A.O.S.A. 2000 ANNUAL REPORT 2000 NEWS OF OLD SCHOLARS

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Thanks to Clifford Morgan, Dick Dennis, Biddy Stainsby, Wendy Smith, Joe Tillott, Dorothy Newby, Dorothy Dawson, Mary Kidd, Arthur Grainge; the District Secretaries and all OS who sent in news for the Annual Report for the year 2000. I am very grateful to you all - please carry on with the good work. News deadline for the 2001 Annual Report Christmas 2000 PLEASE - Gill Jackson. Reporters: District 13 Arthur Grainge; all other news Gill Jackson

ROBBIE RIDDLE (1919-23) who, in January last year, told me such an interesting story about boys and girls 'walking round' after Sunday Morning Meeting, has backed this up with a lovely sepia photograph from his own archives, which he is loaning us to publish in this Annual Report. I am most grateful to him.

COLIN McLAURIN-JONES (1921-25) was the first old scholar to write and tell me that the “man in the boat” on our 1999 cover photo was FRANK RIVERS ARUNDEL (1895-1913), Ayton's third Headmaster with his wife Alice and their children, one of whom was Ruth, always sickly, and who died young, after whom the Ruth Arundel Music Prize was named. Colin much enjoyed Bevan Pumphrey’s article on “Ayton in the 1920s” and is particularly pleased to note that there is still a group of 90 plus year olds from Rawdon and later Ayton days, going strong and he goes on to say: “I particularly remember ANTON JOHN CADMAN. When we went to Rawdon we met up with other scholars at Leeds Station ready to catch the train to Apperley Bridge Station, which no longer exists. In our compartment were ANTON, KEN SHAW, NORMAN & EDWARD DALE and me. Anton, being an energetic youth, spent most of the time trying to get on the luggage rack, he succeeded in the end. Happy Days!”

After reading Arthur Grainge's report last year about ERIC CHART (1922-26) who had a chum called JOHN DOUGLASS with a sister JUDITH, I contacted JOHN (1923-29) and sent him the photocopied photos which Eric had sent to Arthur. I was rewarded with a lovely letter almost by return. In it he said: “I had a sly grin to myself when I saw the picture of me wearing short trousers at 12 years of age - you don't see short trousers worn at any age now!” John well remembers some of the people in the photos WINNIE HODGSON, MARIE MOFFAT, PHILIP HESLOP, JUDITH, his sister, ERIC (who he says had ginger hair) JIMMY IRVINE, and SHORGE OHASHI, both these latter John thinks are now dead. John says that he was called Punch at school because he had a sister named Judith! JUDITH BAMBERGER (1923-29) who had a stroke some years ago and is more limited in her movements, lives near Southend. She is still in phone contact with JEAN ALLINSON (LEAKE 1923-29) every Sunday; they have been friends since they started school together 75 years ago. JOAN GATTY (1944-49) is a cousin to John and Judith. JEAN'S sister, VIOLET THOMLINSON (1921-29), sadly died in the spring of 1999, her younger sister WINIFRED LAIDLOW (1929- 35) has a new address in Sunderland. Jean is very sorry that she is no longer able to attend reunions. As I was about to make a start on the news for the year 2000, I received a most welcome letter from ERIC DAWSON (1924-29) who had been delighted with the photo depicting his mother - of girls in the gym, which I had received for Eric from JOE TILLOTT this time last year, and to whom Eric sends his thanks. Eric was at school during the last total eclipse of the sun in 1927: “Although Ayton was well inside the zone of totality, the whole school got up early and was taken by coach a few miles to a place very near the centre line where the view was quite open. We got glimpses of the sun, but there was quite a lot of cloud about and so at the psychological moment it obscured the sun. At the time I didn't expect to see the 1999 one, but I got an excellent view of it on TV from the camera in the aeroplane. It was reported in 1927 that the Astronomer Royal and his party had a very good view of the eclipse at Giggleswick School.” (Which ANTON CADMAN (1921-25) wrote about with such enthusiasm last year). A few months after the 1927 eclipse came the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Captain James Cook, with a chain of beacons being lit from Ayton to Whitby; shortly after this the school saw a play written by the staff and performed by staff and senior pupils, about Cook's childhood in the Ayton area. CLIFFORD WESCHENFELDER (1943-51) sent details of the life of TOM SCARTH (1929-34) which he had received from SONIA WADE (DUNN 1952-58), who had in turn received them from June Adams who had known Tom and worked for him for fifty years. Tom died on September 12th, 1999: “He had a stroke on 1st September which only affected his speech, but four days, later whilst in hospital, suffered a massive brain haemorrhage and went into a coma from which he never recovered. He celebrated his 80th birthday in January and in June he visited Orkney with a nephew, to see where the Scarths settled when they landed from Norway several hundred years ago. Some of them, in the 16th century, sailed down the East coast and founded Scarborough - from these Scarths (or Skarks in those days), Tom is descended. He had always wanted to visit Orkney, so I am pleased he made it. Following that, he did all the combining, although I do think it tired him greatly. It was a job he loved, so I think he died a happy man.”

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