A.O.S.A. 2006 ANNUAL REPORT - NEWS OF OLD SCHOLARS

BEVAN PUMPHREY (1921-26) was a remarkable old scholar, he was also the grandson of RALPH DIXON, the school’s second superintendent and great grandson of Ralph’s father GEORGE, our founding head. Bevan’s mother was born in the Nutshell. Through the marriage of his sister, Ruth, a real character in Sunday Morning Meeting when I was in the 3rd and 4th form (GJ), Bevan became the step uncle to MARTYN GAUDIE (1935-38). Bevan was a dayboy during his time at Ayton. He went on to spend two years at Leighton Park, but, because of his family’s strong Ayton connection, Bevan always had a particular affinity with the school and the village. Some years ago he sent me the following article, entitled, The Horizon Called Death…………. "Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, KCMG, FRCS, Fellow of the College of American Surgeons, Master Mariner (who came from Parkgate on the Wirral) was tutored in surgery at The London Hospital by the famous surgeon Sir Frederick Treves.

Grenfell regarded alcohol as one of the great evils of mankind, and took his boat among the fisherman to do what he could to save them from the liquor ships which plied their harmful trade among them. Hearing of the plight of Devon and Cornish fisherman who, with their families, had crossed the Atlantic in their small boats for the beautiful grounds of North Newfoundland and Labrador and had settled on those barren coasts, to a navigator the second most dangerous in the world, Grenfell went out to help. He found a totally neglected people (then under British, not Canadian rule) without any medical care, schools or orphanages. He gave forty years of his life to establishing a hospital and orphanage at St. Anthony, North Newfoundland and a chain of Nursing Stations in Southern Labrador. Grenfell of Labrador, 'The Labrador Doctor' as he became known, concludes his book “Forty years for Labrador” as follows:- 'As a surgeon, I have learned long ago that I must not wait to understand the way things work before I use my skill to save life. So I am content to leave many problems until I have passed over the bar, knowing that it is to God alone that we stand, whether it is here or beyond the horizon called death.'

In my long life (Bevan said,) I have, twice, been close to that horizon.

'The first time was in 1933, when I was one of six people staying at the Victoria Falls Hotel, then in Southern Rhodesia, (very remote in those days. I reached it travelling with some railway engineers on a goods train from Salisbury, a distance of 275 miles) who took advantage of an offer by the hotel to take them in its motor launch one mile up river to Monkey Island - famous for its monkeys - where we were to have lunch. We kept well inshore to avoid the current of the mighty Zambezi. Sometimes I saw what I thought was a rock, but it submerged and I knew it was a crocodile. On the return, it became evident that the mechanic piloting the launch had had too much to drink. On his first attempt to get alongside the jetty, he was too close and bounced off it. On his second attempt he was too far away and failed to catch the ropes thrown to him. His third circuit took him far enough out into the river for me to feel its surge gripping the launch as it began drifting towards the 400ft deep, narrow chasm into which the mighty Zambezi poured - the Victoria Falls. They were awesome in their sound and splendour, sending their spray 1,000 ft high, Mosi-y-Tunja”, “The Smoke that Sounds”, the locals called it. We could well have been looking beyond the ‘horizon called death’, for at that moment, the launches engines stopped. Desperately, the mechanic, sobered by the crisis, tried to start it, Twice it did so and stopped, but at the third attempt it kept running long enough to return to the hotel…..

The second time was at 6.00 am on 9th December 1997, I was approaching Teesside Airport for the 7.30 am flight to London; mine one of five cars to leave the road on a stretch of black ice. Was it kind nature which caused a momentary blackout? I came to, below road level, facing the way I had come, embedded in a hedge which had been strengthened by long shafts of wood. Three of these had come through my windscreen. The right hand one had passed close enough to my side to crack a rib. The centre one prodded me in the stomach sufficiently hard to cause slight internal bleeding. The left hand one pinned me to my seat by my overcoat. Had either of these shafts varied slightly in either direction, I would have passed beyond the horizon called death.”

On the 9th May, 2005, Bevan finally passed beyond the horizon called death, he was 93 years of age.

The news of this sad event and a lovely tribute to Bevan came from MARTYN GAUDIE (our President Elect) himself…“Maybe this is the end of an era, Ayton, the Dixon family. Jacqueline Pumphrey phoned early Sunday am to pass on the sad news that Bevan had slipped peacefully away after great frailty since Christmas and a brief stay in hospital. He was 93 on the 26th April, living a life full of purpose and adventure with care and consideration for so many. He gave friendship to those needing it and service in many spheres, in particular his devotion to Rotary, in the North East, Sussex, Northern Ireland and elsewhere, He continued to lay sound foundations as his forebears had done.”

DICK DENNIS (1944-52) had an e-mail during 2005 from MICHAEL NEWTON in Australia, at school from 1955-56 …. “I am trying to gather information about my father's family. I believe that my father and his older brother were both pupils at Ayton School. I was briefly a pupil at Ayton nearly fifty years ago, and I know for a fact that my uncle was at Ayton as I recall him being commemorated on one of the memorial benches in the Meeting House. His name was KENNETH McINTOSH NEWTON (1924-28), he was in RAF Bomber Command during the war. He was killed on the night of the 7-8th September 1941. I believe that my father was at Ayton at the same time as my uncle, his name was CHARLES SINCLAIR NEWTON (1924-27), he died in 1969. In one of the photos and one of the annual magazines on your website I noticed the name ERIC NEWTON (1924-29). I know that my father had a cousin with that or a similar name. I believe he was in Aircraft Crash Investigation. Would it be possible to find out if Eric Newton was my Father's cousin? I would also appreciate any details from photos etc which you may hold in your memorabilia.” Dick was able to confirm for Michael that his father had, indeed been a pupil at the school.

After considerable lack of success at trying to make contact with Michael by e-mail in Jan 06, and after Dick sent me the phone number for Eric Newton, I decided to turn things on their head and to try to make contact with Eric first. In this I was much more successful. At 90+, Eric says both he and his brother Donald (presumably the CHARLES MCDONALD NEWTON - 1924-28 - as written down in Chris Scaife’s Ayton School Index) are both fit and well, I must admit he sounded remarkable and it was a privilege to talk to him. ! Although slightly disappointed that I had not rung to tell him he had won £10,000, Eric was able to confirm that he is the first cousin of both Kenneth MacIntosh and Charles Sinclair Newton and said that he would be more than happy to talk to Michael about family matters. Finally, I found a way to send off an e-mail to Australia with the above news, which was not returned by the server as being incorrect, so we will just have to wait and see what happens next!

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