From Our President

Howard Graham (FS 80-87)

 

I think the saying goes, ‘time flies when you’re having fun’. Where has the last year gone?!

I hope everyone has a bit more normality back in their lives. On writing this I’m a little on tenter-hooks that the Indian variant is going to cause a major issue with the Cumbria Dinner, the first OSB event in over a year, but I guess it’s not worth worrying about things we have no control over. I’m sure everyone who has a special social event planned is so looking forward to it. However, after visiting the dinner venue, the outstanding Armathwaite Hall, and catching up with an old school mate as if it was yesterday not the thirty or so years it had been, this has fuelled my anticipation to new levels! Everything is crossed!

As we all start to surface, more OSB functions and dates will begin to circulate, and I hope as a whole we can support the organisers as well as the Society and that attendances will swell from previous years. I know the more vulnerable of our members will be concerned about mixing in larger groups for something like OSB Day, but please let us know your thoughts (as requested in this Bulletin) so that we can plan ahead and possibly organise something further down the line, if that fits better for members.

It’s great to see the pupils back at school. However the school is still in the early stages of its redevelopment, and without increased numbers coming through to replace the current membership of the OSBs, our Society will obviously eventually die out. Arguably the most important thing for the Society is to support the school. The school is offering a 50% discount in fees for dependants of OSBs which, I’m sure you will agree, is a fantastic offer, the details of which are mentioned later within this Bulletin. I ask those reading this to spread the word and promote the school at every opportunity and, where possible, look to increase pupil numbers from within.

The Bulletin is not something I read from cover to cover when it first arrives. Who has the time! I tend to pop back to it over a few weeks or so and check out names I know in the notes, snippets and, unfortunately, the obituaries. I have more recently been flicking through some of my back catalogue (click here) to get a fuller picture of what OSBs are up to. You should try it as well. I’m sure we all thought we had it hard at St Bees School during our years there, but reading through some of the notes from pupils of the 50s and 60s, it was certainly a different time. A few stories that caught my eye showed that times have changed but also highlighted the true slightly eccentric life in St Bees. These were Duncan Merrin’s piece about his first year at school in the 1950s (click here), also  John ‘Little’ Lever’s note about The Magic Game and The Housemaster of Meadow House laying the law down on wiping activities: ‘Boys, we are not half way through this term and we have used three quarters of the lavatory paper allocation. May I advise you that one sheet is adequate, two sheets are plenty and three sheets are down right stealing!’ (click here). And only at St Bees, surely, Robin Rigby’s story of setting up the School Morris Dancers Team (click here).

Have a trawl through, I promise you’ll find many interesting stories that will put a smile/grimace on your face or bring up a memory….mainly good ones I hope.

Enjoy catching up on life!

The opportunity is still available for those that wish to secure the future of our Society to set up an annual subscription of any amount to help fund the running of the Society. (click here).

The new OSB Social Group Facebook page has been building in popularity but there’s still plenty of room and memories and posts to share. Keep spreading the word or join up if you haven’t already  (click here).

If you currently get this Bulletin in paper form and could receive it electronically, please make the switch by contacting Pam. Let’s look after the planet and the coffers, also they are so much easier to file!

Please send me any ideas you may have of how we may expand the Society. I‘d love to hear from you: howiegraham@hotmail.com.

 

Home

The St Beghian Society    
St Bees School,    St Bees,    Cumbria,    CA27 0DS.

         Tel: (01946) 828093      Email: osb@stbeesschool.co.uk      Web: www.st-beghian-society.co.uk