Harding
Leo Tollemache
Edward Kay-Mouat
Stephen Ussher
Arthur Capell
Alexander Wallace
Frank Robertson
John McMurdo
Walter Richards
Walter Frampton
William Cawood
Reginald Blyth
Beverley Ussher
John Bussell
I would also pause to remember Richard
Bradley, eighth Warden, who died earlier
this year.
More happily, that same hand of History
is wafting around us today for I am
delighted to say that we are joined by
Malcolm Oxley – former History Master,
Director of Studies, Housemaster, Second
Master and Sub-Warden; also author of
A New History of St Edward’s School
.
Now, there is a well-known trivia
question which goes like this: Which
two famous philosophers played
international football? The answer being:
Camus and Socrates…
(Albert Camus played in goal for the
University of Algiers and competed in the
North African Cup; and Sócrates Brasileiro
Sampaio de Souza Vieira d’Oliveira was the
name of the captain of Brazil in the 1982
World Cup; so Camus never played proper
international football and Sócrates was not
a philosopher… but he did have a doctorate
in medicine.)
Albert Camus wrote to his teacher, Louis
Germain, after receiving the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1957:
Dear Monsieur Germain,
I let the commotion around me these days
subside a bit before speaking to you from
the bottom of my heart. I have just been
given far too great an honour… but when
I heard the news, my first thought, after
my mother, was of you. Without you,
without the affectionate hand you
extended to the small poor child that I was,
without your teaching, and your example,
none of all this would have happened.
I don’t make too much of this sort of
honour. But at least it gives me an
opportunity to tell you what you have been
and still are for me, and to assure you that
your efforts, your work, and the generous
heart you put into it still live in one of your
little schoolboys who, despite the years,
has never stopped being your grateful
pupil. I embrace you with all my heart.
Albert Camus