36-37 / 168
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.