No. 141 The Trusty Servant
OW News
Ten Sen Men The Hon Nigel Bruce( D, 34-39) Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites( C, 41-42) W E Prescott( C, 38-42) J H B Irving( K, 38-42) Dr J R Scott( Coll, 38-43) Revd A D StJ Hurst( Coll, 38-43) J K B Illingworth( Coll, 38-43) The Venerable Michael Harford( E, 39-43) M D Neal( D, 40-44)
Appointments Brian Payne( H, 74-79) was appointed as Lord-Lieutenant for Berwickshire on 16 January 2026.
Lieutenant Colonel Johann Amrit Jeevaratnam( C, 96-01), was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire( OBE) in the 2026 New Year Honours list.
Legal News The Rt Hon Lord Justice Cobb( A, 75- 80) has been appointed as the President of the Family Division.
The President is the Head of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice and may sit as of right in the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Family Court either alone or as part of a panel. He is also Head of Family Justice, Head of Probate, President of the Court of Protection and chairs both the Family Procedure Rule Committee and Family Justice Council.
Christopher Vajda( H, 68-73) was knighted in the New Year’ s honours list 2026 in recognition of his distinguished career as a barrister, arbitrator, legal academic and international judge.
Nicholas Chapman( A, 92-95) was appointed King’ s Counsel in January 2026. Nicholas specialises in public inquiries, major inquests and judicial review. He is consistently rated as one of the country’ s leading barristers across his practise areas by the main independent legal directories.
Academic News Rupert Younger( F, 79-84) has been appointed as a Tutor in Management at Jesus College, Oxford for the 2025-26 year in addition to his other roles as a member of the Senior Common Room at Worcester College and at the Said Business School, where he directs the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation and teaches on the Oxford MBA.
Nigel Blackwell( A, 60-65) was enrolled in the Chancellor’ s Court of Benefactors for the University of Oxford in October 2025.
Film News James Dean( A, 80-85) was nominated for an Oscar in the Live Action Short Film category at the 98 th Academy Awards( 2026), for his film A Friend Of Dorothy, which stars Miriam Margolyes and Stephen Fry. The film is on Disney + at the moment for any Wykehamists who might like to see it.
Business News Charles Bain Smith( D, 79-84) was appointed as Head of Building Surveying at Purcell Architecture( Architects, Masterplanners and Heritage Consultants) in January 2026.
Geoffrey Gestetner( E, 78-83) purchased Cistermiser Ltd. in 2004. In his first week they received a complaint that the urinal flush control in Commoner Fo was broken. Twenty-one years later, after not too many more customer complaints and several more acquisitions, the group of companies manufacturing specialist plumbing products was sold last September. While some consider him retired, Geoffrey prefers to think of
himself as unemployed and looking for opportunities.
Art News A new venture launched by OW brothers Iain( K, 73-78) and Nick( K, 81-86) Vellacott is making a series of Iain’ s original oil paintings more widely accessible. Over the past 15 years, Iain has built a distinctive body of work inspired by his time at the College and growing up in Kingsgate Street. His oil paintings capture the light, atmosphere and rituals of the College and have been exhibited at the school on a number of occasions.
A selection of these works is now available as museumquality fine art prints through a dedicated online collection: www. winchestercollegepaintings. co. uk
All prints are professionally produced using fine art giclée printing and are available framed or unframed, with a focus on quality and longevity.
15 % from each print sale will go to support the Crown & Manor Club.
Iain and Nick will be exhibiting together at Wykeham Day this year,
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