Opus Issue 3

InsideRipping Yarns: OP Percy Westerman’s tales of espionage, heroism and derring-do

Michael Ripper: Serial chiller OP’s Hammer Horror career profiled

Ripples of Laughter: Meet the OP Kings of Comedy

Keeping in touch with OPs wherever they may be

Issue 3 • Autumn 2010

The Magazine for former pupils, former parents and friends of The Portsmouth Grammar School

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OPUS • Issue 3 • Autumn 20102 3Portsmouth Grammar School • www.pgs.org.uk

OP recognised for wartime heroismAn 89-year-old Channel Islander who was instrumental in destroying German ships during the Second World War has received France’s highest national award.

Lieutenant Roland Osborn-Smith OP (1934-1937) served as gunnery control officer on board HMS Albrighton – one of the famous Hunt Class destroyers – before and during the D-Day operations.

The boat torpedoed and sank a number of German ships off the north-west coast of France in 1943 and was involved in the D-Day landings.

Mr Osborn-Smith was awarded the insignia of the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur for exceptional services by the Ambassador of France, Monsieur Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, in London in August and joins the ranks of very few Britons to receive the prestigious decoration including Laurence Olivier, Dame Ninette de Valois and J K Rowling. More details about Mr Osborn-Smith’s extraordinary wartime career will feature in a forthcoming edition of Opus.

Head of PGS Junior School Retires The Headmistress of the Junior School, Mrs Pippa Foster, will be retiring at the end of the Autumn Term 2010 after 23 years of outstanding service. Pippa is married to OP Robert (1955-65), a local solicitor, and has three sons who are also Old Portmuthians.

Mrs Foster first joined PGS in 1988 as an Assistant Teacher in the Pre-Prep, later becoming its Headteacher in 1993. In September 2000 she became Head of the newly combined Junior School, which celebrates its tenth birthday this year.

The Junior School has flourished under Mrs. Foster’s leadership and enjoys an outstanding reputation for the quality of pastoral care, teaching and learning and the range of co-curricular opportunities on offer.

Mrs. Foster’s successor will be Mr Peter Hopkinson, currently Head of the Arnold School, Blackpool, which, like PGS, is an HMC day school educating girls and boys from 2-18.

On Saturday 4 December a Christmas Ball will be held on HMS Warrior to celebrate the tenth birthday of the Junior School and also to mark Mrs Foster’s retirement. Further details can be found on p35 under “Forthcoming Events”.

Mrs Foster’s outstanding contribution to PGS will be celebrated in the Spring 2011 edition of Opus, so please keep sending in your memories of this exceptional teacher!’

New Recruit for OP ClubThe newly appointed PGS Deputy Head of Sixth Form, Helen Linnett, has also accepted an invitation to serve on the Committee of the OP Club. Helen grew up in Portsmouth and attended Wykeham House school in Fareham before completing a degree in Sports Science (and then PGCE) at Chichester. Her hobbies include skiing (she claims that PGS ski trips are the BEST!) and playing netball for the Lions, a team comprising of staff and OPs. She has been part of the small team which spearheaded the ‘56at45’ fundraising campaign to raise £10,000 to build a village school in Cambodia. She visited the project site in 2009 and raised the money in under 12 months, paving the way for a group of Year 13 Leavers and OPs to help construct it over the summer.

Helen also has a further connection to PGS as her brother, Scott, was a PGS pupil from 1982 to 1993. She comments:

“My earliest memories are of playing on the newly erected Netball courts at Hilsea whilst waiting to pick my brother up from a football game, sitting in the Rotunda listening to the brass ensemble perform before they travelled to Texas on tour, and of being confused as to why my brother wore grey shorts even in the winter!!

PGS was a big part of my childhood but little did I know that some 16 years later I would take up my position as PE and Games teacher at the mighty Portsmouth Grammar School and it would become an even bigger part of my life!!

Having worked in the PE department, taught Portsmouth Curriculum, been a PGCE and GTP mentor, the head of House Sport, Deputy Head of years 9-11 and now move onto become Deputy Head of Sixth Form, I think that if you took an x-ray you would see Black, Red and Gold running right through me! It is therefore my absolute pleasure and extreme privilege to accept the kind invitation to join the OP Club committee.”

Contents In BriefA round-up of OP news and events

In Brief - A round-up of OP news and events 3

Raising some bucks for the Founder’s House... - Buckingham House for sale 4-5

A beastly sticky history of The Portmuthian - A history of The Portmuthian 6-8

Percy Pulls it Off! - The ripping yarns of Percy F. Westerman OP 9-11

From Hamlet to Hammer - Michael Ripper OP profiled 12-13

The bone-breaking record-breaker - Tony Svensson OP 14-15

John “Nine Gun” Coghlan - WW2 fighter pilot 16-17

Inside Track - Television Presenter; Mike Wedderburn OP 17

Happy Ending from PGS’s Master Storyteller - James Clavell OP 18-19

Hilsea 125 - Mike Barnard - A return to Hilsea for a football and cricket star 20-21

Hilsea 125 - From Dashers to Gnashers! - Richard Simonsen OP 21

Hilsea 125 - Record breaker returns to Hilsea - Tony Ellick OP 22

Annual School vs OP Tennis & Cricket Matches - Results and reports 23

Class Clowns - Comedians Simon Jenkins and Mike Wozniak 24-25

Class of 2010 - Leavers Elizabeth Robinson , Matthew Gray & Robin Lucas 25-26

The Long Haul - Alex Hibbert OP - 2008 Trans-Greenland Expedition presentation 27

Where are they now? - Search for the 1989 Pyrenees cyclists 28

Born to Run - Aviva Legends Relay 28

The Probationary Pianist - John Bannell OP 28

Time Traveller? - Atlantis Shuttle crew’s visit to Portsmouth 29

In memoriam 30-31

Announcements 32

News of Old Portmuthians 32-34

Forthcoming events 35

Escape to the Cape - 6 month road trip to South Africa for Sarah Bateman OP 35

Winner of Crossword Competition in Spring OpusCongratulations to Mrs Rosemary Coffin who submitted the first correct entry to the crossword in the last issue. Rosemary had this to say with her entry: “Strictly speaking, I am not an OP. However I am the sister of 1 OP, cousin of 2 OPs, parent of an OP, mother of 1 current pupil, wife of a PGS governor, but actually went to Portsmouth High School (PGS wasn’t co-educational then). But I completed the crossword without any of their help!” Well done Rosemary - we think you more than qualify!

Cover image shows part of the collection of books by Percy Westerman OP held in the school’s Memorial Library. Read John Sadden’s article on Westerman on page 9.

PGS Golf SocietyThank you to those OPs, staff and former and current parents who braved the elements at the inaugural meeting of the PGS Golf Society at Rowlands Golf Club back in June. Special mention must go to John Bartle OP (1947-1957) for his meticulous organisation. Please get in touch with the Development Office at [email protected] to register your interest for the next meeting, planned for 2011.

Designed by Simon Udal OP (1977-1987) Simon Udal Design - www.simonudaldesign.co.uk

The PGS Development Team is always keen to hear from Old Portmuthians, former parents and friends of the school. Do please stay in touch and share your stories and reminiscences with us, submit content for future editions of Opus or nominate someone to receive a copy, by contacting us at [email protected] High Street, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 2LN Tel: 023 9236 4248

Alasdair Akass

Development Director

EDITORIAL TEAM

Liz Preece

Development Officer

Sue Merton

Development Office

Administrator

John Sadden

School Archivist 023 9268 1391

[email protected]

John Bartle, Vice-President of the OP Club, inspects progress on the new PGS Science Centre

Roland Osborn-Smith (centre) pictured with Captain Philip Stonor, UK naval attaché based in Paris and Rear Admiral Charles-Edouard de Coriolis, defence attaché to the French Embassy in London.

Helen Linnett (Age 4) in PGS Cap


Raising some bucks for the Founder’s House...

What the school would do if it was fortunate enough to acquire Buckingham House

It is a wonderful timber and brick building, its interior brilliant with wall paintings, panelling and with a commanding oak staircase. A substantial amount of this fabric survives and hidden decoration is still being revealed.

With a history as rich and colourful as the Tudor Panelling in the ‘Red Room’, Buckingham House has a number of claims to fame. In 1544 it was the home of John Chadderton, Captain of Southsea Castle, and in 1626 it was purchased by Captain John Mason, a Governor of Newfoundland and founder of New Hampshire in America. He used the house between his many voyages to America. There is a memorial plaque to John Mason in the Royal Garrison Church in Penny Street.

In 1628 The Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers, was reputedly stabbed to death in the house and was later buried in splendour in Westminster Abbey.

It has had many uses and owners since this event - from a pub called the Greyhound to a finishing school for girls! In 1705 the property was purchased by Dr William Smith, a former Mayor of Portsmouth, the garrison physician and founder of Portsmouth Grammar School.

PGS now has a unique opportunity to put the final piece of the jigsaw into place and re-unite the founder’s house with the school he established.

Given its location at the heart of a garrison town, Buckingham House provides a fascinating perspective on international historic events as well as a wonderfully atmospheric and flexible space for learning in the future. Much of the house remains a mystery to us with tantalising glimpses under peeling wallpaper, investigations into dusty cellars, forays behind panelled up walls promising amazing discoveries to come. John Webber OP (1930 – 1935) is among those who feels that the school should avail itself to the opportunity to acquire this unique building: “This is the first chance in six decades for us to re-unite Buckingham House with the school and I feel sure that there are OPs out there who are in a position to help the school to make this important acquisition.”

Sarah Quail, school governor, former PGS parent and one-time Head of Arts, Libraries, Museums and Records for Portsmouth City Council is very excited by the possibility of the school acquiring Buckingham House. “This house was of tremendous significance before the Second World War, but following the loss of many fine, interesting and historic buildings in the Blitz, its importance is even more magnified. This house is one with a wonderful story to tell.”

Buckingham House is on the market for a £1.5 million price tag and has just undergone a painstaking £500,000 refurbishment under the guidance of English Heritage.

The sale comes complete with the 350 year-old ‘Felton’ dagger reputed to be the very one that Lieutenant John Felton used in the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham.

So this might be the first time the scene of a murder and the murder weapon have been sold together as a package.

The unexpected availability of Buckingham House gives PGS an extremely rare opportunity to own the house of the school’s Founder, adjacent to the main school site and with access into and from the main quad. It is a matchless evocative setting for teaching and learning-seminar style in beautifully proportioned timber framed rooms and the exquisite Red Room which was originally decorated by school founder William Smith. And as the former home of 17th century explorer Captain John Mason, the building would inspire pupils and staff with its own story of international discovery.

The building, which could be revitalised as the William Smith Study Centre, has the potential for a two floor study centre based on the existing Wren Room and development of a further floor combining facilities for independent pupil research supported by on-line and physical archive

resources, and an additional high-tech project classroom. This would be a significant enhancement to our existing Library facilities, meeting current and future demand to support independent research, especially in an expanding Sixth Form in which all pupils undertake either an Extended Essay in the IB Diploma or PGS Extend in A level.

As well as providing a suite of historic rooms which could be used to develop a Harkness approach to learning, in which pupils lead discussion in small groups around a central oval table, there could also be flexibility to adapt the ground floor space as a venue for larger seminars, talks and debates. We would investigate the potential to transform the pretty walled garden into an elegant open-air courtyard theatre for recitals and small-scale performances. The William Smith Study Centre could also provide the inspirational setting for a new programme of courses

devised and led by PGS staff and offered to current and former parents, and OPs as part of the school’s commitment to education continuing beyond PGS.

All of this can only be made possible through your generous support. Please pledge whatever you can to enable us to rescue Buckingham House once and for all.

It’s a miracle it has survived at all. It has been licensed as a brewery, undergone part-demolition and was targeted in the Blitz. Yet Buckingham House remains to this day one of the finest and historically important houses on the High Street.

How you can help:Buckingham House is being offered for sale on the open market and the school only has a limited time in which to make an offer. We would very much welcome the support of OPs, former and current parents and friends of PGS to help us save this historic heart to the school’s identity. Please pledge whatever you can to help secure this unique building, redolent with history and help to permanently secure it for the school.

Call 023 9236 4248 or email [email protected] to request more details.

Sarah Quail, PGS Governor and former parent in Buckingham House

Buckingham House – site of international historic significance

The house comes complete with a documented history covering the last 500 years and its original title deeds

Home of Captain John Mason, former Governor of Newfoundland and founder of New Hampshire, cartographer

and explorer

Site of assassination of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham by John Felton. The weapon reputedly used in the murder is

included in the sale!

Home of William Smith, founder of the Portsmouth Grammar School, Mayor of Portsmouth and Physician to the City Garrison

Visited by Kings and noted in the diary of Samuel Pepys, Buckingham House contains unique 17th century wall panelling

believed to have been installed for royal visits

“This is a chance in a lifetime to secure a building which is uniquely tied up with the

history of the school” Sarah Quail, school Governor and former PGS and chorister parent.


A beastly sticky history of The Portmuthian1883 was an eventful year in Portsmouth. The town’s first public library, infectious diseases hospital and communal baths were opened, and an armoured cruiser, Imperieuse, was launched from Portsmouth Dockyard. Meanwhile, a nine page publication named The Portsmouthian was launched with considerably less pomp and splash at Portsmouth Grammar School.

The new school magazine superseded The Record and Portsmouth Grammar School Chronicle, a publication produced by some of the older pupils which very soon sank like a stone through lack of support. This started as a hectographed paper in 1881 and, because of this technique, must have had a very small print run. Otherwise know as a jellygraph, it was evidently a messy and unsatisfactory business. One P G Wodehouse character, who used this technique to run off a school magazine, declared, “This jelly business makes one beastly sticky. I think we’ll keep to print in future.” The editors of the The Record came to the same conclusion, and some later editions were properly printed, but this did not prevent its demise through lack of interest. Unfortunately, no copies survive in the PGS Archive.

The new magazine, then, was a brave venture, launched against the tide in a sea of apathy.

But, unlike The Record, this publication had the approval of the Headmaster, Mr Jerrard, who put the Classics Master, Reverend C D Williams, on the Editorial Committee. With this endorsement, authority and perhaps intimidation it was considered that pupils might be more encouraged to contribute.

The idea for a school magazine is thought to have originated with C P F O’Dwyer, a scholarship boy who joined the school in

1879 and left in 1884 having obtained an Open Exhibition for Classics at Wadham College, Oxford. He played a leading role in the editorial team of The Record and appears to have been the primary editor of The Portsmouthian during its first two years.

The aim of the new publication was stated in its first editorial: “We ask you to support The Portsmouthian, because it may be a means of spreading useful information, of suggestings (sic), improvements, of ventilating ideas, of encouraging good deeds and censuring bad ones”. Then came a plea which countless editors have expressed in different ways, and with varying degrees of desperation over the years, “Write for it, or it will perish of inanition. Buy it or it will die of debt.”

According to the accounts, the first issue sold 208 copies, possibly a ten-fold increase on the circulation of its ill-fated predecessor. As there were 300 boys and 12 Masters at the School at the time, a good majority appears to have taken an interest. Given that some boys’ sole purpose in buying it was probably to see their names in print, the number of copies sold happily exceeded the number of names printed.

Around a half of the first edition was devoted to sports, including a report on a rugby match played by the School 2nd XV against the Royal Academy at Gosport. The School was “completely overweighted and

overmatched”, wrote the kindly reporter, whose kindliness took precedence over his duty to report: “We will spare their feelings and refrain from giving the exact score”.

Whether anyone felt that the tuppence (2d) they had handed over for the new magazine deserved a fuller account of the rugger, or at least the score, is not known, but in the first editorial came a question: “Has anyone a grievance?” “If so,” the editor wrote, presumably hoping to get some easy copy for the next edition, “let him exercise his British faculty for grumbling by writing to us”.

The response was far from overwhelming, suggesting that pupils at the School were either happy, happily indifferent, or scared of the consequences of grumbling aloud. The editors published regular reassurances that noms de plume were acceptable, though all correspondents had to include their real name with submissions to demonstrate good faith. Perhaps having a member of staff on the Editorial Committee had something to do with the lack of take-up.

The Portsmouthian appeared twice a term but very soon expanded to 12 pages, despite the lack of response to appeals for reports, articles and literary contributions. In 1891, a poem with the title, The Editor, appeared, evidently written by a harassed pupil who lived in fear of the persistent and slightly menacing editor who lurked around corners, demanded copy and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

A grand opportunity to grumble came in the 1890s, when there were suggestions that The Portsmouthian name should be changed.

‘The Portusian’ was advocated by one correspondent and dismissed with a scholarly snort by another. In 1894, the Science teacher H T Lilley found an inscription on an ancient seal belonging to the Mayor and Corporation which included the Latin version of the town’s name, “Portemutha”. As a result of his research, the editor declared that “the name of our magazine has been changed to Portmuthian, which is certainly far more euphonious than the old title of Portsmouthian”. It also suited the classical academic aspirations of the School but was not appreciated by some: “The name change is a great change for the worse and not for the better”, opined one anonymous writer with utter conviction and clarity.

But the name change was not all. The versatile Mr Lilley also designed “a new and most artistic title page” which upset another correspondent who ridiculed the design of the crest for its perceived heraldic inaccuracies, incorporating what he described as a “worm-eaten butterfly on a pin”.

Many articles and letters appear to have come from staff and Old Boys. By 1896 the magazine was described as “flourishing”, not least because “the pecuniary support received from the Old Boys is more substantial than it has been of late”. Not unconnected with this support was an expansion of news about former pupils in a column called “Old Boys` Chronicle”, a precursor of the Old Portmuthian magazine and Opus.

continued...


A beastly sticky history of The Portmuthian continued

Over the years, the loudest and most persistent grumbling came from the editors themselves. One, new in post and writing for the December 1901 issue, embraced the festive spirit with a world weariness beyond his years: “Although the prerogative of editors from time immemorial has been to indulge in frequent grumbling, and although we, in this, our first editorial, feel strongly tempted to follow the example set by our illustrious predecessors, nevertheless, in view of the near approach of the festive season of Christmas, we will refrain from enlarging upon the many trials of an editor’s existence…”.

To be fair, the attempt to fill six editions that year had failed and the writer was clearly feeling the heavy burden of responsibility.

By 1933, the magazine was being published once a term, but the message was unchanged. The editor posted an appeal for contributions on the school noticeboard and, eight weeks later, complained that only four articles from members of the school had been received. “Is this good enough? The success or failure of any issue depends not on the boy sitting next to you, or on any other person, but on YOU.”

The first photograph, a formal portrait of the First XI Cricket Team, appeared in 1898, but it was to be several decades before pupils’ photographs and artwork were to appear.

As well as giving pupils the opportunity to share their interests, hobbies and artistic talents it was a godsend to editors anxious to fill space. And so, by the 1950s, amid erudite essays, cartoons and humorous poems, Deane Clarke was able to share his passion for photographing steam trains while Alan Scaife contributed prize-winning ornithological studies. The Portmuthian’s lively “magazine” content was, according to one editor, “leaven to the reports”, which often made for very dry reading.

Inevitably, perhaps, some boys’ humour and comment went beyond acceptable limits. Whether the Anti Portmuthian magazine, was made up of the work of spurned contributors or was a parody is not known, but an extract was reproduced in The Portmuthian aimed at demonstrating its shameless character involving the printing of a four-letter word (which was censored). Fifty years later, the editor was positively encouraging subversiveness, but not on his watch: “So many things go on beneath the unruffled surface of the school that this magazine cannot report them all: and, being an official publication, it cannot describe what really happens. May we suggest that someone assumes a nom de plume, and writes – in an entirely unofficial and unsubsidised publication – the behind the scenes story of school life”. Unfortunately, if this suggestion was taken up the account didn’t make its way to the PGS Archive.

But there has always been an occasional dash of mild subversive humour in The Portmuthian to rub against the prevailing conservativism of the School. As early as 1895 the following advice was offered: “Always cut your name on every desk you use… it will probably be the only way in which you will give the school a chance of remembering you.” Ironically, it is The Record of pupils’ achievements and talents in The Portmuthian that survives, rather than the desks.

The Portmuthian archive offers us a unique and valuable record of life at PGS, a treasure trove of facts, arcane, trivial and fascinating. Its references are sometimes obscure, the history bitty and incoherent, but each edition reflects the time in which it was written, both in content and in design. If there is one constant it is the PGS spirit that, notwithstanding the occasional grumbling editor, shines through in its grim determination, ever since its launch in 1883, to keep the boat afloat and to proudly show in its pages what PGS has achieved and is capable of.

Copies of the newly-published 2009-10 Portmuthian are available to OPs free of charge by request to the Development Office at [email protected] or by ‘phoning 023 9236 4248.

Percy Pulls it off!“Will the Sixth Form be able to resist Percy Westerman and Jules Verne?”

When plans were announced for the integration of the Middle School Library with that of the Senior School in the spring of 1937, the prospect of sixth formers revisiting their boyhood world of ripping yarns was of concern to a writer in The Portmuthian.

These two popular authors, above all others, possessed the power to distract scholars from serious study with their adventure stories. The plans went ahead and there were no reports of any pupils being caught surreptitiously concealing Westerman’s Standish Pulls It Off (1940) inside the ample covers of the World Atlas.

Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea had been published in 1870, so a copy may well have been on the shelves of the Library when Percy Westerman was a pupil at Portsmouth Grammar School.

He was born at 41 Kensington Terrace, New Road, in 1876 and joined the School in 1890. The books that gripped young Westerman’s imagination are not known, but Verne’s pioneering adventure stories,

featuring flying machines and submerged sea-going vessels, were hugely popular at a time when such ideas were science fiction.

Westerman’s father had been a Master-at-Arms in the Royal Navy but later set up in partnership as an estate agent in Southsea. A prominent local Mason, he became Worshipful Master of the Landport Lodge in 1889 shortly before enrolling Percy at the School. The fourteen year old was placed in the Mercantile Department which, according to Headmaster Jerrard, aimed “to make education practical and adapt it to the future requirements of the learners, without losing sight of education being a real cultivation of the mind”. The curriculum included practical commercial skills alongside traditional subjects. In 1892, the Hampshire Telegraph reported that Westerman was one of only two boys to gain the Commercial Certificate.

Westerman was keen to follow in his father’s footsteps and go to sea. However, it can be confidently asserted that Missing, Believed Lost - A Sea Story (1949), which describes what happens when your headmaster goes mad and takes you on a compulsory cruise across the Atlantic, is not based on any real incident at PGS. Westerman joined the School’s Navy Department, which prepared lads for the Senior Service, where he came top in History and Geography and second in English, and also excelled at Arithmetic, Algebra and Physics. He left PGS in 1894, but his dream of an exciting life on the ocean wave was shortlived, dashed on the rocks of shortsightedness. He found his way to Portsmouth Dockyard where he obtained work as an accounts clerk, but pushing a pen for his naval masters was clearly not enough for the young man. By now he was spending his spare time sailing in the Solent and writing articles for magazines about his enthusiasm and experiences of the sea.

Westerman married in 1900 and became a father the following year.

Family legend has it that Westerman’s first book, A Lad of Grit, (1908), was prompted by a sixpenny (6d) bet he made with his wife that he could write a better boys’ story than the ‘tosh’ he was reading to his small son, John, who was laid up with chickenpox.

In due course A Lad of Grit, a stirring tale of Restoration times in the style of GA Henty, appeared and Percy pocketed the 6d.

continued...


Small change was to become a recurrent theme in Percy’s personal finances, characterising the payments made by his exploitative publisher, Blackie, with whom Westerman was to sign an ill-advised life-long contract. It appears that the Commercial Certificate he had worked so hard for at PGS had no practical use in the real world.

But Westerman’s unerring instinct for what boys found exciting enabled him to sustain a remarkable writing career for half a century. His craft was soon to provide enough income to enable him to move to Dorset, where he set up home with his

family on a barge on the River Frome at Wareham.

Five weeks after the outbreak of the First World War, The Times published a recommended list of patriotic books aimed at feeding the appetite for war. Among them was Percy’s latest title, The Sea-Girt Fortress (1914), which told of “the adventures of two yachtsmen in the clutches of the Germans”, involving “shell-proof Zeppelins, concealed guns and thrilling incidents”. During the First World War Percy was employed on coastal duties with the Royal Navy, which he had managed to join supposedly by tricking the medical examiner by memorizing the eye chart whilst he was out of the room. He later held a commission in the newly formed Royal Flying Corps, experiences that doubtless helped provide background for such books as Rounding up the Raider: a Naval Story of the Great War (1916) and Winning his Wings: a Story of the R.A.F. (1919). One less plausible story, The Secret Battleplane (1916), involved a plane that flaps its wings and, perhaps not surprisingly, causes havoc on the Western Front.

War provided much inspiration, as did other world events and technological developments. In a world that (like his old School) was exclusively male, the villains were typically foreign and were always thwarted in their dastardly plans. Between the wars, The Times approvingly reviewed The Red Pirate (1935), a thrilling novel involving “submarine treachery on the part of a new dictator in a Communist republic”. Westerman’s occasional forays into the Middle East, the Orient, Asia and Africa inevitably reflected the views and prejudices of the age, at a time when the initials “P.C.” only described a feared but respected enforcer of the law.

By the late 1920s, Westerman was acknowledged to be “the most prolific and most popular of present day writers”.

Having given up his day job in 1911, Percy’s prolificacy was probably not unconnected to his poor remuneration. The Times took to reviewing Westerman’s output in batches. New elements from diverse genres were increasingly added. Percy Westerman (left), his son John Westerman and Mrs John

Westerman (centre), at a scout camp near Wareham, c 1933.

Some of Percy’s serialised stories appeared in popular comics such as Chums, Modern Boy and Boy’s Own Paper.

Percy Pulls it off! continued

The “stirring tale of flying”, Clipped Wings (1923) “makes the most of the possibilities of secret rays for putting aeroplanes out of action”. Beside such flights of fancy were more traditional tales of smuggling, gun-running, shipwrecks, pirates, espionage and heroism, with boys as protagonists in an adult world. However “the author’s heart,” observed one reviewer, “is in his salt-water yarns, written from first-hand knowledge”. Many of his books featured Sea Scouts as heroes, the descriptions of sailing and coping in squalls probably deriving from his own experiences in the Solent and Channel.

In 1931, a silent British Pathé news feature was shown in cinemas confirming Westerman’s celebrity status. An avuncular figure, with sailor’s hat and smoking pipe, he is shown at home on his barge with his dogs (who are named) and his wife (who is not).

Westerman displays some artefacts from his collection of trophies, including old armour and African curios (but does not show the bulkhead next to where he did his writing, which had the words “Blackie’s Bondsman” prominently displayed). He is filmed swabbing the decks, negotiating the river in a small motor boat, rowing a rowing boat and striding across nearby fields with his dogs.

This idyllic life was rudely interrupted by the outbreak of war. The story goes that pleasure boating on the Frome was banned prompting Westerman to dutifully join the Home Guard which had a water-borne patrol on the river. Meanwhile, with Europe in upheaval, The Times reviewer lamented the Nazi occupation of Holland and Belgium because it made At Grips With the Swastika (1940) read “like old history”. This was a rare occasion when events overtook Westerman’s remarkable prescience.

Westerman was writing a book, on average, every four months and they were eagerly awaited by his young readers, none more so than at his old school. “Everybody read Percy F Westerman in the 1930s” recalls Vic Hansell, who was a big fan, not least because Percy Westerman would occasionally visit his scout troop when they camped at a farm between Wareham and Wool. Percy’s son, John, was the Scoutmaster of the 38th Portsmouth troop, based at St Mark’s Church in North End, and organised regular camps in Dorset close to where Percy’s barge was moored. Vic recalls how Percy Westerman, despite his celebrity, “had no side to him at all” and that both Percy and John had the ability to “persuade you to do something rather than tell you”. On Percy’s visits he “talked to us about scouting in general, and behaviour”. Vic recalls how he learnt to swim helped by the Westermans’ philosophy that “There’s nothing you can’t do if you try”. John demonstrated just that by going on to write adventure stories for boys, like his father.

Percy F Westerman’s appeal continued after the war. One mid-morning break, nearly fifty years after he had attended PGS, Deane Clarke and his mates were drinking their milk, drawn noisily through a straw from third pint bottles. Suddenly a grand old car swept through the Arch. The front door opened and Westerman stepped out, immediately identifiable by his trademark peaked cap and dressed in relaxed tweeds with a big, long overcoat. He opened the rear door and, stacked high on the back seat, was a pile of his latest books, a treasure trove of adventure with vivid and exciting dust covers. Mr Poole arrived on the scene to greet him and Deane and his friends excitedly carried the books to the school library. This was evidently not the only time that he remembered his alma mater. Towards the end of his life, when he was not well enough to deliver his books personally, Westerman generously hired a taxi, which travelled from Wareham to Portsmouth, to deliver his latest bestsellers.

Unfortunately, Westerman’s donations appear to have been treated like any other library books, their importance and value going unrecognised, and were probably weeded when wear and tear took their toll.

A representative collection has since been put together and is available for viewing in the Sixth Form Library, together with some samples of his serialised stories in comics.

Percy Westerman died in 1959. His fiction, with its emphasis on patriotism, discipline, loyalty and tenacity, offers a revealing picture of British character and culture as aspired to by his young readership. His obituary in The Times maintained that “his work never faltered and remained of high quality”, though aficionados quietly disagreed, acknowledging that there were some “stinkers” amongst the gems; inevitable, perhaps, when unreasonable deadlines loomed. Westerman’s books were translated into over half a dozen European languages and sold over 1.5 million copies. Like every one of his plucky heroes, Percy had pulled it off with style.

Percy’s entry in the School Admissions Register

The Bulldog Breed (1939)


Ripper as a drunken old poacher in The Mummy (1959)

Michael, with screen legend Christopher Lee, at the Cinema Store, London, shortly before he died.

From Hamlet to Hammer“This is undoubtedly the best thing the Dramatic Society has yet given us...the parts of Bottom, Flute, Quince, Oberon, Titania and Puck were supremely well taken.” The enthusiastic Portmuthian critic, writing in 1926, was probably giving the first ever review to a lad who was to go on to appear in more films than Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud or Alec Guinness, but with considerably less impact. “The acting was so good,” continued the reviewer, “it is difficult to single out individuals”. So he didn’t.

In 2007, seven years after his death, the Daily Express included him in the top five “great B-movie actors”, alongside Peter Cushing, Hattie Jacques, Denholm Elliott and Joan Collins. He was recognised, at last, as “the most half-recognised British actor of all time”.

The boy playing Puck in the School’s 1926 production of scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream would have remained anonymous had not a programme survived, revealing that the “shrewd and knavish sprite” was played by a 13 year old Michael Ripper in a piece of inspired casting by an unknown teacher. Despite obviously relishing his role, Ripper hated his schooling apart from two subjects, acting and history, and it was his enthusiasm for the latter that was to lead to an incident that was to scar him physically, if not mentally, and add to the misery of his childhood.

One day Ripper’s over eagerness to answer his history master’s questions resulted in him being sent out of the classroom, not as a punishment, but to give other pupils an opportunity to answer them. The Headmaster, who was new in post, happened to be passing and invited him to his study. Canon Barton was “a crusader” who was determined to bring “the influence of the public schools” to PGS. Whether this was uppermost in his mind when he beat Ripper so badly that his mother threatened legal action is not known.

Michael’s participation in school plays was encouraged by his father, Harold Ripper, who worked in the Dockyard but in his spare time was an amateur drama producer who ran several local drama groups. He was also an elocutionist, who taught trainee teachers and, following the publication of his book Vital Speech in 1928, became one of the best known speech-therapists in the country. According to Michael, Harold was also a brutal father, given to regularly beating Michael to ensure he would not become “a mother’s boy”. Perhaps Harold’s ambition for his son in the theatrical world brought with it irrational fears.

Michael was coached by his father who entered him for poetry reciting competitions. One was the Oxford Verse Speaking Contest and, as a result, the family became close friends with a man who was to become one of Britain’s greatest character actors, Alastair Sim. The Ripper household was in Alhambra Road,

a pebble’s throw away from South Parade Pier, and Sim became a regular visitor, filling the house with talk of poetry, drama and the theatre. In 1928, at the age of 15, and encouraged by his father, Michael successfully auditioned at the Central School of Speech and Drama and left for London to take up his place. He completed his course a year later, having studied Brecht and Stanislavski and impressed his tutors as a highly gifted and talented student. He got himself an agent and joined his first repertory company at the Grand Theatre in Fulham.

Within twenty years he had appeared in 22 theatrical productions and 34 “quota quickie” films which have been largely, and probably justifiably, forgotten. The highlight of his more serious theatrical career was playing Hamlet, at aged 27, at the Gate Theatre in Dublin and his performance brought good reviews. “It was the best piece of acting I ever did,” he later recalled.

Michael Ripper was now an established actor, having appeared on stages in London, Rochdale, Leeds and Dublin. His film career continued after the war with a small part in David Lean’s OliverTwist starring Alec Guinness as Fagin. In the same year, Ripper took on the more substantial role of Hare, of the graverobbing duo Burke and Hare, in a stage version of The Anatomist and The Times thought his performance better than that of the director and leading actor, Alastair Sim. They were later to reprise their roles for a film version in 1961.

In Laurence Olivier’s Richard III (1955), Ripper plays the second murderer, stuffing John Gielgud’s Duke of Clarence into a barrel of malmsey with considerable difficulty.

Michael’s promising career in the theatre was brought to an end when, in 1952, he underwent an operation for a thyroid condition which left him unable to project his voice, and so he devoted himself to film and television work.

The following year, The Portmuthian drew attention to his career: “he has just completed a role as a jockey in a new British film The Rainbow Jacket” (which starred Robert Morley, Bill Owen, Wilfred Hyde-White and Sid James), “and a few weeks ago was given his first big radio role in the new boxing serial Knock-out on the Light Programme”. The extent of his radio work appears to be undocumented, but television was to bring many more opportunities for roles, minor and substantial.

On the silver screen, he was cast once again as a grave-robber, ill-advisedly digging up Baron Frankenstein in the Hammer film The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), with predictable consequences.

Resurrected as a coachman in Brides of Dracula (1960), he soon became a stalwart of the studio’s output, appearing in more of their films (34) that any other actor, including Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. With his distinctive, lugubrious face and bemused look he played a host of minor roles, including an old soak, poacher, startled village policeman, sewerman and general victim. From playing Puck, “that merry wanderer of the night”, Ripper was now a victim of it. Mummies, vampires, Frankenstein incarnations, zombies, Oliver Reed, monsters, and werewolves all did for him.

Ripper rolled his “pop-eyed peepers at the sweatered young lovelies”, but was soon reduced to a state of pained harassment, in Launder and Gilliat’s St Trinian’s films, when he was usually seen crushed beneath a pile of lacrosse rackets and netballs, while a dragged up Alastair Sim played the blissfully unaware headmistress Miss Fritton.

Ripper appeared regularly on the nation’s television screens in many successful series, including Quatermass and the Pit, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Danger Man, Maigret, Adam Adamant Lives!, The Saint, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), New Scotland Yard, The Sweeney, Crown Court, Cribb, and Tales of the Unexpected. He was also a regular cast member on Butterflies, Worzel Gummidge and Jeeves and Wooster.

Michael Ripper died in 2000. He appeared in over 200 films and television series, many of which still crop up on television schedules across the world. In 2007, Portsmouth Grammar School inaugurated the annual Michael Ripper Speech and Voice Competition in his memory, and his widow Mrs Cecelia Doidge-Ripper presented the prizes up until her recent death. The Sixth Form cafe-bar Rippers even bears Micheal Ripper’s name.

In the foreword to his biography, Michael Ripper Unmasked, Christopher Lee payed tribute: “Michael represented all that is best in our profession in his many varied and memorable performances. Dedication, total involvement and complete professionalism, qualities not all that much evident today. He was equally adept in major or lesser roles and always created fully formed characters, which never failed to make an impression.”

But perhaps the most telling tribute was that made by Sir John Gielgud when, at the age of 94, he was asked for his memories of working with Michael Ripper, he replied, “It was a long time ago and the studio always very full of people”.

Michael Ripper, by all accounts a very modest man, could take pride in that because he was one of those people who played his part, however anonymously.

Ripper in Pirates of Blood River (1962)

Taste the blood of Dracula (Hammer 1969)


It is all that was left from the first Mirage (A3-1) that crashed on 7 December 1964, one of the first planes of its type to come off the assembly line. When the Royal Australian Air Force bought the French Mirage III in the early 1960s, most of the aircraft were assembled and tested in Australia. Nicknamed ‘the French lady’, Mirage aircraft were often likened to some of the more celebrated traits of their Gallic counterparts, being occasionally unpredictable or illogical, sometimes moody, often spiteful and always expensive to maintain. Despite her faults, she was admired by all who met her, including Tony Svensson OP.

Sqn Ldr Svensson, on loan from the RAF, was the test pilot in the cockpit on that December day on test flight number 13. Tony’s interest in aircraft started at an early age. He was at PGS from 1943 – 1949 where he was an active member of the school’s Air Training Corps. Upon leaving PGS Tony joined the RAF at Cranwell College as an officer cadet.

It was during engine surge testing at approximately 43,000 feet when he was carrying out a manoeuvre he had been ordered to at near the speed of sound that he lost control of the Mirage. Although he had shut off the engine, the plane went straight down, nose first, increasing its speed every second and rolling at the same time.

Tony gave this account of what happened next: “For the next 90 seconds I was frantically busy. I kept a running commentary going to the ground station saying what I had done, what had happened to me and what I was trying to do to get the plane out of its downward

plunge. But whatever I did made no difference. The Mirage still went on down increasing its speed every second despite the fact that I had cut off the engine. At 7,000 feet I decided that it was high time to get out and pulled the blind which fires the ejector seat.” His helmet was violently torn off, the contents of his zipped pockets absorbed into the atmosphere and his watch was cleanly ripped off his wrist. The Mirage hit the ground just three seconds later. So late had Svensson left his ejection that he landed only 600 feet away with broken arms and legs and with his spinal column compressed by some two inches. As the rocket-propelled seat lifted him from the cockpit into the cruel supersonic airstream, the leg restraining straps broke and his flailing arms and one leg were badly broken. Squadron Leader Svensson was by now unconscious and broke his one remaining sound leg in two places on landing.

The plane caused a crater 45 feet wide and 25 foot deep at the point of impact two miles north east of Avalon and a booming supersonic bang was heard for many miles around.

As Sir James Martin, the famous British designer of the ejector seat which saved Tony’s life, wrote to him: “Your ejection at 932 miles per hour was by far and away at the highest speed that has ever been recorded.” He was later presented with the Caterpillar Club pin, awarded to all Martin-Baker seat ejectees. This unenviable record still stands to this day.

An Australian Airforce base in Avalon, Victoria. In a building across the road from the hangars, high on a wall, hangs a bit of charred recording graph paper.

The bone-breaking record-breaker Below: Squadron Leader Tony Svensson at Melbourne

Air Base with son Mark holding his parachute at the annual Battle of Britain Family Day celebrations. The photograph has appeared in innumerable aviation publications and was originally taken for the cover of The Melbourne Times.

The one stroke of luck that day was that six doctors had been lecturing on almost every medical subject at a nearby school and were passing in a minibus on a road only 100 yards away. They were at his side immediately. They administered first aid and directed his care in a local RAAF hospital.

Tony’s hospital recuperation lasted for two and a half years. For the first two days he was in an uneasy unconsciousness and then he slipped into a coma for 10 days.

Both of his legs had to be re-broken during his hospitalisation so that the bones could be re-set. He injuries meant that he was even unable to claim the prize of a family holiday to the Great Barrier Reef for winning the Melbourne to Sydney Air Race which he had taken part in just before the accident. Neurosurgeons from Melbourne’s Royal Hospital stated that it was only Tony’s fitness that pulled him through. Colleagues would comment that Tony could always be found sitting outside the base hospital at Laverton following the accident in remarkably good spirits talking amiably to passers-by, arms and legs stuck out comically in plaster. The pilot who replaced him, also seconded from the RAF, in his welcoming dining-in night, said that he had come out to fill Tony’s hole! That’s all was left of the Mirage. At the end of two and a half years he was finally told that he could go back to flying, not merely to flying but to test-flying and even took up flying helicopters.

Tony wrote a 19 page account of the accident in 1993 in which he described that fateful test flight. He described that when the plane was in a rolling dive or spin, he had meticulously followed the instructions for spin recovery. He wrote “I memorised these instructions and remember them to this day: ‘After spin entry centralise all flying controls; pause; if conditions do not stabilise using the aircraft’s inherent stability apply full in spin aileron (similar to the Javelin). If this does not work DO NOT DESPAIR! but maintain the spin recovery action.’ ”

French influence prevented the Mirage from being employed in Vietnam, and as a result two generations of RAAF fighter pilots never saw a shot fired in anger. However, in view of the appalling FL104 US fighter plane losses in Vietnam, perhaps these same fighter pilots have reason to be grateful that they had a beautiful aircraft to fly if not to fight with.

Tony settled in his beloved Devon with wife Pam and son Mark after retirement, but was still determined to feed his thirst for adventure. He set up firstly a pony trekking centre and then a windsurfing school, a pastime at which he excelled and enjoyed immensely. Sadly, Tony passed away in June 2009, but his legacy as a fearless and exceptional test pilot and aviation pioneer lives on nearly half a century later. Of the 12,000 human ejections from aircraft on record, his still remains the one conducted at highest speed.

The school Air Training Corps which fuelled Tony’s passion for flying has been replaced by the RAF section of the Combined Cadet Force and continues to inspire young people to take to the skies. This summer a female cadet from PGS was lucky enough to be selected to visit the Red Arrows at RAF Scampton for a tour of the facilities and a unique chance to fly with the world’s foremost aerobatic display team. One thing is for sure, Squadron Leader Tony Svensson would have relished this opportunity.

John Roberts OP (1943-1948) was a life-long friend of Tony Svensson. Here he tells Opus how he witnessed Tony’s thirst for adventure at first-hand…

“ When Tony joined PGS in 1943 the War was at its height. At this time the school was evacuated to Bournemouth. His interest in aircraft soon became obvious. In our first term 12 of us shared the same billet, which had previously been a seaside bed and breakfast. Often Tony would spend time making model aircraft and he collected Sweet Caporal cigarette packets which featured details of allied and enemy aircraft. Many American servicemen were stationed in the Bournemouth area and they happily gave us their empty packets. I am sure that, like myself, Tony witnessed wartime dogfights over Portsmouth and even the wreckage of aircraft in flames (sometimes seen in daylight from the open doorway of an air raid shelter), as well as the aftermath of bombings.

In the Bournemouth area there was also a great deal of air activity, but of a very different kind. Squadrons of B17 Flying Fortress bombers of the US Air Force would fly low overhead on missions to attack enemy targets or return to base at Hurn Airport.

Tony’s first flying experiences were as a member of the school’s Air Training Corps. They were from local RAF stations at Thorney Island, Middle Wallop and in a huge Sunderland flying boat at Calshott, on Southampton Water.

Aircraft aside, Tony had an enormous zest for life generally. One Easter holiday he and I hitch-hiked to Switzerland and arrived back at school a week late! On another occasion, he invited me to come sailing in his tiny dinghy. We set off from Ports Creek, sailed down the harbour on the outgoing tide and made for the Isle of Wight. At one point a huge liner was bearing down on us, sounding the horn furiously. Sensing my concern, Tony said reassuringly, “It’s alright John.... power gives way to sail!”. Considering his adventurous nature, is it any wonder he ended up as a supersonic test pilot?“

The Caterpillar Club pin, awarded to all Martin-Baker seat ejectees.


John “Nine Gun” Coghlan

Over the next three days he is credited with having shot down a Messerschmidt 110, three Messerschmidt 109s, and a Junkers 87 (or Stuka). During one dogfight Coghlan had exhausted the ammunition of his Hurricane’s eight Browning machine guns whereupon he pulled out his Smith and Wesson pistol (which pilots were required to wear in case of capture) and emptied it, firing out of his cockpit at the enemy. Henceforth he was known as “Nine Gun” Coghlan.

By the end of the month, Coghlan, at the age of 25, had been awarded the the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). The citation reads, “This officer has been a flight commander in his squadron on most of the recent patrols and has led the squadron on some occasions. At all times he has shown the greatest initiative and courage and has personally destroyed at least six enemy aircraft.”

Coghlan’s unflappable nature comes across in his matter of fact combat reports. Having described how he shot down a Messerschmidt 110, he wrote, “I was then attacked by a number of Me109s and I became aware of their presence behind me by red cannon shot over my port wing. I pulled up and throttled back and they shot underneath me and then I dived down on two of them and got a good three second burst in on each from 50 to 30 yds range. I saw my bullets, in each case, enter the fuselage in front of the pilot. I was then attacked head on by a Me109.”

Coghlan was credited with several more “kills” before, in August 1940, he was recruited to carry out a special mission. Eric Clayton recalls that Coghlan arrived at the airfield in a Lysander, and was accompanied by a Frenchman. “From his guarded remarks, it was clear he was going to drop his passenger into France who, it was equally clear, was an agent. While they had a cup of coffee we chatted pleasantly, then, as twilight turned to darkness, he said it was time to go. I walked outside with them, shook hands, and wished them good luck.

They took off in the gathering darkness and headed towards France. It was the last I saw of Slim Coghlan.

Indeed mine was the last friendly face he saw. “

There are two versions of his death. In September, a pilot’s body was washed up on a French beach and it was assumed by some that Coghlan had been shot down over the Channel. The other version comes from Eric Clayton who said, “I later learned that on landing, on this his first clandestine mission, he and the Frenchmen were captured and shot. A brutal end to a brave man. “

Thanks to Joe of the Aces of WW2 website, the School now has a photograph of John “Nine Gun” Coghlan, and he can now take his place in the Book of Remembrance in the Memorial Library.

Today, the school’s Book of Remembrance sits in a glass case on permanent display in the Sixth Form Library. Each page of the book is dedicated to an Old Portmuthian who died in the Second World War. The book has 110 pages. A typical entry has the name of the old boy (the term “old boy” seems inappropriate, as most were in their 20s), the armed service in which they served, their rank, the years they were at PGS, and a photograph.

Approaches to the families of the OPs after the war, and an appeal in The Portmuthian in 1950, provided many photographs, showing young uniformed men, fresh-faced, ready for life.

However, one page that has had an empty space is dedicated to the memory of John Hunter Coghlan.

John Hunter Coghlan was born on 7 September 1914 in Shanghai. His father worked in shipping and the family moved to Southsea. Coghlan attended Portsmouth Grammar School between 1925 and 1927, but little is known of his time here. He went on to study at Imperial Services College in Windsor and joined the RAF in 1937.

Much of what is known about Coghlan comes from Eric Clayton, who serviced and maintained his Hurricane at RAF North Weald in Epping Forest in Essex. Coghlan was short and heavily built, and was described as friendly, witty and an unflappable character. Unfit, “he perspired freely and had a prodigious intake of ale”. He “ran a low Jaguar”, had a girlfriend and lived in a caravan on the airfield. Perhaps inevitably, because of his size, he was known as “Slim”.

Three days after war broke out the station siren marked the first air raid warning and Coghlan’s squadron’s twelve Hurricane pilots scrambled and were in the air in minutes. Within the hour, ten returned, two of the Hurricanes having been shot down and one pilot killed.

It later emerged that the Hurricanes had been mistakenly attacked by a squadron of Spitfires.

In late May and early June 1940, Coghlan gave cover at Dunkirk when Fighter Command lost 106 aircraft dogfighting over the beaches during the evacuation. The Battle of France was lost but 338,000 troops were successfully ferried across the Channel in small boats.

The Battle of Britain began on Wednesday 10th July 1940. Germany’s objective was to gain air superiority and, if this had happened, Hitler’s Operation Sealion, the airborne and seaborne invasion of Britain, would have been launched.

Coghlan was the first in his Squadron to be credited with shooting down an enemy aircraft, a Dornier 17 which had bombed RAF Manston.

The 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain gives us an opportunity to reflect on a turning point in our history when, in the summer of 1940, the defence of Britain rested in the hands of the pilots of Fighter Command. The future of the country, and arguably that of the free world, depended on the skill and morale of a small group of mostly very young men.

A Hurricane, as depicted on a 1938 cigarette card.

Left: John Hunter Coghlin’s name on the School War Memorial.

The latest OP to be in the spotlight for Inside Track is accomplished television presenter and former sportsman Mike Wedderburn (1972 – 1983). Wedderburn played rugby union for Harlequins and London Wasps and he also played as a fast bowler for Hampshire County Cricket Club before an injury ended his professional sporting career. He had stints at presenting on Channel 4 and ITV before joining Sky Sports in 1998, where he usually presents Good Morning Sports Fans alongside Alex Hammond. Mike is a frequent visitor to PGS and an active supporter of a number of school projects and will be next be seen alongside other illustrious names from the sporting world for PGS’s ‘Question of Sport’ event raising funds for the Neil Blewett Bursary Fund.

Did you always have an ambition to go in front of the cameras on television?No, I was going to be a teacher until a lecturer at university put the idea of television into my head. She is responsible for saving the nation’s children.

What are the best and worst things about your job? Best: Being on air when the West Indies win a test match. Worst: That not happening for 12 years. Why do you support Man City and not Pompey FC?Serious this one. I used to watch Portsmouth in the bad old days of racism on the terraces in the 70’s and 80’s. Not nice. Apparently from the age of four I always used to look out for the City results and I would sulk if they lost. So it was an easy transition to make. Incidentally the sulking continues to this day. If you could have been a professional sportsman, what sport would it have been in?How quickly you forget. I was a professional cricketer at Hampshire until they saw the error of their ways and got rid of me. What’s the most memorable sporting occasion you’ve covered?My daughter’s first 100m race at her school sports day. She was frightened by the starting gun so stood stock still covering her ears as the other girls disappeared into the distance. Were the fans right to be disappointed by this year’s World Cup performance?Disappointed – Yes. Surprised – No. What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received?Are you sure you are going to wear that tie with that shirt? Who are your broadcasting heroes?I don’t have heroes as such but I have huge respect for Alex Hammond my co-presenter. She is a consummate professional. And Jeff Stelling. He is known as the Guv’nor. Soccer Saturday is the hardest presenting job in the business bar none and he makes it look so easy. We lose you from Freeview later this month – good thing/bad thing?Sky HD is magnificent. I recommend it. Abiding PGS memory?The values instilled in us. We were taught to try to be good people. I am immensely proud to be a Portsmouth Grammar School boy.

InsIde TrackTeLeVIsIOn PresenTer


Happy Ending from PGS’s

Master storytellerJames Clavell OP claimed that his novels – rarely under 1,000 pages in length – were never plotted in advance. He would start writing and follow the story wherever it went, often expressing surprise in interviews at twists in the plot which he said came as much of a surprise to him as to the reader.

‘Check or you’re dead’ was one of the rules at Changi, the jail where Clavell spent four years of the Second World War as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese, which he applied in turn to his writing. He went to infinite pains, often doing 20 drafts of the same page and spending days checking the smallest detail. Although the critics were often sniffy, James Clavell was a master storyteller whose success was unique: he wrote long, literate adventures set in a time and a place that few people knew much about and they all became bestsellers. King Rat (1962), Taipan (1966), Shogun (1975), Noble House (1981), Whirlwind (1986) and Gai-Jin (1993) are some of the most widely-read works of fiction in the English language and in a 40- year career his books have sold some 21 million copies.

Clavell’s character was formed by his wartime experiences at Changi. Born in Sydney, he was the son of Commander Richard Clavell RN, who was stationed in Australia to help establish the Royal Australian Navy. The family was posted back to England when James was nine months old. He was at Portsmouth Grammar School from 1931 – 1939 at the same time as Alan Bristow who remained a life-long friend. He is fondly recalled by a number of OPs including Reg Drew (1930 -1939) as an accomplished cricketer and the best opening bowler in the 2nd XI. He left at the outbreak of the war filled with notions of duty instilled by his family’s long tradition of military service, and notions of heroism from reading Rider Haggard and other Empire writers he had come across in his schooldays. The war changed all that.

Clavell’s eyesight kept him out of the Navy and the Air Force so he joined the Royal Artillery as a young captain.

In 1941 the Japanese captured him in Java and he was shipped to the hellish Changi jail in Singapore, where he remained until the end of the war. He was 18 years old.

Only one in 15 men survived the malnutrition, disease and torture at the infamous Changi. Clavell survived because, he said, he adopted an attitude in which he dominated the environment so that it could not destroy him. He never publicly discussed how his wartime experiences might have scarred him, but he was ruthless in ensuring that he kept total control of his extraordinary career.

At the end of the war Clavell became interested in the film business through his future wife April Stride, an aspiring actress and ballerina. He worked first as a distributor, then in 1953 moved to Hollywood as a scriptwriter. Early success with the cult sci-fi film The Fly (1958) and the Rider Haggard B-movie adventure Watusi (1958) was followed by mainstream popular writing about men at war including 633 Squadron (1963) and the legendary prisoner-of-war drama The Great Escape (1966). In 1959 he produced and directed - as well as wrote - Five Gates To Hell, a frenzied tale of American doctors and nurses snatched by Communist mercenaries in Vietnam. A year later he did the same for Walk Like a Dragon, a curious liberal western

about a cowboy and a Chinese girl. His most successful film as a writer-director-producer was the least likely: To Sir With Love (1966). Based on E R Braithwaite’s autobiography, it was set in an east London secondary school with Sidney Poitier as a schoolteacher from British Guiana, coping with the likes of Judy Geeson and Lulu. Clavell followed it three years later with an underrated meditation on men at war, The Last Valley, starring Michael Caine as a ruthless mercenary in the Thirty Years War occupying a peaceful Alpine village.

By the time The Last Valley appeared, however, Clavell was already established as a best-selling novelist.

A screenwriters’ strike in 1960 left him idle for 12 weeks, and during this period he exorcised his prison-camp experience by writing King Rat, a novel set in Changi.

It is an evocative account of the treatment of prisoners by the guards and focuses on the lives of an English prisoner (an RAF officer) and an American NCO (the King Rat of the title). Clavell’s first draft was 850 pages long. It became an immediate best-seller and three years later was filmed by Columbia starring George Segal, Denholm Elliott, James Fox and John Mills.

Taipan and Noble House were stunning commercial successes, remaining on the best-seller list for nearly a year and selling millions of copies. For Noble House, Clavell received a $1 million advance, and in 1986, William Morrow & Company paid a record $5 million for his novel Whirlwind, a fictionalised account of former PGS schoolmate Alan Bristow’s audacious dawn airlift of his staff under the guns of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iranian Revolutionary Guard. James Clavell described himself as “just doing my job, trying to entertain people and illuminate the world and perhaps bridge East and West.”

King Rat may have exorcised his wartime experiences, but nothing ever removed Clavell’s obsession with the East.

It was an obsession he inherited from his father, who had served in the Royal Navy in the China Station before the First World War. Clavell grew up listening to stories of adventures on the Yangtze river. His ancestors were adventurous too. The Clavell family traced itself back to Walter de Claville, an Armour Bearer for William the Conqueror.

Clavell turned his interest in the history of Anglo-Saxons in Asia into a series of best-selling novels whose popularity made him a very rich man. Tai-Pan, Shogun and Noble House were made into television mini-series, under Clavell’s close supervision as producer.

When Shogun, which chronicled the exploits of a British navigator in Japan in the early 1600s, was screened in 1980 starring Richard Chamberlain, it became the second highest rated mini-series in history with an audience of over 120 million. (Shogun the musical followed on Broadway in 1989.)

Clavell brooked no nonsense in his dealings with television companies. In the early Sixties he had turned down the chance to write the screenplay for the film of King Rat on the advice of two old pro scriptwriters. They told him if he wrote the script he would be a screenwriter who had written a book. If he didn’t he would

be a novelist and could therefore put a zero on his writing fee. When the same couple told him that producers like calling long distance, Clavell moved with his wife April to Vancouver to bring up their two daughters. Clavell - like his wife - was a qualified pilot and they owned their own helicopters. April is a founding member of ‘The Twirly Birds’, a club consisting of female military, civil and private helicopter pilots and travels the world for gatherings of its members.

James Clavell died of cancer in 1994 at his home in Vevey, Switzerland aged 69.

We couldn’t be more pleased to announce in Opus that, thanks to the generous financial support of April Clavell and Heather Bristow, widow of Alan (a celebration of whose life we featured in the first issue of Opus), the newly-completed state of the art Science Block will bear the name of two of PGS’s most successful and enterprising former pupils. The Bristow-Clavell Science Centre will be a wonderful testimony to the breadth of the remarkable achievements of both men and will undoubtedly help to foster the same sense of entrepreneurship, determination and success among future generations of pupils. The building will be officially opened, hopefully with both women in attendance, on 18 November and the launch event will feature in the Spring 2011 edition of Opus.

Sargeant Clavell (right) at PGS 1939.

Clavell (highlighted) in the 1938 PGS cricket and

football teams.


Mike Barnard

First the President of the MCC, John Barclay, arrived to open the new electronic scoreboard. He was introduced by the Headmaster, gave a delightful speech and cut the ribbons before departing on official duties at the one-day international at the Oval.

He was assisted in this ceremony by Old Portmuthian Mike Barnard (1945-1951), who had left the school almost sixty years ago to pursue a career as a professional sportsman – and not just any career.

Mike can certainly claim a unique record in this city and perhaps more broadly, for he played over 100 matches for Pompey in the old First Division (the Premiership) and more than double that for Hampshire County Cricket Club.

It is quite probable that Mike is the only man ever to claim such a record for his home town club and county and he never played for any other top level sides in either sport – an extraordinary claim in this modern world of transfers and short contracts.

Mike’s professional career covered the 1950s and 1960s and those of us at PGS in those days were very fortunate to be able to watch so much Hampshire cricket. The county would usually play five or six matches every season at the United Services Ground and even during term time it was possible to get there at lunch and after school to see some passages of play.

The best of those years was 1961 when Hampshire played five three-day county matches and a friendly against Oxford University. Mike Barnard had a particularly successful end to that season and on 1 September Hampshire won the Championship for the first time in their history. Mike was a middle-order batsman and excellent slip fielder while for Pompey he played inside forward (midfield now) and scored 26 goals in 123 matches.

Mike enjoyed the morning sunshine and the cricket. Among those who joined him were his wicket-keeping team-mate Leo Harrison who played for Hampshire before the war, another OP Richard McIlwaine (1959-1968) who played for Hampshire in 1969/70 and two recent coaches at the school and Hampshire players Raj Maru and Bobby Parks. For Raj it was a bittersweet occasion as he was saying

farewell to the school before moving to a post at Lancing College. John Young represented Southampton’s Hospital Broadcasting to which Mike contributed cricket commentaries after retiring from Radio Solent. Also present was Mike’s brother and fellow OP, Sam Barnard (1935-1939) who was Pompey’s physiotherapist in the 1950s.

Lunch time saw the launch of two new PGS monographs. Number 21 “Hilsea: The Winds of Change” was written by John Sadden the school’s archivist and evokes memories for all of us who were at the Grammar School. I realise that not everyone grew to love sport as Mike, Richard McIlwaine or I did, but for those of us who did, this publication salutes a key influence in our lives. Hilsea was where I learned to love sport and it has enriched my life immeasurably ever since, so it is

a delight to read its history – including the exploits of Conan Doyle, Wally Hammond and Mike Barnard. More poignantly, the publication was dedicated to Neil Blewett who did so much to encourage more recent sports lovers at the school. Neil’s widow Pauline and daughter Rachel were both present and Rachel was delighted to find her picture on page 23.

The second publication was my monograph on Mike Barnard who I know was very proud to have his career celebrated in this way. We took a comment from Mike’s housemaster on his first school report as our subtitle - “Good at Games” – but those who know about Mike’s life will be aware that despite awful injuries sustained in a road accident 40 years ago he continued to live a remarkable productive and generous life. In my introduction to the monograph after lunch I suggested that Mike may have been good at games but he had excelled at life.

One of the finest aspects of English cricket is its careful marking of mealtimes and refreshments and we were treated to what I am assured is the usual delightful lunch provided by Sue and her team on a thoroughly lovely day for all concerned – and what a relief it was that unlike the 1960s, I did not have to conclude my day at Hilsea with a lukewarm muddy bath!

Dave Allen OP (1958-1967)

Copies of Hilsea: The Winds of Change and Mike Barnard: Good at Games are available to OPs free of charge by request to the PGS Development Office at [email protected] or by ‘phoning 023 9236 4248

It seems highly fitting in this, the 125th anniversary year if PGS sport at Hilsea, that one of the school’s most accomplished and successful former athletes came back through the arch to pay us a visit. Richard Simonsen OP (1953-1964), whose father was Norwegian and mother British had come to Portsmouth after the war, excelled at all school sports and was quickly recognised as a great all-round athlete. He was twice in the All England Schoolboys Championships and once in the British Schoolboys Championship.

Upon leaving PGS Richard won a place at the University of Minnesota to study dentistry, with an athletics scholarship. He quickly specialised in running both the 200 and 400 metres and was approached to compete both nationally and internationally for Norway. He became Norwegian champion in 200 m in 1967, 1970 and 1971 and in 400 m in the years 1967-1970 and ran the anchor leg for the Norwegian team in the 4 x 400 metre relay at all the major international athletics meetings.

His career in clinical dentistry has been no less impressive. He achieved a BA, BSc and Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, followed by a post-doctorate fellowship in cariology whilst concurrently taking a Masters of Science degree in epidemiology. Two years ago Richard established a new College of Dental Medicine at Midwestern University, Arizona, where he remains founding Dean of the College. He lectures around the world to dental practitioners and his pioneering work and advocacy for preventive restorative dentistry is widely regarded as having made a huge difference for many thousands of dentists and millions of patients, especially children, over the last third of the twentieth century. His travels have even included a professional visit to Nelson Mandela at his home in South Africa! Outside of dentistry Richard is an accomplished photographer whose work, particularly of North American wildlife, is increasingly sought-after.

A get-together of a number of Richard’s PGS peers was organised by Martin Lippiett OP (1954-1964) in May this year to mark a rare visit back to the UK. Martin, Tim Runnacles and Jeff Coe accompanied Richard back into the school quad for the first time in nearly half a century.

“I really enjoyed the trip through my past!”, Richard said afterwards. “ The school has changed so much - and positively - since my days there and it was very exciting to see it all. I was particularly fond of Messrs. Barclay, Hopkinson and Clayton, all of whom were excellent teachers during my time at PGS.”

During the beautiful mid-summer spell this year, Hilsea’s playing fields enjoyed a day of special celebrations - to the backdrop of the First XI’s cricket match with the MCC where the visitors mounted a good score on one of Hilsea groundsman Bob Wheeldon’s fine pitches.

From Dashers to Gnashers!

HILSEA

Alasdair Akass, PGS Development Director greets Richard Simonsen in the school quad

Standing left to right: Richard McIlwaine OP, John Young, Dave Allen OP Seated left to right: Leo Harrison, Mike Barnard OP, Alan RaymentJames Priory, Mike Barnard and John Barclay.Mike Barnard and Dave Allen.


Tony’s achievement that day in 1960 made the local paper. Under the headline Ellick’s Triumph, it was reported that “long-legged Ellick, the school’s most outstanding cross-country runner, never lost the lead and, considering the fact that he was never challenged, his record-breaking run (beating the previous record by 3 seconds) was a magnificent performance”.

The events this year celebrating Hilsea 125 had a very retro look to them, some of the events being familiar to Tony. Pupils ran the archaic, pre-metric distances of 100, 440, and 880 yards, while tugs-of-war and hurdling over hay bales added some fun and laughter on a beautiful sunny day.

During the cricket tea interval the annual award of a cricket bat was presented to the most talented cricketer, Cameron Prentice, Captain of this year’s PGS 1st XI. The award is made in memory of John Thorp, who was Second Master until 1976 and a keen cricketer who played for the MCC (Masters Cricket Club) for many seasons.

The second presentation was made by Bruce Strugnell (1954-64), this year’s OP President, and Tim Clark (1984-1991) OP Tennis Captain, to Ed Marks, this year’s school Tennis Captain. It suited both teams to play five-a-side so a combination of doubles and singles eventually led to a 7-5 sets victory.

For me both the cricket and tennis were family affairs as my brother, John Thorp (1952-62), and I have alternated in making the presentation of the Thorp Cricket Bat Award since our father died in 1999. He encouraged and inspired us to become opening bats as we endeavoured to occupy the crease for the school between 1959 -1963.

This year, I was selected for the tennis team, perhaps because the Captain is my second son’s wife’s elder brother!

In my first tennis match, Tim Clark was my partner against the two talented year 11 players, John Melville and Alex Gerrard. It was not until about the third game (I think I was serving) that I laid a racquet on the ball as they slugged it out with Tim at tremendous pace. So it was a considerable surprise to me when we won the first set 6-4, before the reality shone through as our opponents won the next set 0-6. The first singles was won by hard hitting OP Stefan Filip who beat Henry McNamara; while Richard Cunningham and John Stones had a close loss against the school’s second pair, year 13 players Ed Marks and Charlie Williams. This made the score 3 sets all at the half way stage.

The battle of the captains at singles then ensued, Tim versus Ed, the best game of the day which Tim just won. In the meantime, Stefan and I won our doubles while Richard and John lost theirs - giving the OP’s a 7-5 sets victory.

All this time we were protected from the Twenty20 OP cricket match by the tennis surround as the cricket ball was smashed to all parts of the ground, often in our direction. At tea, the OPs were [170-8], well up with the recent World Series rate of scoring. No doubt inspired by the excellent Hilsea teas, the school proceeded

even more vigorously as the ball rattled both to and over the boundary on their way to victory. The final score was Old Portmuthians: 175 for 8 (Finn Hoolihan 70 and Chris Morgan 35). PGS 1st X1: 176 for 2 (Jacob George 81 and Joe Collings-Wells 70 not out). The PGS 1st XI won a close and high scoring game of Cricket with an excellent turn out from the Old Portmuthians.

It was a great pleasure to take part again in the OP matches after more than four decades, albeit playing tennis rather than cricket.

In those days, attendance was compulsory for all boys until the cricket tea interval. We also all wore white!

Runs were grafted and stroked while bowlers concentrated on line and length to their three slips field.

As Old Boys, we still had fun returning to the school, but in this modern era where were the ‘Old Girls’? Some things however never change as it was delightful to meet two former masters and MCC players umpiring the cricket, Roger Wilkins (1951-1961) and Gary Payne (1962-72).

David Thorp (1953-63)

25 June 2010

Honours were shared as by the end of play, the OPs were tennis victors for the first time in a number of years, but a close second in the cricket.

Annual School vs OP Tennis and Cricket Matches

John Thorp presenting the Thorp Bat award to Cameron Prentice Bruce Strugnell (OP President) and Tim Clark (OP Tennis Captain) presenting a silver salver to

Ed Marks (PGS Tennis Captain).

Record breaker returns to HilseaThe last time Tony Ellick was at Hilsea Playing Fields was as a 17 year old when he won the School mile race in a record time. This summer, exactly fifty years later, he made a return visit as a spectator at the special Hilsea 125 Sports Day.

Top: Tony Ellick at The Fun Run 2010.

Middle: The start of the Mile Race at Hilsea, 1960 and Tony Ellick breaking the school record.

Left: The Fun Run 2010 at Hilsea.

HILSEA


Class C lownsOpus profiles two OPs who are currently riding high on the professional comedy circuit.

Head of Latter and Languages Coordinator David Doyle explores the rise and rise of new comedy talent Simon Jenkins….

Make ‘em Laugh!

Simon made me laugh from the first lesson I taught him (for all the right reasons !) and continues to do so! Simon joined PGS in 1999 and I first taught him when I joined in 2001, for Spanish and Business Studies. He was always keen to succeed in all he did and was not afraid to ask questions and seek advice when he found a subject challenging. As a member of Whitcombe House, he was popular with staff and represented his House on many occasions, especially with House Drama competitions.

In Year 10, he asked me to come along to see him in his GCSE Drama performance. It was May and it happened to be my birthday and I was not over keen to give up the evening but I was, I have to admit, very glad I did. We were treated that evening to four groups all performing one of two plays

and they were all pretty good. However, why I will always remember Simon’s was for his entrance: he managed to bring comedy into what was a very straight play and adapting the shouting down a mobile phone joke whilst riding a scooter in the Gatehouse and appearing in the middle of the audience, certainly set him apart!

Simon is keen always to speak of how important David Hampshire has been in his formation. Drama was Simon’s forte at school and he appeared in Guys and Dolls and Oliver! Sitting in the King’s Theatre, watching a VI Form pupil perform well has become something of a tradition in recent years, but watching one and forgetting you are at a school performance is something special and certainly Simon dominated the stage when performing whilst never overshadowing his fellow actors. His performance as Fagin, in particular, is one that those of us lucky enough to see it will never forget. Through it all, David was there to encourage and guide him and always was keen to see him develop further.

Simon continued to balance his acting with his academic work yet, as he progressed through the VI Form, we did not yet see the where this would eventually lead. There were clues, such as his brilliant hosting of the Talent Show and the interaction with the performers and audience were spot on – never more so than with those acts which had not quite delivered as expected!

However, realising that Spanish was not the way forward, he went to Kingston university and, putting all those Fridays he spent watching Harry Enfield and Chums to good use, began his career as a stand up and writer.

He became a regular at the Comedy Store and improved and developed his craft in the daunting world of the live audience where failure can be brutal and instant. He also featured in a Channel 4 documentary “Year Dot” which followed him for a year as he tried to break into the world of stand up. This gave him many opportunities and he was mentored by Graham Norton, appearing on his show as well as hosting the evening that Robin Williams appeared at the Comedy Store.

He has performed along side some of the best names in the comedy world: Russell Howard; Bill Bailey; Frank Skinner; Lee Mack; Dara O’Briain and Omid Djalili.

Simon also is developing as a comedy writer, writing currently for BBC Australia magazine as well as working on 3 sitcoms. He has a large following on Twitter and on facebook as well as delivering a weekly podcast to delight his fans. He continues to perform at comedy stores throughout the UK and, for the fourth year running, is appearing in Edinburgh this summer and when you receive good reviews from Robin Ince, Ricky Gervais’ writing partner, you know you are getting something right.

His Polish background, the trademark moustache (the proper, 70s-copper kind and described by one critic as a cross between Magnum, PI and the 118 118 ad campaign) and various doomed pets are weaved in and out of the cringeworthy tales but in the most part his stories concern his amateur scientist father and yarn-spinning grandparents.

A decade ago, while at St George’s Hospital in London studying medicine, he clubbed together with some medical student pals to produce sketches. With Harry Hill and Paul Sinha both having worked at the same establishment in their pre-comedy days, the fates should have been smiling on the hopefuls. Not quite. “As a troupe, we never imagined doing it professionally and really only played a handful of student union gigs”. Largely undeterred, they ploughed on and did make it to the Edinburgh Festival at the start of the century.

Some eight years later Time Out hailed his debit solo as “the most assured and creative debut imaginable - a star in the making” and crowned him as their ‘Best New Act of the Year’.

Wozniak’s August 2008 ended with him scooping the Amused Moose prize and finding himself on the shortlist for If.comedy Best Newcomer.

Wozniak was at PGS from 1991 – 1998 along with twin sister Hannah. “She was always much brighter than me and does a brainiac job that I don’t really understand”, he says. Sadly “there’s no paranormal twin thing going on”, although the two do share a mutual obsession with The Goon Show and Spike Milligan.

Mike’s stand-up career continues to go from strength to strength with stints this year as a guest panellist on Radio 4’s Act your Age and yet more gongs for his new one-man show The Golden Lizard (Best New Show, Leicester Comedy Festival) which he has taken to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Whether you happened to be members of Mike Wozniak’s family or complete strangers, there’s a chance that on viewing his debut solo set back in 2008, much of your time would have been spent clenching or crossing some part of your body.

The Polish Pompey Prankster

Class of 2010Opus catches with three Year 13 Leavers and brand new OPs as they head out through the school’s Arch for the final time....

Elizabeth Robinson

It seems incredible to say that I only started PGS two years ago and now it’s already coming to an end. I feel as if I’ve known the school and my friends forever. This I suppose is purely testament to how warmly I was welcomed, especially by my friends when I arrived. By age 16 most people have founded such solid friendships that I was worried there might not be space for me, however I was overwhelmed with how inclusive they were; and in less than half a term I had formed friendships that would last a life time.

It makes me particularly nostalgic to think of my first pre-season Hockey training at Hilsea, before school had even started in Lower Sixth. PGS sport has such a formidable reputation and I was definitely very apprehensive about showing my very limited skills. The girls were incredibly kind and supportive and this only encouraged me to carry on pursuing hockey, netball and tennis at PGS. The highlight of the school sports experience has to be the Barbados tour, at the start of what was a very successful season, we were certainly humbled by the unbelievable skills of the Bajan teams.

Something that became apparent very quickly at school was the pride and importance of the prefect body. It doesn’t take long to recognise who they are with their bright red ties and shiny buttons but the job they do is often much more subtle. I feel very proud to have been part of such an amazing team of people and also extremely fortunate to have been taught by the master of all things prefect, Mr Blewett. Mr Blewett directed us with such efficiency and wisdom but personally he offered me much advice on the gates doing Late’s duty as part of the Senior Prefect team.

It makes me sad to think that my time at PGS is over but I know I will see people again and I’m excited to hopefully experience new things at UCL next year studying for a degree in medicine. The school has prepared me for both the academic and also more practical challenges I will face in the coming years. I will always be grateful for having had the opportunity to be part of such an amazing community which has certainly helped me to reach my immediate goal of a place to study medicine but also changed me as a person.

continued...Lizzie proudly showing off her PGS Leavers’ tie

26 27Portsmouth Grammar School • www.pgs.org.ukOPUS • Issue 3 • Autumn 2010

Class of 2010Matthew Gray Robin Lucas

It is the school holidays. The sun is shining, academic thoughts have been replaced by thoughts of travel and relaxation, and the bustle of another academic year is a mere echo in the empty PGS Quad. Yet this summer is different to any other because when September comes around again and the bright young minds return once more under that famous arch, I shall not be joining them. These summer holidays have, therefore, an elegiac note for me. There is an immense happiness with the slightest undercurrent of sadness. I have been at PGS for 14 happy years; my whole school career. I suppose that the sadness emanates from the thought of never being part of the vibrant PGS community, in an involved sense, ever again. But to be sad would be to undermine all that I take away with me; some of the happiest memories of my life and some very firm friendships. I shall always remember the long, sunny afternoons playing cricket up at Hilsea in the Junior School. I shall always remember the camaraderie in the midst of public examinations and I shall always remember the perfect and homely surroundings of PGS: from the academic serenity of the Memorial Library to the lively music of bands in the Rotunda, playing on the breeze.

I hope to move on to Pembroke College, Oxford in order to study Law and from there to become, perhaps unsurprisingly, a lawyer. For me to be given a chance to study a subject such as Law is a real honour and, although I leave PGS, I shall not forget that PGS has, effectively, guided me on the path that I wanted. I know that all that I achieve in the future will be down, in no small part, to the foundations laid in my school years; the result of hours devoted by teachers, my friends and all the PGS community. My school has given me the best possible chance to achieve what I want in my life and has given me an unrivalled head-start; something for which I shall always be grateful.

As I near a conclusion, I cannot help but feel that sadness which I described, yet I remind myself that this is not farewell. As I become an OP, I look forward to watching the school flourish and grow and continue to provide the best education in the city and one of the best in the country. So many memories have made PGS great for me; the legendary presence of Mr Sheldrick as Nicol Housemaster, the great literary wit of Mr Dunne and the opportunity to grow up around some exceptional and pristine personalities. I am sure that in the future, PGS will continue to mean so much for so many. I would like to close my thoughts with one of my favourite quotations by J.M Barrie, who said: “I am not young enough to know everything”. Schoolchildren are some of the brightest and most imaginative people in the world. In PGS, I had a school that encouraged me to believe in myself and achieve my potential. I owe PGS my greatest and most heartfelt thanks and appreciation.

“The cryptic birds were gone as soon as they had appeared. This was a very special moment as this mysterious little bird’s nest has never even been found and very little is known about it at all. I had seen a Short-tailed Bush-warbler Urosphena whiteheadi.” My full account of the fascinating species endemic to Mount Trus Madi can be found in Portsmouth Point. This was one of the many experiences on the Borneo expedition in 2008; others included white-water rafting, refurbishing a school library and climbing the two highest peaks in South East Asia. I was particularly fascinated by Borneo’s extraordinary wildlife, and unlike others on the team had binoculars pressed to my eyes in search of more ornithological delights. My time in Borneo partially mimics my PGS career in that it contained excitement, personal endeavour, hard work and a struggle to the top!

PGS has certainly not been what one would call an easy ride, and contained highs and lows. A decided low was seriously injuring my back in my first year, and being unable to attend school for a term. After that the only way was up, so I sang in the choir for the Queen at the Royal Albert Hall, becoming a peer counsellor and a prefect. Chamber Choir has taken me to extraordinary places such as singing ‘Silent Night’ around the grave of its composer Franz Gruber causing our coach driver to weep, being part of the CD recording with the London Mozart players and the innumerable concerts and world premieres around the country. Working with top composers and conductors has been inspirational but this is nothing beside the encouragement, enthusiasm and support provided by all the teaching staff at PGS. There is such a willingness to extend every privilege and opportunity to the pupils of PGS and treat each pupil as an individual and sculpt their education accordingly.

What is most startling about PGS is that there is no expectation to conform to the modern stereotypes, I certainly do not! In one of the country’s top sports schools, I have been respected and accepted, despite never having picked up a rugby ball or hockey stick. One can develop one’s interests and passions unhindered and without the burden of having to conform. A juxtaposition of achievements and interests is no problem for PGS so I can win the German prize, have my sculpture of a Greek god made from beachcombings grace the Headmaster’s office for a year, be on the biology Olympiad team, chair the wildlife club and be head of the Chamber Choir. PGS strives to encourage high independent achievement and the familial ethos develops the sense of community that will live with me forever. The only stereotype I have really had to struggle with is that I live on the Isle of Wight with all that entails.

Even though I am sad to leave, I am hugely looking forward studying Biology at university. What will happen after that is anyone’s guess. How I will reconcile my diversity of interests I don’t know but my experience of school has taught me to take every opportunity given to me. I can say that without a doubt PGS has formed me as a person and has given me the very best start to adult life one could wish for. Above all my time at PGS has taught me to be true to myself and follow my own interests.

The Long Haul – Alex Hibbert OP

Alex left PGS at Common Entrance in 1999 to complete his education at Canford and Oxford and, bearing in mind the above CV, is, incredibly, still only 24 years of age!

With a power-point display of breathtaking photos and a range of polar visual effects including a patched-up broken ski, Alex took us through an adventure which pushed human endurance, both physical and mental, to the limit.

It was as an 18 year old undergraduate that Alex conceived this project of a major polar expedition which four years later became a four-month unbroken crossing of the Greenland icecap covering 1374 miles with each of the two-man team hauling his own 430lb sledge!

George Bullard, a year younger than Alex but an experienced swimmer and an enthusiastic British Schools Exploring Society expeditioner, and Alex left Kulusuk,

an Inuit village on Greenland’s east coast, on 26 March to trudge the equivalent of Penzance to Aberdeen and back, hauling all equipment and sustenance on heavy sledges that tended to develop a mind of their own at any gradient or impediment. To us mere mortals, the dangers they faced were quite unimaginable – temperatures as low as minus 40, sastrugi (ice formations like waves of ice but hard as rock and in no way conducive to sledging!), monstrous crevasses at their most dangerous when a 2-man team hauls sledges (Alex got himself roped down one to obtain a sensational photo of the thin skin of snow and ice that can conceal such dangers), white-out (where it is impossible to distinguish snow from sky and where it is difficult to see as far as the end of one’s ski, rendering advance impossible as the risk of losing one’s team-mate is too great), storm force winds, frostbite, exhaustion, erratic body temperature etc, etc. In addition to these physical risks, mental ordeals were no less harrowing – boredom, hallucination

(during the trek Alex “saw” phantom skiers, tents (in fact distant mountains!), railway platforms), risk of insanity – the satellite telephone to home and the iPod and Blackadder talking books managed to combat this for Alex and George!

There were two particular disasters – Alex’s broken ski which had to be taped up but which thereafter caused great discomfort, and the untraceability of the last two depots. To reduce the weight of the sledge it was decided to create every 50 miles a depot of three days’ worth of food and fuel for the return journey. All was well until 100 miles from home the penultimate depot could not be found – a storm causing an impenetrable layer of ice one foot below the surface defeated the GPS!

The team at the end of all their resources had to struggle 50 miles on three flapjacks a day to the final depot, only to find that this too had disappeared!

Thereafter it was a grim fight to survive with both Alex and George collapsing from time to time but never, fortunately, together!!

This quite amazing presentation was followed by a question & answer session, a very warm vote of thanks proposed by the Headmaster and the opportunity to inspect the polar equipment- sledge, skis, clothing – used by Alex on the expedition. The Headmaster referred to the book as being a fascinating read, an opinion entirely endorsed by your correspondent who recommends it wholeheartedly to all who read this article.

Gareth Perry OP (1964-2001)

On Thursday May 20th a Willis Room packed with OPs, staff and pupils much appreciated the coup by the Development Office in inviting Alex Hibbert, Royal Marine Officer, extreme adventurer, author, acclaimed professional photographer and world record holder back to the School to give a riveting presentation on his 2008 Trans-Greenland Expedition which is the longest fully unsupported polar journey in history.

The Long Haul

Author – Alex H

ibbert

Publisher – Tric

orn Books

Cost - £8.99

Following successful ‘A’ level results we are delighted to add that Robin and Matthew will be heading off to Oxford University and Lizzy to UCL to continue their studies with every good wish from all at PGS.

Robin Lucas, jubilant on

A Level Results Day


The Probationary PianistWhere are they now?On Your Bike!

It was almost exactly 50 years to the day since John had left the School for the world of work and learning to play the piano is a previously dormant interest which he has taken up in his semi-retirement. It is an interest which he shares with his 9 year old grand-daughter, Rosie, who also took her Grade 1 exam in June. As both John and Rosie passed Grade 1, the family rivalry now continues towards Grade 2!

John’s interest in learning to play the piano was sparked into life last year when, on his retirement as Chairman of the Governors of Portsmouth High School, he was asked what he would like as a leaving present from the staff. Having enjoyed so many wonderful school concerts as a guest and also remembering his time at PGS when sport took precedence over his interest in music, it only took about a second for him to say: “I would like to have some piano lessons and a recommendation to someone who might be prepared to take me on as a pupil!”.

This put John into contact with another OP, Stephen Foster (1958-67) who, in 9 months, has trained John from an absolute beginner into a successful Grade 1 pupil. During the lessons, they also have a lot of fun recalling their school days.

Stephen says: “When the call came enquiring about piano lessons I asked, as I always do, the pupil’s age. I was surprised enough to raise an eyebrow when the answer came – 65. Not that I am unused to taking on adult beginners, but a pensioner was going to be a new experience.

“When the appointed day and hour arrived, I opened the door to a large, genial gentleman, and we began our first lesson – as we have most subsequent lessons – with tea and cake.

“With many adult beginners one finds that, though they may start with the best of intentions, enthusiasm can soon wane when the reality of what they are taking on hits home. The need to practice regularly is vital and, for most, simply not feasible. This has not been so for John. He has almost always been able to do a worthwhile amount of preparation for each lesson, hence his progression to the Grade 1 exam in 9 months from scratch – better than many far younger pupils manage.

“We are now looking forward to beating Rosie to Grade 2! And if I sometimes become tetchy because John doesn’t quite latch on to what I am asking of him he replies with equanimity “I can take anything. I went to Portsmouth Grammar School”.”

Back in July 1989 Sixth Form Coordinator and Physics Teacher Jim Herbert organised a charity cycle ride to the Pyrenees to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. He is now looking to reunite Graeme Jeffery, John Westnedge, Robert Clay and Jon Vincent to reprise the journey some 22 years after the intrepid group first cycled out through the school arch. The last known whereabouts of some of the original five man team include Paraguay and South Africa, so tracking them down may well prove to be as exhausting as the trip itself! If you are pictured here or can help to locate the original team members, Jim would love to hear from you at [email protected]

“Sorry, Headmaster, I’m 50 years late for my exam!”

Those were the words with which John Bannell OP (1955-60) greeted the Headmaster when, by chance, they met outside the Michael Nott Music School on Tuesday 29 June 2010 as John was waiting to take his Grade 1 piano exam.

Jim Herbert shown with Graeme, John, Robert and Jon Vincent at the start of their mammoth charity cycle ride in 1989

Born to RunA capacity crowd attended the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in August as Britain’s newly-crowned European champions and medallists returned from the European Championships in Barcelona. However, after some mixed performances from the returning team, it was left to a retired track legend to secure the only British win of the two-day event. Multiple Olympic medallist Roger Black OP (1977-1984) was the star of the show as he stormed to victory in the Aviva Legends Relay. The sell-out crowd were treated to an exhilarating race with all four teams in contention after the first leg, but it was Black, the oldest of the legends in competition, who broke the finish tape first with a huge grin on his face, despite having tweaked a hamstring with 20 metres still to go.

Photo shows fellow Olympic medallists and athletics veterans Jason Gardener, Iwan Thomas and John Regis at the Aviva London Grand Prix.

Time Traveller?

A few months back, I’d booked a short break in June to visit WWII airfields in Lincolnshire. The highlight of the trip was to visit one of the only three working (though in this case not flyable) Lancasters in the world. Not only would we visit, but we would also get to sit in all the crew positions on board.

With this visit planned, I was surprised and very exited to get an email from PGS Mission Control (aka Alasdair Akass). This was to inform me that PGS had been instrumental in (hopefully) getting the crew of the Space Shuttle “Atlantis” to visit Portsmouth in June. Various events were planned. As a space enthusiast since the “Eagle” comic of the 1950s (with continuity breaks for schooling and associated homework), I jumped at the chance to attend some of the events.

Thus it was, that I travelled from the 20th century Lancaster to the 19th century “Warrior” to meet 21st century astronauts. All in the space of a week!

The first event I attended was a “Meet the Astronauts” presentation, at “Action Stations” in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Here the astronauts gave a short presentation about their flight in “Atlantis” and aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

A video was shown which demonstrated the humorous effects of weightlessness. It also included a balletic video tour (set to music) around the outside of the ISS. This was very reminiscent of the sequence in “2001 A Space Odyssey”. A Q&A session followed, before the astronauts finally left stage to get ready for the Gala Dinner on HMS Warrior.

There was some anxiety amongst those of us who were also attending the Dinner, as the Q&A session was followed by a presentation about a new Martian Rover.

Should we stay and listen, or make our way to the Dinner (where pre-dinner drinks were already being served)? Fortunately, this had been thought of. A side door opened and those of us attending the Dinner were beckoned out. This was fairly easy, since we were the only ones in dinner suits!

As we made our way towards HMS Warrior, I was pleased to hear the strains of Trad Jazz coming from the deck courtesy of the Junior School Brass Band. PGS was working well. Drinks were served and then the astronauts arrived, greeted by Sousa marches etc. All were in Dress uniform and wore striking gold cummerbunds. We had a rousing speech from the headmaster on the quarterdeck, befitting the occasion, and then it was down, literally, to dinner.

During the meal, the astronauts were moving from table to table, so that all guests could meet at least one or two of them. At one time we had Captain Bowen sitting at our table. He was a submariner (and engineer) and I asked him how he had persuaded NASA to let him be an astronaut. He laughed, and replied that it was all to do with being used to living in small tin cans!

Normally at this type of function everyone is a stranger like school re-unions ,but on

this occasion I actually knew three people at my table. One was another “old boy” from PGS, and two others I had met at Autographica dinners (again dining with astronauts). Also at our table was a young woman whose mother had actually seen the launch of “Atlantis”. We therefore had quite a “savvy” table. It’s a wonder that the astronauts got a chance to eat anything at all!

The evening finished with short speeches and presentations. PGS was presented with a framed montage of a flown “Union Flag” (British of course), STS 132 mission patch and photos of the mission. John Lippiett, the Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust, presented part of a walnut parrel* to the “Atlantis” crew Commander Ken Ham. He stressed it was not a gift, as he couldn’t give away museum artifacts, but it was a long term loan from one ship to another. He hoped it could be flown in space. Captain Ham laughed and said the loan would not be all that long, since the Shuttle programme was soon to end. He would however certainly try to get it flown in space. The dinner finished just before midnight, but there was time for photos and autographs at the end. Then it was time once more to get back on dry land, and this time land firmly in the 20th century.

Roger Hyson OP (1952-1958) has enjoyed a lifelong fascination with space exploration. It is therefore no surprise that he jumped at the chance to be involved in the recent trip by the entire crew of the last Atlantis Shuttle mission to Portsmouth, organised by PGS in June.

PGS Headmaster James Priory with Shuttle Mission STS-132 astronauts Garrett Reissman, Piers Sellars and Mission Commander Kenneth Ham. The astronaut crew presented the school with a small union jack which had flown into space on the last ever mission of Atlantis in May 2010.


In memoriamOpus is saddened to report the death of the following Old Portmuthians and colleagues

Paul BARNETT (1983 – 2010)

Paul attended PGS from1989-1998 and studied at the University of Southampton. He died in tragic circumstances in March 2010 aged 28. Paul’s humour, loyalty, gentle nature and love of sport and music will always be remembered by his family and friends.

Some of those friends (Rich Chan, Richard Dobson, David Kieran, Danny Lamond, Tom MacLean and Lindsay Russell who are also OPs) raised funds for The Anaphylaxis Campaign & National Eczema Society in Paul’s memory by completing the 3 Peaks Challenge over the Bank August Bank Holiday weekend. There’s still time to make a donation – please click on the Just Giving link http://www.justgiving.com/3peaks-charity1/ .

Sir Malcolm Rowland BATES (23.09.34-30.05.09)

Sir Malcolm’s death was reported in the first edition of Opus. The school is honoured that Sir Malcolm Bates Prize for Chamber Music has been set up to be awarded annually to a chamber ensemble in honour of his memory. The first recipients were the school’s String Quintet who were presented with the award by Lady Lynda Bates at Prizegiving in St Thomas’ Cathedral on 20 September.

Neil Frank Charles BLEWETT (18.03.54-12.03/10)

Neil’s death was reported in the second edition of Opus. His colleagues throughout the school have instituted the Neil Blewett Award (created by Design and Technology teacher Sarah Green during her sabbatical designing and making jewellery) to be awarded annually in honour of his memory. The first recipient was Katy Iliffe OP (96-10) who was presented with the award by Neil’s daughters and Old Portmuthians Rachel (91-05) and Claire (91-02) at Prizegiving in St Thomas’ Cathedral on 20 September.

Jenny A CLARKE (1946-2010)

Jenny passed away peacefully on Friday 11 June at The Earl Mountbatten Hospice, Isle of Wight. A Eucharist service celebrating her life took place at St Thomas’ Cathedral attended by husband Mike, PGS School Counsellor, sons Damon and Dominic and many of her colleagues from PGS, where Jenny worked from 1976 – 1990 as a Biology technician. A full appreciation of her contribution to the teaching of science at the school by Senior Teacher Paul Nials will appear in the Spring edition of Opus.

John DUDDELL (1922 – 2010)

John Duddell died peacefully on 9 September 2010, aged 90. A former teacher of Mathematics at PGS, John taught at the school from 1954-1958,

left to teach at his old school in Bury St. Edmunds, and then returned to PGS in 1964 where he continued teaching until his retirement in 1982. John’s contribution to PGS lay predominantly in the Middle School. He was House Master of Barton and became Head of the Middle School. In addition, John commanded the Signals Platoon in the CCF and was an inspirational Rugby and Cricket coach. His personal talent was in Athletics, but he was far too modest to let this be known. He surprised both his colleagues and the opposition when, in a rugby match between Staff and the 1st IV he completely outpaced his opposite number wing three-quarter, who was then the school record holder for the 100yards. The school appeal in 1976 led to the collection of a large number of old photographs and memorabilia from the early days of PGS, a school Archivist was needed and John volunteered to take on the role, and so became the first PGS Archivist. He will be remembered with great affection for his gift of explanation and his understanding of the difficulties experienced by some scholars and also for his total commitment to the life of PGS. He is survived by his wife, Jean and their two sons.

Alan Barnett GRANT (1922 – 2010)

Alan Grant passed away peacefully on 25 August 2010, aged 87, at Epsom General Hospital. He attended PGS from 1933 – 1939 and was President of the London Society of Old Portmuthians in 1966 and again in 1994. He was married to Yvonne and has two sons, Keith and Ian. He was a leading civil engineer both in the UK and abroad. His patented floating tunnel design for a Messina Straits crossing won an Italian government prize, and he did much of the early infrastructure work in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Hugh Francis GOSDEN (1926 – 2010)

We are grateful to Hugh’s brother, Bernard, for this appreciation of Hugh’s life.

Hugh started PGS in 1935 but ill-health intervened. When World War II came, he was evacuated for a year to cousins near Warrington and then joined brother David at Boscombe in 1940.

Hugh’s first job was, as all were, in the local Public Library Service; the important thing is that in his first job he met Margaret; a start to a long-lasting and exceptionally happy marriage. After qualifying, Hugh’s career as a Branch Librarian took them to various towns including Tunbridge Wells, Horley, Midsomer Norton and finally Beeston. They raised a close and affectionate family of Chris, Liz, Nick and Kathy.

Due to his childhood illnesses, Hugh was never robust, but he enjoyed as much of life as he could. Unfortunately, at age 60, he had a stroke which affected him physically and sadly, he also developed rheumatoid arthritis. The pain from this condition meant that Hugh’s later years were not easy, but he seemed always to be cheerful - in part perhaps because he had such a caring and cheerful wife.

Hugh had a keen interest in music. He and Margaret also had a deep faith which brought them involvement in the church to which they belonged. Hugh died in hospital on 4th April 2010, aged 83.

Ron HOLLEY, Rear Admiral, CB (20.02.34 – 13.08.10)

Ron Holley lived in South Africa until 1947 when his family moved to Portsmouth. He attended PGS from 1947-1949 and left to pursue a highly successful career in the Royal Navy. He was President of the OP Club from 1996-1997.

In 1987, Ron retired from the Armed Services as a Rear Admiral, having worked as Director of Helicopter Procurement at the Ministry of Defence. He was responsible for buying helicopters for the three Armed Services and later advised Shell on aviation safety after forty-five of its staff died in a Chinook crash near Shetland in the North Sea. He was notable as being the most senior former military figure to criticize the RAF’s findings of gross negligence against the pilots of the Chinook Mk2 which crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in June 1994.

Ron was married to Dorothy and they had four children and eleven grandchildren. Music was very important to them and both Ron and Dorothy were active friends of the Royal Philharmonia. Ron died at home on 13 August 2010 after long battle with cancer. A Memorial Service was held in Portsmouth Cathedral.

Michael Andrew KEITH-SMITH (1953 – 2010)

Michael attended PGS from 1961-1971. He died in Portchester in July 2010. Also known as Mike Smith, he was a chartered surveyor by trade, but attained a certain notoriety as a right-wing politician. He was expelled from the Conservative party in 2001 but was later re-instated following legal action. He switched allegiance to the UKIP party and in 2002 and mounted a failed bid to win Portsmouth North for UKIP. In recent years he ran a rare book business from his home. He was also involved in local civic group, the Portchester Society, had an interest in military music and was a leading member of the OP Lodge.

Cedric (Sky) Charles Fielding SCARLETT (13.11.19 – 20.04.10)

We are indebted to Sky’s son-in law, Gerald Lee, for this account of Cedric Scarlett’s life. Gerald met Cedric 38 years ago and married his daughter, Heather, in October 1974. Sky died peacefully of ‘old age’. Cedric attended PGS from 1931-1938.

“As a young man in the Royal Navy, Sky fought the good fight in the late 1930’s and 1940’s. His submarine came to Philadelphia for repairs and he met and soon married Judy Minnick before sailing away for the

duration of the war. Sky and Judy settled in the Philadelphia area. He had a long career with Philadelphia Electric as an electrical engineer. He rebuilt most of his carriage house in Wayne, often including his quirky touches such as reversing the hot and cold taps on the bathroom sink.

Years ago, Sky would note that no males in his family ever lived past 65. With that in mind, he did not seem well prepared for retirement. Surprisingly, the week following his retirement he continued to commute to Philadelphia (though for 4 days only) but with new destinations – the University of Pennsylvania Museum Egyptology Department, the Philadelphia Maritime Museum and the Museum of Natural History. Over the next 15-20 years Sky worked as a volunteer at these establishments. Sky also signed up with ‘Earth Watch’ to do grunt work on archaeological digs which included searches for dinosaur bones in Colorado, seeds in the Alaskan permafrost, fish fossils in Montana and Roman artefacts along Hadrian’s Wall.

As he approached 80 he announced that he was going to Antarctica to check off his seventh continent and round Cape Horn, which would give him the right to put both elbows on the table in sailor culture.

Sky studied hieroglyphics and bird carving, bought a laptop computer before any young person, talked about this thing called the Internet, which he used at the University of Pennsylvania, long before the .com era and invested with treasure hunters.

Sky loved his family, especially ‘the boys’ (grandsons Chris and Alex). Last Autumn Sky’s daughter, Heather, Chris and Alex celebrated Sky’s 90th birthday by sailing on the Chesapeake. Boarding the sailboat was an adventure but Sky had a great day. He was clear and sharp to the end. Another boat out that day was the Perigee towing a dingy named Apogee – well Sky got the joke and pointed it out to us.

Tonight, toast Sky with a gin and tonic and a splash of Rose’s lime juice (or your adult beverage of choice). Cedric got the name ‘Sky’ years ago when he was celebrating with friends and proclaimed ‘the sky is the limit’, but when the bill came he was temporarily low on funds. Sky. What a name for a submariner. He was a classic. Please say a prayer for him and for us. Thanks, Gerry.”


AnnouncementsOP Engagements / Marriages / Births

For further announcements and news of Old Portmuthians, please visit www.pgs.org.uk and look at ‘OP News’ in the Development section of the PGS website. To update the school and other OPs of your news, please complete the electronic form on the ‘Contact Us’ page in the Development section of the PGS website.

RACHEL BLEWETT (2005 Leaver) announced her engagement to Craig Lane. Rachel has supported many OP events through the year including the Prefects’ Reunion and MCC Cricket Match and is in her first year of teaching at Oaklands School in Waterlooville.

MATTHEW MORGAN (2001 Leaver) and Hannah Slack were married 11 September 2010, at the Cathedral Church of St Thomas, Portsmouth. Matthew met Hannah while they were both working as doctors in Tunbridge Wells. While Matthew pursues a career as a doctor in the army, Hannah is a respiratory registrar in the NHS. Following their engagement in April, they set the date to marry before Matthew’s deployment to Afghanistan with 16 Air Assault Brigade in September/October 2010.

SIMON UDAL (1987 Leaver) and wife SARA (nee Small, 1988 Leaver) became the proud parents of a son, Harry, (brother to Thomas) who was born on 29 June 2010.

CLAIRE JEPSON (nee Sawyer, 1990 Leaver) and husband Steve were delighted to announce the birth of their daughter, Cora Beatrice, at 6.55am on 23 April 2010. In addition to being an OP, Claire is also Head of English at PGS.

News of Old Portmuthians

News of Old Portmuthians

BILLOWES, C.A. (46-51) Last April, Colin attended a reunion of the Kenya Regiment in which he served during the Mau Mau rebellion in the early 1950s. This took place on a cruise liner on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia (where better to hold a Kenya Regiment reunion?). E J Downer (45-48) was also there.

BLACKETT, His Honour Judge J. (66-73) We were delighted to welcome Jeff as the VIP guest to this year’s South Coast Sevens Tournament in our 125th anniversary year of PGS Sport at Hilsea. Following a distinguished career in the Navy, including an appointment as Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces in 2004, Jeff Blackett became the RFU’s Judicial Officer, presiding over the Harlequins ‘Bloodgate’ scandal and the bans against five Bath players for drug-related offences in 2009. He played rugby for the Navy and began his service as honorary judicial officer in 2003. His relationship with the RFU goes back to 2000 when he joined the council. In 2003 and 2007 he served as judicial officer for the Rugby World Cup and in 2009 was appointed to the RFU’s ‘Image of the Game’ task force in the wake of ‘Bloodgate’ and is a former President of the OP Club.

BUCHANAN, C.R. (80-86) Rob is dual-qualified as a chartered civil engineer and solicitor. Having taken to the law in the mid

nineties, he spent 10 years in London specialising in the resolution of construction disputes. He now lives in Brisbane and is a partner at Norton Rose, Australia, where he leads the construction and engineering department. Work is a mix of national and international construction dispute resolution. While in the UK, Rob was an officer in the Territorial Army and served in the Balkans (1996) and Afghanistan (2006). Rob is married to Jo and they have 3 daughters, Amelia (11), Scarlett (9) and Eliza (6). Interests include sailing and cycling (age and decrepitude now preclude rugby; an ongoing source of sadness).

COFFIN N.J. (95 -09) Nick has finally gone into the spotlight, after spending his years at PGS firmly behind the scenes as Stage Manager in many a PGS production at the King’s Theatre, by appearing as a contestant on BBC TV’s The Weakest Link. Transmission is due to take place in December. Opus is sworn to secrecy about just how well he fared, but Nick has at least let slip that the notorious Anne Robinson was fairly gentle with him!

CRAVEN, P. (81-85) Paul writes ‘After leaving PGS, I went on to Bath University and graduated in 1989 with BSc (Hons) in Business Administration. I went on to UMIST to gain an MSc in Marketing and became a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing

in 1991. At PGS I gained a sponsorship with Rover Group while I attended Bath University. Since then, I have worked for a number of car manufacturers (Rover, Ford Motor Company, Honda and presently Toyota & Lexus). In these companies I have worked in a variety of disciplines including sales, marketing and business development’.

‘I have lived in St. Albans, Hertfordshire since 1994 and am married to Christine with 2 children (Isabel 10 and Anna 7). As well as cars, I enjoy sports particularly golf and travel to Portugal twice a year to play in the sunshine. I also have an increasing interest in growing a variety of fruit and vegetables in my garden (must be my age) and a more fond interest in wines from all over the world (drinking not growing).’

‘I am in contact (infrequently) with a few Old Portmuthians. I have recently attended Sasha Crane-Robinson’s 40th birthday party and have been in touch with Steve Chappell, David Harvesty, and John Booth from the relatively infamous leaving year of 1985.’

CURME, M.C. (44-47) Michael has moved from the family home in Cheltenham to Clevedon to be near his son. We are sorry to learn of Michael’s illness and send our very best wishes.

DAVIS, Ms C. (92-02) After graduating from the University of Plymouth in 2006 with a 2:1 in English & Visual Arts, Charlotte moved to London to start a job at FC Business Intelligence as an International Events Manager. She organises conferences and Award Ceremonies for a variety of different sectors including Pharmaceuticals and Renewable Energies. Charlotte is heavily involved in the on site management of each event which means she travels regularly to Europe, North America and India!

FIFIELD, D.J. (57-68) David retired from the RN six years ago and has since spent over four years at Chelmsford Cathedral as the Administrator and Chapter Clerk. ‘This was hard work but fascinating and great fun’. He now lives in the Dorset countryside just south of Sherborne and plans to run a small holiday business offering self-catering and bed and breakfast accommodation.

GRAHAM, J. (83-86) John is having a ball as part of the line-up of the country’s foremost Rolling Stones tribute band The Rolling Tones. Described by Sixties chart-topping legend Clodagh Rogers as being ‘better than the real thing’, the band travel all over the country to sell-out gigs. John (aka Charlie Watts) will be appearing with Mick, Keith and the rest of the boys at The Fountain in Chichester on 4 December. More details from 01243 781352.

HANCOCK, The Venerable Peter. Opus is delighted to report that former parent Peter is the new Bishop of Basingstoke. He was installed in September by the Right Reverend Bishop of Winchester and was formerly Archdeacon of the Meon in the Diocese of Portsmouth. Peter and wife Jane have moved from their home in Fareham to Alresford to take up the post. They have four grown-up children - three of whom, Richard (92-02), Charlotte (04-06) and William (04-08) - are OPs.

HAWKEY, R.A. (47-57) After PGS, Cambridge, and the Institute of Education, London University, Roger enjoyed his career with the British Council (in Uganda, Thailand, London and Zimbabwe) and at the Asian Institute of Technology. He pursued his school acting interest while overseas, but not his boxing. Despite his advanced age, he is still working, as a Consultant to University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations and as Visiting Professor at the University of Bedfordshire. He has four grown-up children, two of each, and lives happily in Cornwall with his second wife, Choochit.

JEFFERY, J.G.P. (74-81) Jonathan, who is Vicar of Leigh Park, St Francis, and Warren Park, St Clare, is also Area (Rural) Dean of the Havant Deanery.

MERTON, Miss E. L. ( 92-05) There was no let-up for newly qualified English and Drama teacher Emma in the school summer holidays – she was busy producing and directing Alma Mater, an original play about four university friends who are reunited at a funeral, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe which received rave reviews in The Scotsman. She is now back teaching at Bristol’s Brunel Academy.

MONK, I. (93-00) Ian has recently graduated from Oxford Pembroke on the Fast-track Medicine course with a distinction and has started his career as a Foundation Year doctor at Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridge.

MOORE, J. (84-89) Jon graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc. (Hons) in Biochemistry in 1996. He met his future wife Georgina at university and they married in 2005 and have since had a little boy named Benjamin David. Jon is currently employed as a project manager within the NHS at Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust and has settled in the West Midlands with Georgina and Ben.

NEWMAN, R. (59-66) Now semi-retired after a career in the railway and bus industry. Also involved in transport preservation (IOW Bus Museum etc.). Author of the following transport books: ‘1989: Southern Vectis – the First 60 Years’ (ENSIGN), 2004: Southern Vectis 1929-2004. 75 Years Serving the Isle of Wight (COLOURPOINT) and 2007: Irish Buses in the mid-1960s (COLOURPOINT).

PALMER, Dr B.M. (79-88) Bryan, Angela and their two children continue to live in a small town on Sunshine Coast in Queensland, where Bryan is a full-time GP in a small clinic. After renting for two years, Bryan and Angela bought a property on two acres in 2008, which Bryan says ‘takes some of his spare time in the garden’. His other hobbies include a website, golf and fishing in the Noosa River and along the local coast. Bryan has recently become an examiner for the University of Queensland as well as teaching medical students at his clinic. continued...


Forthcoming events

Escape to the Cape

Sunday 14 November 2010Annual Remembrance Day Concert, St Thomas’ Cathedral at 8pm

Featuring the world premiere of ‘As with voices and with tears’, a specially-commissioned piece for Remembrance Sunday by renowned young British composer Tansy Davies, featuring PGS choirs and the school’s Associate Musicians, the London Mozart Players. Tickets and information are available from the PGS Main School Reception, tel: 023 9236 0036.

Thursday 25 November - Saturday 27 November 2010

“Sweet Charity”, King’s Theatre at 7.30pm

Follow the misadventures of love encountered by the gullible and guileless Charity Hope Valentine, a woman who always gives her heart and her dreams to the wrong man. Cy Coleman’s score features favourite hits such as ‘Hey, Big Spender’, ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now’ and ‘The Rhythm of Life’. Come and show your support for the most ambitious school production of the year. Tickets from the King’s Theatre Box Office, tel: 023 9282 8282.

Thursday 2 December 2010

Annual OP Lunch at the Royal Beach Hotel, Southsea at 12.30pm

The annual lunch for OPs who live in or are visiting the Portsmouth area has become a popular event on the OP Calendar. If you would like to attend please complete the booking form on www.pgs.org.uk, tab ”Development”, section “Events” or contact Sue Merton (e-mail: [email protected] or tel: 023 9268 1385) by Wednesday, 24 November.

Saturday 4 December 2010

Junior School 10 Year Celebration Ball, HMS Warrior at 7.30pm

A Christmas Ball will be held on HMS Warrior to celebrate the tenth birthday of the Junior School and also to mark the retirement of Headteacher, Mrs Pippa Foster. Tickets cost £70 per person and are available from the PGS Development Office. Contact Liz Preece (e-mail: [email protected] or tel: 023 9268 1392). Please note that there has been a high demand for tickets.


Annual OP vs. PGS Rugby, Hockey and Netball Matches, Hilsea

(Women’s Hockey at 11.30am, Netball at 1pm, Men’s Hockey at 1pm, Rugby at 2.30pm)

Come and support or participate in the annual winter clash of school teams vs. OPs at Hilsea. If you would like to represent the OPs or need further details please contact Liz Preece (e-mail: [email protected] or tel: 023 9268 1392).


OP Club Annual Dinner, David Bawtree Building at 6.45 for 7.30pm

The 2009 Annual Dinner was a great success with a large number of OPs attending and it is hoped that this year’s Dinner will be equally successful. Members of the OP Rugby Club will be holding their quinquennial reunion at this year’s Dinner. Therer will also be an opportunity to see the Roger Harris Climbing Wall, which will be officially opened. Tickets cost £30 per person and can be obtained from Gareth Perry, 34 Marine Court, Southsea, PO4 9QU (before Friday, 3 December). Further details and a booking form can also be found on www.pgs.org.uk, tab ”Development”, section “OP Club”, under item “Events”.

Sarah Bateman OP (1985-1987) describes herself as a piano-playing, trumpet-playing godmother to 5 who will try anything at least once. Ever since she experienced Africa during a three month expedition to Botswana with Operation Raleigh back in 1990, she has vowed to return. Leaving behind her job as a Customer Relations Manager, she will leave the UK with boyfriend Rob and Alfie the veteran Landrover at the beginning of October on a challenge to drive from Hampshire to Cape Town. The six month trip will see the pair drive overland through France to Genoa where they will take a ferry to Tunis and drive down the entire East Coast of Africa, taking in about 20 countries and

covering 20,000 miles before reaching their destination. “The plan is to keep on driving as far south as possible until the only thing we can come up against is sea and penguins”, says Sarah. Preparations have been intense and thorough. “The visa process for Libya alone has been one hurdle after another to overcome and we are obliged to pick up a guide at the border who will accompany us at all times until we exit the country.”

Sarah, who was one-time President of the OP Club and served on the Campaign Committee for the school’s Development Campaign, is raising money in undertaking the challenge for Water Aid and the British Lung Campaign. More information about

the trip and her chosen charities can be found at the trip website www.alfiegoestoafrica.co.uk

She would very much to hear from any OPs living in Africa who would like to meet up at one of the many pit stops the pair will need to make en route.

News of Old PortmuthiansSHEPHERD, J.C. (55-65) John, who has been Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Carleton University in Ottawa since January 2007, has recently been given the additional post of Associate Provost (Quality Assurance). As such, he is responsible for the appraisal of all the university’s graduate and undergraduate courses (23 000 students), old and new. The new title, which places John somewhere between a Dean and a Vice Principal, is a result on a changing quality assurance regime in the Province of Ontario (higher education is a provincial matter in Canada).

STEWART, B. J. (04-08) Ben was awarded the Nuffield Scholarship in Medicine and Nuffield Prize for Medicine by St Hilda’s College Oxford in June in recognition of his excellent work in the subject.

SWEETMAN, Dr John (46-53). John’s reputation as one of Britain’s foremost military historians was cemented this year with the publication of the first full biography of FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, first Baron Raglan to much acclaim. Previously Head of Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he is also the author of the critically applauded The Damsbusters Raid (Cassell). John was President of the OP Club in 2003-4.

TAYLOR, W. M. Opus is delighted to report that former Chairman of Science and OP Club Committee member Bill has been lured out of retirement to take up the role of Education Director at the King’s Theatre Southsea. Bill’s new challenge will be featured in the Spring 2011 issue of Opus.

TITHERIDGE, Tim (58-68) PGS was delighted to welcome Tim to the school’s Development Board earlier this year. Tim has been a major part of the Southampton property scene for over 20 years. He joined ROK in 2002 when it acquired City Estates Limited, the company he founded. Under his leadership, ROK Development’s Southampton office became the largest commercial developer in central southern England with a development portfolio approaching £250 million in value. Tim is also a former Chairman of the Wessex Cancer Trust and is a seasoned fundraiser. Through dint of his own efforts trekking the entire length of the Canal du Midi from Toulouse to Sête in October 2009, Tim raised in excess of £50,000 for the charity. He also holds regular fundraising Sportsman’s Dinners for WCT, including one in June this year with rugby legend Will Greenwood. Rugby has always been a passion of Tim’s. When a knee injury at 24 years of age cut short his playing career, he was undeterred. He picked up the refereeing baton instead, refereeing at international level all over the globe.

TOOTELL, J. (90-97) After graduating from the LSE in 2000, John worked for a number of years in the Securities Financing area at Morgan Stanley. In 2007, he moved to work at Citi, where he is now responsible for the delivery of multiple project streams for Prime Finance, mainly in the securities lending area.

WATERS, B. (45-52) Awarded an MBE in 2008.

WEEKS, Stephen (56-66) Nucleus Films have recently released film-maker and author Stephens cult 1974 chiller Ghost Story as a special edition double DVD. The film is the absolute definition of a cult British Horror. Set in 1930s England, it tells of three former public schoolmates (one of them being the inspiration for Bruce Robinson’s creation Withnail), who reunite in a country mansion haunted by the spirit of insane former resident Marianne Faithfull. Other cast members include Leigh Lawson and Penelope Keith. As well as directing horror films back in the 1970s, Stephen also had a passion for historic building restoration. In 1973 he purchased the decaying 12th century Castle Penhow in Wales and began restoring it. He lived it for more than 30 years before moving to another castle – The Octagon – in Prague, Czech Republic where his epic 2003 novel Daniela is set.

WEIR, J. (p8-05) Jason, who was an Assistant in the Music Department at PGS in 2008/9, has spent the last year doing a Masters Degree in Music at Kings College, London, which he has much enjoyed. He has also been performing with the Kensington Symphony Orchestra.

WILLIAMS, R. (92-06) Richard is halfway through a two year MPhil degree at Oxford, during which he has learnt Hindi and is researching the history of Hinduism. As part of his studies he was encouraged to develop his language skills in India. Richard spent three weeks in an old British hill station, Mussoorie, at a language school to improve his grasp of modern Hindi. After this he moved to Vrindavan to collect and copy manuscripts that will be vital for his research project. There Richard worked with a priest who did not speak any English, which was rather challenging at times, but also allowed him access to unique resources. He supplemented this with a period in the institutions of Allahabad, which gave him an insight into modern Indian bureaucracy as much as 18th century poetry. This next year will be spent processing those manuscripts he was able to photograph.

WILLIAMS, T. G. (88-93) We are delighted to announce that Tom and his two team mates defied all predictions, beating off strong competition to emerge as victors in the 2010 Polar Challenge, a competitive 350 mile race across the Arctic to the 1996 location of the magnetic North Pole and beyond. The race began back in April with international teams walking and skiing for up to four weeks across the frozen arctic sea and negotiate the ice boulder fields of Bathurst Island .Said to be one of the most extreme challenges in the most extreme of environments the competitors in the Polar Challenge face amongst other things temperatures as low as -70c (wind chill) and crossing the migratory route of 80% of the worlds polar bear population, the only land mammal to actively hunt humans. Teams do not have dogs or any other forms of propulsion at there disposal, their progress is entirely through their own endeavour. Tom’s Team Darkest Horse received sponsorship from Jamie Oliver in order to take part in this gruelling endurance race and were rewarded for their remarkable win by having a meal cooked upon their return by the great man himself! Tom, a Bristol UWE graduate who spent his placement year mapping coral reefs on a remote Honduran Island, has now emigrated with his girlfriend to Chile and, being an adrenaline junkie, is thoroughly enjoying snowboarding in the Valle Nevado.

PLEASE NOTE that details of all forthcoming events can be found on the PGS school website – www.pgs.org.uk

Portsmouth Grammar Schoolwww.pgs.org.uk

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Opus Issue 3