Old Ealonians Association

Well it took place!  Eventually, after much prompting the Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College organised a reception to celebrate the centenary of the foundation of the old School back in September 1913.  So on Friday 13 September about fifty Old Ealonians, college staff and guests assembled in the Ealonian Room (A118) of the Ealing campus of the College at 12 noon.  We were greeted with the offer of a glass of wine before being introduced to the Principal of the College, Paula Whittle.  Despite the short notice provided by the invitation, nearly thirty Old Ealonians were in attendance.  A reporter and a photographer from the Ealing Gazette were also present and Bert Longhurst, the most senior OE present, was interviewed and photographed along with other members of the Association.  Photographs for the college website were taken and an article has subsequently been posted.  The old house competition shield had been rescued from the disastrous fire ten years ago by the caretaker and was included in many of the photos taken.  The shield is now in the safekeeping of Bert Longhurst.

The college had provided a fine buffet lunch which we were invited to enjoy before the speeches began at 1pm.  Firstly, the College Principal, Paula Whittle, spoke about the College's rich educational heritage from the days when it was a boys grammar school to now, when it provides a wide variety of academic and vocational courses.  The local MP, Angie Bray, and the Deputy Mayor of the Borough of Ealing, Councillor Tej Ram Bagha, both highlighted the significance of the College's activities in the wider community.

Edward Hope, another Old Ealonian, then spoke about the career of perhaps the most famous of ex-pupils of the School, Fred Perry.  He recalled not only his tennis triumphs but also his prowess at tabletennis and how he came to settle in America.  Bert Longhurst had produced a centenary edition of the Swan Uppers Gazette which saluted the achievements of past pupils of the School.  Copies were distributed to Old Ealonians present who admired the quality of the pictorial and written work he had produced.

Eventually, all good things must come to an end and after more than two hours of renewing acquaintances with old school chums it was time to leave.

In Memory of Peter Middleton

Sadly, news has been received of the death in July 2013 of Peter Middleton, late of King Edward Road Minehead.  Peter was a pupil at EGS from 1937 to 44.

The Association's commiserations are extended to his family and, in particular, to his daughter, Kate Bromfield, who informed us of the news.  Kate says that he took pleasure in reading the newsletters and kept in touch with former school friends, including Tony Trott.  She has kindly provided the following tribute to her father's life:

'Peter was born at Ealing, the only child of Frederick and Violet, known as Vi.  His parent had met at work, in the offices of the Great Western Railway and Vi continued to work there until retirement.

'Peter's father died in 1937, when he was 11 and in the first year at Ealing County Grammar School for Boys.  When war broke out, Peter's school was evacuated to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and shared the local Grammar School.  The boys lived in billets around the town, just going home occasionally at weekends.  Not very wisely, the school returned to Ealing in 1942.  Peter entered the sixth form studying for his Higher Schools Certificate, while Flying Bombs were dropping.  In spite of all this disruption, Peter said he enjoyed school but said he had to grow up fast.

'At 18, Peter was selected to train for a commission in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, starting with the University Naval Division at Cardiff University.  There, his love life blossomed, when he met Nadine, a local girl from Mountain Ash, who was two months older and an undergraduate.  However, his training continued at sea and on shore, until passing out as a sub lieutenant.  He served on minesweepers in the North Sea to the Far East, before ending up with the Commonwealth Occupation Forces in Japan, at a naval base 10 miles from Hiroshima.

'After demob in 1947, he returned to Cardiff and to Nadine, bearing a sapphire for an engagement ring.  He was so nervous when he proposed, that he dropped the stone and the romantic moment was ruined by them both crawling around, trying to find it!  They married at 22, Peter as a student completing his degree and Nadine as the breadwinner, having trained as a teacher.  Their daughter, Kate, was born the week of his finals - and he even managed to knit her a vest!  Nineteen months later came a second daughter, Diane.

'Peter joined Anglo Iranian Oil Company (later BP) as a graduate trainee and studied for an accountancy qualification.  In spite of this, he hated accountancy and most of his 35 years with the company were spent in broader managerial roles.  He travelled extensively, in Europe and in the Middle East, and he enjoyed his job until retirement at 58.

'Although Peter's leisure time always included reading the Guardian from cover to cover, he loved gardening, playing squash and tennis, and was an avid supporter of Welsh Rugby.  Since boyhood, he had a passionate interest in classical music and jazz and introduced his daughters and grandchildren to his music tastes from an early age.  This was not always appreciated at the time!  Kate has never recovered from the trauma of receiving Kenny Ball's Greatest Hits for Christmas, when she and her friends were expecting the Beatles!  He loved crosswords, completing the Guardian crossword daily and occasionally phoning his daughters for help with the odd clue.  Love of steam engines and the Great Western Railway was in his blood and he shared the interest with his son-in-law, Andrew.  Peter was always an active member of the Liberal Party.  He took a keen interest in Party developments, not always agreeing with them.

'Peter and Nadine spent many happy hours walking and exploring the British countryside - in particular, Suffolk, the Cotswolds, Wales (naturally!), Cornwall and, of course, Somerset.  Much to their daughters' amusement, they would sometimes collide when walking, because he was looking up at the birds (feathered variety!), whilst she was looking down at the flowers!  They became particularly attached to the Exmoor area and Minehead was chosen, first for a holiday home and then as their place of retirement.  Over the years, they involved themselves in a variety of local activities and made many friends.  They were a very close couple, who achieved their diamond wedding anniversary in 2008.

'Amazingly, after Nadine's death later that year, Peter established a fulfilling, busy life for himself.  He taught himself to cook and often discussed recipes with his daughters.  He returned to the church and was a regular at St Andrews.  He took advantage of the many social activities the area offers, such as the National Trust, the Exmoor Extroverts, the Arts and Film Societies and the U23A - so much so that family visits had to be booked far ahead!

'Peter was close to his family, despite the distance.  He maintained contact with Nadine's sister, Sonia, and family and spoke frequently to his daughters and his grand children and enjoyed visits and holidays with them all.

'Sonia remembers Peter bouncing into her life nearly 70 years ago, when he first met her sister, Nadine.  Despite the devastating consequences of Nadine's illness and the frustrations of his increasing frailty, Peter managed to keep his bounce.  He is loved and admired for his warmth, his wit, his energy, his phenomenal memory and the intellectual and emotional commitment to life, nature, the arts, history and politics, and to good food and wine, in the company of family and friends.  He will always be an inspiration to those who knew him.'

On a sultry but bright June day, three Old Ealonians and their wives braved the M4/A4 traffic to meet at the London Wetland Centre at Barnes.  We arrived just in time for the 11.30am guided tour of the Centre.  As our guide explained, the centre is built on the site of the old redundant Thames Water Barn Elms Reservoir site.  The Wetland Centre was the vision of Sir Peter Scott who wanted to establish the first urban nature reserve.  Sadly he died before his dream could be accomplished but work started in 1995 and was the result of a partnership between the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT), Thames Water and Berkeley Homes.  The latter helped the project by building luxury homes in the corner of the site which provided a large portion of the financial cost of developing the centre.  The creation of the various lakes and walkways on the site was done by using the crushed concrete from the retaining walls of the original reservoirs.  Water taken from the Thames at Hampton in underground tunnels still supplies the site and its flow is controlled by a series of sluice gates through the various lakes and lagoons before returning to the river.

Sir David Tanner CBE

David Tanner, teacher at the school in the late 1970s, has been knighted for his services to rowing.  His investiture took place on 10 April 2013.

The following report is taken from a British Rowing press release:

'As British Rowing’s Performance Director since 1996, David Tanner has led the sport through its richest ever period of success.

'GB won three medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, four in Athens in 2004 and, at Beijing 2008, topped the rowing medal table with six medals.

'At home for London 2012, Great Britain increased this tally to nine medals, four of them gold to once again earn the accolade of 'best Olympic nation. Until London, no rowing nation 'in the modern era' had won more than six medals at an Olympic Games.

'At the performance helm of the sport, and by astute recruitment and management of top-level coaching and support staff, his vision and drive have been behind the creation of a British squad that is consistently capable of winning medals across all the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines.

All will be revealed at a later date.

This photo was recently sent to John Holdstock by a contemporary from his year group, 1952 to 1959.

He believes that he recognises Dave Gardner, seated front right, and Cocker (first name not known), standing.  He does not know the names of the other two who are seated.  Can you help?

The abstract sculpture in wood was called ‘Flight’.  Do you know created it?

The room, and presumably the sculpture, was destroyed in a fire.  The room was rebuilt not long ago.

In Memory of John Railton, 1934 - 2013

Old Ealonians who attended the school in the 1950's and 1960's will be saddened to hear of the death on 19 February 2013 of John Railton, who taught music.

He was a very popular, dynamic and enthusiastic teacher, and was particularly remarkable for having only one arm following an operation for cancer. Just over a year ago, when he was living in Totnes, John was awarded an MBE for services to music. He was acknowledged as an acclaimed musician and composer and had retired in 2009 as a musical director and conductor of Dartington Community Choir. Ealing Youth Opera reported John's death as follows: 'We are very sad to report that our founder John Railton passed away on Tuesday 19th February. 'John started EYO in 1959 when he was a teacher at Ealing Grammar School, and remained conductor and musical director for the next twenty years.  We all have a great deal to be grateful to him for and send our appreciation and heartfelt condolences to his family.' A colleague from that period was John Harman, who writes: 'It was a privilege to work with John as a colleague.  He had the rare quality of being unassuming and inspiring at the same time.  My wife, Margaret, worked alongside his wife, Kathleen at Costons school. 'My most abiding memory of John was his courage and virtuosity in playing the organ at Assembly within only a few weeks of losing his arm. 'But I remember also the Carmina Burana production in Westminster.  Maurice Hill and Geoff Clear had provided staff with translations of the Latin and German lyrics.

'We hoped that our young charges were not entirely aware of quite what medieval bawdy they were singing!'

Peter Hillman (1957-1962) writes the following appreciation:

'John Railton came to Ealing Grammar School as its music master in January 1958, if my memory serves me correctly, when I was in form 1A.  It immediately became apparent that his enthusiasm was infectious and it wasn't long before he was putting together a large choir to perform Handel's Messiah.  He insisted that all the boys in the first and second forms should sing the treble part unless they really were tone deaf, and he used to attract any not watching him conduct by waving his pocket handkerchief vigorously above his head.  The lower voice parts were enhanced by some members of staff and I can still picture Mr Shearn, an English master, giving his all in the choruses on the other side of the church chancel when we came to the performance.

'He was nothing if not ambitious and as recalled by John Harman we mounted Orff's Carmina Burana in Central Hall Westminster with a professional baritone soloist, a New Zealander called John Hauxvell.  An LP record was made of the performance which was in about 1960, by which time my voice was breaking and I was trying to sing solo, something I did not enjoy, but John encouraged me and forbade me to leave the choir.  I still have the LP, and not having anything to play it on I had it transferred recently on to a CD.

'John Harman mentioned John's illness and the amputation of an arm - his subsequent playing the organ in assembly was wonderful to behold.  Somewhere down the line he acquired the nickname 'Sid' as a result of a parody in the sixth form's rather scurrilous magazine called 'The Nut' where he was portrayed as a pop star with a group, Sid Railton and The Rockets, and the name stuck.

'Wonderfully professional and moving services of nine lessons and carols were undertaken at St Mary's Church every Christmas.

'Following the success of Carmina Burana John was inspired to put on other works which one would not normally expect a school to produce - Walton's Belshazzar's Feast and, just before I left in 1964, Beethoven's Choral Symphony.

'John instilled in me a love of choral singing which I have enjoyed all my life and continue to do so, currently with West Sussex Philharmonic Choir, and I shall be always thankful that he made me persevere through the alto line until my voice broke properly and I, and I suspect many others, will remember him with great affection.

You can also see a delightful tribute to John made following his investiture last year, by going to the following link on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1-h16Kya8U.  Numerous other items about John can be found by typing 'John Railton MBE' into Google.