Page 81 - OO_2019

Lane (St A 75) in the field during the shooting season. He also enjoyed attending both the London Dinner and the recent Sports Lunch at Queen’s Club in London, now firmly inked in the diary for 2020. He continues advising the commercial property market in the North of England and continues to partake in a spot of motorsport – racing and hill climbing a Lenham Le Mans and a Ford Falcon, where he often bumps into Jonathan Turner (S 84).
Ian Lane is the final OO in our shooting syndicate. He celebrated his 60th birthday last summer with an excellent party attended by yours truly, Mike Haigh, Nigel Lane, Bob Harrap, Bill Booth (Lx 81), John Booth (Lx 76), Tom Ellis (Sn 91), Bryony Harrap, Jon Harrap, Charles Miller (Ldr 76) and Tim Waring (Ldr 76). We all enjoyed spectacular hospitality washed down with excellent wines and even I hit the dance floor, although I regretted it the following day! Ian was tremendously supportive of my year of Presidency, attending many events and, like Mike Haigh, has the Sports Lunch inked into the diary for next year. This he attended with the aforementioned and James Ellis (Sn 63).
Robert Blackburn (Sc 73) continues to run the OOGS in the North, organising teams to play some of the northern public schools during the summer months.
Robin Johnson (St A 81) is still clocking up the air miles with his globetrotting role as a partner at Eversheds. He is spending a lot of time at their new office in Chicago, but is enjoying seeing the team grow and prosper, and is looking forward to heading off on another trip to the Rugby World Cup in Japan in October. He notes that he has been remiss in seeing other OOs during the year, but had a lot of fun golfing at Walton Heath recently.
Roger Shaw (C 47) has sadly not had the opportunity to visit Oundle over the last year, nor met many OO contacts beyond close family members. It is always good to get news for this column and I appreciate notes from OOs however short. It is good to keep in touch.
My father, Roger Ellis (Sn 56)
continues to be in good health and when not travelling the world, spends an extraordinary amount of time in his role as Vice-President of our golf club.
Anthony Hackforth (N 64) writes that after lunching at 155 different pubs since 2015, all within 30 miles of his home in Yorkshire, he and his wife, Val, are now concentrating on making return visits to those which they rated in their top 40. Although, like financial investments, pubs can rise and fall over time, they continue to find this ongoing retirement pastime enjoyable and rewarding. Aside from that, it has been a year of reunions for Anthony: prep school (1955-60), work colleagues (1966- 73 and 1986-90) and cousins (in Jersey and in Florida).
Tom Ellis was the first respondent to my call for information this year, not bad considering he has the office next to me at work! He still remains – his own words – a fat, unfit cyclist enjoying some long-distance challenges. This summer he took part in both the Ride London 100 and York Ride 100. He regularly enjoys seeing family members Roger Ellis, James Ellis, Isobel Ellis and even me – his own words again! His father-in-law, Peter Cole (Sn 54), is in good health – as is Peter’s younger brother, Anthony Cole (Sn 56). He sees fellow Yorkshire players Guy Ackernley (Sc 94) and Will Roberts (N 94), and occasionally Jim Connell (N 81) in a business group of which he is a member. Attending the Sports Lunch, he enjoyed catching up with Mark Hallam (Sc 92), Rick Hall (Sc 93) and Mark Epton (St A 91).
David Currie (Sc 73) writes of having a good catch-up with Chris Bemrose (Sc 73), John Hartley (Sc 73), Peter Measures (Sc 73) and Charles Pearson (Sc 73) when they all ventured back to School House almost 50 years on from their enrolment there. They were delighted to receive kind hospitality from Housemaster Adam Langsdale, who very kindly showed them round. They were fascinated by some of the changes since they left, but they also marvelled at what had remained the same, noting that many of the student posters were much the same
as they were 50 years ago! They all enjoyed having afternoon tea with former master Dick Oldfield and his wife, Erika, repaying in a small way the many teas and chats enjoyed with them whilst they attended the School. David also returned to Oundle a few days later to attend the memorial service in the parish church for former Head of Biology Ioan Thomas.
Michael Copestake (Sc 69) continues to live in Derbyshire. Tom Mawhood (S 82) runs a private equity club in the East Midlands, of which Michael is a member, investing in small real estate transactions, small Enterprise Investment Schemes and Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes, primarily in tech companies in the region. He is now a consultant with Freeths, which gives him more time to establish a classic car centre and other social enterprises. Ian Payne (G 62) is a partner at Freeths.
Roger Allton (D 51) keeps very active for an 84-year-old, regularly walking with a group in Nottinghamshire and running regular village activities in the areas of classical music, aviation and aerospace. He is still active in the RAF Association and the RAF Seletar at Tengate Association, but his daily interest is more around digitising archive documents into PDF files. With the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust, he is entering hand- written photo negative details on to a database; he is at 1956 currently! He is also a trustee of the Airship Heritage Trust, where he is digitising original documents on H.M. Airship R-100 from AGC Howden and RAF Cardington circa 1930. He also recently visited the Science Museum’s archive at RAF Wroughton, seeking material on Barnes Wallis for a lecture he is giving at RAeSoc Brooklands in October to mark 40 years since Wallis’ death. With all this, he says it keeps the ‘little grey cells’ active!
Chris Higman (N 62), an expert in integrated gasification combined
cycle, was awarded the Hebden
Medal by the Institution of Chemical Engineers for his excellence in
gasification in April at the University www
NEWS FROM HOME
THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019
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