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David
Anderson 59* Rod Armitage '55' Peter Beavan '58' * Richard Berney 68 Don Boud 50 Kevin Brown 63 Germany Chris Bull 53 Bill Chilcott 50 USA Kenneth Clift 50 Geoffrey Cross 64 Richard Dean 56 Alan Dench 67 John Dimmock 59 Christopher Dubas (Pearce) 65 Martyn Davies 66 Ralph Dunham 59 Peter Evison '67' Patrick Faircliffe 48 Geoff Fernie 59 Canada Richard Formby 68 Alan Frost 54 |
Peter
Gipp 46* Phil Green 68 Vincent Gudgeon 66 Frank Haslam '59' Stephen Herod '57' Ian Hobbs 48 Kenn Hunter 67 Peter Jeffery 49 Bill Kelly 55 Ranjit Kurrie 61 Terry Mackender 59* Donald Monk 50 Carol Morton (widow of Michael Morton 54) Tony Nix 65 Andrew Nunn 55* John O'Toole: English 63-66 Australia Dr Carin Taylor: Staploe Educational Trust Sara Coutts: for many years our Reunion Caterer * first time attenders |
Barry
Parr 62 Eric Pearson 60 Canada Stuart Porter 59 USA Ed Reed 67 Bob Robinson 58 David Scott 66* Peter Scott: Maths 60-72 Peter Scott 59 David Sculthorpe 65 Bob Sculthorpe 63 Brian Smith 63 Peter Smith 59 Trevor J Smith 62 Thailand Norman Talbot 60 Simon Thornhill 65 Piet Walton-Knight 52 Denis Wilkins 53 David Woodroffe 60 Ivor Wright 43 Roger Wright 49 Michael Yeomans 60 USA Steve Yeomans 65* |
On
1st October all Soham Grammarians in email contact were sent an
invitation to this year's Reunion. This is being held via Zoom
on Saturday 10th October, 2.15 for 2.30pm London time. If
you can't find that invitation email (and have checked that it was
not routed to your spam or junk email folders) please let us know by clicking here. If you wish to join in please carefully follow the guide points in the invitation email and then click the registration link provided to register for our reunion (even if you have already told us you'd like to attend). You will then receive a confirmation email which has the link and passcode you will use to join us on the day. If you have any queries then as usual please contact John Dimmock at box-office@sohamgrammar.org.uk If you are unable to join us but wish to present your apologies please click here and send us a message. A letter to those Grammarians not in email contact was posted on 1 October informing them about the Reunion, asking if they are now using email or if someone in their 'bubble' who is on the internet could facilitate their joining in. We already know a number of Grammarians who for reasons of age or health, or living in foreign parts (i.e. even further away than Cambridgeshire, including beyond these shores) are looking forward, on this occasion, to being able to join us. We're giving it our best go. Dr Carin Taylor will again be attending to bring us up to date on the past year at Soham Village College and the challenges they are now facing. There will be a short illustrated presentation on Some Funny Goings on at SGS. We hope you will join us. Bring your own food and drink! Registrations as of 12:45 on
10th October - name and year of entry.
Plan to attend but not yet listed? Please register NOW * one of 20 new attenders
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February 2020
- The Staploe Educational Trust has kindly alerted us to a compilation of films on YouTube made at SGS mostly if not all in 1961 (not 1963 as stated on YouTube). It includes events at the School Garden Party (July 1961) such as: the cast of School & Crossbones performed by Form 2H under the direction of Mr Hemmings; the Chess Club; the performance of the Toy Symphony under the direction of Mr Ades; classroom scenes including Mr Hart and others; athletics and gymnastics scenes; visit to London/Heathrow; Scouts; winter snow scenes; demolition of the Conservatory.
We believe the original source to be old cine films of SGS activities found when the late Mr Lionel Hart's bungalow was being cleared. For some time we have had what looks to be the same material on DVDs but for technical reasons had been unable to do anything about publishing it. Hence the YouTube link is very welcome. Some of the content relates to other pages in the 1960s section in Scrapbook.
The nearly half an hour long compilation will probably take some of you longer to watch as you freeze frames and rewind to check faces and scenes from long ago. In an age of the amazing image quality delivered by camera technology in mobile phones the compilation is a reminder of how far things have advanced.
The editor welcomes any publishable 'commentary' or images of your own to add to our knowledge of what is shown, including name spotting.
The compilation can be viewed via this link or via the 1960s section in Scrapbook. There is no sound track.
January 2020
- Via Brian Knott SG47, news of the death of Cyril Prior SG44, on 9th February 2020 at the age of 86. He was living in Chettisham - see In Memoriam
- The official opening of Soham Grammar School at Beechurst took place on Tuesday 22nd February 1927. Thanks to John Dimmock SG59 and Mike Petty MBE SG57 the Cambridgeshire Times report of the event can be seen via History > 1914-1939
- Dannie Nicholas 59 is among the SG59ers would like to make contact with Dana Curtis, who spent the school year 1959-60 at SGS in Form 1T. We believe he was the son of an American stationed at Lakenheath who thought his son would benefit from being in a British school rather than the one on the base. If you can help us to trace Dana please contact the editor.
- Mrs Marie O'Gorman taught Maths at SGS towards the end of WW2. She died in her 100th year on December 20th 2019 and her Requiem Mass took place at Newmarket Roman Catholic Church on 20th January 2020. In later life she taught privately and at St Louis Primary School in Newmarket.
Peter Nicholls SG39 spotted that she had died - she was among the incoming wartime staff that he remembered. John Dimmock SG59 has kindly provided the obituary that was published in the Newmarket Journal on 30th January 2020. This may be of particular interest to those with Newmarket connections or know a thing a two about horse racing (the O'Gorman family being significant trainers) - see via In Memoriam.
- Alan Bray SG60 adds names to the SGS 1962 Scout Troop Photo on the Scouts 1961-62 page - see via History >History 2 > Scouts
- Reminder of change of date of Ely High School Reunion: For those of you with EHS connections the date of their date of their Reunion this year has been changed because the planned date - 9th May - was in the middle of the National Celebration Holiday to remember VE Day.
The postponed EHS Reunion will now be held on Saturday 19th September at Ely Golf Club.
- A Happy and Healthy New Year to you all. At our last reunion, and subsequently by email, we sought opinions on the idea of trying out holding our Annual Reunion on the second Saturday of October (10/10/20) rather than the first (3/10/20). This came up because some who had long wanted to come found that they always had other events happening on the first Saturday.
There was not much feedback but it was 2:1 in favour of trying out the second Saturday this year. So please put Saturday 10th October in your 2020 diary/calendar - and also a month earlier so that you will be in good time to make a booking.
We are sorry if the new date is not to your liking. We hope to see early bookings from those who hoped for the change! It's only by trying out the change that we can plan ahead, and time is not on our side ...
- Flight Sergeant Keith Alan Johnson RAFVR was part of the 1930 entry at SGS. His family lived in Fordham. His Hampden bomber suffered failure of both engines shortly after taking off from RAF Waddington near Lincoln on 14th April 1942 to bomb Germany. Of the four crew he alone survived, but died the following day in hospital. He is buried at Fordham Parish Church. A plaque in memory of the crew has just been unveiled at North Kesteven Academy, North Hykeham, the present day location of the crash site - see press report via In Memoriam > WW2 Roll of Honour
- Ken Purchase SG52 has died. This announcement was noted on the day of publication by Chris Bent in the Ely Standard of 9th January 2020. PURCHASE - Kenneth Ellis 'Ken', sadly passed away on 30th November 2019, aged 79 years. Beloved husband to Ruth. A private family funeral has taken place. Ken had been a regular at our Reunions. More information when available.
- The 2012 Reunion talk 40 Years On is now available. This talk covered the end of SGS and the merger with the Village College in 1972. Both Staff and Old Boys took part and more material has been added - see via Reunions
- Mr Denis Tokley's family knew Mr Peter Askem (Art & Pottery 54-72) in his childhood and has provided some photos - see at the end of Peter's page via In Memoriam
- The Rev Christine Sindall has informed us of the death of Denis Sindall (1940 entry) on 2nd January 2020. He would have been 91 in early March. He had developed a rare cancer and Alzheimer’s but until the last weeks could remember life in Ely and Soham especially during the war years. In 2008 we reported that the Sindalls had recently moved to Northumberland when the Revd Canon Christine Sindall retired as Rector of the Cheveley Group of Parishes near Newmarket. Denis had been Health and Safety Officer for East Cambridgeshire District Council until his retirement in 1996.
His funeral will be on Monday 20th Jan at 1 pm at St Peter and St Paul’s Church Longhoughton, Alnwick, NE66 3JB: more to be added.
- If you know anyone who was at Ely High School they might be interested to know that the EHS Annual Reunion Luncheon will be at Ely Golf Club on Saturday September 19th 2020 - see the EHS website via the link on the left of your screen for further information when it becomes available. [this has been updated from the originally published date in May 2020, which might have clashed with the VE Day 75th anniversary period.
- Beth Lane writes: Eric Simper SG51 died on 19th December 2019. His very well attended funeral was at St Mary's Church, Ely on Wednesday 22nd January at noon, and afterwards at Ely Football Club, Downhams Road,Ely CB6 2SH.
He had been a frequent attender at our reunions but had been unwell for a while. Our condolences go to his family. He was a Littleport boy who spent much of his life in the area. He was a notable footballer at school and with local teams - see https://www.elycityfc.co.uk/news/eric-simper-2497597.html
- Kenneth Herbert James Holliday (1939 entry) died on 5 January 2020 aged 91. Much loved and missed by family and friends. His cousin Heather Smith (ex-EHS) writes: He was born 24 December 1928 at Stretham. I don’t expect many people remember him as he joined the Navy straight from school just after the end of WW2 and hasn’t lived in the area since. His funeral will be at Earlham Crematorium in Norwich on 29th January at 11am - see also In Memoriam
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Contacts list: Those we are in touch with and those we seek
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PHOTOS: Our growing collection of whole school photos is frequently updated, see School Lists & please add names if you can.
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website editor Frank Haslam SG'59'
1965 LVI
.. later