No. 140
The Trusty Servant
Kenny’ s Reunion 2: Octogenarian Lunch, 7 th October On 7 th October 2025, nine Kennyites, aged between 86 and 90, met for lunch at Skinners’ Hall, hosted by Noel Dobbs( 50-55), a Skinners Past Master, and‘ Clerk’ to this lunch group. This was the third time the event had taken place in the Hall.
These lunches began in 2015 after nine Kennyites attended a Society lunch at the Cavalry and Guards Club the previous year and decided to continue meeting as they liked each other’ s company. As time passed, younger Kennyites have joined but we have ensured to date that everyone overlapped in the House. This was the eleventh lunch, interrupted by Covid, since when most have taken place bi-annually across six different venues. Judging by the smiling faces, animated conversations and the desire for the lunches to continue, these ancient Kennyites still like each other!
This curremt Clerk is now handing over to Gordon Toland( 53- 58), and it is hoped will keep the Notion going.
Dubai, 17 th October( Nearly Kenny’ s Reunion 3)
Arthur Bryan( D, 06-11) writes: The inaugural Old Wykehamist Middle East dinner was held on 17 th October at Kinara, JA Lake View Hotel.
Listing the four OWs we already knew to be in the UAE, Fergus and I knew from our Flint Court statistics classes that it was highly probable there were more OWs in the UAE than our small sample size. We were, however, unprepared for the dominance of a single house in the demographic: of the seven able to make the inaugural Dinner: six were from Kenny’ s.
Aside from our mutual assertions about the superiority of Kenny’ s, we spent dinner comparing the virtues of the Wessex Tandoori( sadly learning later of its fate) with our own Indian fare, and the comparative benefits of Goldies. When not thinking about our stomachs, we had a great time trading stories of mischief and fond recollections of our time at Winchester.
We hope this will be the first of many OW meet ups, and that the next one will be able to sweep up those OWs unable to attend our inaugural event. Please get in touch if you’ re not on the WhatsApp group and want to join!
Clockwise from bottom left: Andrew Smithers( 51-55); David Durnford-Smith( 51-55); Robert Ballantyne( 52-57); James Ambler( 50-55); Anthony Catterall( 49-54); Noel Dobbs( 50-55); John Vintcent( 51-55); Gordon Toland( 53-58); Roger Wellesley-Smith( 49-54).
Tokyo, 9th October The picture below records a gathering in Tokyo on 9 th October, attended by: James Lawden( K, 69-73); Daniel Lochmann( H, 93-98); Hugh Abdullah( H, 95-00); Tom Kiley( H, 96-01); Tom Howard( E, 00-05); Iain Buchanan( B, 06-11); Jan Preiss( Coll, 17-18); Mikine Hirano( F, 17-18); Yasu Suzuki( I, 21-22).
Clockwise from left( All D, with one exception): Adrian Tiwari( 91-96); Sebastian Stafford( 06-11), Marc Pussard( 90-95), Martin Spaans( 98-03), Arthur Bryan( 06-11), Fergus Langstaff( 03-08) and Sebastian Hindle( E, 06-11)
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