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St Edward’s:

150 Years

39

38

Chapter 2 / Wardens

out of the School’s hands, but we gained revenue and excellent

facilities, and this has proved a highly successful arrangement.

The Links golf course was finished in 2000 at little cost and

to the great improvement of that area of the grounds. In 1999

Kendall House was completed. It was a carefully designed and

very comfortable new boarding house for boys.

By 2002 there was another girls’ House, Avenue, under

construction; David Christie had arrived at a school with eight

Houses and when he left there were 11. He also gave the

School more teaching space, always badly needed, by moving

Segar’s out of their building in 2003 and into a new one

adjacent to it, thus creating space for the English Department,

which was opened by OSE Jon Snow. The new North Wall Arts

Centre, in the inception of which Warden Christie played a

major role, was taking shape by the time he left. It consisted of

a brilliant conversion of the range of mainly Victorian buildings

on the northern boundary of the School; at one time or another

these had housed, in addition to the indoor swimming pool,

the School Shop, the Gymnasium, the Armoury, the Archives,

the Careers Department, the laundry, the changing rooms

(‘Chaggers’), the Fives court, the Junior Common Room, and

the lavatory block, known as the Crystal Palace.

During David Christie’s time the School took over its own

catering from a commercial contract company in 1996, and the

improvement in the School’s food has continued ever since.

By the new millennium teachers had dealt with a revised

National Curriculum, League Tables, GCSE, AS Levels, re-

vamped A Levels, Coursework, Modules, and many other

changes imposed from outside. The structure of teaching

in the School was constantly adjusted to keep up with it

all. David Cundy, the quiet and highly effective Director of

Studies, was replaced when he retired by Sarah Kerr-Dineen

as Director of Studies and Ian Rowley as Senior Tutor. New

subjects such as Drama and Sports Science were introduced.

Through it all David Christie provided effective and

discerning leadership.

James Quick (former Housemaster of Apsley and later

of Field House) recalled of David Christie, ‘What I found

most endearing about him was that when it came to the

crunch he was always on the side of the individual boy

or girl.’

subsequently Oakthorpe House became a boarding house for

girls, while Macnamara’s was converted into a second girl’s

House, followed by Corfe House in 2000. At this time there

were still only a few fully co-educational boarding schools, and

none in the Thames Valley, the Home Counties or London. St

Edward’s had come a long way from its early days in the 1870s,

when one of its debating motions was, ‘This House deplores the

advanced condition of women at the present day, and earnestly

hopes they will never have a vote at parliamentary elections’,

carried by 12 votes to 11 – at least the vote was close.

1992 saw the first Astroturf pitch and 2001 a second – they

replaced a field that had been a swamp for most of the winter.

In 1999 the Douglas Bader Sports Centre was subsumed into a

new, impressive and much larger sports centre, with full public

membership as well as for the School’s use. Built over Simeon’s

original outdoor swimming pool, it included two pools – one

indoors and one outside – and a wonderful gym, plus the

School’s own sports hall. The day-to-day running was taken

Right:The NorthWall opened in 2004.The buildings had been used

formanypurposespreviouslybuttheindoorswimmingpoolstilllies

beneath the theatre. The other original buildings were replaced by

Dance and Drama studios.

David Christie with the Sub-Warden,

Tom James,

c.

2002. They are looking at

anold-fashionedcountryfayrewithstalls

organisedby the Fifth Formafter GCSEs.

Left: Common Room, 1994.

Back row (left to right): T. Holcure, E.R. Smith, G.R. Rigault,

P.McGillycuddy,C.P.Hansel,C.L.Ricks,M.Flynn,R.McA.Hughes,

P.A. Ely, L. Foster, L.A. Lyne, J.E. Bee,

Fourth row standing (left to right): J.W. Gidney, D.N. Bramble,

D.S.Wippell,P.J.Colvill,N.E.Grimshaw,A.F.Bowen,G.E.Fuzzard,

G.A. Nagle, C.J.J. Johnson, M.I. Sellen, J.N. Tucker.

Thirdrowstanding(lefttoright):J.M.Yeoman,R.A.L.Anderson,

M.J. Hiner, C.W. Lane, M.H. Stockford, M. Webb, J.H.W. Quick,

W.J.D. Sayer, M.J. Rosewell, A. Murray, J.A. Byden, T.A. James.

Second rowstanding (left to right): D.M. Cundy, N.R. Quartley,

C.F. Baggs, A.D.G. Wright, A.J. Kerr-Dineen, G.P. Boult,

D.S. Moore, J.P. Webb, J.J. McPartlin, G. Taylor, J.V. Palmer.

First row standing (left to right): P. Jolley, O.S. Bartholomew,

R.D.Hill,D.Drake-Brockman,J.Hughes,W.M.Boswell,V.Abigail,

P.Kitovitz, M.Reader, B.J.Pyper, E.T.Hunt, K.N.Jones.

Seated (left to right): L.P. Morton, P. Brees, J. David, R.D. Aldred,

M.S. Oxley,Warden Christie, M.D. Peregrine, J.A.S. Donald, L.K.

Davidson, I. Crowe, J.A.N. Snell, R.E. Fletcher.