Soham Grammarians: 1987 Reunion


source: Anne Lane

Class of 48 reunited

The good old days of short trousers, conker matches and detentions came flooding back for 18 former Soham Grammar School friends on Saturday. The class of '48 were reunited - some after 35 years - at the annual Old Boy's Dinner which attracted 90 former pupils and staff, spanning decades.

The 18 class members are pictured here with the dinner's guest speaker, former Cambridgeshire County Council chairman Mr Keith Leonard (front row left).

The special reunion involved pupils who were in the same class between 1948 and 1953-54, all ofwhom were 50 this year. It was organised by John Hill who now lives in Elsworth. Mr Hill spent around three months trying to trace the total 27 school chums and was delighted to see so many of them getting together on Saturday

"It was a tremendous evening and I think everone thoroughly enjoyed it," he said. "We all may have looked different but the personalities were still the same." Mr Hill added that the group were now hoping to meet up at the dinner every year. Twelve out of the 18 still live in the Soham/Newmarket area but the other six travelled from places including Rotherham, Bath and Bristol.

Six former teachers were also at the dinner — including three who had come especially for the class of '48 reunion. They were John Browning, from Norwich, who taught history; Rex Waller, from Somerset, who taught Latin, and history teacher Leon Kitchen. The head teacher during that time, Edward Armitage, of Ely, was also there as was former head [sic] Albert Lawrence and English [sic] and geography teacher Peter Taylor, of Linton.

see also Class of 48


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Page last updated 26 Sep 2009