Whilst a research fellow at the Universities of
Oxford and Reading, Christopher wrote a book
‘High Command: British Military Leadership in the
Iraq and Afghanistan Wars’ which was published this
year, it reached number 976 on the Amazon bestseller list and received excellent reviews. Christopher
gave a very moving tribute to Simon Fogden (Former
Bursar 98-03) at the ‘celebration of his life’ in the Tom
Stoppard Theatre in February 2015. They were not
school friends, as Simon was not an OP, but served in
the British Army together and were friends for over
fifty years.
Peter Elliott (58-63) went on to complete a degree
in Civil Engineering at Westminster University after
his time at Pocklington. During his 30-year career as
a civil engineer, he travelled extensively both in the
UK and overseas as a contractor and as a consultant,
mainly in connection with roads and water projects
including co-ordinating mechanical and electrical
services, and architectural quality buildings. Peter is
also a good linguist; he is highly proficient in Romanian
and can also speak French. He has been married for
over 40 years and has three grown-up sons and six
grandchildren. He has bases in Twickenham in the UK
and Bucharest in Romania.
Forrest Franklin (54-56) attended Pocklington
School as a day boy, residing at nearby Burnby Hall.
He was in Gruggen house and enjoyed playing rugby
with some success. He remembers Mr Eldred and Mr
Cottom and the Headmaster, Mr Pitts-Tucker. After
Pocklington he entered Salesian College at Oxford,
then returned to the US when his father, an army
officer, rotated tour. In 1967 he graduated from the
University of San Francisco with degrees in English
and History and became a criminal investigator.
He achieved a Masters degree in Justice at Golden
Gate University (San Francisco, 1975) where he also
spent 12 years on its faculty lecturing in business
and law. He entered the commercial real estate field
and directed security and life safety at a 6.6 million
square feet, eight-building complex, co-owned by the
Rockefeller group. In 1990, he became associated
with a group of clinical psychologists that conducted
assessment and intervention in occupational violence
episodes. After the September 11 New York terrorist
attacks in 2001 he became involved in counterterrorism programmes assessing critical infrastructure
as delivery platform for weapons of mass destruction.
He remained in that role until the end of his career,
consulting regularly with FBI, Homeland Security, Joint
Terrorism Task Force and foreign intelligence agencies
including those in the UK. He currently develops
and manages mass-casualty exercises that test the
response capabilities of private and public agencies
and foment cross-sector cooperation and resource
deployment by law enforcement, fire service,
paramedics, terrorism recovery teams. He has cofounded several charity cycling events benefiting
research in diabetes, MND (known as ALS in the US),
and breast cancer, these having raised several millions
of pounds since inception. He is also a grower of
merlot, malbec and cabernet sauvignon wine grapes
in California.
Nick Galtress (44-50) remembers playing Fives at
School albeit rather badly! He says: “The macho thing
was to play Fives without a glove! Which of course I
did.” He remembers the best player during his time
as being A G I Wood (39-49) who he regards as
probably one of the best all-round sportsmen to have
attended the School. Nick played on the opposite
wing to Gus Weeden (42-49) in the 1st XV and also
captained the Athletics team. He held a number of
School records and competed at county level.
Michael Harper (53-58) lives in the town of Baberton
in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. He has
a small estate on a larger game farm which breeds
crocodiles. He has some Nyala and Impala antelopes.
He has visited Kruger Park which is near where he
lives and saw all ‘Big Five’ in one visit! He has a beach
house on the Indian Ocean at Salt Rock north of
Ballito where he often stays. He has been supporting
several African families for many years (they lived in
the bush near his mine). He took four of the children
directly under his care as their father. Two are in their
final year at college in Pretoria and one is at boarding
school at St Mary’s Diocesan School for girls, also in
Pretoria. He says the difference between them and
the government-supported children is quite amazing.
Roger Kohn (64-68) organised a successful reunion
for former pupils of Marton Hall Boys’ Preparatory
School, a former boarding school near Bridlington.
Other OPs who attended the reunion were Keith
Moor (64-69), Stuart Mellor (63-67) and Richard
Simpson (66-68).
Richard Lyon’s (57-67) campaign to identify the
grave of his uncle, a lost Spitfire pilot, has prompted
an overhaul of MoD guidelines. Now dozens more
forgotten heroes could soon be named. After a
decade-long battle which \