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another! Mike Walliker (D 82) is returning to the UK in September, after two years in Gibraltar, for his final 12 months in the Royal Navy when he will have completed 37 years.
I should follow by reporting on our senior South-West member, Derek Parsons (S 38), who is also my father. He remains in good health and spirits, well looked after in a Dorchester care home and enjoys our weekly pub lunch. A highlight of his year was an outcome from the article in last year’s issue of the magazine, my father’s recollections of School life in the 1930s. The accompanying Sidney House photo prompted Bob Brittain (Lx 64) to contact me, as his father, Dick Brittain (S 38), is seated in the same row as my father. Dick died in 2000, but Bob has twice hot-footed it from Bury St Edmunds to Dorset to share further recollections, as evidently our respective fathers were good friends.
I am delighted to have received a large number of contributions this year, the first being from Jamie Pride (B 70), who has lived in Poole for the last 20 years and keeps fit with sailing, skiing, cycling and hiking. He is Treasurer and Vice Commodore of the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Poole and expects to be elected Commodore in January 2019, provided he behaves himself! He still visits northern Uganda – where his wife, Frankie, an anaesthetist, teaches in the new university and regional hospital – and he regularly meets Martin Lean (B 70), whose summer home in Martiel, southern France, is an attraction. His son, Mike, is a chiropractor.
After a few years’ silence, John Staples (Sc 61) reports that, although retired for 10 years, he celebrated the golden jubilee of his ordination as a priest in September 2017. The vicar at his Bournemouth church, Fr. Kevin Cable, encouraged celebrations and The Rt. Revd. Dominic Walker, one of John’s bishops when he was Rector of Pangbourne, came to preach. It was a great day enjoyed by all. John still helps when required in local churches, led a pilgrimage last year to Greece in the steps of Saint Paul and in June this year led another to Iona.
Adrian Fisher (B 69) writes of further successes with his maze designs, including setting his ninth Guinness World Record in Ningbo, China, with the
world’s largest hedge maze and creating the largest mirror maze in South-East Asia at the Singapore Science Centre, exploring the physics of colour, light, mirrors and optical illusions. He operates from a studio in Durweston, Dorset, where he has a hedge maze and folly tower.
A new arrival in the South-West is Chris Higman (N 62), who moved to Cheltenham with his wife, Pip, having spent 43 years in Schwalbach near Frankfurt. The move brings them closer to their daughter, Victoria Davies (D 96), and their two grandchildren in Bristol without impacting on his engineering consultancy. 2018 has seen Chris visit Houston, Edmonton, Jakarta, Dusseldorf, Berlin and Prague. In September Chris and Pip plan a return to Schwalbach for the opening of a kindergarten, a project on which they had both worked.
Another new arrival is Ed Grattan (C 99), who moved from London to Bath two years ago. He leads communications at Bristol-based Triodos Bank, recently caught up with fellow Bristol graduate Nick Atkins (C 99) and plays squash with Peter Clutton-Brock (F 01).
I think it is also a maiden appearance in the report for Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (K 98), a literary translator fluent in German, Russian and Arabic, an impressive trio of languages! She has several books out this year, including The Weather Detective, by best-selling
Roger Bambrough (Lx 55) (left) talking to former OO South-West Correspondent Chris Walliker (D 54) at the OO South- West Lunch at Taunton Racecourse in March
nature writer Peter Wohlleben (translated from German) and The Raven’s Children by Yulia Yakovleva (a children’s book set in 1930s Stalinist Leningrad, translated from Russian).
Also now in the South-West is Tom Hiscocks (St A 81), who creates remarkable sculptures from his base in Pewsey, Wiltshire. Using utilitarian materials, metals and acrylics (his words not mine!), most of his work is created in layers. He has exhibited at Garsington Opera (Garsington Deer), Newbury Racecourse (Drinking Horse), Doddington Hall and elsewhere. Tom can be followed on most social media platforms and examples of his work can be seen on his website, www.tomhiscocks.co.uk.
A few miles from me is Nigel Engert (G 67), who has lived in Wincanton for 40 years. Retired from the social services and Sherborne Town Council, he remains active with a South-West leisure and sports centre management company, and swims regularly at the Wincanton Sports Centre. He maintains contact with two contemporaries, George Marshall (G 67) and Richard Peaver (G 67).
Piers Pepperell (Lx 90) reports that his veterinary practice joined a prestigious cooperative known as XLVets, with 16 practitioners based in a state-of-the-art hospital in Wellington, Somerset. Sadly, his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, but treatment from the Beacon Centre in Taunton has been successful. He raised over £5,000 for this centre in a sponsored triathlon and will once again complete the big walk this year (walking, pubs and same jokes as last year!) in the Peak District with Dom Turnor (S 90), Aydon Yeaman (S 90), Jeremy Paxman (Ldr 90) and Jeremy Dutta (G 90).
Mike Jolly (Lx 51) has been retired in Seaton for some 20 years, but makes many trips to see his son at work in Argentina and Qatar.
Another Laxton correspondent, and new to the South-West, is William Wykes (Lx 71), who, having worked as an eye surgeon in Glasgow for 30 years, is now living in Westbury-on-Trim, near Bristol, where he was a medical student and also met his wife. They have been surprised how much faster the weeds and grass grow in the South! The only OO he reports seeing is his brother,
NEWS FROM HOME
THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2017 –2018
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