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AOSA ANNUAL REPORT 1999 |
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This Magazine Contents
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Madam Chairman, Old Scholars,
Some twenty months ago when I was asked if I would agree to be nominated as President, I had no idea that, within a matter of months, our School would close. But, sadly, it did. Now, in the 110th year of our Association and the first complete one without the School, I stand before you, proud to be your President and to wear this venerable badge of office. It is the symbol of the continuity of our Association. It has graced the chests of my illustrious predecessors, and may it be worn by many of my successors in the future; for I firmly believe that, school or no school, our Association must be supported for as long as it still has members. I say this because I know I am not alone in feeling that the first objective of our constitution is now of even greater importance: that of “affording opportunities to our members for reunions and the continuation of friendships formed at Ayton. In place of the second objective that has lapsed now that we no longer have a school to support, I should like to offer an alternative. We have all benefited from the kind of education we received here at Ayton, which was based on a Quaker-Christian ethos with the accent on the development of the individual. Could we not make it an objective to extol those educational qualities, as opportunity permits, amongst our friends and others we meet and point out that there are still three Friends’ Schools in the North - Ackworth, Bootham and The Mount - to which they could send their children?
And now, perhaps I might be allowed that prerogative of all Presidents, a few reminiscences. There will not be many because those vintage years in which I shared, in 3A and Form IV from 1936-38, have already produced five Presidents! Add what they said to the reminiscences of another six Presidents amongst my contemporaries in Forms above and below, it does not leave much for me to say that is new. I turned to my schoolboy diaries for help but entries in 1936 were scant. For example: Friday, September 11th “Went to Ayton School”. The following week, one entry: “Got boot cleaning apparatus 1/-.” The week after, three entries: Thursday 24th, “Went for a long walk - 9 miles.” Saturday 26th, “Lent 2d. Got it back in stamps,” and written down the side of the page “Had an office (lavs)”. Hardly the material one looks for if writing a biography! However, I clearly remember my Father driving me to Ayton for the first time; up the Coach Road and stopping under the clock. For an account of what happened next, I would like to read a brief extract from a contribution I made to the Old Scholars' Annual Report of 1959 concerning the President of that year. “I remember being ushered into the Headmaster’s study and gravely shaking hands with a tall, elderly gentleman, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, who was dressed in a thick tweed suit, light brown in colour with a pronounced herringbone pattern. Since the eyes are more receptive than the ears, I cannot recall the questions I was asked, for I was busy recording visual impressions. A nervous gesture which was later to become very familiar was the plucking of a loose fold of skin beneath his chin. A mannerism which I later learned had given rise to a nickname.” |
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Perhaps we could even find some way of providing bursaries at these schools to
assist some of the parents, from our Association funds; from Old Scholars who
wish to express their gratitude for the benefits they received at Ayton; and
what better use for surplus funds from the sale of the School, should there be
any? Who better to recommend such bursaries than old Scholars from Ayton? And
how better to keep alive the Spirit of Ayton?