Thanks to Chris Vodden, Dorothy Newby, Walter Wolff, William Pine Norman Graham, Wendy Smith; Dick Dennis for all the forwarded e-mail news, the District Secretaries and all OS who sent in news via any method for the Annual Report 2004. I am very grateful to you all, PLEASE don’t stop sending. News deadline for the 2005 Annual Report, my last one - Christmas 2004, please. - Ed. Reporters: news from District 13 - Chris Vodden; all other news - Gill Jackson.

The CRAKE family story, which first surfaced two years ago when the late Fred Wyatt, son of EMILY CONSTANCE CRAKE (1907), made contact with us, seems set to run and run. DICK DENNIS (1944-52) was e-mailed from Tahiti by a lady with the wonderful name of Cinnamon Crake; I thought she was the daughter of WILLIAM CRAKE (1902-04). She was keen to learn more about the history of her family and was delighted when Dick was able to point her in the direction of past Crake info on our website. Just after I had sent the bulk of the news to Suzi Scaife for proofreading, I received via Dick, this e-mail from Cinnamon.. "I have thought a lot about what I have to contribute to your newsletter. I'm afraid it may not be much but here's what I know; you must be thinking I'm the daughter of William, but I'm not, I'm the granddaughter of William. My Grandfather, William Crake, died when my father - William Crake, Jr. was only 10 years old (or roughly around then). He was married to Peetuarii Hoffman of Tahiti. My father is now 80 and lives in Georgia with his wife, my mother, Charlotte Crake, who is of German descent. My brother is also William Crake, the third, I guess that would make him; he and I were born in New Zealand and my family moved back to California 1979. My Polynesian grandmother died when I was only 5 or 6, but I did get to meet her when she made a trip to New Zealand." ….. “JOHN CRAKE (1902-05), my grandfather’s brother was married to a German woman and lived in Germany. He died in the early 1980s and is survived by his daughter, Claudia Crake who also lives in Germany. He died of pancreatic cancer I believe and he was pretty young, maybe 47? I remember my father speaking of "uncle Emil" EMIL CRAKE (1906-09) to me in New Zealand for some reason I don't think that he was my granddad's brother, but I'll find out.”…I e-mailed Lola Mills in New Zealand who contacted us last year concerning the death of her cousin Fred Wyatt. She is Emil’s daughter, and therefore the second cousin to Cinnamon, and she was able to confirm for me that the three were brothers - Ed.

From Dorothy Napier’s daughter Alison, came this charming letter to District Secretary STEWART BRAMMER (1952-57), following the death of her mother…. “This is to let you know that my mother, DOROTHY NAPIER (CRACKNELL 1921-26) died last May (2nd May 2003). She was born in 1909, and attended Ayton from (I think) the age of 10 or 11 until upper 6th Form. She was a contemporary of EVELYN NICHOLSON. We used, as a family, to visit and stay with “Nick” and MISS ELLINOR, first at their little cottage across the road from the School and later at the bungalow they had built down the lane. My mother had very happy memories of the School and would regale us with stories of swimming in the open-air pool, and not being allowed to use the pool until the copper-beech tree nearby was in leaf. This became a family joke, as none of the rest of us could imagine swimming in such cold water straight from the beck! I wrote to Joyce Spinks at the time of Mum’s death and had a lovely letter in reply. I think Joyce is the only person who remembers her, but perhaps you could ask in your next newsletter? Her maiden name was Cracknell and her home was in Leeds. Thank you for keeping in touch with Mum over the years.” If any of our 20s OS out there do have memories of Dorothy from their days at school, perhaps they would get in touch with me and I can rely the info to her daughter. Thanks - Ed.

Dick and I had an interesting e-mail correspondence last year with a David Bain from New Zealand. He was doing some research on his Family Tree and was looking for any information we could give him on his father WILLIAM (1922-26) and aunts, NELLIE (1922-26) and MARION (1922-24). As a result of their father’s early death in 1921, the family eventually went out to live in New Zealand. Marion married in 1935, she had no family and died in 1970. Nellie, who died in a car crash in 1969, never married, and David’s father, Bill, had two children, David and his sister who between them have nine children. I made contact with JOHN DOUGLASS (1923-28) who remembered William clearly and told me that he was known as ‘Woolly Bain’ at school because of his wiry hair.