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St Edward’s:
150 Years
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Chapter 3 / Houses
footsteps. Over the years the boys in Cowell’s have shown
themselves to be versatile, resolutely refusing to be pigeonholed
into one particular aspect of School life. Those of us who have
been here a while will have our favourite memories, be they in
debating, chess, music or CCF. There are, however, two particular
areas where I believe the boys of Cowell’s have set themselves
apart from the crowd: House Plays and charity fund-raising.
Donkeys’ Years
(2007) by Michael Frayn was the first House Play
to be performed in the North Wall – a triumph directed by Will
George and Tim Williams that set the ball rolling.
Black Comedy
(2011) was rehearsed and produced in ten days by George
Sephton, Max Narula and Miles Fisher. For various reasons it
almost never happened but the results were spectacular, with
broken glass, broken gnomes and general mayhem. Mayhem
seems to be what we do best, perhaps because it gives the
greatest leeway for disaster! Whether it be through our 24-hour
events or parachute jumps in the Sixth Form, we have sought to
do crazy things in the name of charity. Our most recent Biathlon
to Cannes in February 2013 raised over £10,000 for SuchHope;
who could begrudge a lack of sleep when making such a
difference? The only question now is: Where next?
Nick Coram-Wright
Housemaster, Cowell’s (A)
THE HOUSES
Cowell’s (A)
Just as St Edward’s celebrates its 150th anniversary, so Cowell’s
has just passed a significant birthday of its own. How many
people, I wonder, have walked into the building over the years
without noticing the crest over the door, recording its opening in
1936? Back in 2011 our annual House Dinner became something
of a 75th birthday party. No celebration would be complete
without a cake and Baba came up trumps with her chocolate
pièce de résistance
. Look carefully and you might just about be
able to recognise the House Staff; our Deputy Housemaster at the
time was Mark Stephenson, here standing outside the front door
yet without his iconic ironing board. The animals are there too
alongside the assortment of objects that regularly find their way
out on to the grass, including games kit and footballs. Any Head
of House might blush slightly on spotting the empty wine bottle
on the roof of the bow window outside his room. Over the last
ten years there have been some notable sporting victories, all the
more notable because they didn’t seem to happen very often, but
more recently our footballers and rowers have taken on the best
and been victorious. We recall our senior football team who won
the competition in 2012 without scoring a goal; Sam Parkinson
(1st XI goalkeeper) was most certainly the hero of the hour.
Back in 2007 three of our Sixth Form were part of the 1st VIII
at Henley: Jan Birkenstock, Alex Wiggins and Austin Carpenter.
Titus Morley, John Pastre and George Adams followed in their
Above: RAF: Harry Evans, Syu Ichimura and Tom Pote,
leading NCOs, 2007.
Left: Cowell’s, photographed fromthe tower of the Chapel.
Bottom right:The cakemade for the House’s 75th birthday
in 2011.
Bottom middle: The 24-hour Biathlon to Cannes, 2013 –
Housemaster Nick Coram-Wright on the right.
Bottom left: 2012 Shell Film: Nirmal Radkevitch, Tanaka
Chitsenga,MaxStern,DannyOlashoreandWillArrowsmith.
The 2005 Parachute
Jump for Opportunity
International: Nick Coram-
Wright (Housemaster),
AlexWiggins,TimWilliams,
Ben Kerslake, Will George,
JamieMuirandPeterGibbs.
Above: Black Comedy, 2011: Maxine Mackintosh (Mac’s), Hamish Brewster,
MikeyGarside,MikhailYakovlev,CeliaHigson,PeterShannonandNickDeKlee.
Below: 2012 Shell Film, with Rohan Pandya andWilliam Pickford in the News
Studio.
Bottom: 2013 Staff Panto: Simon Larter-Evans (left) and Housemaster Nick
Coram-Wright.
Bottom left: House Singing Unison, 2013.