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A.O.S.A. 2002 ANNUAL REPORT |
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[Page two]
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Too late to appear with the announcement in the 2001 magazine, DOUGLAS HORNE (1930-34), sent me an article from the Evening Gazette entitled, ‘A Life that Spanned the Globe’, a tribute to his late wife Freda and which gave interesting details of her family’s connections with Sydney Harbour Bridge. …“Mrs. Horne was the elder daughter of the late Alfred Martin, who was the assistant director of construction for Dorman Long and Co Ltd., the company which built the bridge. At the age of 13, she was chosen to present a bouquet of flowers at the official opening of the bridge on 19th March, 1932, to the wife of the premier of New South Wales. In 1982 she returned to Australia, with her husband Douglas, for the bridge’s 50th celebrations.” DOROTHY NEWBY (DANBY 1934-39) has enjoyed another very busy year. While she was in Telford for one night last February, she met ELEANOR HONE (JACKSON 1927-35) and her husband and son for lunch. Dorothy also sent Eleanor and ANNE CHETWYND STAPLETON (PEASE 1939-40) cards signed by their contemporaries from Ayton during the June reunion. In her reply, Eleanor asked if anyone has news of BESSIE HILDON (HILTON 1928-36) and KATHLEEN WILSON (FALL 1929-34) Dorothy was in Telford “for a big family get-together for my daughter Annette’s fiftieth birthday, combined with a ‘farewell to England,’ as she is now living in Spain. We had a meal at her home followed by a disco where there were 80 people present.” Dorothy was very disappointed that owing to the illness of the friend who usually accompanies her, she had to cancel her trip to the Edinburgh Festival and was not able to meet GEORGE (1937-38) and Blossom SANGER for the second year in a row. I will keep my fingers crossed, Dorothy, that all goes well for this August! In early July, Dorothy N rang her friend DOROTHY RUDD (LISTER 1929-34) whose husband reads the magazine to her and also does all the cooking and shopping. Their news was that “they are keeping on their feet!” They had been visited by ELEANOR HORNE (RICHARDSON 1930-33) who had stayed with them for a week. In December, Dorothy sent me details of a ‘flyer’ she had received from PHYL EVETTS (DOBSON 1938-40). The flyer gave details of a superb hard backed book – ‘Leonard Evetts – Master Designer’, which described the life’s work of her late husband Leon, “a creator of stained glass windows, calligrapher, painter, author and teacher, historian and conservationist, but above all, designer.” It will appeal to all who love modern church stained glass windows. Computerwise this has also been a busy year for Dorothy, who signed on for a CLAIT course at her local college in Sunderland in February; although the course was due to finish in June, Dorothy was very busy in December sending e-mails to Dick Dennis and me from the college, so I presume that when the first one finished she had signed on for yet another course. You’ll have to give in gracefully and buy yourself a computer, Dorothy. One of Dorothy’s granddaughters had flown to Pakistan on 10th September to make a TV programme about education in the country, but following the awful events of the 11th found herself stranded as there were no flights between Pakistan and Britain for a week. As Dorothy wrote, in early December, her granddaughter had gone to Jamaica to make a similar programme. Dorothy sent me details of a mini reunion held in November at MARGARET RAMSDALE’S (WAITES 1936-38)… “those present were ALAN NOBLE (1936-40) and his wife, SHEILA (DENT 1940-46) and George HOWD and Margaret’s brother, Eric and his wife. Eric is not an old scholar, but he and George Howd went to the same school in Middlesbrough;” another of those amazing ‘small world’ coincidences – Ed. On 11th January 2002, I had a phonecall from Alan Noble (with Margaret in the background) who rang to ask if it was too late to send me a photo of this little get-together in November. As I type, Alan, I am looking forward to receiving it. Alan also told me that Margaret reached the big 80 in December, and the celebrations for this auspicious event were held at her daughter’s home at St. Catherine’s Point in the Isle of Wight. Not long after this phonecall I received a piece of Margaret’s birthday cake, and very nice it was, too. Thank you very much for sending it. As Alan lives in Esher and Margaret in Farnham, not far from one another, it would seem that they are able to meet up on a regular basis.
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