THE GORDONSTOUN ASSOCIATION
Patron: HRH The Duke of Edinburgh KG, KT
WINTER 2014/15
WE WILL REMEMBER.....
THE GORDONSTOUN ASSOCIATION
ELGIN, MORAY,
SCOTLAND IV30 5RF
[email protected]
www.gordonstoun.org.uk/former-students/
+44 (0) 1343 837 922
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CHAIRMAN’S WELCOME CONTENTS
Welcome to this edition of the
GA magazine, a magazine that
continually amazes me with its
content.
2
Chairman’s Welcome
3
The GA Committee
4
View from the GA Office
5
Principal’s Welcome
6
Gordonstoun War Memorial
8
Early Scholarship
9
In the beginning
10
Fondly Remembered
11
The Loyalties by which we live
12
School Snapshots & Escapes
14
Volunteer in Brazil at Julia Centre
15
Lost and Found
16
From West End to West End
This last year the school has celebrated its 80th
birthday. It is still really only a young one in terms of other
independent schools. I am not sure whether it has even reached
its teenage years, but perhaps it has? - I leave that for others
to judge! During the year the focus has been very much on the
round Britain trip by Ocean Spirit which was a huge success,
judging by both the numbers who attended and my own
experience when I was aboard in Glasgow.
18
From Guatemala to India
(via Round Square)
20
Why I sent my daughters to Gordonstoun
21
The Route Less Traversed
22
Boucing Back
23
Breaking News
24
Uniting Nations
The GA committee has continued to arrange events,
with the newest venue being in Austria back in June which
was a great success. The ball at the Caledonian Club back
in September was a wonderful occasion with some really
energetic Scottish Country Dancing. Of course the carol
services remain popular with the Edinburgh one continuing to
grow and the London one now firmly established.
25
Creating a Healthy World
26
We Will Rock You
27
A question of Design
28
RSIS Kenya Project
30
GA Events
On the committee front we lost Alistair McNutt at the
AGM but he was replaced by Simon Midgley who was co-opted
on at a committee meeting. In the office Niki Pargeter briefly
returned following maternity leave but then departed for new
pastures following her husband’s posting south and we wish her
all the best. We were delighted that Emma Thorpe stepped into
the role and she is doing very well indeed.
34Announcements
I thought I would remind myself of
some of the content of last year’s
magazine and I saw that as ever
there was a wonderful diversity of
contributions. All were excellent in
displaying a real passion for their
subject matter and demonstrating
Peter Ramsay
clearly the diversity of all OGs
GA Chairman
around the world. It is this
contribution which I always find so
refreshing - no pigeon holing of what a former pupil should be!
This could be my last welcome to the magazine as
I might step down as Chairman at the AGM in May 2015.
Constitutionally I could serve another year but I feel it is a good
thing, where possible, for office bearers to step down a year
early whilst remaining on the Committee, so they can then be
available to give advice if needed.
I have certainly enjoyed my time as your Chairman
and would like to take this opportunity of thanking all those
who have been on the committee, the school, and the office
at the school for all their support but most importantly all
Gordonstoun Association members for supporting the events
and the school.
2
32OGGS
CONTACT INFORMATION
The GA Office
Gordonstoun School
Elgin
Moray IV30 5RF
Tel: +44 (0) 1343 837922
Email: [email protected]
www.gordonstoun.org.uk/former-students/ga
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Please let us have your email address
so we can email you news and events,
rather than printing and sending them
on paper!
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THE GA COMMITTEE
Peter Ramsay
(Windmill 1973)
GA Chairman
Georgie Middleton née Housman
(Hopeman 1978)
GA Committee Secretary
Amanda Campbell Lambert née Brown
(Plewlands 1991) GA Treasurer
Andrew Clark
(Windmill 1973)
Ben Goss
(Former Staff)
Keeper of the Gordonstoun Family
Marina Edge née Ford
(Plewlands 1991)
Heather Glover née Main
Simon Midgley
Nicky Montgomery née Hill
John Mulligan
(Hopeman 1991)
(Bruce 1979)
(Hopeman 1980)
(Altyre 1981)
THE GA OFFICE
Steve Brown
GA Co-ordinator
Andrew Lyall
GA Assistant Co-ordinator
Emma Thorpe
GA Administrator
Whilst every care is taken in the preparation of this publication The Gordonstoun Association cannot accept responsibility for
actions or decisions taken by readers based on information supplied, that is subsequently changed or cancelled. Any opinions
expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Gordonstoun Association or The Gordonstoun Schools.
3
THE VIEW FROM GA HQ
By Steve Brown, GA Co-ordinator
WHAT IS THE GA?
The aim of the Gordonstoun Association
(GA) is to promote and strengthen links between
former pupils of the School and between
those former pupils and the School itself and
certainly, from my perspective, these bonds are
very strong indeed. The GA committee, which
represents the alumni body, works tirelessly to
ensure this is the case. It is made up of eight OGs
plus the Chairperson and fully reflects the coeducational nature of the school. The final member of the committee is
the ‘Keeper of the Gordonstoun family’ who acts in the role of ‘Minister
without portfolio’. In my role as Gordonstoun Association Coordinator I,
together with the Assistant GA Coordinator and the GA Administrator,
attend committee meetings and act as the school-based link between the
GA and Gordonstoun. The Committee meets approximately five times
each year. It now has an established pattern of meeting prior to the
London Dinner (March), GA Day (May), The Edinburgh Dinner (August)
and the London Carols (December). A further ‘floating’ meeting is held,
usually in October, to allow flexibility for events in various parts of the
country. The idea is that an individual or small group of OGs will suggest
a location/venue or we will look for a specific ‘theme.’
STAYING IN TOUCH
It is always a particular delight to welcome OGs back to school
and we have been very busy with visits from across the years. The Duke
of Edinburgh was the most ‘senior’ visitor but we have also had visitors
from the Classes of both 1948 and 1949 as well as from many OGs who
left more recently. All have certainly appeared to thoroughly enjoy their
visit and I find the strength of affection for the school to be both heartwarming and reinvigorating.
The GA magazine, published annually, is clearly a key method
of communication and it is distributed to around 6,500 members of the
GA over the New Year period. This year once again we have a very
diverse and stimulating variety of pieces and we do hope that you find
them interesting and feedback and suggestions are most welcome. I
would like to thank all those who have contributed this year and urge
members of the GA to consider writing a piece for next year?
We enclose a personal information update form with the
magazine and we are always pleased to receive updated personal
information. In fact we have had close to 1000 members update their
information in the last year and we are keen to hear from members of
the GA with their news and (most of the time, their) views! (which can
range from the future of Independent Education to Scotland’s chances
of avoiding the wooden spoon in the forthcoming Six Nations Rugby
Championship. Of course ‘cautiously optimistic’ is the answer to both of
these questions). We also send out a termly email newsletter to the 3500
members for whom we have a current email. If we do not have one for
you, please do let us have one?
The Gordonstoun Association Facebook page is an increasingly
important medium for disseminating news and information and we
currently have over 1500 members. The GA LinkedIn page is relatively
new but growing steadily and Simon Midgely, the most recent addition
to the GA Committee, is keen to build an online forum (GA Connect) for
4
OGs with a particular view towards career development/opportunities
although at the moment this is still in the development stages.
An ongoing focus in the office is to update the information on
our database and to bring ‘Lost OGs’ back into the fold. By ‘Lost’ we
mean OGs for whom our address/email contact details are out of date,
even though they may well be very much still connected to the school.
This usually occurs when they do not get around to informing us they
have moved or changed email address. The current percentage of Lost
OGs is 27% but this is coming down all of the time. Most are delighted
to be ‘found’ and brought back into the fold so if you know anyone who
falls into this category please encourage then to get back in touch! Of
course with all of that expedition training no OG would ever be truly lost
(would they?).
The GA events are a wonderful way of keeping in touch with
other members of the GA and with the school in general and these events,
held across the UK and beyond, are increasingly well attended and
always great fun. In fact we estimate that around 2000 people attended
the various events in 2014. We have a variety of events already in place
for 2015 with a particular emphasis on reunions for the Classes of 1985,
1995 and 2005. It would be lovely to see you at an event this year!
NEWS FROM
ADMISSIONS
By Chris Barton, Director of
Admissions
This has been another busy and successful
Admissions Year and I am pleased to report
that the school was totally full and operating
a ‘waiting list’ from mid-May. The breadth and
unique nature of the Gordonstoun Curriculum, and the fact that we
have been able to retain our full boarding ethos, remain the key factors
of this success. The gender, nationality and residence statistics for both
the Senior and Junior Schools have remained remarkably consistent
with the only change being a 1% drop in the Expatriate numbers which
was matched by a 1% rise in International students.
We have been delighted to welcome many former students
and their children to Gordonstoun for admissions related visits and
the number of OGs who are current parents continues to grow at
an encouraging rate. Please do come and have a close look at
Gordonstoun if you are considering the independent option for your
families. I can promise you that you will not be disappointed! If you are
attending the next OG Weekend in May then I would also encourage
you to consider the Junior School Taster Weekend which will be
running at the same time. The details of this can be obtained from the
Admissions Office on 01343837829 or [email protected].
uk
As ever, we have also been hugely grateful to a large number
of OGs both at home and overseas who have attended promotional
functions, recommended the school to their friends and colleagues, and
connected us to a significant number of potential students. Your support
has been invaluable and we very much appreciate all of your hard
work on our behalf!
I very much hope that we may see you back at Gordonstoun in 2015!
PRINCIPAL’S WELCOME
By Simon Reid, Principal of Gordonstoun Schools
August 2014 saw another
impressive set of GCSE and A Level
of our 16-18 year old students would be making and our
results for Gordonstoun students.
responsibility to make sure they engaged in the debate and
The 2014 leavers have gone on to a
the vote. Six days prior to the Referendum we welcomed back
diverse range of British Universities
OG and outgoing Political Editor of the Sunday Times, Isabel
including Oxford, St Andrews, Durham,
Oakeshott, who chaired a debate between Richard Lochhead
University College London, Warwick,
MSP (for the ‘Yes’ campaign) and Mary Scanlon MSP (for the
Exeter and The Royal Veterinary
‘No’ campaign). It was gratifying to hear the level of heated
College London but also further
debate around the campus.
afield with nine students going on
to University in America and six to
Universities in Europe. I wish them all well post school. I wish
our new OGs all the very best as they move on to new careers
beyond Gordonstoun.
were conscious of the very important decision that 200
The start of the 2014-15 academic year could not
I hope you will agree that 2014 has been a great
year for fostering deeper links between the School and OGs
and this, of course, must always be a priority. Besides formal
events, OGs are always welcome to contact me and visit the
school at any time. In the meantime, may I wish everyone a
Happy Christmas and an excellent New Year.
have got off to a more exciting start with two major events
in September – an 80th anniversary celebration and the
Scottish Referendum. On 15th the Duke of Edinburgh returned
to the School to join in the 80th anniversary celebrations.
His Royal Highness spent the day visiting many parts of the
CAMPAIGN
UPDATE
campus including an impromptu visit to Windmill, followed
by lunch with the students in the refectory. After lunch he
was interviewed and recorded by a group of A level media
studies students who asked him questions about his time at the
celebration in the middle of Round Square.
By Richard Devey
Campaign Director
The last twelve months have seen a lot
School and the footage of this interview will be kept in the
School archives. The visit culminated in a moving service of
As many of you know, over the summer 80 students
of action for the Campaign team, with
participated in an 80 day circumnavigation of Great Britain
on board Ocean Spirit of Moray to celebrate 80 years of the
School. I cannot think of a better way in which to manage
a Gordonstoun celebration than holding much of it on board
the school’s sail training vessel. The 80 day voyage started
in the Kyle of Lochalsh and took in the ports of Leith, Ipswich,
London, Brighton, Portsmouth, Salcombe, Bristol, Liverpool,
Glasgow and finally Plockton. There were many highlights
to the journey but possibly the most memorable was the Kurt
Hahn Foundation reception with the School’s Patron, HRH The
Princess Royal and sailing under Tower Bridge to the sound
of the bagpipes. It was wonderful to welcome hundreds of
OGs at events in all the ports and I know that the students
who participated in the voyage thoroughly enjoyed meeting
the OGs they came into contact with and sharing stories of
the past and present. Many OGs will be pleased to hear
that sailing still plays an important role in the Gordonstoun
curriculum and students continue to experience conditions and
manage personal responses which shape them fundamentally.
The resilience and integrity which it produces will be with them
in some measure for the rest of their lives.
the new Drama and Dance extension
now open, and plans for the re-development of Ogstoun (old
Bruce to many of you) well advanced. It is hoped that work
on this significant redevelopment will be able to start soon in
the New Year, and with a projected build of nine months, the
next stage of the boarding re-structuring can then begin. The
first piece of this complicated jigsaw will be the decanting of
Cumming House in to the Ogstoun new build for 12 months
whilst major works are undertaken on Cumming to extend and
refurbish it. I hope that by the time you receive the next GA
magazine this move will have taken place and the planned
works on Cumming will be underway. However, there is a lot
of work for us to do in the interim as a significant proportion
of the £9 million needed to complete all stages (including the
re-development of Round Square as a Curriculum centre for
the School and the new build of Duffus House inside the West
gate) must come from fundraising. I am grateful to all who
have already shown interest in supporting this effort, and in
the coming year I hope to speak to many more of you about
how you might help.
You will, no doubt, have followed developments
in the run up to the Scottish Referendum very closely. We
5
GORDONSTOUN WAR MEMORIAL
by David Monteith (Former Staff, 2007)
In autumn 2013 I started to research the
individuals named on the Gordonstoun war memorial
situated halfway up the Colour Bearer staircase
in Gordonstoun House. The motivation behind my
research is to make the human stories behind the
names more available to the school and the wider
Gordonstoun family, to create a link between the
memorial, the accounts of bravery and sacrifice, and
the people behind the names. It is sobering to think
that out of the twenty three names listed on the WWII
memorial, twenty one were under the age of 25 and
six were 20 years old or younger.
The research has reached a stage where the
material held in the archives on each commemorated
OG can be presented on a single sheet of A4 that
might form the basis for an online, interactive digital
resource, an example, a page for William Balden, is
adjacent to this article.
Compared to some school memorials it is
diminutive, reflecting the fact that the school had
only existed for five years at the start of WWII in
1939. Nevertheless the limited amount of information
recorded there spans the globe from Europe to
Australia, and those who died in post war conflicts
are also commemorated on additional tablets.
Significantly the main memorial includes a German
OG who died fighting for his country at Smolensk.
Many readers of the Association magazine
may have reflected on the names either when they
were at school or while visiting for assocation
reunions. The locations noted in the final column of
the memorial reflect all the major theatres of WWII
operations and the dates span every year of the war.
In the school archives is a dusty box, which contains
papers relating to the establishment of the memorial
and to varying degrees to the individuals themselves.
Those papers begin to expand on the simple name
date and location, however I would like to add
regiments, squadrons, ranks, ships, formations, school
and family links. The aim is that each individual listed
on the memorial would have an entry in a database
with details of their lives, their family and their time at
school, linked to the events leading up to their death.
The target date for completion of the project
is the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII in 2015
and particularly the 2015 school Remembrance
Service. I need your help: if any OGs have
information relating to the individuals commemorated
on the memorial please contact, David Monteith at
[email protected] or call me on
(+44) 07768 645650.
6
William Digges la Touche BALDEN
Merchant Navy apprentice; Midshipman
Died 20 August 1945 aged 18
Technically William died
after the end of the war in the Pacific.
The Allies celebrated victory over
Japan on 15 August 1945, although
the Japanese administration under
General Koiso Kuniaki did not
officially surrender with a signed
document until 2 September. Both
dates are known as VJ Day.
William was awarded two
WWII medals
He died in Geelong, a port
SW of Melbourne in Australia. along
with four other crew members as a
result of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The gas had accumulated in the
hold of his ship, the S.S. Samarkand
(London).
A customs official wrote of his death:
“William Balden died a real hero,
truly another Jack Cornwall VC. He
followed his two superior officers
down the tanks, when he saw they
Star
War Medal
1939 - 45
were overcome, and suffering
1939 - 45
intensely himself, he was still able
to get on deck for assistance. Notwithstanding his
suffering and extra exertion he was first down again, to be finally
overcome. Surely no more conscientious boy ever lived”.
William spent a year at Gordonstoun before joining the training ship HMS Conway on the Menai Straits in North Wales.
He passed out top boy at Conway, gaining the first five prizes including the Mercantile Marine SA gold watch awarded to the most
proficient cadet. In 1944 he joined the Blue Funnel Line and sailed in convoys to South Africa, America, Canada and the Far East.
William is buried in Fawkner cemetery in the NW suburbs of Melbourne, in row K grave 595. He is commemorated by a
stained glass window in the St Peter the Mariner Chapel at the mission to seafarers in Melbourne, which was commissioned in 1945
by his parents, William and Mary Balden of Dewsbury, Yorkshire.
IN THE NEWS
Congratulations to Heather Stanning (Plewlands 2003), who along with her partner Helen Glover, took Gold in the coxless
pairs at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam at the end of August. On a day when world record times tumbled, Heather
took gold in the coxless pairs final, adding a world title to the Olympic gold the two women won in London two years ago. In the
process they took more than three seconds off a world’s best time that had stood for 12 years. Following Heather’s Olympic triumph,
she returned to active duty as an army captain in Afghanistan, and only returned to full training at the start of this season.
Many of you will have seen at least some of the recent action from Gleneagles as Europe outplayed the USA to retain the
Ryder Cup in considerable style. Whilst the golfers clearly played their part a great deal of credit for making this such a success must
go to Robbie Clyde (Round Square 1991), the Ryder Cup Project Director for ‘Events Scotland”.
Further congratulations should go to Preston Mommsen (Duffus 2007) who, in October, captained the Scotland Cricket
team on their tour to Australia and New Zealand as they prepare for next year’s cricket World Cup. To top off a remarkable year, in
November he was awarded the International Cricket Council Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year award.
7
EARLY SCHOLARSHIP
by James Main (Cumming, 1943)
I was born on the 11th January 1926 (The Clavi Day) at the
Anchorage, 3 King Street in the village of Burghead , Morayshire. I was
the youngest of a family of 7, 5 boys and 2 girls. My father was a part
owner of a trawler, Driftnet Vessel “Riant” (INS30) whilst my mother
came from a fishing family originating from Ardersier.
The “Riant” was trawling from Fleetwood from early January
each year until late August, when she returned to Buckie, landed the
trawling gear, did maintenance on the vessel and loaded drift nets and
proceeded to Great Yarmouth where they worked till late November
when they returned to Burghead landed their nets, did maintenance work
and prepared the trawling gear for return to Fleetwood in early January.
My father was away from home for some 8 months each
year. When the vessel returned to Burghead in November the nets were
landed to store behind our house, and repaired as necessary by women
who formed a net repair group and made the nets ready for the Great
Yarmouth season. We all as a family took turns in filling needles with
twine after the menders left in preparation for the next day’s work and
also we had to clear the fire for lighting the next day, this was a family
concern.
From the age of 5 I attended the primary school just across
the road from our home, the classes varied but an average of 15 in each
class. Many of the teachers were local.
In 1937 we sat the qualifying exam and in August we went to
Hopeman, Duffus Higher Grade School (Secondary). Most of the class
from Burghead joined with others from Cummingston and Hopeman.
On the first day of the second term the headmaster announced
that Gordonstoun were offering scholarships by a Liverpool Shipping
Company (Blue Funnel Line) for Officers of the Deep Sea. As I was
the youngest of my family my father didn’t want me to go fishing but
encouraged me to apply for a scholarship.
About 6 boys were interested and Gordonstoun sent a
shooting break (wooden sided) to take us to Wester Elchies (The Prep
School) for interviews. At this time I was 12 ½ years old.
We were interviewed separately in a room with a large oval
table with Mr Hahn at one end and Mr Findlay at one side and a retired
school master (local) at the other side, there were 4 others whom I have
no recollection who they were. They all asked me questions. That was
the end of my interview. The other 5 were similarly interviewed.
At the end of the interviews it was announced that Jack
Sutherland from Hopeman (about 3 years older than me) had been
given a place.
I was accepted for the other scholarship. However Donald
Main (Hopeman) whose father looked after boats in Hopeman was
awarded a further scholarship by Friends of Gordonstoun.
Towards the end of August, I returned home from school at
Hopeman, to be told by my father that I together with the other 2 boys,
had to be at Gordonstoun for 8am breakfast on Monday. So I returned
to Hopeman School to hand in any school books I had.
8.50am for 10 minutes. This timetable was unusual for us as it included a
break period for athletics. 9 00 – 10 00 11 00 -12 00 12 00 – 1300.
Athletics was during the middle period and we had to change and were
given lockers in a changing room in Round Square.
Lunch was at 13.10 in the North Room and then we had to lie
down for 30 minutes in a classroom. Afternoon activities, rugby, hockey,
practical work and sailing at Hopeman. This lasted until 16 00 when we
had a hot shower and changed before having a cup of tea and toast.
Evening study was 2 periods from 17 10 to 19 10 and we had to stay for
dinner so it was 20 30 before we returned home – a long day!
Later, in the summer term, we had cricket on the front lawn
and a free evening. However to make up for the loss of study time we
had lessons on Saturday mornings.
We were introduced to the individual training plans that were
recorded by ourselves. A) cold shower B) 12 press ups C) 20 skips D)
cleaning teeth twice daily E) no eating between meals. You kept this on a
system of trust.
The cold shower in the morning raised a problem at home, so my
father bought a bailer and at 0630 I went into a big bath and poured water
over myself.
At this stage all 3 of us wore the same clothes as we had used
at Hopeman School but we were supplied with morning uniform, of grey
shirts, blue sweaters, blue shorts (with back pocket)and grey socks. After
about six months we earned evening wear, different grey shirts, grey
sweaters, grey shorts and light grey socks.
In 1939 we had a meningitis scare and we became boarders.
Not being able to go home, the only communications were by post. I
was allocated to the newly built Cumming House. This was very good for
me as I really felt a real part of the school. I even enjoyed the cold run
(about ¼ mile) and then squaring your dormitory and helping lay the
tables for breakfast. As it was wartime, we had no maids so we took it in
turns to wash the dishes.
In December 1939 my father died aged 56 and Mr Hahn and
several teachers came to the funeral. I returned to the school in January
1940. My mother wanted to take me away from the school but Mr Hahn
wouldn’t have it.
The schools being between Lossiemouth and Kinloss presented
a security problem so it was decided to move the whole school to Plas
Dinam, Llandinam, Montgomery,Wales to a house belonging to Lord
Davies who had a son (Edward) in my class.
In the summer of 1940 the move took place. I was in the junior
section and we cycled up to Carron House (by Aberlour) where we
stayed about 2 weeks. The senior section cycled to Perthshire where
they stayed 2 weeks, after which we joined them in Perthshire and both
sections proceeded by train to Llandinam.
At the start of the school year in September the junior section
went to Aberdovey and occupied 2 adjacent guest houses Penryn and
West Haven in the centre of the village, beside the wharf.
On the Monday morning I left Burghead about 7.10am by bicycle
and met up with Jack Sutherland and Donald Main and we proceeded to
the school.
Meanwhile the 2 sailing Cutters came down by train to
Aberdovey and we were able to resume sailing under the local ferryman
Mr Williams.
We were met by a senior pupil and he accompanied us to
breakfast held in the North Room there were about 60/70 students there.
After breakfast we were met by a teacher who told us to which classes we
were allocated.
Lord Davies owned many properties on the Llandinam area
and allowed the school to use them. One of them about 2 miles from
Llandinam, called “Berthdu” became the junior school, under Mr Keir
Campbell, where I was head boy. Lessons were held both at Berthdu
and at Plas Dinam. My studying was done at Plas Dinam, it being the
senior school. Accommodation was very scarce and we built a hut at the
bottom of the back garden as a dormitory. A building was constructed
along the side lawn to be used as a classroom.
I don’t remember the number of the class I was in, but the other
students were of similar ages to me at 12 ½ . The class teacher was
Freddie Spencer Chapman (later the author of the book “The Jungle is
Neutral”). He gave us the timetable and explained it. Assembly was at
IN THE BEGINNING
by Diarmid Campbell (Altyre, 1952)
In 1941 discussions were held with the training ship
HMS Conway, Blue Funnel Line and The Board of Trade and it
was agreed as part of our war effort, to take boys for 2 years
in conjunction with the training ship, prior to them becoming full
cadets. The Navigation Department was headed by Captain JAC
MacGregor (a Blue Funnel Master, who lost a leg during the
sinking of one of the vessels in the Atlantic Ocean). I recall that
the first intake was about 40. This arrangement worked very well
and the new classroom was used.
The seamanship sailing at Aberdovey resumed with
pupils going down by train on every other Saturday, being about
40 miles from the school.
By now the school had settled down in Llandinam and
we helped various farmers with their crops.
During the summer of 1941 it was agreed to sail the
schooner Prince Louis from Hopeman to Aberdovey. As it was
wartime permission had to be granted and operated by Blue
Funnel Line.They supplied the captain and the officers, the
crew were 6 Gordonstoun Boys (including, the 3 scholarship
boys). We left Hopeman and made the passage through the
Caledonian Canal and on towards Bangor (N Wales) but we
had engine trouble and spent a week in Oban for repairs,
when completed we sailed to Bangor (Menai Straits) where
we anchored near the Conway for a few days. During this time
a conference was held at Liverpool between Mr Hahn, Mr
Lawrence Holt (Blue Funnel) and the captain of the Conway
and possibly others which resulted in the start of Aberdovey
Sea School. Mr Holt was concerned of the lack of stamina for
the younger people on his ships at sea, when the ships were
torpedoed and the crew had to take to lifeboats.
We then proceeded through the Menia Strait and
berthed at the wharf in Aberdovey. The trip took 4 weeks.
The majority of residents were at the wharf to see this sailing
ship. We left to return to our homes for the rest of the summer
holidays.
During the summer Blue Funnel sent staff to overhaul
the Prince Louis for the start of the Aberdovey Sea School in
October.
The first course (28 days) started on a Saturday in
early October.The staff numbered 18 and the boys 24; 8 from
Conway, 8 Merchant Navy, 8 Gordonstoun (including myself).
This course ran quite successfully.
The Aberdovey Sea School was renamed Outward
Bound, which has now become an International movement.
After the course ended I returned to Plas Dinam
and January 1943 I became Guardian. I attended two further
courses at Aberdovey and left the school at the end of the
summer term.
However, I returned to Plas Dinam to assist at the
beginning of the Autumn Term, prior to joining Alfred Holt & co
(Blue Line Funnel) at Liverpool as a Midshipman in October and
sailed that month for Australia where I spent my 18th birthday in
Sydney.
I was at Gordonstoun for 5 years and appreciate all
the guidance and support given, ready to start my working life
with confidence.
Since I turned 80 in October ‘13 and the school turned 80 in ‘14, I
thought I would record some memories of the people and the school. Due to
my arriving aged almost one at the start of the school, Kurt Hahn used to call
me ‘The Oldest Old Boy’. However there were of course those older than me
who came to the start of the school aged 13 or over when I was only one.
The memories recorded here about the growth of the school are personal
and their accuracy is dependent on the glow or fade of memory. Because
my parents worked with the school between 1934 and about 1950, I will start
with them:
They were both Scots - father a Highlander from Argyll and
mother a Lowlander from the Tweed. Father, Keir Campbell (1892-1955),
was educated at Eton and Trinity Cambridge, mother, Olivia Noel-Paton
(1905-1999) at Downe House and Glasgow University. They were strandedunemployed - in the US in the Great Depression of 1931. Due to father’s
work schedule of 2 years in the field as a geologist for Shell Oil and then 6
months of leave, that 6 months was their window in which to get married.
Mother’s father, a professor at Glasgow University, died just at that point.
In those days, a wedding in Scotland so soon after a funeral was thought
in-appropriate. So since mother’s brother was working in Seattle and father
was in California training to be a Field Manager with Shell after years in the
Mid-East and Mexico, they married in Seattle. Mother had just completed
her PhD at London University. Their wedding trip was camping with horses
and fishing rods in the Sierra Nevada. A month later, people started jumping
out of windows on Wall Street, the Depression was on, and my father was
laid off.
My parents were rescued from penury by Uncle Donald NoelPaton in Seattle. He found that the paper companies needed lime rock for
their process and were looking for someone to start a quarry. By spring of
the following year, 1934, the parents had enough funds made through the
quarry to return to Britain where the Depression had mellowed earlier than
in the US. They sailed on a cargo vessel via the Panama Canal and stayed in
London with mother’s Godmother Mrs. Montague Norman. Montague had
been chairman of the Bank of England.
Both father and mother were looking for work in Scotland. Mother
saw an advertisement in The Times for a ‘Housekeeper’ for a new boy’s
boarding school being started in the north of Scotland. She called up and
was asked to an interview at Brown’s Hotel. Used mostly by people of a
landowning background then, Hahn enjoyed the atmosphere and would
often stay there. He had only recently escaped the clutches of Hitler through
British friends.
There, for the first time, my mother met Kurt Hahn. When he
agreed to employ her, she asked whether she had any chance of using her
PhD eventually and teaching history. He said that he would be doing that.
However before long he realized that he had to raise funds and deal with
parents and school morale and discipline and so she taught for many years.
She then said that she should tell him that she had a husband and an infant.
‘Where are they?’ ‘Out in the car’ ‘Bring them in’. So my father Keir came
in and Hahn was evidently reminded of friends with whom he had been a
student at Oxford before the First World War. Hahn immediately took to Keir
and told him that although he could not offer him any salary at that point, if
he would run the estate, they would have a house and food and a salary for
Olivia. Eventually he would be employed, first to teach geography and later
also as house master of Cumming House when it was first built.
(this is an extract from a much longer piece by Diarmid Campbell which can
be found on the GA section of the Gordonstoun Website)
FONDLY REMEMBERED
Michael Stary (Gordonstoun, 1948)
Michael Stary joined
Gordonstoun in Wales aged
13. He had enormously fond
memories of his time at the
school, though it is clear that
he was less than a model
school pupil. By way of
background, his parents had
divorced when he was a few
months old (a rarity in those
days) and separated from his
father living in Middle Europe,
never met him again or knew
anything about him. (His
father was believed lost in the
War as he was never heard of
after 1939). This, coupled with
his mother’s remarriage to an
Austrian and the consequential
dumping of the child on his
grandmother, coloured his
childhood and adolescence.
He arrived at Gordonstoun
via devious means. His stepfather, a Viennese who accompanied
Michael’s mother to London in the mid to late 30s, became an “alien
enemy” and was imprisoned under the Defence of the Realm Act once
Germany had invaded the Low Countries. His mother thus decided to
move to Wales, where she rented half a farmhouse for the duration of
the war, and extracted her son from his grandmother. (Wales being
deemed by the authorities too far from the south coast for any danger
to arise from any subversive activities of stepfather, he was released.)
Young Michael was sent to the local Welsh school, where he
had to learn Welsh. The local people were convinced the family had
dropped in by parachute and were German spies! His stepfather met
Kurt – two refugees from Hitler – and Kurt Hahn, being enchanted
by his enthusiasm for tying fishing flies, recruited him as a teacher of
same for those enthusiastic flyfishers in the 6th form, in due course
winning a pupil. Michael loved the School in Wales, and incidentally
really enjoyed the Reunion there some twenty or thirty years ago.
The pupils’ return to Scotland was marked by a sudden enthusiasm
for the acquisition of munition, both left on the school site after the
army vacated and from the airport at Lossiemouth. Once Kurt Hahn
discovered this, he held a general meeting asking the boys disclose
their ill-gotten gains. Everyone was staggered at the quantity of
purloined goods.... Michael, with a friend who shall be nameless,
was also responsible for a scurrilous Anti-Gordonstoun Newsletter,
which would appear from time to time on the general noticeboard, to
the distress of his headmaster. In those days, people moved between
houses, and he spent time at Hopeman, when it was a house in the
village overlooking the sea, Gordonstoun and Duffus. The boys all
had bicycles in those days and cycled in from wherever they were
billeted and also all over the campus and on Sundays often to
Pluscarden Priory to attend chapel there rather than at School. He
was an enthusiastic member of the fire-service and attended many
fires. It gave him a sense of worth so important for a young person.
He determined to go to Cambridge, despite his lack of serious effort in
his various studies and the belief of his teachers that he was unlikely to
make it. Proving them wrong, he spent an idyllic 3 years at Downing
studying first Natural Sciences and later Law (only 2-3 hours pw
required as opposed to each day fulltime in the lab). However, before
going to University, he had to do his National Service. His choice
was the Navy, where he spent a very happy 2-3 years especially as
he was one of the first 7 post-war national servicemen chosen for
officer training. He told merry tales of his escapades there, including
being allocated to take an MTB to Paris for a royal visit. At Downing
he played rugby (he later joined Harlequins), and rowed in the rugby
bumps boat. Afterwards, he continued his studies mainly by evening
class, becoming a member of the BIM and a chartered engineer,
specialising in heat and power. Alas, it was this which killed him
as he worked for two firms of boiler manufacturers in the Midlands
where his function was to sell and oversee the installation of the firms’
products (and the consequential removal of the old boilers) – he was
thus regularly exposed to asbestos in the laissez faire and unsafe
work conditions of the 50s and 60s, dying an excruciating death from
mesothelioma (an incurable asbestos cancer). In character, he was
irrepressible, optimistic, generous, frivolous, always seeing the best
in people. He always had time to give if someone needed it. Nothing
was too much trouble. He was a wonderful husband, father and
stepfather and much-loved by his friends, of whom he had many. He
served for many years on the Gordonstoun Association committee,
and was one-time editor of its journal. He also found the artist whom
the Association commissioned to produce the portraits of Kurt Hahn,
Henry Brereton and Robert Chew, which now hang on the staircase
in Gordonstoun House. Whilst on the committee, he passed many
hours assisting young OGs in finding suitable mentors in their chosen
professions. He also spent many happy days playing cricket (a sport
he did not take up till his 40s) for the Old Boys’ Cricket team, where at
the annual match in Eskdale organised by John Marsham, he re-met
Bobby Chew’s beautiful Norwegian widow Eva (the Chews had spent
time as his houseparents) and thereafter visited her regularly with
his wife, especially once she became much less mobile. (The OB XI
was a peripatetic social cricket club organised by Graham Hadley
which met some 6 or 7 times a summer in various places, such as
School, the (then) linked schools in Devon and the Isle of Wight, and
Charterhouse.) It was through the cricket that he met and befriended
Trevor Jones and became a great supporter of the charity set up
to help him (and others injured playing sport) by his schoolmates
following his tragic skiing accident. He maintained that he was
very lucky with his choice of wives (he had two, his first wife dying
tragically in a car crash, his second outliving him), which was counterbalanced by ill-luck in raffles – but this was disproved by his success in
raffles in support of Trevor’s charity, the most notable of which was a
week at a Richard Branson hotel of his choice. He regularly attended
the Edinburgh Festival and homed in on all the school productions
there. His only child, Philippa, went to Aberlour House in 1985, thence
to Gordonstoun. He had such pleasure from the contact thus created
with his alma mater.
THE LOYALTIES BY WHICH WE LIVE
by John Ray (Former Staff, 1955)
It was to Gordonstoun near Lossiemouth that Dr Hahn
was introduced by his friend Ramsay Macdonald when he was
rescued from Germany after defying Hitler in 1932. In 1951 his
School was growing and leased Altyre House south of Forres.
When Hahn retired Joint Headmasters were initially appointed,
Mr Chew at Altyre and Mr Brereton at Gordonstoun. Altyre with
130 boys held three houses of the School, but being sixteen miles
from the parent, felt quite distinct from it.
Set in an open space among great woods of beech and
fir, the gracious Victorian mansion house was in 1953 presided over
by Bobby Chew, known with affectionate respect as ‘Our Father’
by his staff. He had, with Geoffrey Winthrop Young, brought
Hahn out of Germany and had worked with him till the War. As
Colonel Chew he had led British troops into Bergen in 1945 and
had married Eva, whose first husband had died in the Norwegian
Resistance. Tall, regal and yet friendly and concerned, she inspired
awe in us young bachelor masters whom she undertook to civilise.
Most of us were in our first jobs and loved the place. We enjoyed
good comradeship and a lot of laughter.
My part was as Expeditions Master. For the first half
of the week I taught History, and then ‘Expedition Training’ from
Thursday to Saturday. Sunday was for ‘Voluntary Expeditions.’
A list on the notice board would quickly fill and the School bus, a
converted Army truck which the boys called the biscuit tin, would
head for any of a score of marvellous mountains. We might visit
the corries at the head of Glen Feshie, or the hills above Affric
or Strathfarrar. With an early start Ben Nevis was within range.
The plateaux of Macdui and Braeriach were closer by. The
colouring of the seasons, the skies and the weather, made every
day a new adventure.
The training element, whether map reading or exercises
on Dava Moor, was intended to stretch the party. Small groups
of thirteen year olds, dropped off at points on a desolate or
shining moorland road after due preparation, would be told to
be at a map reference, maybe ten or twelve miles across the
Moor, for pick-up sometime before dusk. In the course of the day
they would chase mountain hares, plough through peat hags,
face a blatter of rain, get lost and find themselves. Somehow
they always reached the rendezvous, usually weary and
triumphant. The trick was to judge that this particular party, with
this leader, in the day’s weather conditions, would all arrive.
Mr Chew soon checked up on safety. Early in November
a colleague and I were to take a class to the Cairngorms. John
Gillespie’s party was to stay at Aultnacaber near, Coylumbridge,
mine above the forest at Ryvoan. We were to climb Bynack Mor
and the others Braeriach. Next morning the parties set off, but
by 11am the wind rose and swung to the northwest. We turned
back into bitter wind, blown sleet and soon had a good fire
going in the bothy. The high plateau was blotted out. Leaving a
lad in charge I walked and ran down the seven miles, relieved
to find John’s party also safely returned and cooking up. A few
minutes later Mr Chew arrived. Driving to a cocktail party at
Nairn, forty miles north, he had noted the sudden change of
weather, deserted the party and come to check up. Driving me
back up the track, a relationship of trust had begun to grow.
It was the very start of ‘Outdoor Education’. There
were no ‘qualifications’ for Mountain Party leaders, no
‘health and safety.’ Everything hung on judgement, experience
and trust. Over their School lives many of the boys became
competent mountaineers, inured to Scottish winter conditions,
exulting in the experience of a day on the high tops, or basking
in the sunshine beside the tent in some remote glen.
We were expected to be back from weekend
expeditions in time for Sunday evening Chapel, held in the Hall
under the baleful eyes of the buffaloes, antelopes, rhinos and
many other hunting trophies assembled by one of the Laird’s
forbears. One would sit, somewhat weary, with the mind flicking
back to some river crossing or glissade earlier in the day, yet
attracted to the clear truth of scripture and the clarity with which
it was proclaimed in ‘WP’s Scottish voice. The Revd WP Young,
MC, had succeeded Dr Hahn’s first Chaplain, the Revd AG Fraser
of Achimota.
I began to hear, often amid the laughter of those
like WP who had known him, of the foibles of the founder of
the School, but they were aspects of a remarkable man. Dr
Hahn’s genius was that he, before others, saw the breakdown of
European civilisation, and worked to reverse it. He spoke of the
decays which surround the modern young:
The decay of care and skill;
The decay of enterprise and adventure;
The decay of compassion - callousness or spiritual death.
Above all, worship in the local community’
He revolutionised programmes and time tables, giving
precedence to activities which could kindle and sustain health
in the young, in the community and in the nation by revealing,
testing and training character. Believing that Education has ‘no
nobler task than to provide the moral equivalent to war’, he set
up courses in mountain craft or in sailing ships. He would say
‘there are no unbelievers in an open boat’, and combine training
and adventure in the face of difficulty and danger. With his
call ‘You are needed!’ he enrolled the young in ‘The Samaritan
Services’ as he called the Coastguards, the Fire Service,
Mountain Rescue and other groups.
Hahn was a visionary who used the compass of a
school to test his ideas. Our materialist culture has seized upon
the aspects of his work which it understands and has largely
ignored the spiritual challenge he held out. His ideals sprang
from the Cistercian model, seeing the local school as an ‘island
of health’ for the district.
Hahn’s belief that the educational system had failed to
find an antidote against a poisoned civilization may resonate
with many in the new millennium. He wrote ‘the system still
operates as if the sources of health were still flowing from which
our forbears used to benefit in their youth. The tender care of
home, the brotherhood of the village or the borough, the wise
guidance often experienced by the apprentice, firmly established
habits of worship.................neither the love of God nor the love
of man can take deep root in the unseemly haste of modern life.’
11
SCHOOL SNAPSHOTS & ESCAPES
by Christopher Friend (Duffus, 1955)
It was the start of the autumn term 1947. Picture a small boy
half the size of his trunk quivering uncertainly on Platform 3 at Kings
Cross, beside the mighty Aberdonian belching steam into the night
air. A tweedclad one-legged figure emerges from the smog. “Are you
Friend, boy? Get on board, you’re late” bellows Mr Stewart, bursar
at Aberlour House pointing his crutch into a dank, dark, four berth
sleeper compartment, where three other equally frightened small boys
had curled themselves up into mini pictures of abject misery. My eight
year Gordonstoun experience had commenced and I vowed there and
then to nurture an escapist’s attitude.
Success came early on, when I was felled on the rugby field
by a boy from Elgin Grammar School with legs like cabers. Three days
being spoilt in Elgin hospital – bliss! Other physical encounters were
less well rewarded, being trampled underfoot by the equine Cynthia,
a rotund mare only led to bruises and loss of dignity, and scarred
shins were badges of bravery worn by many of us boys who had
dared to confront the bellicose Dorothea, a stately blonde princess of
the Hesse dynasty, who wore wooden soled sandals and had a kick
like a mule.
scarves, gloves and duffel coats. It was a tradition that all new
boys were press-ganged into being quarries to train the hounds,
which culminated in the baying drooling beasts leaping up to place
their forelegs on the shoulders of these hapless and terrified small
boys, whose faces were just inches away from slobbering jaws and
bloodshot eyes.
A boy from the school had been reported missing, the
hounds picked up his trail and found him fast asleep in a barn, a
mile away. Now and again the local police called us out and on
one memorable occasion, we travelled to a desolate area of north
Sutherland, nothing but peaty moorland dotted with tarns and dark
pools, from some of which the haunting cry of the lune could be
heard - the iconic and rare Great Northern Diver. A crofter had been
reported missing 2 days beforehand, so his trail would have been very
cold. Nonetheless the hounds, hunting on long leashes did appear to
pick up the man’s scent now and again along a comparatively straight
line. After a 3 hour hunt, the hounds lost the scent when we came to
a small river. We marked the spot for the police, and they found the
poor man’s body under water there on the following day.
The winter of ‘47 was one of the coldest on record,
permafrost had set in, the ancient radiators in Aberlour were groaning
and jumping off their wall fixings, sadly to little effect and to extend
our misery, we were sent out twice a week “tatty picking” from frozen
furrows to supplement food rations. I believe many of us came close to
suffering frost bite, but my Grandmother kept me going with regular
parcels of scarves, gloves and balaclavas.
Up to the big school in 1950, starting at Mr. Bannerman’s
Dunkinty House, necessitating five mile journeys in the school’s
green death trap biscuit tin buses to the main campus. Memories
of permanent clouds of summer butterflies and winter geese in the
surrounding meadows, then a year in the creaking cedarwood
structure of Cumming House, before finishing up in “Plug” Burchardt’s
Duffus House, a grim old stone manse, entirely lacking in creature
comforts.
Crowded dorms with splintering floor boards, a single
washroom for all of us – rough concrete floor, supporting lines of
chipped washbasins, just 2 stained baths and a shower cubicle with no
hot water. Today’s prison inspectorate would have been apoplectic!
Food was prepared by a fearsome hairy armed woman from the
village. Her definition of “preparation” was “boil it.” Porridge oats
heaved all night in a cauldron on the Rayburn, and were carved out
next morning as a single greyish lump per plate, charcoaled sausages
and fried bread, leathery fried eggs and bacon followed on alternate
days. Cabbage was boiled for over an hour, the same applied to
macaroni. This woman’s blood line just had to be back to Macbeth’s
witches of Cawdor, just down the road. Thankfully banana and raisin
muesli was served twice a week and this, supplemented by hunks of
bread and butter with jam, food parcels from home and iced buns
from Fletcher’s bakery van kept us going.
The former stables at Duffus housed the school’s four fine
bloodhounds, Kurt Hahn’s third service to the local community –
seeking lost persons, the hounds’ sense of smell being many thousands
of times stronger than ours. A quartet of us formed the principle
squad, Friedel Bauer, Malcolm Morgan and Michael Shea being
the other three. We had a valuable daily privilege– no morning
runs in singlets and shorts, as we walked the hounds in wellies,
All four hounds were entered into the national Bloodhound
Trials, which took place in the New Forest and Michael Shea and I
took the hounds down there on 4 different trains, in itself, quite a trial.
With a lot of competition from the nation’s most experienced hound
handlers and breeders, to our amazement we won 3 silver cups and 2
certificates of merit. Kurt Hahn called us up before the whole school at
morning assembly to congratulate us, an ordeal we could have done
without.
Sport at the school, was hampered by the pitches we
played on, rugby and hockey took place at “Sweethillocks” a name
admirably describing the ground we played on, but with a year
of Patch Hockey played on a triangular piece of rough ground at
Cumming House, I learnt to play much of my hockey well above
ground level. This art form, admirably suited to playing on the left
wing, got me into the inaugural Scottish Under 18 team after a trial in
Glasgow. We played Ireland in Dublin and I scored Scotland’s historic
first (and only) goal – just a shame, the Irish scored five.
I inveigled myself into the school’s tennis four and I remember
one sublime July evening, when we played the Elgin Tennis Club on
their immaculate grass courts, not a breath of wind, swifts diving and
crying overhead, a deepening pink sky and flashes of beguiling orange
from the undergarments of Elgin’s two young twin lady members. A
strawberry tea with cream and scones and a 3 all match result, rounded
off the perfect escape from the rigours of school life.
From my point of view the particular rigours of Seamanship
in my first two years cut deep into my memory bank of horror. On-shore
winds always made the 5 mile cycle ride to Hopeman intolerable, then
we had the rancid oily marine aroma of Danny Main’s boat house
to contend with as we put on heavy soaking wet canvas and cork
life jackets, before heaving the school’s two 25ft cutters down the
shingle into the water of the harbour. Once afloat, small boys were
stationed at either end of the five thwarts, our little bare legs flailing
around frantically trying to find some form of adhesion. Massive 14 ft.
oars were then grasped and raised to the cloud scudded sky and in a
giants’ game of spillikins, attempts were then made to get these oars
homed into their rollicks, but some went overboard, and some caused
considerable damage to the anatomy of other crew members. A melee
ensued, but eventually to the accompaniment of ever more strident
Gaelic oaths from Danny, we were ready to row the cutter out of the
harbour into The Moray Firth proper.
With no purchase from our legs, rowing was nothing more
than splashing the oar into the water, trying to avoid any others.
Erratic forward movements saw us zig-zagging through the harbour,
before generally colliding with one or other of the narrow harbour
entrance walls, as Danny frantically heaved the tiller back and forth
in a vain effort to avoid this happening, The next problem to contend
with was the sudden and usually very meaningful swell of the open
sea as we left the protection of the harbour. Boys fell off their
thwarts, oars either failed to reach water at all, or buried themselves
so deep that they were wrenched out of rower’s hands as the bow
rose and fell
Sufficient forward momentum was finally achieved to enable
the cutter’s heavy canvas sail to be raised and we actually started
sailing, oars were stowed and a cry from Danny “Ready Aboot”
followed by” Helm’s a lee” warned of the massive boom swinging over
our heads, to set a course at right angles to the shore line. Exhausted,
we boys collapsed to the floor of the boat, oblivious to the agony
of salt water on chapped limbs and chilblained fingers to watch the
magnificent sight of gannets dive bombing shoals of herring all around
us. That was the fun bit, but an hour or two later we had to repeat the
whole operation in reverse to get back into harbour, drag the cutter
ashore, grab our bikes only to find we now had an offshore wind to
battle against. Character building? Well, I suppose - yes, but for some
reason I never once sailed again in adult life.
There were quite a number of opportunities to escape
from the school’s campus, given Kurt Hahn’s love of challenging his
charges ability to do battle with nature. The desolate mountain range
of The Cairngorms had a number of peaks approaching 4,000 ft in
height and all boys went on expeditions there in one form or another,
usually spending at least one night on the bare floor of Glenmore
Lodge, a rough cabin, perched halfway up the massif. Climbing
above the ancient Caledonian Scots Pine Forest tree line, saw us
enter a moorland wilderness inhabited by white mountain hares, red
deer, golden plover and ptarmigan. Reaching the summit, one felt
an overriding feeling of peace and well-being and I still recall the
wondrous taste of half an orange as I took in the view.
Another get away project was wild water rafting on the fast
flowing stream in Glen Affric below the hydroelectric dam. Steel oil
barrels, substantial baulks of timber and a lot of rope were brought
from the school and strictly supervised by scoutmaster Mr. Trubridge,
we boys built our rafts and off we floated downstream at some
speed, steering by means of poles. Occasionally we did capsize, but
the water was not deep and we wore lifejackets, with staff in canoes
following us down. It was exhilarating and the journey ended with a
night’s camping, a large campfire and a singsong.
We had a marvellous German biology teacher universally
known as Bex. He drove a Morris 8 and once a fortnight he invited
four of us to go off on what became known as “Bexpeditions” He
took us to the Cairngorm forest to look for crested tits, capercaillie,
black grouse and crossbills, all rare and very local birds. We drove
along the cliffs to the east of the school, where we found seals and
many species of seabirds. He also had us crawling on our hands and
knees, perilously close to the cliff edges, where he pointed out tiny
plants to us. Bex was a fountain of knowledge and each expedition
was rounded off with his shrill cry of “Buns boys, buns!” and off he
drove to the nearest tea room.
13
VOLUNTEER IN BRAZIL AT THE JULIA CENTRE
by Bill Thomson (Altyre, 1966)
UNESCO recognises
the work being done
by the Julia Thomson
Memorial Trust and
calls it a “Project of
Opportunities”.
Brazil has to be one of
the world’s most colourful
and energetic countries.
With lively carnivals, great
sporting events and a very
relaxed way of life, this is
possibly one of the most
exciting places in the world
that you could end up on
your gap year or career
break. If you’re looking to
dig deep into the culture
of Brazil, volunteer work is the very best way to do it, making
a positive impact on Brazilian society. It is the ideal travel
experience for those who want to go beyond the ordinary.
In November 2010 the new Sports and Cultural Centre
was opened and has been a great boost to the community.
Many events take place there on a regular basis and range
from capoeira lessons, music, dance and theatre. It is hoped
that youth groups in the city will soon be staging their own small
productions there. The Sports Centre is used for all types of
sport predominantly Football and Volleyball. It hosts the ‘Pro
Youth’ event for the city’s poorest children, including the local
Youth Volleyball Championship, bi-weekly gymnastics for the
elderly and is a training ground for the local basketball team
who previously had no venue as well as the local “five aside”
football team. It has been in constant use since its opening for
local people of all ages and provides an opportunity and vision
for many young who can choose a better path in life, or at least
be shown one.
With the new facilities in place there are a variety
of exciting opportunities for volunteers to actively engage
including teaching English, Sports, Drama, Music and Dance
studies to helping with the community and after school support
projects. There are many volunteer options available and no
previous teaching experience is required.
Everyone is welcome and a placement of six to
twelve months is recommended. If you have any questions or
would like more information please contact The Julia Thomson
Memorial Trust, http://www.juliathomsonmemorial.com/
or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-JuliaCentre/112492982120488.
Any donations large or small would be very much appreciated.
With your assistance we can continue our endeavours to help
these beautiful children in this Brazilian community to a better
life. Every penny goes directly to helping the people for whom
it is intended. To donate please go to
http://www.juliathomsonmemorial.com/?page_id=21
The Julia Centre, ‘O Centro Julia’, was
inaugurated in February 2009 by OG Bill Thomson
(Altyre, 1966) and Cecilia Thomson in memory of their
daughter Julia Thomson as an addition to an existing
project, ‘The Garden of Angels’. Based in Canavieiras,
Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil the centre provides
daycare for children from the ages of 2 to 10 years old.
The children at the centre are not only looked after and
fed on a daily basis, but also given any learning support
they need to help them with their daily school work.
The Julia Thomson Memorial Trust aims to give the poor
children of Canavieiras, a different vision of life from the
one that confronts them daily, due to serious poverty and
unfortunate family circumstances, often associated with
drugs, crime or prostitution.
14
LOST AND FOUND
by Miquel Rivas-Micoud (Altyre, 1972)
Apparently
43 years have
gone by since I
left Gordonstoun,
and as I look
back over that
time in view of
everything that
has played out
since, my time at
Gordonstoun was
comparatively
short, the result
of circumstances
beyond my
control. For several years the Gordonstoun
website had me down as ‘missing’ since
1971, which greatly amused me. Someone
joked that it might be some unfinished
homework the school was still after me
for. The clearest memory of my time
there was the almost constant running
around doing ‘penalty drill’ on the various
grounds as punishment for breaking one
rule or another. It certainly kept me fit.
The most pleasant memory was sailing on
the school cutter in the permanently grey
seas. I picked up a love of the sea, sailing
and camaraderie during that time and
eventually bought a sailboat of my own.
My time at Gordonstoun was
a time of transition for the school, and it
coincided with a personal transition for me.
Trouble was brewing at home…father vs.
eldest son story. And times of transition are
often painful, though necessary to make
way for the new. Of course you never see
it that way when it is happening…..I write
now in retrospect of course. Most of us tend
to avoid changes when they appear and
stick with ‘the devil we know.’ I might well
have done the same, but was not allowed
the freedom to make that choice.
On a trip back home to Spain
where my parents were living, things came
to a crux with my father and I was forced
to ‘run away’ from home. So Gordonstoun
marked the end of any formal education for
me. I had to educate myself from that point
on. Right away I
was walking some
rough and tumble
paths, and for a
while I was rightly
‘missing’. I will not
go into the details
of all I did, the
places I travelled,
the near misses,
failures and
disappointments.
In retrospect, those
are minor details in
the bigger picture.
After several years
of roaming the world as a photographer,
journalist, musician and things in between,
I ‘re-emerged’ in Tokyo, Japan, just as the
Japanese ‘bubble’ was heating up.
I began teaching English in Japan,
and as any teacher knows (but might not
want to admit openly), it is usually the
teachers, not the students, who learn the
most. I started at a prestigious Japanese
junior high school for boys, harking back to
my time at Gordonstoun. And from there I
moved up to a girls’ high school, a women’s
junior college, Tokai University, Keio
University and finally to Meiji University
where I taught as a professor of English
in the Law Department for 25 years. And
while doing all that I dabbled in writing.
One thing led to another, and I eventually
found myself transformed into a travelling
interviewer, writer and editor. I was also
becoming a well-known (though unknown)
‘ghostwriter’ for several major Japanese
publishers perpetually on the lookout for the
next economic or political breakthrough.
This enabled me to meet and work with
some of the most influential people of the
period. I spent a lot of private time with
many unique individuals. Many of them
chose ‘not to remember’ certain things, or
to erase parts of history, and this raised the
question of the personal or collective nature
of history and the responsibility of leaving
behind a truthful record.
The nature of ghost-writing
‘autobiographies’ involves a lot of thought
and consideration for all the things that
make up a person. Many viewpoints have
been refracted through the medium of a
life’s experience…..what do you believe,
when it sounds so authoritative, all so
respectable, all so plausible? What is the
difference between fact and truth? Finally
I came to accept that which conformed
most closely with the beliefs I myself had
collected over the years from my own
experience.
With Samuel P. Huntington in Harvard going over a
book (The Big Picture—Collected Thoughts on the
Events of 9/11 and the Changing World Order)
Interviewing Carlos Ghosn at Nissan headquarters in
Japan for his official autobiography, Renaissance
With old friend and mentor Melanie Pflaum in Javea
who was the first to influence me to start writing
After several interviews it felt as
though a number of brilliant searchlights
of various colours had played upon an
unlighted building, each revealing a
fragmentary vision, but in the moving shafts
of light the whole structure was never seen.
In the end we are a combination
of many small things, events, meetings,
circumstances, being there or not being
there. We are, to a great extent, the sum of
all of that. My time at Gordonstoun, viewed
from the perspective of my life as I have
lived it so far, was a short, but important
event in my life. Perhaps it has been the
same for others. I cannot know, but I would
like to think that it has been a similar
experience, though colored by changing
times and events.
With the late Peter F. Drucker at his home in Claremont,
California, for what would be his last official interview
With Rickson Gracie researching Invincible: Rickson
Gracie’s Path to Awareness and Becoming Unbreakable
FROM WEST END TO WEST END
by Peter Cousens (Windmill, 1974)
In September 1974 I left Gordonstoun
to begin my ‘walk’ in the world. I headed off
with Chris Tom, Ian Troup and the McNeil
brothers to build grain silos in Northern
Italy. It was a wild start to life after school
that combined hard work with an indecent
consumption of Italian wine and ‘kultcha’ (as we
Aussies like to say it). The Arena di Verona twice
playing a significant role in filling up my cup with
opera and ballet on a grand scale. I finished
1974 with a ‘European expedition’, taking my
backpack on a lone six week adventure from
Narvick, at the tip of Norway to Madrid.
Venice building Silos Jim McNeil, Peter
Cousens, & Chris Toms
Venice building Silos Jim McNeil, Peter
Cousens, & Chris Toms
Peter Cousins Maria Windmill Review 1974
This was a far cry from a ‘walking
punishment to Duffus’. But it was an extended
opportunity to repeat the contemplative exercise
prescribed in Kurt Hahn’s philosophy, never
to underestimate the power of self deception;
a notion that we students were encouraged to
explore on these walks. On first contemplation
it implies that we should become aware of
our foibles and pretences and be honest with
ourselves in matters of conscience, behaviour and
decision making. But after six weeks of tramping
across the multicultural moors of Europe, I was
reminded of another perspective that seemed to
spring intuitively out of the Gordonstoun Manual
for Good Living and that was - never to allow
the power of self deception to underestimate or
subvert the belief that nothing is impossible. In
other words don’t let the fear of failure decide the
fate of the possible and the impossible. And this
has been my ‘walking punishment’ since leaving
Gordonstoun 40 years ago.
I spent most of my time at Gordonstoun
acting. An actor’s sensibilities are honed to
believe anything is possible. Using the power
of self perception, we ironically learn to lie
truthfully and to forge new and different
truths to make possible the creation of stories
and characters that inspire both comedy and
tragedy. More simply put; we serve an audience
to make them laugh and cry.
I cried a lot when I first arrived at
Gordonstoun. I came from an Australian summer
into the depths of a Scottish winter, was housed
in the sparse confines of a Windmill Lodge
dormitory with 30 other fellow travellers, bathed
in their watery leftovers and was overseen by the
kindly, barrelling and bemused James Thomas.
It was enough to make anybody cry. Thankfully
the presence of the beautiful Mrs. Thomas (the
late Julia who became a dear friend in later life)
was a comfort that thrilled the bejesus out of this
flirtatious adolescent boy.
But laughs eventually came in spades:
mostly with the likes of Denny Emmett, Richard
Ames and lovely Penny, Bob Barber, Ian Troupe,
Doug Quin, Neville Rachid, Jonathon Hill, Robin
Harding, Robin Shaw James O’Toole, Hubert
Beaumont, Piers Colvin and others whose names
have recessed with the march of time ; then the
riot of the wonderful Australian school master
Jim Graham’s Windmill Lodge Review; and
also the theatrical expeditions to Duffus Castle
with the schools prickly theatrical wizard Mr.
Wingate, who intriguingly boasted no toes. This
amused me no end.
My schooling had already finished
at The Armidale School in Australia and I was
able to throw myself into the life and times of
Gordonstoun, its philosophy and its eclectic
opportunities. I played my first game of hockey
and my last ever game of cricket. Mary
Nicholson gave me my first singing lessons and
John Nicholson put me into The Magic Flute with
HRH Prince Andrew as the other High Priest
guarding the flames of hell. This set the stage for
my rather irreverent and relentless teasing of the
gracious and amused PA. I took great delight
in stealing and using his pottery coat much to
the horror of dear Bob Waddell who constantly
berated me for my
appalling colonial
manners, an
outcome obviously
of a convict
heritage. Little
did he know that
according to family
folklore my great
great Grandmother
had been given
away by Thackeray
and she had learnt singing from the great
Italian tenor, Cravelli. Bob graciously set about
filling my mind with knowledge of the glories of
European Art and where it was housed, which
then determined the route I took and the stops I
made on my end-of-year ‘European expedition’.
But I digress, mainly because so much
happened in a very short and intense period of
time at Gordonstoun and the urge to share and
reminisce nearly outweighs the need to reflect
and articulate.
My experience at Gordonstoun was
cathartic. I became caught up in the haunted
history of the buildings and helped create
with Mr. Wingate and others, the ‘Wizard
of Gordonstoun’, which we performed in
that thwarted Devil’s Round Square. I was
fascinated by the trust system, training plans
and leadership structure and was elevated to
Colour Bearer in my second term. I eschewed
jumping off cliffs but tramped around the
Cairngorms, sailed around the West Coast and
served at the hospice in Elgin. I sang madrigals,
performed Bernstein, Mozart and Porter and
finished off performing on stage above the
fire station as a girlish Gordonstounian Maria
von Trapp in a subversion of Rogers and
Hammerstein’s Sound of Music. These are a few
of my favourite things!
The intensity of service packed into
these eight months left a brand on my heart
that has since informed much of my world
view. As an exchange student you could
imagine my experience could easily have
been Gordonstoun ‘lite’. But for me it was a
visceral ‘Hahnian’ hurricane. I was swept up by
Gordonstoun’s unique brand of man making,
believing that I could constantly find more in
me, but... in the service of what? The answer lay
in the future.
Projects were manifestly encouraged
at Gordonstoun and I found my lifetime
‘project’ in the performing arts. I found a
purpose and meaning in that vocation and
as a consequence, a voice in the community.
I regularly re-invented, as change and
opportunity buffeted my compass, like a storm
on the Sea Spirit, constantly challenging the
potential for self deception; and I found a way
to satisfy a niggling need to serve.
I have said ‘yes’ to most opportunities
in my life, in the belief that there was nothing I
couldn’t do or be. I have produced, directed,
taught and constantly performed. I have worked
closely with some theatrical giants in the form
of the late Richard Harris, Russell Crowe,
Cameron Mackintosh, Hal Prince, Bill Gaskill,
Max Stafford Clarke and acted in thrilling
productions of Les Miserables, Miss Saigon,
Hamlet, Macbeth, Sweeney Todd and a 12
month’s stint as the Phantom on the West End- a
long, long way from the little Australian country
town of Armidale.
Success and failure have been
constant companions in a risk-laden career
spanning 35 years in the performing arts. The
public profile that goes with the echelon that
I have reached has given me a platform to
speak out on issues meaningfully connected
to my life’s experience. The birth of three
daughters hurled me obsessively into raising
public awareness of violence against women
and advocating for the prevention of child
abuse and neglect. I now serve the cause of
ending human trafficking and modern slavery as
Ambassador for an organisation aptly known as
Destiny Rescue.
My own destiny has recently seen me
rise from the ashes of disaster after attempting
to plant a national musical theatre company into
the Australian theatrical landscape, to directing
Academy Award winning actor Cuba Gooding
Jr., in the period feature film FREEDOM - a
fascinating conflagration of American slavery,
the Underground Railroad and John Newton’s
Amazing Grace. Two years in the making,
FREEDOM is an Australian film set in America
that observes the angst of two men searching
for spiritual freedom in a way that particularises
it down to an expression of Newton’s legacy of
grace and forgiveness.
FREEDOM ( www.themoviefreedom.com) will
be released around the world later this year
after its premier in Australia in August 2014.
How did all this happen I ask myself?
How is making possible the often
impossible so profoundly connected to this
school as I believe it is? It happened while on
one of my many silent walks. I quietly subverted
Hahn’s pronouncement never underestimate
the power of self deception into never
deceive yourself into believing that anything
is impossible. More eloquently put- Plus et en
vous! www.petercousens.com
Phantom
Miss Saigon Girls
Directing Freedom in Costume
FROM GUATEMALA TO INDIA
by H.E. Georges de La Roche Du Ronzet (Round Square, 1984)
People describe Guatemala as
“the land of eternal spring” as displays
of orange and violet bougainvilleas greet
people year-round. The word Guatemala
comes from the Mayan-Toltec word
Quauhtemalla, meaning “land of many
trees” and indeed our northern biosphere
is one of the largest in that hemisphere.
Last year we welcomed two
million foreign visitors. Of those 51% came
from Central America, 34% from North
America, 10% from Europe, 3% from
South America, 2% from Asia, Oceana,
the Middle East and the Caribbean.
The potential to attract Indian tourists is
thus significant and appealing. Tourism
contributes +/-$1.5 billion to our economy
yearly and is lauded because it benefits all
sectors of society, including the informal
sector. This “trickledown effect” produces
direct profit to all Guatemalans who make
and sell handicrafts and souvenirs.
Guatemala emphasizes a strong policy of “cultural
diplomacy” with an objective to promote the country, its multiethnic and pleura-lingual people, and its culture, possessing one
of the greatest heritages of Mesoamerica, the Mayan people and
civilization. We have superb and exotic beaches on the Caribbean
and Pacific coasts and our comparative (touristic) advantage are our
smiling people and the millenary culture expressed by the ancient
metropolis cities like “Tikal”. This is the primary reason why people
choose to visit Guatemala and experience not only the historic Mayan
sites but also the living and current vibrant Mayan culture.
Being topographically diverse, Guatemala consists of six
main climate regions, each with sub-microclimates, making it a land of
diverse attractions in a relatively small area. The country is officially a
neo-tropic eco zone and habitat for 10% of all known species on the
planet. There are orchids, mahogany trees and many types of wildlife
including hummingbirds, toucans, squawking popinjays, jaguars,
pumas, wild boars, reptiles, manatees and spider monkeys. Guatemala
is ideal for bird watchers as it is on the north-south migratory route
hosting more than 700 species. Ornithologists can appreciate our
National bird; the rare and mystical Quetzal.
The country’s diverse
mountainous relief runs from
sea level to more than 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) in altitude which
explains the dissimilar ecosystems that range from humid coastal
mangrove sanctuaries to misty conifer forests in the highlands.
Guatemala has more than 30 volcanoes and one can appreciate,
from a safe distance, the spectacular lava displays from the active
ones. Our population is also diverse being pleurae-cultural and
multi-ethnical — with 23 Mayan languages spoken besides the official
Spanish. Guatemala’s tourism industry continues to grow and diversify.
Each year we attract more pensioners, medical tourists and others.
“Voluntourists”, a modality known as “do-it-yourself foreign aid” and
our Spanish language schools continue growing in popularity.
Within the context of increasing commercial opportunities, in
2005 Guatemala formulated a “Look East Policy” to establish resident
Embassies, or strengthen diplomatic ties, with countries in the Far East.
In this context we would expand presence in the Asia Pacific region and
grow from our three Embassies in Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul, establishing
additional Embassies in India, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia. I
was thus asked by Guatemala’s Government to end my posting as
Ambassador to Canada and become our first ever Resident Ambassador
in India. I was therefore honored to have presented Credentials to
the Indian President, H.E. Pranab Mukherjee, in April of this year at
Rashtrapati Palace.
(VIA ROUND SQUARE)
India similarly established an Embassy in Guatemala 2 years
ago, which also covers neighboring El Salvador and Honduras.
largest industries in Guatemala and the magic and mystery of
My diplomatic representation will, in due course, include Sri
the Mayan world subsisting in the millenary cities such as Tikal,
Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal (concurrencies), and our main
Yaxhá, and Quiriguá. The faces, the colorful regional costumes
interest within this policy is to increase commercial activity, on a
and the kindness of our people are an echo of an impressive
bilateral level, and attract Indian investment particularly in the
pre and colonial past that is heard in the churches and convents
textile garment and energy industries. Currently, trade between
of “Antigua Guatemala” (founded in the 16th century as
our countries favours Indian exports to Guatemala (mostly
Santiago de los Caballeros, a UNESCO World Heritage Site).
comprising of motorcycles, parts, rickshaws or tuk-tuks, and
machinery) which makes 26% of the total import from India.
15% of imports are of man-made fibers and another 15% are
pharmaceuticals, chemicals and vapor boilers. From
Guatemala our exports to India are 76% cardamom, 8% paper,
6% cartons, coffee and scrap junk, with bilateral commerce
growing roughly 20% year on year. The trade potential
between India and Guatemala is enormous in many fields and
we are the newest Embassy in India. Similarly, India’s newest
Embassy is in
It is worthwhile highlighting that tourism is one of the
Within this policy, our new Embassy in Delhi will
continue promoting Guatemala’s touristic attractions, as well as
commercial and investment opportunities and we plan to hold
outreach events to highlight our growing tourism industry and
our attractions.
www.investinguatemala.org
www.visitguatemala.com
Guatemala.
19
WHY I SENT MY DAUGHTERS TO GORDONSTOUN
by Tessa Lumley (Gordonstoun, 1985)
There was a moment, around two years ago, when our
eldest daughter was nine years old and I found myself standing at
her school gates wondering if the world had gone mad.
But it wasn’t just the lack of space and the horror of the
competitive, private school system in London or the looming 11 +
that propelled us North. There was a third consideration.
She attended a small, happy west London pre-prep school
and was about to enter Year Five – the year in which current private
education begins to build to the fever pitch that is the 11+ (an exam
which is taken, lest we forget, by ten year olds).
I have a younger daughter, who was, at that point, 7 years
old. We are blessed with two girls who are, in almost every way
possible, different. In the simplest terms, one is naturally clever but
lacks application; the other is diligent and careful; one is funny and
confident; the other is earnest and kind; one is sporty, the other is
not, one is artistic, the other is not. We were in search of a school
that could meet two very different sets of needs – that could teach,
for instance, both application and confidence. That could spot the
weaknesses and celebrate the strengths. A school that can both
encourage and reward academic excellence, whilst also playing to
all of a child’s non-academic strengths. A school which can either
develop existing passions or help to locate them in the first place.
And a school from which, along with all of that, they could be so
far away when the bell for the end of break rings, that they have to
sprint back so as not to be late for class.
The energy at the gates was electric - but not in a good
way – with parents discussing where and whether to get tutors, what
their children were and were not reading, what extra-curricular
activities they did or should do. And I could feel a surge of terror
and panic building up in me. What on earth was going on? How
could I possibly push my perfectly clever and able child as hard
as I would clearly have to, to get her into the schools I was being
informed she really ought to attend? The sensation was appalling
and bewildering. And not one I had ever anticipated having.
Up until that point I had only pitied the parents of older
children who had given up weekends and evenings and school
holidays to practice examination papers and Kumon maths - to
squeeze the academic excellence required out of their grey skinned
nine and ten year olds. Because until I was presented with the same
choices, I had always believed that whilst academic education is
profoundly important, it is not the only thing that is important to
children. It is not, for instance, more important than childhood itself.
I didn’t want my daughter to resent me for driving her relentlessly
through at least a year of that childhood. And I didn’t want her to
carry that grey face into her teens and out again, with the weight of
expectation that goes along with it.
I wanted her to be happy.
But we found ourselves in a system that seemed to be
about to absolutely preclude that.
Because I don’t believe that the children – or their families
– that I witnessed going through the 11+ process in west London –
are happy. It is my experience that this process allows only certain
kinds of children to shine – the lucky few who are either highly
intelligent or highly diligent or both; the ones who are mature
enough (at 9) to understand the need to give up playtime to study;
and the ones with parents who have sufficient control over them to
force them to. Anyone else is liable to fail in a system in which they
are competing with hundreds of children for tens of places. And I
think that the age of ten is far too young to ‘fail’ Which brings me
back round to the ‘childhood’ thing again. And my husband and my
urgent need to come up with another plan…
Because the other problem we had in central London
was a purely practical one: the school’s lack of space and the lack
of facilities. Compared to some of their friends, my children were
lucky. They had access to a local park on occasional break times,
but otherwise they were in a small, paved playground. They were
told to walk not run. They never climbed trees or skinned their
knees. They didn’t play. They sat in a small classroom until a lesson
was over, and then they walked down a short corridor and sat in
another one. And they came home fizzing with unspent physical
energy. They needed more space. And some time to run in it.
Sending my daughters to Gordonstoun was not the huge
leap of faith that it might seem. I attended the school myself many
years ago. As did my twin brother. He and I, like my daughters,
were opposites, and we both found our very different niches at
Gordonstoun. And friends that I made when I was ten years old are
my children’s Godparents today. The school’s ethos is one that I
understand, respect and have had first- hand experience of as both
pupil and, now, parent.
So - one academic year later - my oldest daughter, who is
now 11 ½, is a committed clarinettist and den builder. She also now
understands she is actually good at maths (a realisation that eluded
her under the pressure of the incessant pre 11+ tests of her previous
school). My youngest daughter rides horses – something we would
also never have found time or wherewithal for in London. She is also
an expert on the monkey bars. And she won the academic prize in
her class last year for doing so well in her exams. They both enjoyed
expeditions into the Scottish Highlands, their first tastes of sailing,
Scottish country dancing, hockey, netball and cross country running.
My eldest daughter has even hurled a haggis in the Highland
Games.
But more than anything they have flourished. They have
grown and matured - and skinned their knees. They are being
robustly and effectively educated – but they are also, crucially for
me, being encouraged to be children: adventurous, inquisitive and
occasionally intensely muddy. But, best of all, they are happy.
Something it would surely be impossible to expect them to fulfil their
potential without?
And I am so grateful for that moment, a couple of years
ago, when I wondered if the world had gone mad. When I found
myself in danger of believing that the only thing that mattered was
whether or not I could shoehorn my brave and lovely child into a
school which would not have embraced her acerbic wit and need
for space and fresh air, a school which would never have sent
her home with stories about foraging in the woods at break as
enthusiastic as those about experiments in science class. Without
that moment, my children wouldn’t be where they are now and I
wouldn’t want them to be anywhere else.
THE ROUTE LESS TRAVERSED
by Jules Lines (Bruce, 1987)
Kurt Hahn had gone into much deliberation when selecting
a location for school. He finally decided upon a surprisingly dry and
fertile slice of country framed by the Moray Firth to the North and
the Cairngorm mountains distant to the South; it was a perfect venue
for outdoor activity. I assume though that he was unaware then that
it was also close to the small sandstone cliffs at Cummingston. Being
30ft high, with a range of difficulties and good anchors on the top
for belaying, it is one of the most amenable places for beginners in
Scotland to climb, and this was where I first experienced climbing.
I have many memories of those early days on the cliffs, but
some stick out in my mind. The first was a Mountain Rescue training
day of climbing and abseiling. I can remember Rory Simpson belaying
Jason Eker on a climb; Jason fell from near to the top and Rory didn’t
hold the rope properly and all I heard from the top of the cliff was this
wailing followed by a thud into the pebbles. Luckily no serious harm was
done to Jason. On another occasion I cycled down to Cummingston
on a Saturday morning as I had no lessons; I never asked permission
because I knew the answer would probably be no, so why tempt fate.
Back in those days though, and luckily for my housemaster Ben Goss, I
never went soloing (climbing without the rope). So I had to wait for my
climbing partner Andrew Spark to turn up. I found a nice spot under a
boulder and curled up to have a sleep whilst I waited, only to have a
near panic attack when the rising tide began to consume me.
Climbing has changed so much in the last 30 years since
those early days of my climbing career, at Cummingston. We learned
the natural way in the 1980’s. Now, with the advent of climbing walls,
youngsters can climb indoors in any weather and get fitter far more
quickly. Back in 1987, Gordonstoun didn’t have a climbing wall, but
once a week in the winter we could visit the climbing wall at RAF
Lossiemouth. From what I can remember, it was made of concrete
blocks with cracks and holes channelled out of them with other holds
and protuberances cemented in. There were a small number of keen
climbers then and it was an eye opener for us. It felt kind of strange to
be able to climb in the evenings of the dark, cold winter nights. One
day, I was approached by our climbing instructor – John Hall, (who
has only recently retired from being a teacher at school) – to see if I
and a fellow pupil, Pauline Sugden would accompany him and ‘Mrs
Henderson’ to the Lossiemouth climbing wall to demonstrate the safety
of climbing and the attractions of a climbing wall. Mrs Henderson
was considering giving a donation to the school for a climbing wall, a
tribute to her son, Gordon, an OG that had died in a mountaineering
accident. Of course Pauline and I jumped at the chance of getting a
session in down at the climbing wall. When we arrived, we chatted a
while, and for some reason John and Mrs Henderson vacated the wall
area and left us to our own devices. One particular feature on the wall
was a windowsill type ledge that was about 8ft off the ground, which
requires what’s known as a mantelshelf move. Pauline, being extremely
flexible and seeing this ledge decided to give it a go. She jumped up
and grabbed the ledge, pulling up she managed to contort her foot
to her face and began standing up, then all of a sudden she toppled
backwards and hit the floor. She got up wearing this expression of pain
on her face; something was obviously seriously wrong, but she played
it down. She made me promise not to tell John or Mrs Henderson what
had happened, as she thought that the school might lose the funding
if Mrs Henderson thought the climbing wall was at all dangerous.
Somehow she pretended that she wasn’t well and I did a bit of climbing
before we were taken back to school. When we reached G House,
Pauline’s boarding house, I realised that she wouldn’t be able to open
the door on her side of the car, so I got out my side so that she could
sneakily shuffle out behind me, which she did. She then forlornly
walked through the east door of G house and disappeared. The next
time I saw her, her broken wrist was in a cast and the story on the street
was that she had fallen down the stairs in G house. I kept my promise
to her for nearly twenty years, until, climbing with John Hall again at
the sea cliffs of Cummingston in 2005, I told him the story.
The climbing wall was built the following year (1988) for
all to enjoy thanks to the generosity of the Henderson family, and the
brave effort of Pauline. I did have the opportunity to climb with some
of the pupils on the brand new climbing wall this year (2014). What a
fantastic facility – no doubt the birthplace of a new generation of the
school’s rock stars.
21
BOUNCING BACK
by Assem Alireza (Round Square, 1988)
Apart from having a blast, the education I received at
Gordonstoun was, in my opinion, ahead of its time. It almost seemed
as if the school had great foresight that there was more to education
than the ‘paper chase’. This involved trying to create an all rounded
person by, for example, focusing on the outdoors as much, but not
at the cost of, academic results. Teamwork was certainly high on the
agenda and the shared experiences whilst at school forged bonds
which have lasted a life time. Sailing the Sea Spirit was one such case
– even if jumping off the side into the icy North Sea was not! Having
said that, agonising over the freezing temperature of the water (in
ways that cannot be explained), has certainly paid off over the years,
if not in laughs, in understanding that true self-satisfaction emerges
from overcoming uncomfortable challenges. It’s amazing how quickly
I pulled myself out of the icy water, with a flimsy rope over the side,
when it mattered!
Hiking a chain of Munro’s with a group of housemates
alongside my House Master, Mr. Miller, covering over 20 miles in
one day, taught me that it’s the journey, as tough as it might be, which
matters. No one understood this better than Mr. Goss in Rugby. All
those tedious runs over the viscous, freezing waters on the beach
came in handy when I had to run onto the rugby field, and in the 100
metre dash, being told to keep my head ‘up high’ by the legendary Mr.
Welsh. Squash was my main sport, so I cherished beating Mr. Barton,
the new all-round sports teacher, who arrived just as I was peaking.
What he lacked in skill he made up for in persistence and stamina.
It hurts to admit he beat me on the court during my last days, even
though I was technically a better player. He showed the importance
of never giving up. A contemporary of mine, Andrew ‘Macduff’ Lyall,
picked up on that trick too, and is now House Master of Duffus!
I had also learned that lesson. As a new student I was quickly
recruited to play for the team purely because my brother, four years
earlier, was the best player at the time. Oh the humiliation of playing
my first school match, which was a disaster to say the least. I had to
change that, and my steady improvement over the next 3 years was due
to Mr. Broad. From that moment I knew if I put my mind into something
I’m passionate about, and practice, there were no bounds to what I can
achieve - an important lesson learnt at a relatively young age.
Fine Art was another subject I had a passion for. Initially it
had to do with chatting with all the girls in class. A plethora of 2 hour
detentions by Bob Waddell put a stop to that. He was patient and
encouraging with my art which I followed through to A-level. There
was, however, no money in art so I picked architecture for a degree at
the wonderful University of Southern California in the ‘City of Angels’.
Returning back home to Saudi in 1992 was rather like shock
treatment. Not an easy place to feel at home after living abroad
from the age of 11. A challenge it certainly was, akin to jumping off
the Sea Spirit. I decided to work at HSBC’s local bank in corporate
banking for 5 years, just to see if I could do it. Loads of credit
analysis, which now, I can see was probably useless! My English
alone was enough to give me an edge, and some money to squander.
I didn’t really like it at the time and was more into building my own
computers. I remember it was an IBM compatible DX4, 500 mega
bites hard drive, with a 50 mega bite ram. A state of the art computer
22
at the time, connected through an unbearably slow modem to Prodigy
and the AOL network, before the internet connected everything.
It wasn’t long before I dropped banking and got into IT in
1997. This was at least in part to spend more time in London where I
eventually got married. Ambitions where high and, together with some
partners, we managed to raise a few hundred grand for a start-up in
an internet solutions company, creating websites for other companies.
Soon we started to focus on internal projects more and more, and
before long the company split, between those who wanted to continue
to create websites for others, making regular income, and a couple of
others who, like me, wanted to create a search engine, an e-commerce
website, a games company, and more things than I can count.
That was my first experience of real life conflicts. I spent a
year negotiating an exasperating split, amicably in the end, but not
without grey hair. Cat Games Ltd, a Massively Multiplayer Online
Games development company was finally born, with the two friends
that decided to join me from the original company. Our philosophy
of growing organically (only through the core revenues we created)
saved us through the internet crash. In 2003 I decided to become a
silent shareholder and moved on, while the company in its 14th year
now, still ploughing back everything to update and manage the games.
Since then I have hooked up with a friend from University
and have been working on a Project in Africa. I now reside in Jeddah,
travelling to London whenever I can and to Africa whenever I have to.
Mostly I enjoy my solitude, listening to audio books, where reading
has failed me in the past, and I have started painting once again.
I met up with some old friends from Gordonstoun a few
years back, and we decided to go to the GA weekend after an
absence of 23 years. We had a great time and have now been
returning for the last 3 years. Apart from meeting extraordinary
OGs of different ages, the people I knew, even with all the years that
have passed, remarkably, haven’t changed (OK, perhaps some loss
of hair and fading looks). We truly bonded once again during those
trips, helped with some excellent education on single malts. I consider
them to be the last true friends I made, in a world which has become
materialistic and selfcentred.
(The portrait
painting, in Acrylic
on Canvas (45cm X
60cm) is of Mr. Broad
to indicate that with
the right teacher you
can become great,
and one should
always be thankful
and acknowledge the
fortune in that. The
newly refurbished
Broad Squash courts
were opened in
autumn 2014).
UNITING NATIONS
by Donata Rugarabamu (Plewlands, 1985)
My first job in the UN was with the United Nations
Compensation Commission which was a subsidiary organ
of the United Nations Security Council. It was established
to process claims and pay compensation for losses resulting
directly from Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
The Commission received approximately 2.6 million claims
with an asserted value of approximately USD350 billion. I
worked my way up within the UNCC and ended as a team
leader, heading a team which looked at claims by companies
and corporations for damages alleged to have resulted
directly from the first Gulf War. They were claiming for lost or
damaged property, evacuation of staff, lost profits, etc. The
UNCC has finished most of its work now – it was a fun place to
be – based in Geneva, and working with people from all parts
of the world.
I then worked for the UN Environment Programme
in the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (also in
Geneva). This is a multilateral environmental agreement with
180+ States Parties; regulating shipments of hazardous wastes
– it was interesting because of the broad range of things it
covered – from recycling of mobile phones and computers to
ships (e.g the Clemenceau) – a huge industry nowadays.
I then joined the Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague - an international
organisation established by, and mandated to implement
the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The CWC was
the first multilateral disarmament treaty prohibiting an
entire category of weapons of mass destruction. The OPCW
has 190 Member States. The earlier focus of the CWC was
the destruction of CW held by States, as well as chemical
weapon production facilities; interesting work. The main part
of my job was to provide legal support for the verification of
destruction activities ( there are teams of OPCW inspectors
who watch the destruction process – i.e. check how much CW
there is, and then check that all of it goes into the destruction
process). In recent years, most of this work related to the
stockpiles of the USA, Russia, Libya and Iraq. There is now
Syria to consider, which added a new element insofar as the
conditions for verification on the ground were very different
from what we had been used to – exciting work, but one
really felt the duty to try to ensure that colleagues and friends
who would be in the field would be properly protected. The
other OPCW emphasis, of increasing importance, was the
prevention of new CW being developed – e.g. working with
countries to help them prevent normal chemical industry
facilities from being used to create weapons. As a lawyer,
you have the good fortune to work in all aspects of the
organisation- from dealing with the internal rules (advising
on financial regulations, staff rules), to advising Member
countries. The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize was a recognition of
all of the work of the Organisation, not just the work in Syria
– and it gave everyone a tremendous boost to be recognised;
we had always worked fairly quietly, given the need for
discretion because of the type of thing we were working on.
I left OPCW one year ago – like most disarmament
organisations, there is a limit on the years you can serve so
you have to move on – and joined the Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the UN in Rome. This is a fascinating place,
which addresses so many fundamental issues. A current focus
is to try to achieve global food security (i.e. trying to making
sure that every person on the planet has access to enough
safe and nutritious food). We look at issues of food safety,
promotion of agriculture, and trade in agricultural products,
etc. Again, as a lawyer, I deal with a range of issues, from
the application of the internal rules, to the promotion of
international standards relating to food and agriculture. I have
a lot to learn!
Through all this, I have kept in touch with a small
group of friends from Gordonstoun – they are an incredible
source of support, encouragement, as well as inspiration.
Though we have each taken different paths, there is a tie that
means the friendships stay strong.
“
I KEPT IN TOUCH WITH A
SMALL GROUP OF FRIENDS
FROM GORDONSTOUN THEY ARE AN INCREDIBLE
SOURCE OF SUPPORT,
ENCOURAGEMENT,
AS
WELL AS INSPIRATION.
“
I came to Gordonstoun
from Waterford Kamhlaba,
a United World College in
Swaziland. My mother (an
architect who also worked
for the UN) was Scots, and
she wanted me to finish
my schooling in the UK.
After doing my A levels
at Gordonstoun, I went
to Cambridge University
(Girton College), first to
read history, and then
changed to read law. My
first job was with the University – working at the Lauterpacht
Research Centre for Public International Law. I gained a
Masters in Public International Law from the LSE and became
a member of the Bar of England and Wales, but I have spent
the last few years working in various organisations within the
United Nations System.
23
BREAKING NEWS
by Isabel Oakshott (Windmill, 1992)
They say that of all the senses, smell has the greatest power
to transport you to the past.
Stepping into the chapel at Gordonstoun one damp Friday
morning in September, I was overwhelmed by an extraordinary sense
that I had never left.
It was more than 20 years since I had set foot in the place.
Last time I was there was as a Windmill girl in 1992. It would have
been summer, the end of term, my last ever day at school. No doubt
we sang the school song with even more gusto than usual before
trooping out into the July sun, arm in arm with friends, thick with
emotion as we prepared to step into an uncertain new world.
Now I was back, and you know what? Chapel smelt exactly
the same. Perhaps it’s the fabric of the building, or perhaps the
cleaners are particularly wedded to a certain brand of disinfectant,
but the moment I walked through those heavy swing doors, the
familiar smell hit me and in an instant, I was 17-year-old with long
blonde hair, hanging up my Puffa, then sauntering over to the
Windmill seats, hoping to catch a glimpse of my boyfriend in the
Altyre seats.
“
STEPPING INTO THE CHAPEL AT
GORDONSTOUN
ONE
DAMP
FRIDAY MORNING IN SEPTEMBER,
I WAS OVERWHELMED BY AN
EXTRAORDINARY SENSE THAT I
HAD NEVER LEFT.
“
They don’t wear Puffa’s anymore, which is a shame. The
new duffel coat looks nice enough, but it has none of the comfort of
those pillowy navy jackets. It used to feel like putting on a duvet, a
soft shield against the elements. Other details of the uniform have
changed, but the smart ‘going out’ wear is reassuringly the same.
I was returning to Gordonstoun at the strangest of times,
just a few days before the referendum on Scottish independence. The
atmosphere was febrile: it was all anyone was talking about, not just
at the school, but everywhere. On the road to Elgin from Aberdeen
airport, you couldn’t miss the big ‘Yes’ signs, posted in windows,
on lamp posts, on billboards in fields. ‘No’ signs were few and far
between.
My job was to chair a referendum debate for the sixth
form and pupils from a handful of local schools, between the Tory
MSP Mary Scanlon – putting the case for the union – and the SNP’s
Richard Lochhead. It was a professional operation, organised and
conducted with all the seriousness of an adult debate.
To add to the drama, it was being filmed by a TV crew, who
have been based at Gordonstoun for many months, putting together a
fly-on-the-wall documentary about the school. It was the culmination
of months of meticulous preparation by headmaster Simon Reid and
former Guardian Marina Edge, who now works at the school, and
everyone seemed pleased by how it went.
24
But while I was honoured to be involved, for me the debate
was just work. The real pleasure was being back, seeing the school
again: a bit glossier, with its fancy new theatre and climbing wall; a
bit bigger, with the amalgamation of what was once Aberlour House
into a Gordonstoun prep school; but as gutsy, quirky, cool, and
achingly beautiful in the early autumn mist as ever. If only there had
been time, I would have loved to have walked, alone, up to the cliffs,
remembering the heady coconut smell of the gorse in summer; or sat
quietly at the back of G House, breathing in the dank air, looking
down at the lake; or picked my way along the Silent Walk, reflecting
on the girl I was then, and who I have become.
That Altyre boy broke my heart. He was in the year above
me, and very wisely, dumped me as soon as he got to university. I
quite liked the melodrama, and cried every day for three weeks. My
broken heart cast a shadow over my final year at school, but the big
things Gordonstoun gave me no boy or man could ever take away:
confidence, self belief, a sense of adventure, a love of mountains and
fresh air – and many other things besides.
Oddly, at 17, I never thought I would have much of a
career. I had no idea what I was going to do when I left university,
and it didn’t worry me. That was one of the great gifts of being at
Gordonstoun: cut off from the world, by geography not least, we took
each day as it came.
We didn’t know who or what we would become, and for the
most part, we didn’t care. I think that’s how it should be at 17.
*Isabel Oakeshott is a political journalist and commentator, currently
writing a biography of the prime minister
CREATING A HEALTHY WORLD
by Sarah Anderson (Hopeman, 2007)
I will always remember
It was clear that in order for me to make a bigger
the first talk Mr. Pyper,
impact in the lives of those in underserved communities I would
headmaster at the time, gave
need to advance my education in public health. Having a strong
the lower-sixth class of 2005
mathematical background and an avid interest in biostatistics I
emboldening us to never miss
decided to concentrate my master’s degree in epidemiology, or the
an opportunity that presented
study of the causes and trends in illness among populations. My
itself. These words inspired me to
passion for travel and living among new cultures led me to pursue my
create a fresh start for myself at
degree in Stockholm at the Karolinska Institute.
Gordonstoun.
A school trip to Thailand
I was fortunate enough to be at a university that gave me the
flexibility to write my master’s thesis outside of Stockholm for the final
between my lower- and upper-
semester. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to gain field experience
sixth years opened my eyes to
before settling into a career after studying. I connected with a
the health challenges that basic
research group in Zambia based out of Emory University in the United
human requirements like clean
States, as they were planning the implementation of an electronic
water mandate.
fingerprinting system to track HIV among high-risk groups in their
With a team of Karen villagers, we installed a plumbing
system and river dam to facilitate fresh running water. Before
arriving I thought I was going to build a dam. When I left I knew
that I was involved in protecting a village of Thai people from the
problems arising from stagnant, contaminated water—something that
generations of humans from the first world
clinics. The timing was serendipitous and I spent three months between
Lusaka and Ndola conducting the pilot test of the new system. As an
epidemiologist trained in Sweden the experience of data collection
and analysis in a developing country was incredibly challenging and
rewarding and I knew I had chosen the right career path.
Despite having left home in Los Angeles
take for granted every day. I realized
at the age of 16 to attend Gordonstoun I still
that the knowledge of this fundamental
didn’t feel ready to return home when I finished
right to health can be easily shared and
my master’s in June. I have since returned to
disseminated. It shaped my path of study
the UK where I’m working as an epidemiologist
and, ultimately, my decision to pursue an
at a consulting firm in London. Here we
undergraduate degree in public health.
research and forecast disease trends in 30
My senior paper was a project
in which we had to design an intervention
countries to assist biotech and pharmaceutical
companies in the allocation of their resources.
for a public health problem of our interest.
I chose to research the health implications
profit organizations this has been a fascinating
of human trafficking. This fascinated me
Having previously only worked for non-
opportunity to see the full spectrum of global
because one typically thinks of human trafficking as a human
health players and to witness the relationship between the public
rights violation without acknowledging the severe impacts it has on
and private sectors. I can sincerely say that my time at Gordonstoun
populations. I designed a rehabilitation centre in India for rescued
was paramount in my decisions to pursue opportunities abroad and
victims. My hypothetical intervention had the primary aim of restoring
to take the career path that I did. I will always be grateful for the
health to the victims. A physical health assessment would be made
unwavering encouragement of my teachers and peers both during
upon their rescue including tests for TB, HIV, and STIs. I emphasized
and after my time at school.
the importance of a mental health evaluation, as many of the victims
suffer from anxiety, depression, and PTSD. After completing the
project I was eager to see how my idea of a safe-house differed from
one already operating in India.
After graduating from the George Washington University, I
went to Mysore, Karnataka in South India to volunteer with Odanadi,
an organization that executes rescue operations and houses victims of
trafficking until they have completed school.
While my case study emphasized the treatment of disease
and mental health problems the home in Mysore focused largely
on education and future life goals. Although nutritional deficiencies
were obvious in the underdeveloped children the main concern of
the organization was that they be educated and move forward in
their lives with less vulnerability to traffickers. My primary role was
to act as an English teacher as the ability to speak English in India is
crucial for professional and social currency. While this experience
illuminated the idealism of my senior project, I knew that I hadn’t
reached my full potential.
25
WE WILL ROCK YOU
by Will Irvine (Duffus, 2008)
I left Gordonstoun in 2008 after an action packed five
years that will stay with me forever. It really doesn’t feel like long ago
that I was making the many daily commutes from Duffus House on to
the school campus. My passion at school was sport and I was lucky
enough to go on 1st XV rugby tours to South Africa (2006) and Sri
Lanka (2008) as well as having success in the Scottish league and cup
competitions. Gordonstoun was great at supporting my love for sport
but also allowed me to discover things
about myself that I may have never
known otherwise. In the Autumn term
of my final year I had a very interesting
conversation with Nigel Williams, my
house tutor and director of drama at
the time. He asked me if I would be
auditioning for the school musical which
was set to be Queen and Ben Elton’s
‘We Will Rock You’. I told him that whilst
it sounded like a lot of fun, I couldn’t
sing to save my life! After some lengthy
negotiations he managed to convince
me to come along to the auditions and
give it a go. I auditioned for the part
of ‘Britney’, one of the lead roles in the
production. To my absolute surprise I
was given the role and the rehearsal
process began. The show was a sell
out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
and I found I had a brand new passion
for singing and performing. I’d go as
far as to say that I would never have
entertained the idea of singing in front of
anyone before that show.
A year later I found myself
starting a degree in Performance at
Northumbria University in Newcastle.
Jamie Hunter (Cumming 2008) was
studying Business with Marketing and
we found ourselves next door to each
other in the same halls of residence.
Jamie was a keen guitar player at this
point. He used to play songs and I would
sing along when we had nothing to do.
It turns out there was a fair amount of
down time in 1st year so we started to
practice a lot! Eventually Jamie started
to teach me the guitar. We knew we
had gone from ‘bad’ to ‘not too bad’
when our friends came and listened to
us playing. With our confidence sky high
we started playing a few pub gigs for the
drunken student masses. At this point we
only played other peoples’ songs, but
by the time we left Uni we had started
writing our own music. We gained some
great experience playing in Newcastle
26
and felt that we had something that was worth moving forward with.
I finished my degree that summer and headed home to Achiltibuie
(Highlands) where Jamie met me for a 2-week attempt at song writing.
We wrote a bunch of songs, some of which were terrible. However, we
decided that we had enough good material to warrant going to London
in search of gigs. After many rubbish name suggestions, Hunter & The
Bear was born!
Having called in some favours
we both had kind offers of places to
stay when we first moved South. We sent
out countless emails to promoters and
venues asking if we could play. After
a fair amount of rejection we began to
pick up a few regular slots on the London
circuit. We were constantly writing new
material and trying to improve our live
set. In April 2013 we were approached
by management after playing a show at
The Half Moon, Putney. This could not
have come at a better time as we were
just starting to build up a small following.
With our lovely new manager Lily on
board, we began to play at bigger and
better shows. We released our debut
EP ‘Dusty Road’ in October 2013 and
began to build the band. We added
bass (Chris Clark) and drums (Gareth
Thompson) to the equation late in the
year and set ourselves up nicely for
2014.
This year has been massive
for us. We were invited to support the
legend that is Eric Clapton on the UK leg
of his World Tour. This was a SERIOUS
step up for us as you can probably
imagine. The feeling of walking out onto
those arena stages is something that
you cannot prepare for. We learnt a
great deal and even had some friendly
Gordonstoun faces come to cheer us
on as we took to the 14,000 capacity
venues. That’s always nice! On top of
that we recorded and released a new EP
‘Before I Come Home’ which is out now
on iTunes. We’ve been out on the road to
play a manic summer of festivals such as
T in The Park, Loopallu, Cornbury, Hard
Rock Calling, Car Fest and many more.
It has been a crazy year that is only just
beginning to wind down as the summer is
well and truly over. We are planning our
own Headline Tour of the UK in February
along with some shows in London in the
coming weeks to round off the gigging
calendar. Bring on 2015!
A QUESTION OF DESIGN
by Ross Johnston (Gordonstoun, 2008)
During my time at Gordonstoun I developed into a
more mature and confident individual. The school’s ethos and
philosophy of developing students in a more holistic way paid
off in my case. However, I was still unsure about my future
and the way forward. I was strongly leaning towards sport
or design and I finally decided to pursue further studies in the
latter. I applied to three Universities and was accepted by them
all. I was delighted to get on to the product design course at
Edinburgh College of Art (Edinburgh University) as this was my
first choice. My design portfolio was strong and I was accepted
straight into their second year class.
Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University
merged before I got there which led to changes and teaching
methods in the course. This meant that I benefitted from a
more robust course which included new materials and more
demanding assessments to be completed. The course provided
me with the knowledge and depth to try out new ideas. There
was a spirit of risk taking that allowed us to experiment and
sometimes ours ideas worked and sometimes they did not. Even
in failure we learned from the experience.
Highlights of the course were; the chance of working
with external design consultancies and award winning teams,
producing ideas that went into production and learning about all
of the stages of production.
‘Shoddy’ is a waste material from the carpet industry.
Currently shoddy is sent in bulk to landfill, which is costly to both
our environment and to the businesses that pay for uplift and
disposal.
Shoddy is a raw material that initially appears
unattractive and difficult to work with but it led to a number of
different samples produced for my degree show. I used it to
create a series of birdhouses by mixing it with an eco-friendly
bio-derived resin as the binder and an alternative to MDF; at
present the majority of Medium Density Fiberboard produced
uses urea formaldehyde, to bind the fibers. This leads to the
problem of “off gassing” during and after production and is
a major carcinogen. It is still currently used in our homes and
schools.
After seeing the London 2012 Paralympics, I decided
to focus my project on the problems that some athletes have to
overcome their disabilities.
I chose the sport of swimming as I was a competitive
swimmer myself and experienced first-hand research in the
company of visually impaired swimmers. This led to the
discovery that sensory impaired swimmers encounter many
problems in swimming pools; collisions with other swimmers and
with the lane dividers, knowing when they are approaching
The art college invested in newly developed 3D
Printing machines, which aids rapid prototyping and trial runs of
products before they are manufactured. One of the products I
created was a dining set based around the idea of jewellery for
the home. This product range was shortlisted and I got into the
top ten out of 600 students. I was asked to attend the Purmundus
Exhibition and displayed my work in Frankfurt at the Euromold
design fair.
the end of the race and judging when to do a tumble turn.
Currently a swimmer knows when to do a tumble turn by being
hit on the back of the head with a tennis ball attached to a
fiberglass fishing rod held by a “minder”. I solved the problem
by designing sensory improvement devices using a variety of
technical components built into swimming goggles. This will
hopefully be available to all sensory impaired swimmers in the
future.
Other designs that I have created include a device that
slows down the onset of dementia and gives the patient a more
active life.
Edinburgh University awarded me a first-class honours
degree in product design in July 2014.
My final year designs explored the potential to upcycle shredded carpet waste into a product and to develop
swimming goggles for the visually impaired.
I would like to thank the staff at Gordonstoun School
for their help and support through my final years at school, with
a special mention for Mr. Kirkwood. An extra special thanks to
Mrs. McCallum for continuing my enthusiasm in art and design.
27
RSIS KENYA PROJECT
by Evangeline House (Windmill, 2014)
to 6 children. The Headmaster explained that
the government gives 700 Kenyan shillings per
year for each child. This works out to be the
equivalent of around £6. It was at this point I
realised just what a difference we could make
by renovating their classrooms.
We worked as a group of 24
with 12 international students coming from
Scotland, England, Canada, Germany,
Russia, India, Dubai, Switzerland and Jordan,
whilst there were 12 boys from Starehe Boys
Centre in Kenya. The mix of cultures and
stories was amazing and very different from
even Gordonstoun! A typical working day
consisted of getting up at 6.30am, having
breakfast, then heading to our work site for
8.15am where we would work until 3pm most
days. However there were a few exceptions
I do not really have any words I
three weeks. On arrival in Nairobi my large
and whilst we were there Kenya celebrated its
50th year of independence, which meant that
could use which would adequately describe
rucksack had not arrived. So I was down to 2
the experience of a lifetime which came in the
clean sets of clothes which I had fortunately
form of my RSIS Project to Kenya in December
packed within my hand luggage, the missing
2013. I will however, endeavour to share
rucksack arrived the following day.
and emotionally very challenging, although
the motivation you had to do something for
some of my experiences and memories from
this amazing opportunity.
This was my first time visiting Kenya,
The project was run by RSIS and
Moving Mountains charity and it involved
camping at an orphanage whilst renovating
and indeed Africa. I had various expectations
three class rooms in the county of Siyia.
of the country and continent as anyone does
Two of these were at the primary school of
visiting a new place. One of my reasons
Ulumba, and one at a secondary school
for choosing the Kenya, Round Square
named Bakatado. The schools themselves were
International Service project was because I
incredibly basic and one desk would seat up
thought what better way to experience the
culture than with an organisation where I
wouldn’t simply see the ‘air- brushed’ areas
which are specifically created for tourists.
I was anxious to see the ‘real’ Africa and
to give something to the people I met whilst
gaining an incredible experience and at the
same time challenging myself.
After hearing I had been accepted
onto the team of the Kenya Service Project I
immediately began raising money. I did this
with determination and hard work throughout
my summer holidays and each and every
other one up to my project working in an Art
Exhibition and at an Art Gallery alongside
cleaning cottages and running my school
house tuck shop.
I left my home with two rucksacks
which would be my biggest luxuries for the next
28
nobody was allowed to work!
The Kenya project was physically
the physical challenge was counteracted by
the people we had met less than one week
previously. Their gratitude and thanks at the
end of the project was very humbling and
it will always stay with me. I am extremely
grateful for the support given to me by The
Gordonstoun Association which made all of
this this possible.
The Gordonstoun Association
requests the pleasure of your company on
GA
Day
at Gordonstoun
Elgin, Moray IV30 5RF
Saturday 2 May 2015
There will be a range of activities during the day
followed by dinner in the evening
Please contact the GA Office if you would like to attend.
E: [email protected] T: 01343 837922
GA EVENTS
The Friday of Calcutta Cup weekend last February saw
around 70 OGs gather in Panda and Sons, a new bar on Queen
Street, owned and run by Iain McPherson (Duffus 2005). The
following day a useful squad of 25 players gathered a Raeburn
Place to take on Edinburgh Accies. It was a very competitive match
and the OGs gave their hosts a real run for their money cheered on
by some vociferous support but in the end Accies were slightly more
cohesive. After the game players and supporters adjourned to the
clubhouse for lunch and refreshments and many stayed on to watch
the internationals.
March saw around 50 OGs gather for the splendid annual
London Dinner in Fino’s. This was a most convivial affair and all
those who attended had a pleasant evening. In April the focus
turned to Yorkshire and the Ilkley Dinner at the eponymous golf
club. Once again this was a delightful occasion.
The May Bank Holiday weekend saw over 250 former
students and their families visit Morayshire for the Gordonstoun
Association Weekend. The school’s alumni returned from as far
afield as Canada, the USA and South Africa, some after a gap of
over 60 years, to celebrate the school 80th Anniversary. Events
began on the Thursday with OGGS golf and on Friday evening
the Laichmoray Hotel in Elgin played host to a reunion of former
students of Altyre House, which was part of Gordonstoun in the
1950’s, but located in Forres. Almost 70 folk gathered to enjoy a
meal, music and drama and reminisce about their school days. It
was a wonderful evening.
There were many other highlights of the voyage, amongst
them was in Portsmouth where Commander Catherine Jordan
(Windmill 1993) was able to reciprocate some of Ocean Spirits
hospitality by arranging a tour of her Warship HMS St Albans. A
special mention must be made of the crew of Ocean Spirit who were
not only very competent sailors but the most welcoming of hosts.
The Edinburgh Dinner took place in August in the splendid
setting of the New Club where Prof Bryan Williams was the guest
of honour. Not only were the assembled revellers treated to a
sumptuous meal and a most enjoyable speech by Bryan, but also a
stunning firework display courtesy of the Edinburgh Tattoo.
In September the GA held an 80th Anniversary Ball at the
Caledonian Club in London at which Simon and Michèle Reid were
the guests of honour. It proved to be a thoroughly splendid evening
of good food and energetic reeling.
In September we delighted to welcome HRH The Duke of
Edinburgh (Gordonstoun House 1939) back to his alma mater. He
was a particularly appropriate visitor in the school’s 80th year. Kurt
Hahn and the first handful of pupils had arrived in Morayshire in the
May of 1934 but The Duke of Edinburgh was one of the next group
to join them in the September of that year. He certainly appeared
to thoroughly enjoy his day and we are very grateful to him for
spending time with us. It is gratifying that since his visit his office
have been in touch to say that he is very keen to receive the termly
email ‘newsletter’ in addition the GA magazine which he both reads
and enjoys.
On Saturday 3rd May, GA Day itself, around 200 visitors
enjoyed the warm spring sunshine and a full programme of events.
The day culminated with an excellent Dinner. The guest of honour
for the day was Prince Max von Baden, whose grandfather, also
Max, was appointed German Chancellor in 1918. It was he who
encouraged Kurt Hahn, Gordonstoun’s founder, to open a school at
Schloss Salem in 1920. It was also wonderful to see Barbie Kemp
and Elizabeth Mavor, whose husbands had guided the school in the
1970’s and 1980’s respectively.
In June the GA held its first ever gathering in Vienna.
This was hosted at the British Embassy and put together with some
considerable style by Owen Watkins (Duffus 1997) who works at
the Embassy. Around 70 OGs and guests thoroughly enjoyed the
evening and it was wonderful occasion.
The 80/80 voyage around Great Britain by Ocean Spirit
was a huge success. The main celebration took place in at St
Katherine Docks, London, where HRH The Princess Royal attended
a luncheon on Ocean Spirit. Later in the day around 300 people
were enthralled by some of the school’s Year 11 students who put
on a brilliant version of The Tempest. We also had entertainment
from the fantastic Will Irvine (Duffus 2008) and Jamie Hunter
(Cumming 2008) and their band aka Hunter and the Bear, and
by the irrepressible Tommy Antonio (Round Square 2005). The
‘Gordonstounbury’ feel was completed by David Nye (Duffus 2001)
who brought in his team from The Great British Sausage Company to
feed the hungry multitude. The whole day was absolutely brilliant!
Other highlights of the period in London included a book reading
by author/journalist Alan Judd and a reunion for the Class of 2004.
The latter began with a drinks reception on Ocean Spirit followed
by a Dinner in central London.
30
On October 31st ten OGs returned to school to take part
in the GA Careers Convention. They met with all of the Y11 pupils in
the afternoon and in the evening had supper with members of the
Sixth Form to discuss university and career options and life beyond
Gordonstoun.
80 YEARS OF GORDONSTOUN
OGGS
Angus Morgan OGGS Captain (Cumming, 1962)
The genesis of the OGGS was an outing to Bruntsfield Links
Golfing Society in Edinburgh organised by a few Gordonstoun former
pupils in the mid nineties. Over the years the number grew, and
Martin Scriven arranged a further fixture at Ilkley. It then seemed like
a good idea to form a Society within the GA, to provide like minded
Gordonstoun golfers with the opportunity to get together at other
locations throughout the UK and hopefully, in time, further afield.
The Society was formally incorporated within the GA in
2010,and has gone from strength to strength ever since. A widening
number of fixtures take place and the following is my Captain’s report
to the membership (now close to 100) of the events of 2014: Ilkley - April
Ilkley is a most pretty course, which is bounded on the south
side by the river Wharfe, purloiner of many golf balls. As in previous
years we were extremely well looked after by the club, and the course
was in excellent condition. Your Treasurer, Martin Scriven, does a fine
job organising the event and is a most welcoming host. We had 11
competitors and 15 for dinner. The winner was Chris Ainsworth. The
date for 2015 will be Friday 10th April.
Moray – May
It was clear from all who made it to Nairn and Castle Stuart
that the two-day event was an unqualified success. Courtesy of Graeme
Govan and the Nairn Committee, the AGM was held in the very
impressive committee room of the club, and Graeme had arranged for
members to have access to the Club’s imposing archive room.
The match against the School was played in a strong wind but
with sunshine throughout. The result was an emphatic win by the OGGS
team, four matches to one. Discretion prevents me from identifying the
“one” – they know who they are! For me one of the most memorable
parts of the day was to see your Secretary’s tee shot just fail to make it
on to the first green. The first hole is 395yds. The match was followed by
an excellent supper in the club. As agreed OGGS hosted the students,
who thanked the Society for its generosity, not only for the supper but
also for helping with the provision of the splendid Gordonstoun golf
team wind cheaters that they were wearing for the match.
The following day, 41 members arrived at Castle Stuart where
the conditions were excellent. As at our first visit the course was very
much enjoyed by all. It is spectacular, challenging, but at the same
time playable by all abilities. The competition, and thereby the OGGS
trophy, was won by Mike Doughty. The longest drive was won, not
surprisingly, by the Secretary, and the nearest the hole by ….. Well
modesty prevents.
It was the overwhelming opinion of those present that if
possible we should return to both venues. I am happy to report that
thanks to the persuasive talents of Richard Devey, and the generosity of
Graeme Govan and the Nairn Club, all is now booked for 2015. Once
again we will coincide the matches with the GA weekend at the School.
The match against the School will be on Thursday the 30th of April and
the Annual Competition at Castle Stuart on Friday the 1st of May.
Edinburgh – June
The weather was great but the turnout for the Bruntsfield
match was poor in number (but high in quality!). Only five of us teed
off, and John Nicholson won the special trophy. Not only does John
32
have the responsibility of ensuring that his name is inscribed on the
trophy, but he also has to find a way of re-attaching the golfer’s head
that forms an integral part of this very “special” Edinburgh trophy.
For 2015 it is proposed that, courtesy of Harry Waugh, the
event will be moved to Lufness. To those who don’t know the course, it
is up there with Muirfield and Gullane, and it also has a top rate dining
room, much to look forward to. The proposed date (yet to be finally
confirmed) is Friday the 19th of June.
London – July
The 13 members who made it to Denham had a grand day.
The course is, in places, challenging, and was in excellent condition.
As promised the lunch was out of the top drawer. The winner was Ian
Durant, and although Ian also won the longest drive, nobody managed
to get the ball on the green at the “closest to the pin” hole. All 13 heads
were suitably hung in shame. Following lunch a number of the members
engaged in foursome matches, which were great fun and keenly fought.
Mike Doughty has very kindly agreed to organise the 2015
match at Denham. However, Mike and the Committee were somewhat
disappointed with the turnout, bearing in mind the number of members
in the greater London area. There was a suggestion that the third week
in July was perhaps not the best timing, and currently Mike Doughty is
making arrangements for the match to be played on a Wednesday in
the second half of September. We look forward to seeing many more
London Members at Denham in 2015.
Other 2014 events.
A match had been arranged at Panmure against Fettes FPs,
but regrettably they were unable to raise a team – so we are taking
that as a victory
Bill Logan has for the third time raised an OGGS team to play
in the LSSGS competition at St George’s Hill in London at the end of
November. It is hoped that they will continue to do well having come
second on a previous occasion.
A number of years ago Greig Carnie, as a result of playing
in a few of the earlier OGGS matches, very kindly invited a few
members to join him and other members of the Honourable Company
of Edinburgh Golfer, some of whom are OGs, for a Foursomes match at
Muirfield. It has always been a most enjoyable day, generally blessed
with good weather and the after lunch photo of this year’s participants
in the “Greig Carnie Invitational” shows just how enjoyable.
GOLF
by Georgie Middleton (Hopeman, 1979)
For the avoidance of doubt, the host, Greig Carnie, is sixth
from the right resplendent in his OGGS sweater
2015
Having been Captain of OGGS since 2010, it is now time to
hand over to new, younger, blood, and I am delighted that Andrew
Gordon has agreed to accept the position of Vice Captain, and will
assume the Captaincy after the 2015 AGM. Andrew originally hails from
Lossiemouth and, unlike the current Captain, is a proper golfer, having
competed as a young man in the Scottish Schools Championship. He
lives in Cobham, plays off 7 and, with a group of his “year class”, has
been a strong supporter of the Society.
Following the AGM the committee considered a number of
options that were put forward by the membership and concluded that
in addition to continuing to support golf lessons for younger students
at the School, and supporting the School team at the annual match,
the Society’s efforts should be directed at widening the membership.
Accordingly it is proposed that, with their permission, all “golfers” at the
School should automatically become members of OGGS in their final
year. Secondly OGGS will provide a 50% subsidy for all members under
29 participating in an OGGS event - with the exception of the Annual
Competition. It is hoped that this support will prove to be a real incentive
for younger members to take part in the regional events.”
Finally, in this my last report for the GA Magazine I would with
to thank, both gratefully and formally, those who have played key roles
in forming and developing the Society: - the Treasurer, Martin Scriven
(a delightful, entertaining and enthusiastic supporter, as well as a very
professional accountant); the Founding Secretary, Robbie Clyde (who
had to resign in order to apply his considerable talents to organising
the very successful Ryder Cup at Gleneagles); the Current Secretary,
Brian O’Connor (a tower of strength as well as a prodigious golfer,
who willingly stood forward to take over the reins so successfully from
Robbie); and last, but not least, Richard Devey, and Andrew Lyall at the
School, who have made it all very easy for the rest of us.
OGGS MATCHES
OGGS ILKLEY OUTING
Friday 10th April 2015 - Ilkley GC
OGGS MATCH V THE SCHOOL
Thursday 30th April 2015 - Nairn
OGGS CASTLE STUART TOURNAMENT
Friday 1st May 2015 - Inverness
Many congratulations to Lulu
Housman (Windmill, 1973-78), who
made her debut this year for England
Senior Ladies Golf Team. The England
team beat 16 countries to win the
European Team Championship in Austria
(2-6th September) at Jack Nicklaus’s
course Gut Altentann. Matches were
played in difficult weather conditions
with some balls being embedded in
water-logged fairways. Lulu and Chris
Quinn came from 5 behind after 9 in
their foursomes to beat the favourites
France on the final round. Lulu’s putt
sealed the win for England. A veteran
England player with 3 bronzes and 2
silvers, Chris had never won gold in Europe which made the win all the
sweeter for both players.
The Home Internationals took place at Huddersfield over
three days in warm October sunshine. Ireland were tough opponents,
but all the teams had plenty of points on the board making the final
afternoon a tense affair. In the end during the afternoon’s singles the
England Ladies beat Wales 4-1, Ireland beat Scotland 5-0, which was
sufficient to give England a clear victory. Lulu won her singles match 3
and 2 and she and Chris won 2 out of 3 of their foursomes.
Lulu’s participation for England follows a long and successful
amateur golf career in which she has been Middlesex County
Champion four times and runner up twice. Between the two England
performances, Lulu went to Dornoch to play in the British Senior
Open. It was a test of skill, steadiness and stamina. Many international
ex-pros were among the 100 starters to contest the title, and Lulu
found herself well able to compete at this level. She played +2 after 3
rounds, coming 3rd= and placed 4th after a countback. Her twin sister
Georgie (Hopeman) caddied for her and she was also supported by
former Gordonstoun pupil and parent Caroline Gilchrist (Hopeman),
who lives in Dornoch.
Lulu began her golf as a girl aged 8 in Kenya and during her
time at Gordonstoun played regularly at picturesque Hopeman. This
took a certain dedication. It was during the days of taking your clubs
by bike to Hopeman, usually against a head wind, as was the game
itself! Lessons were given on Sweethillocks once a week with a small
group of keen players of all ages. Lulu was a strong sportswoman at
Gordonstoun where, in addition to golf, she played hockey for the
school and North of Scotland strongly encouraged by George Welsh.
OGGS LUFNESS OUTING
Friday 19th June 2015 - TBC
OGGS DENHAM MATCH
Thursday 17th Sept 2015
FOR BOOKINGS & INFO EMAIL
[email protected]
33
ANNOUNCEMENTS
MARRIAGES
If you wish to share the news of your
graduation, engagement, marriage, births
Daniella Cox (Hopeman 2009) to Andy Ross on December 21st 2013
or notify the Gordonstoun Association of a
BIRTHS
bereavement, please contact the Gordonstoun
Laurent and Alexandra Pujade-Lauraine (nee Collie) Plewlands 2001 are happy to
announce the birth of their daughter Astrid Marie Constance on 28th April 2014
Association Office. Tel: +44 (0)1343 837922
or Email: [email protected]
Born to Ilse Van Doesburg Plewlands 1991 a son Finnley
OBITUARIES
The Gordonstoun Association is sad to announce the deaths of the following alumni and extends its
condolences to their family and friends.
FRANCIS DICKINS - Plasdinam 1942
JONATHAN WIGGLESWORTH - Cumming 1952
ROBERT LENNOX SCOTT BLACKADDER - Round Square
HENRY HOTCHKISS - Cumming/Duffus 1954
1942
DEREK PARFECT- Plasdinam 1943
MICHAEL BROWNSON - Berth Ddu (Wales) 1944
PAUL DOVE - Plasdinam 1944
EWAN ORMISTON - 1944
CAPTAIN MAURICE SEDDON - Plasdinam 1944
ULRICH HOFFMANN - 1945
CAPTAIN JOHN ROYDEN PRITCHARD - 1947
PETER JOHN MULLER - 1954
GRAEME KYNOCH - Duffus 1957
COLIN H G GILBERT - Round Square 1959
JOHN OSBORNE - Hopeman 1959
FRANCIS DELANO REISS - Altyre 1969
DAVID PATERSON - Cumming 1977
SALLY CROSSLEY-SMITH (nee Drake) - Hopeman 1980
DAVID WELTON - Former Staff
DAVID CUNNINGHAME - Cumming 1949
Full obituaries (if available) can be seen on our website: www.gordonstoun.org.uk/former-students/ga/obituaries
£££ THE GA 200 CLUB £££
YOU COULD BE IN WITH A CHANCE OF WINNING £1000!!!!
The GA 200 Club requires more members. Membership of the GA 200 Club costs just £30 a year. If you join the GA 200 Club you
will be doing your bit to help current students. The surplus money that the GA 200 Club generates goes into a fund known as The
Student Support Fund which is available to students who require financial help in order to participate in overseas projects, such as the
Thailand Water Project and Sinai Project.
The annual 200 Club £1000 prize is drawn during the AGM, which this year will be held on GA Day, at the School, on Saturday 2nd
May 2015. As well as the £1000 prize drawn in May there is a £500 prize which is drawn in November and also a £40 prize drawn
during each of the ten remaining months of the year. Please sign up as it is for such a good cause. If you are interested in becoming a
200 Club member, please contact the GA Office by email [email protected] or phone 01343 837922 to request an application
form.
ASSOCIATION EVENTS
31
UPCOMING EVENTS
For up-to-date information on all events and gatherings, please see our website:
www.gordonstoun.org.uk/former-students/ga/gatherings
or phone the GA Office on +44 (0) 1343 837922
THE GA ARTS & LITERACY SOCIETY
“THE FIFTH WORLD” ART EXHIBITION BY
ALICE BOYLE (WINDMILL 1999), LONDON
17th - 22nd February 2015
THE GA ANNUAL LONDON DINNER
FINO’S WINE CELLAR, LONDON
Friday 13th March 2015
CALCUTTA CUP WEEKEND
LONDON
Saturday 14th March 2015
THE GA YORKSHIRE DINNER
ILKLEY
Friday 10th April 2015
THE CLASS OF 1995 REUNION
FINO’S WINE CELLAR, LONDON
Friday 24th April 2015
GA DAY 2015
SCHOOL
Saturday 2nd May 2015
THE CLASS OF 1985 REUNION
GA Weekend May 2015
THE CLASS OF 2005 REUNION
GA Weekend May 2015
THE GA ANNUAL EDINBURGH DINNER
NEW CLUB, EDINBURGH
Friday 7th August 2015
Do you have a story you’d like to see published in the next edition of this magazine? If so, please get in touch
with the GA Office: [email protected] | +44 (0) 1343 837922