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St Edward’s:
150 Years
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for such an occasion and the conversations covered many
reminiscences of life at Teddies. The speeches by Revd
Wippell and Warden Jones were entertaining, brisk, and
highly enjoyable.
Gaudy week was everything it was planned to be, and
additionally the weather – brilliant sunshine from the Thursday
of the week, and throughout the festivities – was spectacularly
good. The Thursday evening Anniversary Concert with its
Glastonbury-like stage in the Quad, was attended by the whole
School as well as visitors and the music was impressive thanks
to the tireless rehearsing of Alex Tester (Head of Music), Richard
Powell and Gabriele Damiani, who conducted the School
Symphony Orchestra, School Concert Band and School Chamber
Orchestra respectively. Fireworks followed and were suitably
spectacular in the sky above the Lodge. The Jazz Concert on
the following night had a more relaxed feel in readiness for
Gaudy itself. On Saturday the sun blazed and prize-giving by our
Guest of Honour, General Peter Pearson, OSE, was brisk and
the speeches amusing. Parents and OSE had come to the day
fully prepared with picnics and all that is required for a good
one. During the afternoon families and friends were spread out
all round field side, watching cricket, talking to each other, and
examining the remarkable and lovely vintage cars brought by
OSE. The cars formed an elegant and inviting curve and glinted
Chapter 8 / Celebrations
Above: Hamish Ogston, CBE had given a hugely generous donation to the
Schoolthatenabledthecreationofourstate-of-the-artLifeSciencesbuilding
and the buying of the LemonTree site. At Prize Giving he was thanked by the
Warden for his extraordinary gift and afterwards the Life Sciences Building
received its new title – ‘The Ogston Building’.
Above left: Gaudy Prize giving was held on field side due to the stage in the
Quad and the picnics to follow, and the sun was firmly out by the time the
eventbegan.ThespeechesbytheWarden,theGuestofHonour,GeneralPeter
Pearson, OSE, Governor of the Military Knights of Windsor, the Chairman of
Governors, Mike Stanfield and the Heads of School, were witty, amusing and
none too long and we were all soon back in the sunshine, ready for House
get-togethers followed by picnics. Heads of School, Lily Hinton and Angus
Spratling,gaveexcellentspeechesandthecomplicatedbusinessofannouncing
and receiving prizes went smoothly, as ever. It was notable that a number of
prize-winnersweremissing as theywere at
Henley.Weof course got through
to the Henley final, a tremendous achievement in our 150th year.
Left: E. JohnK.H. Hudfield (A, 1962–6) entertaining the crowd
with his band Sunfly.
Right: A great draw on field side was a display of OSE
vintage cars which were discussed and examined by those
picnicking with much enjoyment. While 14 vehicles were
promised the final tally was thought to be 22. The vehicles
included ‘The Golden Ford’, a 1911 Model T Ford (raced
by Henry Ford himself), a 1954 Rolls Royce Silver Dawn, a
1933 Talbot 75, a 1960 Lotus 7, a 1931 ‘M’ type MG, a 1974
JensenInterceptor,aBugatti,anInvicta,a1960XK150Jaguar
Roadster and a 1933 Austin 10, which goes by the name of
‘Auntie Mary’. We are grateful to those who put such an
effort into joining us with their fabulous vehicles. Known
owners in attendance were OSEs Anthony Gibbons who
drove directly from Monaco for the day, Peter Pitt-Brown,
Brian Bell, Gideon Hudson, Malcolm Price, Don White,
ChristopherEdwards,GeoffreyBradshawwhohadreturned
from a rally in Italy the previous day, Neil Tuckett who
restoredTheGoldenFordwiththeChannel4Salvagesquad
in 2004, Shaun Pitt, Myles Castaldini and former parent
Hamish Ogston.
There were so many there who had not seen one another for 50 years; many
of whom had attended the 100th Anniversary in 1963. They often recognised
oneanotheralmostimmediatelyexclaimingthattheyhadn’tchangedabit!We
anticipatetherewerearound300OSEpresentmanyresplendentinfull‘rhubarb’.
SomehadtravelledfromoverseastojoinusincludingRogerLeachfromCanada
and Chris Phillips (C, 1950–4) from Australia who met up with a number of his
contemporaries including good friend Malcolm Johnstone (C, 1950–3).
David Yeo (E, 1949–54) from South Africa told us that he had thoroughly
enjoyedthecelebrationsandvisitingtheSchoolbutthehighlightofhisvisitwas
‘goingintotheChapelandhearingtherecordingof1951choirinwhichIsang.
Not only that, I am sure I was the treble soloist!’(A 78rpm recording donated
by OSE had been copied onto a CD for the occasion).
Steven Handscombe (G, 1957–63) had reunited with a group of fellow
Harriers for a reunion lunch on Friday followed by the celebrations on
Saturday6th.Threeofthegrouphad intendedtorunthePortMeadowcourse
but all injured themselves in training and they had to withdraw!
One of the OSE bands playing on the outdoor stage in the Quad, Sunfly, was
headed up by E. John K.H. Hadfield (A, 1962–6). John had made contact with
two of his contemporaries who were in a band with him during their time at
Schoolandover40yearsaftertheyplayedtogetherJonathanSilver(A,1962–7)
and Paul Bentall (A, 1962–6) joined him on stage for a set. Their enjoyment at
playing together again was clear.
OtherOSEmusiciansentertainingthecrowdsincludedEdwardBell(C,2001–6),
Robin Bennett (G, 1991–6) and Joe Bennett (G, 1994–9) with their band The
Dreaming Spires and J. Ben Walker (F, 1993–8) with his band Candy Says.
Prior to the Leavers’ Ball Peter Meecham (E, 1952–6) ended the day’s
celebrations by flying his balloon
The Wizard
, from the Lower Fields.
Opposite and above: Picnickers on Field Side.
Right: Set meeting times for OSE across the generations were held
through the day at Rhubarb HQ. Here is a large group from the 1950s.