The following piece was intended for the previous Bulletin and we apologise to John for its delay.

A BRIEF ENCOUNTER by John Ogden (FS 51-56).

(But not with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson at Carnforth Station!).

“Reading the January 2023 Old Boys Bulletin I saw that Harry Murray passed away in 2022. He was on Foundation North when I was on South a couple of years or so older than he.

After I left St Bees at the age of 18 in 1956, I joined a Preston firm of chartered accountants as an articled clerk and qualified five years later after taking my final exams. I then was taken on by Simon Engineering at Cheadle Heath, Stockport as a management trainee, initially at Simon-Carves, a major design and build engineers of amongst other things nuclear power stations (at Hunterston on the Clyde and Tokai Mura in Japan, both in partnership with GEC, coke ovens for the steel industry, water treatment plants, and other major chemical plants in the UK and abroad). I was walking past the drawing office one morning when I was astounded to see Harry Murray walking in the opposite direction with a group of men who turned out to be a sales team from his family owned company in Glasgow. They must have been there to sell their services as sub-contractors. We stopped for a few minutes before both continuing on our way, a brief encounter indeed.

My next surprise encounter (although not so brief) was when sitting on the bench outside the school chapel at St Bees on Founders Day 2022 watching the school sports day on the Crease when another Old Boy came and sat next to me. We exchanged pleasantries and I discovered that he was George Robson, who entered school the term after I left. He had been practising the organ in the chapel in anticipation of the Old Boys Service the following day. We got talking about various things of interest and I mentioned the telephone lines I laid between the prefects’ studies in School House, Hostel and Grindal when I was in charge of the school's CCF Signals (reported in a previous OSBs Bulletin). Somehow, we got onto the subject of the Priory Church graveyard and the school’s masters who are buried there and George took me to see their headstones.

He then asked me if I had seen the Mill Hill garden at the back of the Priory, which I had not. After showing me the stones he took me further down through a gate into this delightful wildflower garden. Unfortunately, the garden had been neglected, but as a result of our enquiries as to who was supposed to look after it, we discovered that the St Bees local council is, and, as a result of our contacting them, I understand a great deal of work has taken place to bring it up to standard.

This gave us the idea for a conducted tour of the Priory on the 2023 OSBs weekend, which was included in the program of events. This included a local speaker who outlined the history of the Priory including the grave of the St Bees Man, and a guide to the church, before a short recital on the famous Willis Organ by a local organist, and then a visit to see the graves and the garden as above.”

(The tour was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by many OSBs. It is hoped that something similar can be arranged for OSBs day in 2024. Ed.)

 

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