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COLUMN
The Editor
Simon Redfern (Sc 75) details the contents of his final magazine as Editor
Welcome to the
2018/19 edition of
The Old Oundelian,
my last as Editor. My five-year contract has come to an end
and although I have thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with
many OOs and the School after
a long gap, as well as
revamping the magazine, I feel
now is the right time to step
aside and let someone else
take the magazine to the next
level. Also, I’d like to have my summers back, as for the last
five years all of August and
most of July has been devoted
to producing the magazine! I
am happy to report that 2019 OO Club President Alastair Irvine (Sc 81) has announced my replacement as Megan Smedley, former Editor of The Oundelian, so perfectly placed to take over. You can read more about her in the School Farewells section on page 68.
My final issue as Editor contains a few tweaks, with the cover reverting to ‘The Old Oundelian’ title – after complaints that ‘O O’ was too confusing to outsiders, as it could be misconstrued as referring to Old Oakhamian (perish the thought!) – and the Grocers’ shield being moved to the contents page and being replaced by the School crest. In addition, all OO Sport is now in one section and includes the few reports I received of the Multisports Weekend in March.
I am delighted to report that the reduction in OO Sport pages has been put to good use, with more space for features. We have major interviews with Lord Kitchin (Sc 72), the first OO to become a Supreme High Court judge, by Lance Ashworth (G 82); Dominic Reid OBE (B 80) and Richard Smith CBE (St A 79), who tell Editorial Board member Polly Irvine about their fascinating
roles with the Invictus Games Foundation; Tom Stallard (N 97), who speaks to me about a varied sporting career which has taken him from the Beijing Olympics as a medal-winning rower to the world’s Formula One race tracks with McLaren; and Simon Pearsall (G 81), who talks to Mark Moore (Sc 68) about his career as a cartoonist.
In other features, Kate Dillon (D 08) writes about her 18 months as a doctor in Antarctica; Poldy Van Lynden (C 03) reports on his world first of running, swimming, cycling and rowing 5,000km from London to the Arctic; Stephen Fisher (LS 93) explains how a tragic accident in the Australian Outback led to the formation of vital first-aid training for gap-year students; Harry Williamson (St A 55) writes about the Cross he commissioned for the Chapel; and we have a double-page picture spread of some of the OO Talent Exhibition at the Yarrow Gallery in March.
All the usual items are in the magazine as well, such as a review from Sam Cone (St A 05) of this year’s Mencap Week; the ‘Class of’, which this year has been collated by Louisa Troughton (W 09); and a report on the latest arrivals at the
School Archive from Elspeth Langsdale.
Of course, we also have the latest OO news from far and wide, which is provided for you by our hard-working Corresponding Members. Among them are several newcomers – including Michael Brown (Sc 51) and Stephen Francis (C 80), who have replaced Charles Gillett (St A 79) in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire; Joss Williams (D 86), who has taken over from Ken Maw (D 77) in the Middle East; and Guy Bainbridge (Sn 78) and Daniel Yong (C 90), who
have respectively filled the vacancies in Scotland and Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
Therefore, as you can see, a large number of people have given up their time to provide what I hope you will find is an interesting magazine and I owe all of them a large debt of gratitude. A big thank-you also to my Board – namely OO Club Secretary Jane Fenton, Elspeth, Alastair, Polly, Philip Sloan (LS 71), Chris Piper (Sc 71), John Oliver (G 73), Rachel Hodgson (K 10) and Lenore Dudman, the School’s new Marketing Manager – for offering wise advice at our three annual meetings. Lenore has also been responsible for pulling together all the School articles.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all those who have advertised in the magazine for their generosity and so helped offset some of the considerable costs of producing such a large publication.
I hope you enjoy this issue. Please do email me with any comments and/or suggestions for future articles at sandsredfern@aol.com. The Editorial Board will then consider them at their next meeting in November, which will be my last as Chairman.
THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019
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