Author: dean
The School has undoubtedly changed in recent years. It knows what it wants to do and does it well, providing an outstanding educational and sporting experience for pupils, shaped by its guiding values and the landscape in which it resides.
So even if you came to Sedbergh in your youth it is worth seeing how it has evolved if you are considering Sedbergh as an option for your child or grandchild. Unless you married an OS, your partner will certainly want to learn more about the School before making this important decision.
Therefore, the OS Club has secured funding to pay for couples, and their children/grandchildren, to come to Sedbergh for a weekend of their choosing, staying the night at our expense. You would be shown around the School and talk to pupils such that you can make an informed decision. Some have already taken us up on this offer and have found the experience invaluable.
We only have a limited number of places so please contact Ben Collins on bpc@sedberghschool.org or myself, Jan van der Velde on jcv@sedberghschool.org if this is of interest.
Jan van der Velde
Development Director
Many Sedberghians will be saddened to hear of the death of Mary Hamilton, who passed away peacefully at her home on 10th January aged 77 years. Mary taught singing at both Casterton and Sedbergh Schools as well as acting as a ‘guardian’ for pupils during weekends and half term holidays. Mary was very much loved by her pupils and colleagues alike who remember her warmth, joie de vivre and humour.
A former pupil of Mary’s recalled the impact that ‘Mrs H’ had on her life:
‘Mrs H taught me so much and was truly a most wonderful and inspiring teacher. With such a fabulous sense of humour. I absolutely loved my lessons and any time I was singing. It was such an escape. I can see her bouncy walk and feel her happy warm personality.’
A former music scholar commented, ‘Mary was woven through my life at school from my entrance exam right up to my final speech day. She really cared. And somehow managed to keep things real. I’ll always remember how she taught us to smile when singing, because you can hear it in the music – a life lesson indeed.’
Mary was a loving mother and mother-in-law to Jon and Dawn and Victoria and Paul, proud grandmother to Jack, Ellie, Daisy, Oscar, Alex and Sophie.
A private cremation will take place followed by a service to celebrate Mary’s life at St Andrew’s Church, Sedbergh on Wednesday 7th February at 1pm.
Family flowers only, but donations if desired will be gratefully received to The Freda Trott Musical Foundation and can be made via the following link:
mary-hamilton-1946-2024.muchloved.com
“It’s all down to Mary that I can call myself a singer, and that I still sing barbershop. I wonder if there will be enough former Chameleons at her funeral for a tribute rendition of Evaline?” Richard Hubbard P 82-87
“Mary taught me how to breathe, how to sing, how to understand the emotion of a song. Her love for the music we sang together rubbed off on me and has stayed with me for the rest of my life. If I didn’t live in the US I would absolutely be there. My love and thoughts to the whole family. She was a great woman.” JB Blanc P 84-87
Abbie Ward (R 09-11) has been included in England’s first training squad in their preparation for the Guinness Women’s Six Nations. She returns to the side less than a year after giving birth to her daughter as the side begin their preparations for the Guinness Women’s Six Nations which gets under way in late March.
Read more HERE.
OS Chay (P 09-16) is showing his first feature documentary film at Rheged in Penrith on 23rd February.
‘The Winter Wainwrights’ follows the story of James Gibson. A fairly unknown fell runner based in the Lake District, who takes on his greatest challenge yet: to become the first person to complete the Winter Wainwrights Round.
The Wainwright Round consists of summiting all 214 of Wainwrights’ peaks, totalling 325 miles with 36,000m of elevation gain in winter.
Faced with the typical Lake District winter climate, James went out with the very best from the fell running community.
However, storms and snow were not the only challenge James had to face. On the 1st of December another fell runner set off one hour before he did, attempting the same challenge.
This documentary follows James from planning, training and then attempting the round. Showing both James’ highs and lows and hearing the reflections from the support runners on the successful attempt and the challenges James had to face.
A truly inspiring film about an event that brought together the powerhouse of the Lake District Fell running community.
1h 30m film followed by Q&A with James Gibson and Chay Turner-Richards.
Read more and book tickets HERE.
Author of the new History of Sedbergh School 1525 – 2025 and a unique opportunity for members of our community to feature in the book
The late Michael Raw, History Master 1984 – 2015, was commissioned before his death to write a new history of Sedbergh School as part of the 500th anniversary celebrations of the School. Michael rose to the challenge magnificently and was near competition of this scholarly and engaging project when he sadly died suddenly in May 2023. Michael had been interviewed at Easter 2023 about the process of writing the book and which aspects of the history he most enjoyed. Here we share a few excerpts from that interview.
•500 years is a long time to cover. What preparation did you undertake before putting pen to paper?
I did a lot of reading and thinking. I read several histories of other schools in order to glean ideas about how, and how not, to set about my own task. For example, I read a beautifully written institutional history of Stonyhurst which I thought said too little about the “inner life” of the school, that is, its music and drama, its sports and the activity of its societies. I read a history of my own school, Haberdashers’ Aske’s, which I felt was too brief and left out too much. I tackled some of the vast literature about Eton College and found “Eton Voices” by Danny Danziger to be the most lively and interesting.
I thought long and hard about the likely readership of the “History” and how that should influence the structure and content of the book. I have imagined that the readership will be almost entirely Sedberghian and that each reader will turn first to the pages that cover his or her years at the school and expect to see his or her own interests covered adequately. That is quite a tall order which I have striven to satisfy!
•What sources of information have you used?
As well as the commonly known Sedbergh history books of the past, I read a most interesting and eloquent book entitled “Almae Matres” published by Sedbergh’s former headmaster Mr. F. B. Malim in 1948. It includes a chapter on Sedbergh. He recalls the landscape in a most eloquent way and suggests its importance to the character of the school and to Sedberghians. I used one or two published memoirs, such as “A Shaft of Sunlight” by Philip Mason, a pupil in the early 1920s, and “To Earth with a Bump” by R.C. Spoor, a pupil in the late 1940s. Past staff, particularly Headmasters, were most generous contributing their thoughts and recollections, and of course the governors minutes and house magazines were very helpful. “The Sedberghian” magazine is an indispensable source for that “inner life” of the school.
•Some of the period covered includes events that have occurred in living memory. How have you approached dealing with issues that some readers will have differing memories of?
This is an important question. For reference, I was Head of History at Sedbergh from 1984 to 2015, so my own memory goes back quite a long way, and others’ memories go further. A principle I set myself from the start was to be as objective as possible and not swamp the reader with the (probably unwanted) “thoughts of Michael Raw.” Nonetheless, it would be futile, and dishonest, to maintain that my own interests and judgements do not inform the book to some extent. As for more recent events which I and others lived through and remember, I have tried to mask my own memories and judgement and work, as an empirical historian should, from the sources. Some readers will think that I have failed, but I have tried. Moreover, I think that historical understanding advances and is sharpened by disagreement as much as by agreement. It may be true to say that the book will have failed if every reader sits nodding his head from time to time and muttering “yes, I agree with that.” If a reader disagrees with what I have written, even if he does so vehemently, at least he will have been obliged to consider and work out his own alternative interpretation of events to set against mine.
•Have you learnt anything about the School that has surprised you?
Yes. I was surprised by how young many of the early Headmasters were at the time of their appointment and by how many of them suffered either physical or mental breakdown. For example, William Broxholme who was Headmaster for just four years, 1742-1746, barricaded himself in his room and refused to see anyone on School business. Wynne Bateman (1746-1782) was one of Sedbergh’s three great scholarly Headmasters in the 18th century. But his tenure ended badly. He suffered from gout and was subjected to all sorts of indignities by the town’s population. He was also rumoured to use “certain old books” to dabble in sorcery and magic in the School library.
I was surprised that epidemics occurred regularly because of poor sanitation well into the 1960s. In one house, for example, there were no washbasins near the lavatories until 1965. As a result, gastro-enteritis was endemic.
I was also surprised that, although house plays and staff plays had established places in the School’s calendar, there no all-School productions staged save for grimly predictable versions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas until the late 1970s. The proficiency of the School’s music and art was developed much earlier.
A special opportunity to be part of Sedbergh School history:
The History of Sedbergh School 1525 – 2025 is available to pre-order at a reduced price of £40. There is also a special and time limited opportunity for purchasers to be featured in the book. It was the wish of author, Michael Raw, that the book be used to raise funds for a Roger Lupton Scholarship. Such scholars are children of exceptional talent for whom a Sedbergh education is not financially possible. Sadly, Michael died prior to publication of the book, however the School has honoured Michael’s wish by creating the opportunity for members of the wider school community to contribute to a Roger Lupton Scholarship in Michael’s name.
This special opportunity is available at pre-sale only and costs £110 including the price of the book, packing and postage and includes a donation to a Roger Lupton Scholarship of £70. All contributors will have their names included on the inside cover of the book and so be forever a part of this historical record. This opportunity is only available until 31st March 2024 when the list of supporters will be given to the publishers to include in the book, making them part of the history of the School, whilst helping a child access everything that a Sedbergh education offers.
To purchase the book, either with or without the opportunity to feature in the book while helping a Roger Lupton Scholar please follow this link. Shop | My Sedbergh (sedberghmerchandise.com)
Many congratulations to OS Charlie Neate (L 12-16) on her wedding in the School Chapel to Andy Rishton on Saturday 16th December 2023. The service was conducted by the Chaplain, Revd Paul Sweeting, who had taught Charlie for Religious Studies when she was a pupil (and who was very willing to share a few anecdotes of Charlie’s time as a pupil!) It was a joy-filled service and OS Georgina McCutcheon was a bridesmaid – Charlie and Georgie were in Lupton House together.
A choir contributed beautifully to the service, led by Mr John Seymour, and included Old Sedberghians Patrick Relph, Jess Hurst, James & Amelia Horan and Ella Seymour. It was wonderful to have them back in Chapel playing a key part in this special occasion.
How will you remember 2023?
If years were weighed in scales, if there was a fulcrum of such vast proportions that time itself could be judged, I wonder where we would find 2023.
I am not sure myself. As we start to take our leave of this year I am not sure that I will look back at global events with any fondness. Here, the scales fall to the bad in my view and we must find what we can to correct the balance.
Perhaps it is in the detail that we find compensating ballast, maybe it is what we find in the ordinary of the everyday that, grain by grain, the scales start to equalise. It will take a lot of grain, buckets and buckets, but here lies hope.
I have found in my first year in my new role an overwhelming sense of friendship, camaraderie, loyalty, and support. Perhaps this is where we should find our hope, in the microcosms of our spheres of existence. Perhaps we cannot change the world, but we can change the world that surrounds our every day. If we get on, then maybe we will find consensus, amongst nations, and about climate change, and all the things that seem to have plagued this year and threaten to roll forward to the next.
So that’s my Christmas hope. That as individuals we can find unity, and it might just become a trend on a larger scale in 2024.
Merry Christmas,
Jan van der Velde
It is some years since I have seen Bill Canning, and, having corresponded with him for much of the year I finally managed to meet up with him at his home in Somerset.
Bill was a Wilson Run winner and despite his advancing years he is very spritely and met me at the door as I walked up the drive. He had cooked a fine lunch and I was offered the chair by the window as we tucked in to homemade shepherds pie, followed by mince pie and cheese.
Bill, for those of you who don’t know, was Captain of HMS Broadsword during the Falklands conflict. I was Head of School during 1982, when the Navy was dispatched to the South Atlantic and I can remember sending a telegram to HMS Antelope, (to which Sedbergh School was aligned), when it found a bomb lodged in its bow. Bill remembers the bomb exploding and said it lit up the night sky, taking HMS Antelope with it.
Bill recounted his personal experience during the sinking of HMS Coventry. It was hit by three bombs and within twenty minutes had capsized, throwing over 200 men into the South Atlantic Sea. Bill describes the encounter as his ‘Cruel Sea’ moment (a reference to the film of the same name starring Jack Hawkins) where he had to decide whether to rescue the men or keep fighting. He continued the fight, made the area safe and then effected a rescue. ‘It was the right thing to do but a difficult decision at the time’ he said.
Bill is clearly a brave individual. He is very understated, he doesn’t glorify war, he simply had a job to do and did it to the best of his ability in challenging circumstances. It was a great honour to meet him, to ask him how one prepares for the enormity of such events, and how you lead under such duress.
If you want to know the answers to such questions Bill hopes to visit Sedbergh in the Summer when we will interview him on camera. We very much look forward to welcoming him. In fact it would be a great honour.
Jan van der Velde
Director of Alumni Development
Following the success of the Casterton School 200th anniversary celebrations a new society has been formed for the alumni, staff and friends of Casterton School. The anniversary weekend created many memories and was a time to rekindle old friendships and forge new ones. In that spirit of friendship, a new Castertonian Society has been formed to ensure that Casterton alumni, staff and friends are welcome to many of the special events that take place at Casterton Sedbergh Prep each year, and also to some private events hosted just for members of the former Casterton School Community.
The OS Club are conscious of the close historic links between Casterton and Sedbergh Schools. Many families had siblings attending each school, and many Sedberghians have had friendships, and in some cases marriages with women from Casterton. We call upon Sedberghians in our community to share news of the Castertonian Society with any friends, family and loved ones who attended Casterton School. We hope that news of the Society can ultimately reach all members of the Casterton School community who may wish to join.
The Castertonian Society will be formally launched on Friday 26th January 2024 at a Burns Supper event held at Casterton, Sedbergh Preparatory School. Tickets for the event are available to buy here: Buy tickets – Burns Night Fundraiser – Sports Hall – Sedbergh Preparatory School, Casterton, Fri 26 Jan 2024 7:00 PM – 10:30 PM (tickettailor.com)
To learn more about the Castertonian Society and join the mailing list to learn about future events please sign up here: The Castertonian Society (office.com).
Yes, this is the latest news, my eldest grandson might just come to Sedbergh, and it would be most excellent if it comes to pass.
Now, I am most fortunate that, being in Sedbergh, my daughter, who is the owner of this particular boy, was able to visit with her family to explore the place. This is what has persuaded them. Apparently, my words weren’t enough. Proof is personal, and it took a visit for them to see what a life changing opportunity Sedbergh might be for young Cupcake (not his real name).
So, this had Ben Collins and I thinking. We do a lot of this at the OS Club. After several cups of tea, we came to the conclusion that it would be good for others to have a more personal experience such that they can make an informed choice.
Therefore, on a first come first served basis, and with no obligation on your part, if you might be thinking of Sedbergh as a school for your child, we are offering to pay for OS and their families to come to Sedbergh, stay a night in the Black Bull, and experience Sedbergh first hand. Ben and I will take you out for dinner (or not, it’s up to you), and the Admissions Team will arrange a tour and taster of School life. You can even meet some of the pupils. This applies to OS parents and OS Grandparents.
By the way, did you know that as an OS parent or Grandparent, you are entitled to a 10% fee concession? There is also a further fee concession for siblings.
The School is nearly full but the Headmaster is keen to make space for children and grandchildren of OS and will do all he can to accommodate such requests. You are, after all, part of our history and our success.
So, please do let me know if this is of interest. There is no obligation to send your child to Sedbergh, we just want you to make an informed choice. It is too important a decision to do otherwise.
If this is of interest, please email me (Jan van der Velde: jcv@sedberghschool.org).
Have a great Christmas.
Jan van der Velde
Director of Alumni Development