Issue 20 - March 2019

Emanuel 430 years

In 2024 Emanuel School will celebrate 430 years since its founding by Lady Dacre. In the lead-up to the anniversary, the school is going to be holding a number of events as well as setting some exciting charitable goals.

At the start of the month we launched a competition asking our students to design a logo that was distinctly 'Emanuel' and that could be used in letterheads and publications in the run up to the school’s anniversary. The competition closed last

week and the winner, selected by the headmaster, Robert Milne, and Kelley Brinson, Head of the EPA, will be announced shortly.

We received nearly 40 entries and were so impressed with the effort and creativity of the students. Some of the amazing entries are pictured above.

Bake for bursaries

Last week was Charity Week at Emanuel and staff threw themselves into raising money for the bursary campaign. In return for donating to the bursary appeal, staff enjoyed delicious home-baked cakes prepared by teaching and support staff. To add a bit of healthy competition, the cakes were judged by our very own Mary Berry, Head of Catering, Phyllis Street.

It was fantastic to see so many staff getting involved in the campaign. Everyone here recognises the significant impact of free school places to the whole community. We really believe that fully-funded places change lives and increase social mobility through the start they offer a young person. Over half of staff now support the bursary scheme and have pledged over £2,500.

Emanuel pupils are also actively supporting the Emanuel 430 campaign through our ‘commendations for donations’ initiative. For every ten commendations pupils are awarded, they are given a token to place in one of our charity collection tubes in support of their chosen charity.

If you would like to join staff and pupils in supporting the bursary campaign, please visit the Support Us area of our website here.

Support us

Pre-1959 Reunion

We have nearly 60 people registered for the Pre-1959 Reunion so far. If you left Emanuel in 1959 or before, we would be delighted to see you on Saturday 27 April, 2019 from 11am to 3pm.

Programme for the day:

11am – Headmaster's welcome in the Library

11.45am – Short tour of the school

12.30pm – Year group photos and whole group photo

1pm – Lunch in the Refectory with wine

2.30pm – Tea and coffee in the Library

3pm – Finish

Tickets are priced at £25 and can be purchased by clicking on the link below.

If you left the school early, your leaving year is the year you would have left had you stayed into the 6th form.

Register now

Choir Reunion

We held a very well-attended choir reunion at school on Saturday 2 February. OE choir members enjoyed a tour of the school followed by the opportunity to sing well-known hymns in a very familiar setting – the chapel. Later, they also sang through the Mozart Requiem in

the Concert Hall, accompanied by Simon Gregory and conducted by Christian Strover. It was amazing to hear a group of OEs from across the years come together so effortlessly to create such fantastic music.

We were honoured to have Simon Gregory, Christian Strover and Jonathan and Sarah Holmes at the reunion, at least one of whom has been present in the music department dating all the way back to 1956. Combined, they have an amazing 93 years of Emanuel School service.

The event was so successful that we hope to hold a similar reunion in future.

Join us to watch the Boat Race

Date: Sunday 7th April, 2019

Time: Women’s race – 2.13pm, Men’s race – 3.10pm

Venue: Emanuel Boat Club, Dukes Meadows, Chiswick, W4 2SH

Join us at Emanuel Boat Club to watch the Oxford v. Cambridge boat race. Arrive early to enjoy the atmosphere and secure a good viewing spot to watch the race. We will be

serving food from the BBQ, as well as Pimms, wine, beer and soft drinks from 1:30pm.

Please note that Barnes Bridge will close to pedestrians an hour before the first race and remain closed until after the final race. If you are arriving after this time you can access the boat club via Dukes Meadow or by crossing Chiswick Bridge further upstream.

Women’s race - 2:13pm

Men’s race - 3:10pm

https://www.theboatrace.org

Illustrious rowing OEs return

We were delighted to welcome Dick Millard (OE1966-73) and Chris Drury (OE1963-71) back to school for a chat about their experiences competing in the golden age of Emanuel School rowing, from the 1960s to the mid-1970s. It is especially great to feature both OEs in the same photo as it was Chris who introduced a young teenage Dick to rowing all those years ago.

Chris is one of our most decorated ever sportsmen, winning a lightweight gold medal in the 1977 Rowing World Championships as well as a host of other honours. We will have an interview with Chris in one of our future publications looking at his career in more detail. Dick also has tremendous rowing pedigree, competing for the School First VIII before working in the city for many years. Dick has always been involved in rowing and in recent years has coached the sport full-time. Chris very kindly brought in some fantastic photos from both his school and international rowing days which we will share in the future.

Memories of Mervyn Davies

With the Six Nations just behind us, we wanted to share one of the most precious photos we have in our collection of the legendary Welsh international and British Lion Mervyn Davies who taught sport and coached rugby at Emanuel in the early 1970s. There cannot be many schoolboys out there who can claim to be coached by a British Lion! Mervyn, famously, had to ask the Headmaster for time off to tour New Zealand with the Lions!

Mike Hogg was one of the schoolboys lucky enough to be taught by Mervyn Davies, and here fondly recalls that special time:

"I was privileged that Mervyn Davies was our coach for my two full seasons in the school 1st XV. He was inspirational - not only for what he had and was achieving at international level - but also because he was such a nice, unassuming and humble man. He spoke quietly - but every word was worth listening to with care. His mild and laid-back manner did however cloak a steely core. Merv was refereeing our school 1st XV against Met Police W division - and in the

first half they had used their men v boys physical advantage to full effect. At half time Merv called over their second row captain - and said "leave my boys alone" - they did!! His inclusion of all of us at his Round House celebration of his '71 Lions' selection - and getting us all into the Angel Hotel to meet the players of both sides after a Cardiff international were also moments I will never forget."

Mike kindly gave us the photograph for which we are very grateful. Mervyn can be seen sporting his British Lions tracksuit. Obviously when Merv taught at Emanuel he was also playing his own club rugby for London Welsh, and so when he wasn’t available the first XV had fantastic back-up in Tony Phillips (Geography/PE 1964-74) who also played top level rugby. Although Mervyn concentrated on the first XV he also helped out with the younger squads and opposition dressing rooms were often stunned when this great sportsman appeared in their dressing rooms after a match to congratulate them for their efforts in the recently finished fixture. The Emanuel boys taught by him never forgot this amazing experience and we know how fondly he is remembered.

Meet the OE - Nat Price

Nat Price (OE1996-2002) is currently a script-writer for both the much anticipated BBC adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses and the current Sky Atlantic hit, Tin Star, about a former British policeman who becomes chief of police in a small Canadian town in the Rocky Mountains. If not for a very serious footballing injury more than a decade ago, however, Nat might have followed a very different career path.

Nat was a talented sportsman who exceled at cross-country and football in particular. He also played as a junior for Crystal Palace FC but his career was cut short by a serious injury.

After working for the FA for several years, Nat made a rather unique change of direction, studying for an MA in Screenwriting at the National Film & Television School where he was a David Lean Scholar for two years. His early successes were a short monologue drama Special Delivery which was on BBC3 and the radio play Baller which was an original BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play. Since those early days Nat’s career has blossomed. In addition to scriptwriting for TV, Nat is currently commissioned to write a play for the Nottingham Playhouse. Our Archivist, Tony Jones, caught up with Nat and asked him about his career.

Click here to read the full interview.

There is no Planet B

OE Mike Berners-Lee's latest book 'There is No Planet B' was released last month.

The book looks at the environmental and economic challenges we face and gives inspiring and practical ideas for what we can all do to combat them.

Mike is an expert in greenhouse gas footprinting and organisation development. He has also written How Bad are Bananas? The carbon footprint of everything and is co-author of The Burning Question. Mike is a Professor at Lancaster University.

OE launches Utter Waffle food venture

Julia Jefferis (OE2007-12) has recently launched London’s newest street food concept, Utter Waffle, selling light and crispy savoury waffles at markets, festivals and events.

Julia said: "Whilst travelling South America with my best friend and now business partner, James, we discovered the presence of their huge savoury crêpe culture. We knew we wanted to bring a similarly inexpensive, simple, but fresh and memorable product back home to London so created our light and crispy savoury stuffed waffles! They are stuffed with delicious meats and cheeses before cooking, resulting in a light, crispy waffle, oozing with flavour."

After leaving school Julia studied Hospitality and Events Management at university and

worked at Wimbledon for seven years, eventually managing the players’ restaurant.

In the long-term Julia dreams of having an "Utter Waffle" restaurant but until then is happy to cater at weddings, private parties, canapé events, and everything in-between in their very cool Mk1 Ford transit named ‘Reggie’.

Click here for more information about Utter Waffle.

Wandsworth Heritage Festival - historical walking tour

Date: Saturday 1 June

Time: 11am

Key information: The tour lasts for approximately 90mins. Doors open at 10.30am

The Emanuel School Archivist invites you to join him for a leisurely 90-minute tour of the buildings, interiors and grounds which whisk you back to the days when Emanuel was an orphanage and boarding school. The

permanent School Archive will also be open.

This tour is also open to the public as it is part of Wandsworth Heritage Fortnight, but from our experience of running these events for many years, the most successful tours always feature OEs! The School Archivist requires fall-guys to bounce his jokes against and answer his tricky historical questions. We will even photograph any OEs present with our old school caps. Please join us should you be available.

The event is free and booking is not required. However, you can email tony.jones@emanuel.org.uk should you have any questions or want to make yourself known.

The tour starts at 11am prompt and the Archive will be open from around 10.30am

Emu Racing and Record Chasing

At 19 years old, OE Tom Davies (OE2007-14) became the youngest person ever to cycle around the world. Averaging 100 miles per day for over six months, Tom rode solo all the way. His book, Emu Racing and Record Chasing, which is released this week takes a humorous look at his experiences during the 18,000-mile journey and aims to inspire others to achieve their personal goals.

Tom wrote the book while studying for his degree and training hard for competitive cycling. He’s currently preparing for an Ironman later this year and is a competitive triathlete.

You can buy copies of the book here.

Temi Oh's debut novel

OE Temi Oh's (Temitoyen Ochugboju) debut teen novel, Do you dream of Terra Two? has recently been published to much critical acclaim. The plot is intriguing, centring on a 23-year space journey to find an inhabitable planet in a nearby solar system. Temi told us that when she was writing the book, she kept asking herself, ‘What kind of person chooses to leave everything behind? And what stories do they tell themselves to survive?"

Temi launched Do you dream of Terra Two at an event at the iconic superstore, the ‘Forbidden Planet’, in central London on 7 March and has been busy at launch events ever since.

After leaving Emanuel, Temi studied Neuroscience at King’s College London and was later awarded an MA in Creative Writing at Edinburgh University. She was an avid reader at Emanuel and always dreamed of being a writer.

The photo shows Temi (far left) with friends at the sixth form barbecue in 2011. Look out for our interview with Temi in the next e-news.

Award for OE John Meeus

OE John Meeus (1941-52) has received quite an unusual award for a British subject. John has recently retired after spending 18 years in the Belgium Diplomatic Service as a Hon Consul to the Belgium ambassador in London for the north West of England, Wales & Isle of Man. John found this a most interesting and rewarding part-time occupation and a total change of direction from the few decades he spent in the construction industry in the UK and

abroad.

John was awarded a Chevalier De L’Ordre De Leopold by his Majesty King Philippe for services rendered as a Consul. He is very proud and honoured to have received the award.

Annual Careers Convention

Our annual Careers Convention took place last night, giving our students the opportunity to learn about a wide range of career opportunities and professions from experts in the field. Our guests comprised an impressive number of OEs at various points in their careers, a pleasing number of highly supportive parents and various other institutions invited to take part in order to ensure that all areas were well covered. Thank you to all OEs who generously gave their time and expertise to further the knowledge and understanding of our pupils.

If you would like to help with careers in the future, please let us know by writing to development@emanuel.org.uk

Emanuel News Bulletin

Check out the latest edition of the Emanuel News Bulletin wholly produced by the Junior Media Club. The stories covered in this instalment are the recent St. Cecilia's Concert, Trinity School Book Awards, House Film Competition and Science Week. Click here or on the image to see the video.

Archives Online

The Archives Online is a treasure trove of Emanuel publications, concert, drama, musicals, speech day and sports programmes, The Portcullis, newspaper clippings and photographs. With a fully searchable database, it’s easy to find what you are interested in from your time at Emanuel.

Please use the following details to access the Archive:

User name – genguest

Password – genguest

Please note that we do not have individual access details any more.

If you can’t find what you are looking for, please contact our Archivist, Tony Jones.

Obituaries

We are sorry to announce the death of Michael Thomas Flynn (OE1950-57). Michael's obituary can be read here.

We announced the death of Ian Dorrn (OE1948-55) in our January e-news. Ian's full obituary will be published in this year's edition of The Rose and Portcullis magazine.

Old Emanuel Luncheon Club

The Old Emanuel Luncheon Club, chaired this year by Richard Oakley, held its Spring Lunch at the Union Jack Club on Monday 11 March. We expected 40 - and 39 made it despite the challenges getting in to Waterloo and London Bridge that day! This number included a fair sprinkling of new faces encouraged, we hope, by what they have read on these pages.

We started with a moment to remember our dear friend Ian Dorrn, almost ever-present at the lunch in recent years, and who sadly passed away in January. That silence

contrasted nicely with what followed - a constant hubbub of animated conversation throughout the room, most likely focussed more on re-running happy (and even not so happy) events from the past than predicting what might have been taken place a short walk away in Westminster that very day! A good meal, great fun and fading memories rekindled.

If you have not been to a Luncheon Club, you are missing out. Do join us soon. The next lunch will be at The Hove Club – yes, it is in Hove - on Monday 10 June. Contact Stuart Cameron-Waller on

stuart@cwt2001.com or 01323 894270 for full details.

Stuart Cameron-Waller

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