Old Wandsworthians Memorial Trust

News 2005/2006

Since the last published newletter we have been informed of the passing of several friends and colleagues who played significant roles in the origins and development of the Old Wandsworthians. The majority of us will remember Ted Bacchus with great respect and affection. Ted died in February this year only only a few months after he had been feted at a reunion of the School Choir. He was 91 when he died. Ted taught at Wandsworth from 1947 to 1974 and was Headmaster of the Lower School for many years. His teaching style was completely different to that of Joe Ascher and I owe him a vote of personal thanks for restoring my will to learn French after I had been bundled out of the A Set due to a slight contretemps over my 'welsh' pronounciation of french words in 1955.

Among papers sent to Bob Andrews by Ted's daughter Margaret Lintern-Ball were a number of photographs including one of the 1972-1973 under 12 rugby team. The team reads as a rollcall of players who represented the Old Dubs over the last two decades. Their youth is balanced by the presence of their Headmaster, Edwin (Ted) Bacchus.

In Memoria

In addition to Ted Bacchus, Reg Finch, John Chafen, Keith Norman and John Clegg passed away during 2005. Reg died on Wednesday 8 June 2005 aged 83, after a short illness. He was a pupil at Wandsworth Grammar School from about 1932 to 1939 and played rugby for Old Wandsworthians for a number of years as did his younger brother Derek who passed away in 1997. His funeral took place on Friday 17 June 2005 at Worcester Crematorium.

John St Clair Chafen died on the 12th of August, 2005 and his funeral was held at the South London Crematorium on the 23rd. John was a perfect gentleman throughout life and the tributes paid to him from friends and family revealed a great affection that was shared by the numerous Old Wandsworthians who were able to attend the ceremony.

Andrew Norman had the very sad task of advising his father’s many friends that his Dad had passed away on the the 2nd of March 2005. Keith was a great clubman and it was great to see him and his family at Imber Court last year. Many of us were shocked at his condition but were hopefull that he would make a full recovery from major surgery that had taken place at the end of December 2003. This was not to be and he is sadly missed by all of us who played alongside him or watched as he encouraged Andy to excel at a game he loved dearly.

John Clegg was a master at the School. He taught music and was Head of the Lower School after Ted Bacchus. He was a kind and thoughtful man who gave so much to so many.

Forthcoming Events

Proposed School Visit - The Trustees invite former members of staff and students to join them in a visit to St Cecilia's, Sutherland Grove. If you are interested please let me know (editor@old-wandsworthians-trust.com) and I will fix a date and time.

Lags Celebrate Macleans' Medal

John Totham, Pete Eastwood & Ian Maclean	Pete Pierce, Tony Watts & Dick Moody
Dave Snare, Murray Deards, Chris Munton	Angel Vila

Apart from George Gallagher and Oona King, Brick Lane was blessed with a visit of ten Old Dubs intent old celebrating Maclean’s gong. These images were taken by Pete Eastwood. Angel has been cropped to fit - he was not isolated. Ian will be celebrating his 75th Birthday in mid November and is trying to organise a vets side to play out their last act on his back lawn. He has his own ball and a set of shirts.

New Years Honours List - Congratulations Ian McClean MBE

Ian's award of an MBE is in recognition of his involvement in the Statistics Users' Council over the last 34 years, including 10 years as secretary and 15 years as chairman until his retirement in September, 2004. The SUC was set-up in 1970 to act as a forum for the exchange of views between official statisticians and users, including the CBI, TUC and some 14 other organisations.

Retirement does not mean an end to Ians' involvement in statistics and he is currently the UK representative on the European Union Statistics Advisory Council and chairman of its dissemination commitee.

He is also a past vice president and still an active member of the International Association for Official Statistics, when their conferences take you to places such as Tibet, Ethiopia, Mexico and Iceland who wouldn't be!

Wandsworth School Choir 50th Year Anniversary

By Ray Pritchard

Glynn Harvey (left) presents 90th birthday gifts to Martin Lince (centre) & Ted Bacchus (right). Seated left to right are ex-staff Ron Hollis, Nigel Spearing, Wilf Finbow.

Left to right - Mike Cough, Ray Pritchard, John Lally and Robin Jones.

The fourth anniversary reunion of the Shool's world famous choir took place at St Paul's Community Centre, SW18 on Saturday, 30th October, 2004 (click here for a list of those that attended).

51 members of the choir gathered for a most enjoyable evening, which rekindled the great friendship that developed within the choir in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Previous reunions, held in 1997, 2000 and 2002, had also been evenings full of wonderful memories of the many occasions when the choir enjoyed international acclaim, and this reunion was no exception.

What did set this year's event apart from the others was the fact that 50 years had passed since the still much missed Russell Burgess had started as the School's Director of Music. Sadly, it was also 25 years since Russell had so tragically died at the early age of 48, but on a happier note, two of his colleagues on the staff, Ted Bacchus and Martin Lince both celebrated their 90th birthdays in 2004 - Ted in February and Martin in October.

As with the previous two reunions, we would like to express our appreciation for the grant that is provided by the OW's Memorial Trust, which helps enormously to keep the costs down.

Old concert programmes, CD's featuring the choir and general memorabilia were on display, all bringing back happy memories of what was a unique period in the history of Wandsworth School. How lucky we all were to have coincided at some stage with Russell's career and so many of us still refer to the influence he had on our own lives.

We can now look forward to the next reunion, which will probably be held in two years time.

'Slippery' Profile of an Old Dub

Joined Wandsworth School in 1942 while it was evacuated to Little Firs in Woking, a beautiful old house with large grounds. Bill Forrester and Bob Hammond were 'big boys', as the saying goes. It was a real culture shock to come back to a real school building in Sutherland Grove, with playing fields on the same site, albeit on the same clay soil as Woodstock Lane, so my rugby style was settled at an early age. Vice-captain of the 1st XV for two years - Dave Horner was bigger and better than me - but I did play for Surrey Schools for 3 years.

I then read economics at Cambridge, after an interlude serving with HM forces, mainly in Egypt. I was commissioned into a vehicle company, so I spent most of my time riding around the desert on a motorbike or jeep - self taught! We kept the camels for the visitors.

Playing rugby with the OW's has been an obsession, starting in 1946, cycling over to Kingston with Tom Boucher during the Xmas school holidays to play for the 'Old Boys' who had just reformed after the war. Played for the 1st XV for several years in the late 50s and early 60s, starting as a wing forward but converting to the front row to meet the fashion for mobile props and keep my place in the team. That only lasted a couple of seasons! From then on it was the lower sides until we formed the 'Babes', the 5th team which played enjoyable and satisfying rugby for 10 seasons culminating in an unbeaten season, over 500 points for and only 12 against.

I played regularly till 1990, and then very occasionaly until my 50th anniversary in an OW shirt in February 1997. Incidentally the nickname 'slippery' doesn't refer to my silky jeremy Guscott style sidestep as I slipped out of the tackle, but to my ability to slip players into the Babes XV who weren't available for the other sides. In those days selection meetings were open warfare. As Bob Paisley said about football "Life and Death?" No, it's more important than that. On the admin side I took over the organisation of the Sevens tournament from Mike Burris and then replaced it with the veterans tournament. A spell as club secretary after the departure from Woodstock Lane kept me in touch with the young members of the club - Plum, Dennis, Phil ... until I finally retired just over 3 years ago. But thank God the friendships not only remain, but deepen - see you all at my next birthday party.

On the domestic side married to Sally. Three children from my first marriage, and 6 grandsons at the latest count.

Wandsworthians RFC Xmas Update

Having gained promotion to Surrey League 2 the season started extremely well with our first league win away against Worth Old Boys, a team that we have always managed to lose to even though we have always managed to outplay them. Following a further two league wins away to Old Abingdonians and at home to The London Fire Brigade we found ourselves unbeaten at the top of the league just above an unbeaten Mitcham on points difference. The next match being away against Mitcham saw the two unbeaten sides struggle against the inclement conditions in a hard and competitive match. Mitcham having the home advantage took their opportunities well and ended up the victors, winning 10 - 5.

A further two losses against Chipstead and Old Walcountians and an unexpected and well contested win against the new league leaders Reigate has left us at mid point in the table. With fixtures with many of the clubs below us still to come, we are confident that further wins are achievable to bring us into the top half of the table.

The second XV have been struggling to fulfil many of their fixtures this year due to a combination of unavailabilities and injury (as well as being too old). A memorable match did however take place against Bec Old Boys 3's, when three father and son combinations took to the field (Mick & Ian White, David & Chris Ponting and Rob & Lawrence Davies). The combination of youth and experience saw the team win by an astounding 37 - 0. Congratulations and well done to all those who turned up for that game.

Michael Ponting

The Trustees generously sponsored Michael on his recent rugby tour to Canada with Glynn School.

To update you on his progress, Michael is still with the Harlequins Academy and is a regular player within the Surrey County U16 team. At the end of last season he was a member of the winning Surrey U15's National 10's tournament held over two days at the Rugby School and was presented with his medal by Sir Clive Woodward.

This season, following some dynamic games for Surrey against County opposition, he has successfully made it through the London & S.E. Regional trials and will be representing this team at regional level. We wish him all the best.

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