Author: dean

The Alumni cross country race took place again in September with a good field of around 200 entrants. The weather was however not typical cross country, with very warm temperatures, dry and dusty trails across the Common. ‘The dust, the heat, the glare’ perhaps not what Sedberghians are used to!  The Sedbergh squad had 8 entrants on the start line, Charles Sykes, Richard Wells, Peter Lehmann, Henry Bolton, Robert Buchanan, Ben Collins, Benedict Nowak and Geoff Watson. The team rules now allow for a current member of staff to compete in a team and Richard’s inclusion was a great asset to the teams. 

Charles Sykes led the Sedbergh team home in 7th place overall in a time 29:39 with Richard 14th (31:05). Peter Lehmann 21st (32:08) and Henry Bolton 37th (33:25) were 3rd and 4th counters for the open race (King Henry VIII Trophy). Robert Buchanan was close behind in 40th (33:37). The team sealed an initial 3rd equal place with Bishop’s Capetown, but on revision were later elevated to 2nd by 1 point! Interestingly in the last 28 years since a team 2nd in 1995 we have been first or second team 17 times. A consistent team! 

Further to the 2nd place in the main event, the team counters brought a fair haul of silverware back in veteran 40 / 50 and age graded categories. 

In the V40 category Charles Sykes came home first V40 with Richard Wells in 3rd. Richard also claimed 1st V50. These great performances coupled with Henry Bolton as 3rd V40 team counter sealed a team win in the Brentwood trophy. Again in the age graded team Shrewsbury trophy the top place veterans shone through. Charles and Richard’s category wins plus Henry Bolton and Peter Lehman’s good age grade efforts sealed a win on that trophy. Charles took 1st place individually in the age graded event winning the Wyndham Halswelle with Richard in 2nd. 

It was a very successful day at Wimbledon with a string of trophies for the team. Many thanks to all who made the effort to come and run and support the team.

Thanks also to Bill Sykes for taking photos of the team and the race. Next OS team event will be the Morgan Run in January 2024.

Geoff Watson (E 89-94)

TH&H 71st  ALUMNI RACE – 2023
TEAMS
OPEN	The Henry VIII Trophy		Points
First	Shrewsbury		56
Second	Sedbergh		78
Third	Bishops Capetown		79
Ladies	Old Johnian Cup		Points
First	St John’s		61
Second	Shrewsbury		49
Third	Wellington		51
At least three to finish
Age-graded	Shrewsbury Cup		Points
First	Sedbergh		7381
Second	Shrewsbury		7136
Third	Winchester		7050
V40	The Old Brentwood Trophy		Points
First	Sedbergh		12
Second	Rochester Maths		27
Third	Wellington		44
V50	The Chataway Trophy		Points
First	Eton		25
Second	Bradfield		48
Third	Epsom College		60
V60	Old Denstonian Cup		Points
First	Sherborne		29
Second	Winchester		34
Third	Epsom College		34
V65	Jane Bubear Cup		Points
First	Kent College		7
Second	Eton		11
Third	Warwick		12

INDIVIDUALS
Open	Norman Berry Cup	Team	Time
First	Edward Chuck	Kings Canterbury	26.57
Second	Ed Mallett	Shrewsbury	27.27
Third	Tom Hole	Sherborne	27.39
Ladies	Old Coventrian Cup	Team	Time
First	Deirdre McDermott	Wellington	33.33
Second	Gina Galbraith	Roedean	34.35
Third	Sophie Kirk	King Henry VIII	34.59
Age Graded	Wyndham Halswelle Cup	Team	Points
First	Charles Sykes	Sedbergh	7983
Second	Richard Wells	Sedbergh	7933
Third	Ed Mallett	Shrewsbury	7764
V40	Name	Team	Time
First	Charles Sykes	Sedbergh	29.39
Second	Jonathan Potts	Oundle	30.53
Third	Richard Wells	Sedbergh	31.06
V50	Name	Team	Time
First	Richard Wells	Sedbergh	31.06
Second	Barnaby Gray	Milton Abbey	33.14
Third	Stefan Massingham	Rochester Maths	33.58
V60	Name	Team	Time
First	John Shaw	Winchester	34.53
Second	Chris Finill	Harrow County	34.54
Third	John Bennet	Epsom College	39.07
V65	Name	Team	Time
First	Peter Kennedy	Kent College	41.15
Second	Shane MacKean	Eton	42.53
Third	Martin Garrett	Warwick	47.52
V70	Name	Team	Time
First	Peter Kennedy	Kent College	41.15
Second	Paul Newby	Epsom College	48.39
Third	David Jenkins	Winchester	51.56

OS Storm (L 14-16) competed at the Military Boekelo-Enschede earlier this month, one of the largest outdoor sporting events in the Netherlands. Storm finished 20th individually for Great Britain and has qualified for Badminton next year. Huge well done Storm.

1918: Sedbergh and the war at home
Sedberghians are privileged to have the great resource of the Sedberghian magazine to share our history. The magazines began in 1879 and have recorded the changes in the school landscape, national events and the all-important minutiae that makes up daily life.

1918 saw bloody warfare on the battlefields of Europe, sacrifices at home and the boys and staff coming to terms with the loss of their loved ones. In amongst all this, life continued as it always must. The Sedberghian magazines give modern readers a sense of the joy and spirit that the young people of Sedbergh showed despite the challenges they faced.

Drought
This summer many Sedberghians will have enjoyed the heatwave. In 1918 a similar heatwave and subsequent drought hit Europe. Water stored in Killington reservoir was not sufficient and the school had to be creative to continue functioning. With water from the taps slowing to a trickle, water for cooking and cleaning was brought in from the surrounding rivers which were also running very low. To enable the boys to wash themselves each house was assigned a pool in the river to bathe. Each house trooped to their allotted section at 7.15 each morning instead of attending early prep. Boys campaigned to be sent home, wishful thinking perhaps.

Working on the land
Boys and staff dedicated much of their time off to agricultural and forestry work. With most able-bodied men away fighting, the tasks of feeding the nation and managing natural resources fell to the young and old. Boys worked on the farms around Sedbergh that could be accessed on foot and through the summer months the boys took part in work camps in Cemaes Bay, Amlwch and Valley in North Wales as well as being billeted at Casterton for a week at a time.
Petrol shortages meant that machinery to maintain the estate sat idle in sheds while horses, men and boys did the heavy labour. The motor lawn mower “Panting Pegasus” was retired due to lack of petrol. The June 1918 Sedberghian recorded that it took 15 hours to mow the cricket pitch with the old-fashioned horse mower that had been reinstated.

Spanish flu
As the war drew to an end the United Kingdom experienced a severe outbreak of Spanish flu, so named as the first recorded cases were in Spain. The virus was believed to have spread more rapidly through the UK by soldiers returning from the trenches in Northern France. The outbreak at Sedbergh peaked in the first few weeks of the Michaelmas term. For several weeks the school dwindled as staff and boys succumbed to the illness and at its worst only 36 boys from the full count of 326 made it to roll call.

In August Alfie had the privilege of bearing the King’s Colours. At a ceremony in the grounds of Balmoral Castle, King Charles, accompanied by Queen Camilla, presented a new ceremonial colour to the Royal Guard. The Ballater Colour is used by the soldiers from the Royal Guard, who guard Balmoral Castle while the King is in residence during the summer months. The first Ballater Colour was presented in 1880 by Queen Victoria. On this occasion, and to mark the reign of King Charles III, The King presented the new Ballater Colour to 51 Infantry Brigade & Headquarters Scotland. The new Ballater Colour displays the Tudor Crown of His Majesty’s cypher rather than the St Edward’s Crown used by Queen Elizabeth II.

England batter Harry Brook has been named the Professional Cricketers’ Association men’s player of the year. Brook, 24, scored 363 runs in the Ashes, before hitting the fastest century in the men’s Hundred.

Read more HERE.

I am sure many of you will never have heard of Ian Charles Gray and it isn’t often I put out an appeal to honour someone.

However, in my many years of service to the Club I have never been so struck by an individual, in particular one I never knew.

Ian suffered life-long disabilities following a car accident soon after he left Sedbergh. For the last ten years he has been in care. He was supported by a fellow Sedberghian, Alistair Pirie, a life-long friend from Hart House days, who made sure his affairs were looked after when Ian found it difficult to manage without assistance. Such are the Sedbergh bonds of friendship.

Ian passed away a few weeks ago and left his estate to the School so that future generations might have opportunities in life that he unfortunately could not have. This gift will have life changing consequences for others.

I will be there at his funeral to honour a man I never knew, whose final act was to help others when he himself had suffered so much. The funeral of this tremendous, very decent, and a most honourable Old Sedberghian, will be held on Friday 6 October at 2.00 pm in the chapel at Whitgift House, 76 Brighton Road, South Croydon CR0 6AB (the care home where he resided).

If you knew him, please join us. If you didn’t know him, please come anyway. He deserves our respect and a last farewell from his fellow Siblings of Sedbergh. If you are coming, please let me know (jcv@sedberghschool.org, 07714 677007).

Jan van der Velde

(Ian Gray is pictured above in his final year at Hart House, left of centre with glasses on the back row).

For many Sedberghians the reassurance of having financial affairs in order can be a great comfort. To mark Free Wills Month in October the Foundation is delighted to launch a new partnership with dedicated will writing service Squiggle. Jan van der Velde, Director of Alumni Development has worked with Squiggle Estate Planning Consultant, Maria Greenwood, for 25 years and highly recommends her work.

Through the partnership with Sedbergh School Foundation, Squiggle will offer both a free dedicated will writing service, and access to their wider paid-for estate planning services. There is no obligation to take up additional services or leave a legacy to Sedbergh School. The will writing service can be delivered over the telephone and via video calls. Alternatively, face-to-face appointments can be arranged for members of the Sedbergh community in the south-east of England. Squiggle will guide clients through the process of writing a will, cutting through the legal jargon and making it a straightforward process. Squiggle are also happy to review existing wills for free to ensure that they are up to date with the needs of each client. All wills created through this scheme are logged with the ‘National Wills Register’ meaning that the wills are transparent and accessible when the time comes. Sedberghians using this service will receive a copy of the will for their own records.

Some Sedberghians chose to remember Sedbergh School in their will and may choose to join the 1525 Society which recognises commitments to leave a legacy to the school. The main priority of fundraising at present is to create opportunities for Roger Lupton Scholarships. Children of exceptional talent who do not have access to the financial resources to make a Sedbergh education accessible are offered 100% scholarships to attend the school. These life changing opportunities are only possible due to the generosity of donors in the Sedbergh community. One of our recent Roger Lupton Scholars reflected this month on his time at school:

If I had not had the opportunity to come to Sedbergh I may be in a completely different place. Sedbergh has given me an advantage of high-level training environments for my sporting endeavour. Despite being a keen academic my concentration in this area wasn’t always consistent, and so the structured, fast paced school terms created an environment where I thrived. The school’s culture is embedded into Sedberghians and people respect this.

Recent decades have seen the benefit of these legacies compounded as past scholars have chosen to ‘give back’ in later life, creating opportunities for young people to benefit as they themselves did. This perpetual giving generates valuable continuity in our efforts to provide life changing opportunities to more young people and means that your legacy will continue to give benefit to the young for generations to come.

If you’d like to learn more about the free will writing service, please contact Maria Greenwood of Squiggle, maria.greenwood@squiggleconsult.co.uk, 01732 92740.

If you’d like to discuss becoming a member of the 1525 Society, or to learn more about it, please contact Jan van der Velde jcv@sedberghschool.org, 07714 677007.

Sedbergh publishes a new book charting the history of the school

‘A History of Sedbergh School 1525 – 2025: ‘Tis the Hills that have stood around us’ is the definitive book charting the history of Sedbergh School, published to mark the 500^th anniversary. Sedbergh School was founded by Roger Lupton to provide an academic education and a moral grounding to young people in the parish of Sedbergh. 500 years later the school is world famous and internationally recognised for providing excellence in the classroom, boarding houses, on sports pitches and in the extensive range of extra-curricular activities on offer to our pupils. This book charts the history of Sedbergh School from a one room chantry school to a global brand. The author, Michael Raw, was keen that this book be an accurate account of Sedbergh’s history, not a sanitised version of events. As such, it faithfully records the varying fortunes of the school from its early years during the challenges of the reformation through to the achievements and drama of the later centuries. The rapid Victorian expansion of the school, arrival of the first female teacher, the departure from single sex education, and the loss of not one but two generations in World Wars are recorded in the author’s words, through exerts from contemporary school documents, and in memoirs and letters of characters who lived through these events.

The book will be available from September 2024 and will cost £50 including packing and postage. However, it is available now on pre-sale at a cost of £40.

To order copies of the book click here.

It has been five years since Sedbergh sent its emissaries to Hong Kong, and to repair this oversight, a delegation was dispatched in June to convey our good tidings to our friends in the Far East.

Ben Collins and myself together with the Marketing Director, David Milner, were joined by the Headmaster, Dan Harrison, for a major event hosting parents (past, present, and prospective) and Old Sedberghians, at a grand ‘get together’ in Kowloon. It was wonderful to see so many old friends, many of whom had been taught by Dan over the years.

One person who couldn’t make the evening was Tyson Yoshi, a former Powellian, and now a Rapper of some renown in Hong Kong. He has a busy schedule and therefore David Milner, Ben Collins, and I sought him out at his new album launch where he was signing autographs.

The queue to see him was hours long and while I will do much for dear old Sedbergh, standing in a queue with a thousand excited teenagers is not my thing. Therefore, words were spoken with the management, and on announcing we were from Sedbergh, the queue was pushed aside and we were able to meet Tyson. The thousand excited teenagers were in awe and started taking photos of us. Tyson was most welcoming. ‘Call me Ben’ (his real name) he said and was the model of manners and politeness. Despite his evidential fame he had not forgotten his roots and we came away thinking what a genuinely wonderful person.

Well done Tyson, it was a great pleasure to meet you.

This aside, and if it were not enough for one trip, we were invited to dinner by Duncan and Sandy Pescod at the Hong Kong Club. We had also received an invitation for the following evening by Chris Page at the Hong Kong Football Club.

One can be forgiven thinking that these places are one and the same. Therefore, with Ben Collins and my boss, The Headmaster, in tow, we went to the Hong Kong Football Club to meet the Pescods. I announced ourselves on arrival to the receptionist who apparently had never heard of the restaurant at which we were dining. Neither did they have a third floor in which the restaurant resided. She must be new I thought, and asked her, politely, to check her records. She suggested I check mine.

That is when the horror of the situation dawned on me; we were in the wrong Club. To make amends the three of us dashed across the island, like Hugh Grant and Charlotte Coleman at the beginning of ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’. We turned up half an hour late, and out of breath. However, Duncan and Sandy were most understanding and said I wasn’t the only person (I’m sure they meant idiot) to have made that mistake.

The Hong Kong Club is a splendid place and we soon relaxed and had a most enjoyable and entertaining evening. Thank you Duncan and Sandy, for your warm hospitality and your support. We still talk about the Hong Kong Club. In fact it came up in my staff review with The Head!

On the last night Chris Page entertained us at the Hong Kong Football Club. This time we knew where we were going. It was a night of merriment, of old school tales, and hugs at the end. Thank you Chris, and thank you Leslie Page, for allowing Chris to stay out later than advertised!

And thank you Hong Kong. A great visit which has done much good. We hope to return soon, or at least in less than five years.

Jan van der Velde

On the weekend of 24^th and 25^th of June, Casterton Sedbergh Prep opened its doors in celebration of the founding of Casterton School by the Revd William Carus-Wilson in 1823.

Over the course of the weekend, over 400 Old Girls, parents, and friends were in attendance at the lunches, the Gala Dinner, and the Church Service held in the Holy Trinity Church.

The Gala Dinner, held in a marquee, was a sell out success with 250 people enjoying a glorious summer evening while being entertained by the prep school musicians before dinner. Thereafter we heard speeches from the Headmaster, Will Newman, and Castertonian Old Girl, Holly Story.

During the evening we were entertained through song by Olivia Patchett, a former pupil at the prep school and now a music scholar at Sedbergh. Olivia received a standing ovation after her faultless performance.

After the formal part of the evening concluded, the live band ‘The Dead Beats’ soon filled the dance floor. It was a tremendous evening all round and many kind comments have since been received.

In the morning, with some bleary eyed, the traditional Casterton Founder’s Day ceremony was re-enacted with the carrying of the banner ahead of the assembled crowd of 200, who together paraded from the School to The Holy Trinity Church. It was a spectacular occasion not seen for ten years.

The Church service itself was conceived by the Sedbergh School Chaplain, Paul Sweeting, and led by Casterton Old Girl, The Revd Olivia Haines, supported by another Casterton Old Girl, The Revd Sarah Simpson.

During the service the Casterton school song was sung with such vigour, and with such passion, that it echoed around the walls of the Church and down the Lune valley. Tears welled in the eyes as fond memories came flooding back.

It was a wonderful weekend. Thank you to all those who made it happen, and in particular to Will and Liz Newman who were so hospitable and accommodating.

It should come as no surprise that following the weekend 150 Old Girls have signed up to attend more events and we hope this will be the platform for many happy reunions in years to come. If you would like to know more about future Casterton events, please see the link here: https://forms.office.com/e/ajvTVCe83Uhttps://forms.office.com/e/ajvTVCe83U