Soham Grammarians - What was new on our website in 2004?

For other years please return to the foot of the current What's New page
please note that as this website grows some older page navigations may now be obsolete

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Dec 2004

See above for new listings - all in touch and those out of touch (can you help us with up to date information on the OOTs?). These complement the existing all on email list.

• Form 1S photo believed taken in the Summer of 1955 - please add first names and see if you agree with the identifications - thank you to David Cross (54) - see Scrapbook

• Cricket 1st XI 1971 - David Clark (69) has identified most - can you complete/check the names? He has also had a go at the Football 1st XI 69-70. However Dudley Walton (63), among others, queries the season "There was a 69/70 photo taken - I was in that team - trouble was someone made a mess of the arrangements and it was never printed ... you will see that some of the team who played with me are in the 71 photo - this means that it must be even later. Perhaps it's a 2nd XI photo from 71 or 72?" - see via Sport

• Professor Andrew Nunn (55) is added to the Pages on/by SGs

• a new search facility for this website, using FreeFind™ - this also can provide a Site Map - click Search in the menu

• Form 3B March 1953 - John Favell (50) adds a lot of names - please add first names and fill in the few gaps - see Scrapbook

• Making contact:
  
  Barry Bass (54) from Ely
  Michael Butcher (58) from Linton
  Michael Delanoy (48), Mepal: Michael and his wife Lorna were awarded MBEs in the New Year Honours 1999 for services to the Farmland Museum, Denny Abbey
  Jeff Hollands (54), from Germany
  Maurie Wilmore ('50' - arrived during 1953 in 3rd form), from Australia

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists:
  1954: Charles Smith (49)
  1960: Michael Butcher (58)
  1965: Michael Butcher (58)

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Nov 2004

• RAT's widow 'Tref' Taylor has died: the funeral is at 2.15pm on 10th November at Cambridge Crematorium. Please contact the editor if you wish to write to the family.

• 'Ralph' Czumaj (54), now living in Warsaw provides a photo of Form 1T from 1954 - please add/check names: David Cross (54), Alan Frost (54) and Martin Shalders (54) already have - see Scrapbook

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists:
  1954: Piet Walton-Knight (52)
  1960: Peter Smith (59)
  1965: Peter Smith (59)
  1972: Tim Sullivan (69)

• Making contact:
  Peter Smith (59)
  Tim Sullivan (69)

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Oct 2004

• Peter Bedford (34-41) died on 25th October after over 12 weeks in hospital. His funeral is at Soham Parish Church at 1pm on Nov 1st. Our condolences go to Yvonne and their family.

• Derek Murton (53) has provided a sequence of documents relating to admission to SGS in 1953, including the School Rules and a Clothing List, prompting a new section on School Admin - see History > History2 > School Admin

• Chris Scurrah, webmaster for Soham Village College, has found two sports photos - the 1969-70? Football 1st XI and the 1971 Cricket 1st XI ... but they have no names or results on them ... can you help? : David Cross (54) has provided the Cricket 2nd XI 1958 and the U14s 1st XI 1957 - see via School Lists, or History > History2 > Archive

• Clive Bray (50) has provided a photo of Form 3B in March 1950 - names please - see Scrapbook or 1950 entry

• Bookings for the 9 October reunion were up on last year - 118 - see list via Reunions page.
  As well as Gordon Hemmings and Peter Askem, former members of staff Leon Kitchen, Ted Quinn, and Rex Waller were present (some others, we know, were attending the wedding of Peter Scott's son at Soham Parish Church and the reception in Ely - our best wishes to all) - see Reunions for an early photo report

• For the Act of Dedication for the Edward Armitage Memorial Tree which took place just before the reunion, see via In Memoriam or via History > Mr E Armitage > Memorial Tree

• Mr Riley's In Memoriam page updated with his headstone - see via In Memoriam [7 Feb 2005: this has been removed pending a new image]

• Making contact:
  Chris Mason (68)
  Anthony Nix (65)

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists:
  1935: George Dann (33)
  1946: Ivor Wright (43)
  1952: Clive Bray (50)
  1960: Michael Baldwin (58), Richard Dean (56)
  1970: Simon Thornhill (65)
  1972: Simon Thornhill (65)

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Sep 2004

• Michael J Ades BMus (Nottingham) taught Music at SGS 1960-64.
  Daily Telegraph 7 Sep 2004: Peacefully at the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, on 31st August 2004 aged 72 years. A gentle friend very much missed. Funeral service at Surrey & Sussex Crematorium, Worth on Friday 10th September at 2.15 p.m. No flowers by request, but donations, if desired, for Shoreham Oratorio Choir (charity no 1042010) may be sent to Bowley Funeral Service, 30 Keymer Road, Hassocks, West Sussex BN6 8AN.Tel 01273 841711.
  Thanks to Stephen Martin for spotting this.

• Mrs May Armitage has let us know that all being well she will be delighted to attend the dedication of a tree to the memory of Edward Armitage, just before the Dinner, at 6pm sharp. The dedication will be conducted by Rev Valerie Kilner, of Ely Parish Church, who took Edward Armitage's funeral service in 2001. Peter Askem, who taught many of us Art, will also take part.

• 2004 reunion information was posted to those not on email on Friday 27 August and the link to the booking form was sent by email on Saturday 28 August.
  
  A new database has been created with 546 names, as follows, as at 7 Sep 2004:
  
  433 we should be able to contact (195 of whom are on email - and of those 91 who need to also provide a postal address/tel no.). Some of the postal people's addresses are still slightly suspect.
  55 'untraced' - for whom the address cannot be confirmed by Internet search (BT and/or 192.com databases)
  58 we are told have died
  
  Don't be surprised if you hear from us as we continue to check. Thank you to all who have already responded to our requests for information ... and to those who are just about to!
  
  In the next couple of weeks a list of the names and years (there are 17 for whom the start year is unknown) will be added to the website. Postal addresses, email addresses, tel nos. will NOT be shown. We hope that the listings will assist tracking down those we are out of touch with, but above all will enable contacts. And there's always Friends Reunited.

• Steve Coxhead, David Hazelgrove, Martin Herrema - please email web@sohamgrammar.org.uk so that we can update your email address

• There is some uncertainty about the contact details for the following - if you are currently in touch with any of them please contact Frank Haslam (see Contact Us): JR Adkins (Staff), H Abbott, P Allen, JS Ambrose, I Aplin, PJ Blanchflower, AJ Brennan, A Bullock, K Burlingham, AF Butler, BE Cook, RE Daisley, A Dench, J Diver, R Dunning (?Staff), RM Durrant, RW Else, J Fellows, CJ Fleet, Tony Forby, A Fordham, CA Fordham, R Fuller, MJ Herrema, RM Hill, G Hitch, MJ Holliday, IW Howlett, GA Jackson, P Johnson, J Kidman, RS Kurrie, BR Lowe, P Ludson, B Mader, VW Newell, AW Parish, J Patham, RJ Peachey, J Peacock, RG Sallis, PD South, R Squire, DS Sykes, C Talbot, HJ Unwin.

• Contacting about the reunion sadly also brings news of those who have died:
  L Read (4?) - 10 Nov 2001
  John FW Royston (47) - 2 April 2004
  Tony Yarrow (47) - 27 Dec 2003

• Making contact:
  Ian Chambers (then Murfitt, 71)
  Colin Cornwell (45)
  Roger Dewsbury (53)
  Steve Herod (57)
  John Hill (48)
  Peter Tharby (53)
  'Ralph' Czumaj (54), now living in Poland
  Trevor Lee (54)
  Edward Stanley (49)

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists:
  1949: John Hill (48)
  1954: John Firby (49)
  1972: Craig Fuller (71), Ian Chambers (then Murfitt, 71)

• Spotted back in June by Richard Doe (55) in his local paper, a photo from 1972, captioned 'Tea time: Over 60s party at Soham Grammar School 1972'. We asked who are they? Craig Fuller says they are Philip Taylor and Nigel Parker

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Aug 2004

• Sue Riley, one of Mr Riley's daughters, recalls a couple of memories of her father - see Riley in In Memoriam

• Richard Crofts (63) reports the death in 2002 of Norman Webb (presumably NE Webb, started Sep 40) - see In Memoriam.

• Mrs Anne Jarman, one of Mr CJ Ford's daughters, has provided some photos of: CJF in a Soham Players' production of Pygmalion (see Mr Ford in In Memoriam); Mr Platt & staff (see History >1916-39); Beechurst House in the time of the Morbey family (see Scrapbook).

• Tim Griffiths (57) makes contact

• Honours - if you know of someone who was at Soham Grammar School - boy or staff - who received an academic or national award (e.g. OBE) please contact the editor, preferably with some means of confirmation (e.g. press cutting, obituary, link for the London Gazette or equivalent) - see School Lists.

• 1944-1949 starters updated via Alan Taylor

• Governors of the School - a listing begun - see School Lists

• Some amusing late 1920s recollections - see Scrapbook

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists:
  1956: Alan Christie (54), Keith Fletcher (54)
  1960: Tim Griffiths (57)

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July 2004

• Graham Freestone, son of the late Vernon Freestone, spotted his father's name on the 1935 Prizegiving programme (see Scrapbook) and has added him to our In Memoriam page

• David Reader (51) reports the death in June of Gerald Arthur Tinker Wells (44), aged 71. He lived in Soham and was the father of Kevin and grandfather of Holly Wells - see Scrapbook > 1948 photo

• Soham Roots have provided a Prizegiving Programme, probably 1935 - lots of names! - see Scrapbook

• Robert Hinze (52) has supplied the correct name of the member of staff mis-identified as Mr Joiner next to 'Satch' Foster on 4/10 of the 1956 photo - see School Lists > 1956

• Robert has also supplied some images of:
  the 1955 performance of The Yeomen of the Guard
  the 1955 Junior School performance of The Old Bull
  the 1957 performance of The Pirates of Penzance
  the 1958 performance of The Gondoliers
  the 1959 performance of The Bartered Bride
  - see History > Productions
  
  He has also provided a photo of Freddie Hobbs, School Caretaker in the late 50s to which Neil Holmes (52) has added some notes (see Scrapbook > Mr Hobbs & Mr Phelps), and of the flooding in 1958, to which images from the 1958 Summer SG have been added .. were you involved? - see Scrapbook > Floods
  
  And he provides two more photos for those in Form 3B 1954/55 - Form 1B 1952/53 and Form 4B 1955/56 which he and Neil Holmes have been busy naming: there is also UVI Science 1958/59 - see via School Lists > Years > 1952

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists:
  1954: Robert Hinze (52), Piet Walton-Knight (52)
  1956: Neil Holmes (52), Piet Walton-Knight (52)
  1965: Anthony Bell (64)
  1970: Mike Brogan (63)

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June 2004

• Spotted by Richard Doe (55) in his local paper, a photo from 1972, captioned 'Tea time: Over 60s party at Soham Grammar School 1972'. We asked who are they? See Sep 2004 above

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists :
  1937: George Dann (33)

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May 2004

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists :
  1946: Ed Reed (67)
  1970: Colin Dickens (66)

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April 2004

• 10th April 2004 sees the 10,000th visit to our website - thank you all for your support. Please have another look for material we can use, and make sure everyone you know in connection with SGS is aware of these pages.

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists :
  1946: Peter Roe (46)

• Professor Andrew Nunn (55) added to those in email contact

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March 2004

• Sorry to be off-line for a while - had to reinstall everything on the computer!

• R Vincent Martin (39) provides a photo of the 1944 Inter Schools Sports (Fenland Counties) team. Can you add names? - see History > Archive > Sport photos

• Stephen Martin (62) has provided articles relating to the early history of the school - see Scrapbook

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists :
  1935: R Vincent Martin (39), Wilkes Walton (36)
  1937: R Vincent Martin (39)

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February 2004

• The name John W R Taylor, for long the editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft, who died in 1999 will be familiar to anyone interested in aviation. For an extensive account of his distinguished career and some of his time at Soham, the latter providing a flavour of the late 1930s and early years of WW2, see via In Memoriam

• Mr Riley's page updated with a wartime letter from him to the Scouts - see via In Memoriam or History > Wartime News

• Wartime headmaster Mr Stanley Stubbs' page updated - see via History

• Form Lists (Salvete) for 1937, 1938, 1939 and 1940, 1943 added.
  1941, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946 updated - see School Lists > Years Index

• Wilkes Walton (36) has provided a copy of the School Prospectus from the early 1930s - see Scrapbook

• Simon Taylor (70) says "I've been in the music business all my working life and have just opened up a second branch of my musical instrument shop, Ritz Music, literally round the corner from where you [the Editor] live in Leatherhead!" - see Pages by/on SGs

• Norman Sherrington, Latin 1960-68 - there is now a page on him, and we hope to hear more from him - see School Lists > Staff > Staff who left before 1972 for the link, or do a search on Sherrington

• On trial - see top of page - page monitoring facility which sends you an email if there is something new on our website reported on this page.

• "Soham school 'one of the best' - Ofsted's annual report puts Soham Village College in Cambridgeshire among the top 14% visited in 2002-03". Congratulations to Howard Gilbert and the SVC team - see BBC News and Google News

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January 2004

• James Faircliffe names those in an early Boarding House group photo ?1948. Can anyone add missing first names? - see History > Boarding House

• Mr Jack Symmons, History 1944-48, recalls his time at Soham in his first teaching post - see School List > Staff

• Les Reed died last Sunday (11 Jan 2003) after a long illness. Ed Reed reckons he would have been a 1941 or 1942 entry as he is on the 1946 and 1949 photographs. After leaving SGS he went to Kings College London to study Engineering and worked for Shell for a number of years. Eventually he ran his own company which continues to be run by his family. If you have any recollections of Les, especially any photos of him at school, please contact the Editor.

• AJ "Bill" Vince (32) passed away peacefully on January 2nd 2004 in the Princess of  Wales Hospital, Ely, aged 83 and was buried on Friday Jan 16th. Bill attended  last year's reunion but was forced to leave early when taken ill. A "FAITHFUL STALWART" to the end!  If you have any recollections of Bill, especially any photos of him at school, please contact the Editor. His daughter Monica has spotted him on the 1935 school photo - see In Memoriam.

• Brian Bumpsteed or Bumpstead? Colin Thornhill (40) has established from the late Brian's sister that in fact the Bumpsteed spelling, as in school records, is the correct one.

• Peter Bedford (34) has donated a School Photo which he believes is 1935 - see School List

• Neil Holmes (52) recalls his friend David Leland (52) - actor, writer and film director (The Land Girls, Mona Lisa etc.) - see Pages by/on SGs.

• School Photo updaters this month - see School Lists :
  1937: Wilkes Walton (36)
  1946: Stan Harley (53)
  1954: Barry Claxton (49), Neil Holmes (52)
  1960: Neil Holmes (52)

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