The Trusty Servant Nov 2017 No. 124 | Page 18

No. 124
The Trusty Servant

Wiccamica

Do Co Ro: Ave atque Vale
We offer a warm welcome to this half’ s new cohort of dons: Suzanne Ceiriog- Hughes( Art History); Paul Davies( English); Peter Galliver( History, maternity cover); Sophie Gordon( Gordon Fellow: Div, PE & sport); Tina Mudzamiri( Biology); Bijan Omrani( Classics & JP Div, Short Half); Charlotte Roland( Gordon Fellow: Economics, PE & sport); Fred Sugarman- Warner( English & Div, until Leaveout); Ruth Tarrant( Economics, Short Half); Marie Thepot( French assistante). Whether their stay with us is only for this term or for many decades, we hope that their time at the school will be happy.
At the end of Short Half we shall say goodbye to Oswald O’ Neill( History, since 2014), who leaves us to take up a new post at St Paul’ s Girls’ School. We wish him all the best.
During the summer Lawrence Wolff( Art & Art History, since 1983) retired in order to paint and pursue other creative and educational projects. He will be remembered among other things for instituting the Kenneth Clark Prize, for which every man in the school gives a presentation on a work of art.
Squadron Leader Dennis Kilby has retired as Quarter Master of the CCF after 20 years of service. His contributions have been recognised with a Lord Lieutenant’ s certificate. He has been succeeded in the role by Lt Mark Williams, who joins us from the Royal Marines Cadet-Training Team.
Bill Organ, Bursar 94-04, died peacefully after a long illness at Countess Mountbatten Hospice on 28 th August with his family by his side. The funeral took place at St Cross Church.
Corpus Sanum
The rowers have added to their recent clutch of laurels. Fresh from a fine sixth-place finish at National Schools in the First VIII, Dent Goodman( E) and Alex Wythe( Coll) won the pairs’ race and the 8 + for England in the Home Internationals in Glasgow; Milford Killian Dawson( E) won a bronze in the GB pair at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Belgium; Luke Robinson( B) and Tobias Schröder( Coll) won a bronze in the GB 8 + at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Lithuania.
Yet power must give way to sail: the 1st Sailing VI won the BSDRA National Team Racing Championships, Winchester’ s first win in this competition since 1989.
Tom Kidner beat Albert Song( both E) to win the U18 Fives competition. The school has won nine out of the eleven trophies for which it is eligible; eight of those featured all-Winchester finals.
Unlike Bridge, Chess involves enough physical exertion( all those leaping knights and oblique bishops) to make it into the‘ Wiccamica’ sports section! The school came fourth in the International Chess Championships, with Gwilym Price( Coll) the star man.
Building Work
The Works Department had as busy a summer as ever. Among many projects, Armoury was renovated and two Flint Court div rooms( E5 and D7) were subdivided.
The Wellington House project is finally rising from the ground and should be finished by spring next year.
Planning permission has been received for the modernisation of the PE Centre. More information at www. southcampusdevelopment. org.
Co Ro Beyond the Gates
Country Life publishes an occasional guide to good schools, called School Life. The autumn edition features an article entitled‘ Great Educationalists:
Five-Star Heads Who Set the Standard.’‘ Is it possible to compare the great Headmasters and Headmistresses of the 19 th century with latter-day trailblazers?’ the author asks, identifying a group of nine Heads from the last 50 years, the first eight being Dennis Silk, John Rae, Michael Mavor, Heather Brigstocke, Anthony Seldon, Vicky Tuck, Tony Little, Eric Anderson.‘ There is something consistently unusual about these people’ it counsels,‘– we can’ t ignore them.’ New men are certainly advised not to ignore the ninth, who is the only Head still to be in office ….
The Headmaster has been made a Fellow of King’ s College, London. Other Fellows include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Anthony Seldon, and Rory Bremner, so it will be interesting to see if the Headmaster returns from the ceremony in Southwark Cathedral more holy, more musical, more educational, or just( his colleagues hope) a better mimic.
Dons have continued to find time to publish. From Flint Court, Malcolm Hebron( English) has written How to Read a Poem in the Cornell Guides series, and Sam Baddeley( Classics) has co-authored a textbook on Greece and Persia( Bloomsbury). The scientists have not been outdone: David Follows( Chemistry) has written Mastering Essential Pre-University Physical Chemistry( Periphyseos Press); Charles McCaw( Head of Science) Orbitals: With Applications in Atomic Spectra( Imperial College Press); James Barron( Physics) Pre-U Physics Coursebook( Cambridge) and Jeremy Douglas( Physics) various Physics Factsheets( Curriculum Press).
Malcolm Archer( Director of Chapel Music) was interviewed about his composition by the Oxford University Press blog. See https:// blog. oup. com / 2017 / 09 / composer-malcolm-archerinterview /
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