Friends,

We are all most thankful to be here today. I would myself like to be thankful to all those who have planted seeds in my life over the years. You will no doubt say ‘you’d expect a farmer to start like this, what on earth are we in for? Many of the seeds I think of were planted at Ayton at school here. It was at OS last year that the majority of you appointed me as your President Elect even though I wasn’t even present. I do greatly appreciate this great honour and the confidence you place in me. Sadly I wasn’t able to listen to Maeve’s address last year but later discovered how she had expressed her grateful thanks for all that Ayton had meant to her. I trust I am continuing now in exactly the same spirit as Maeve expressed in her address.

I realize that with the exception of some 25 years, my life has been closely associated with Ayton. I arrived as a ten year old just after Easter 1935 having sat an entrance exam in the old Nissan hut where the sports hall was eventually built. I never enjoyed classes in those Nissan huts, Aural Culture and Art subjects in which I didn’t excel. Our family usually attended meeting each Sunday so it was almost like coming home to find myself at the ‘Friends’ the name the village folk gave the school. I spent a term in the 1st form and very good it was to have a summer term in which to settle in at Ayton. My first experience at public speaking took place on General Meeting day. I had to recite two verses of a poem about a Rook as I stood up at the front of the Meeting house, I’m sure Evelyn N. was entirely to blame for such a frightening experience. Evelyn left in the July to return as Headmistress on the retirement of Miss Wells July 38 .The other major shock in my first term, my joined up writing had to return to script, my writing has never ever recovered! New friends were being made all was well.

The new school year introduced me to the germination of the Broad Bean seed by who other than a thick set gentleman in plus fours? Moisture, air, warmth and later light were needed and we produced growth. May be it was this enthusiasm that determined that I should spend all of fifty years in Agriculture. I could easily spend the next few minutes recalling experiences in these fields but we also enjoyed playground football and roller skating in every spare moment so sport soon played an important part in our lives too. However it was the happy relationships which developed between pals and between pupils and staff which I remember Ayton for in those early years. We learned without realising it about respect, integrity and friendship. So I trust I can show how these qualities enabled me to thrive in my Agriculture, Sport and all aspects of life At this point I made a friend for life. I had my first experience of a hospital visit; Roy George was recovering after a burst appendix, quite a miracle in those days without antibiotics. His parents stayed with mine having travelled up from the south and our families became good friends.

Teachers had to struggle to share their gifts with me in Maths, Science, French and Handicrafts but they did succeed and I received a fine grounding, English teaching was good too but my impudence caused considerable disruption in the class, I hope other folks’ learning didn’t suffer as mine did! There was a certain amount of bullying, perhaps this too was part of our growing up. Ayton welcomed refugees from Germany in the thirties, entertained the Basque children living at Hutton Hall, refugees from northern Spain, and every summer term we had a visit from those in the Blind school at Middlesbrough. We were learning young that there were many not as fortunate as ourselves. Day pupils miss so much of life compared with a boarder; however I joined in a great cycling trip one Easter holiday to the Solway, Moffat, Jedbrough, Hexham and home in five days of snow rain wind and sun, teaching time isn’t all in the classroom! One brave lady Marjorie Wright attempted to teach the violin to a number of us in one class. In time I progressed to the orchestra in hymn singing, sitting next to Leonard S. playing the Viola. After the first hymn he leant over to me, “Martyn keep going but just concentrate on the first note in each bar and come in with that note.”

Though I left Ayton at thirteen my connections didn’t cease. Philip Wragge went ahead of me to Bootham and John Dobbing, Brian Stapleton, John Tillott, Alan Noble and Oliver Carr soon followed for in my day there were no A levels at Ayton. I returned whenever possible to Ayton for OS football and Cricket and even playing hockey against a team including Evelyn.

I’d risen to the second XI football team at Bootham when we were evacuated to Ampleforth in 1940 and were coming to play against Ayton. Fearing the worst, never having had a fixture against Ayton I was dropped and a first XI lad put in my place. Perhaps it is good to have to face up to great disappointment early in life, however I managed to get the job as linesman and found my way on to the bus. The Ayton school soccer team was usually strengthened by including John Reader and Clifford Morgan in the team for OS matches. The mud and rigg and furrow added to the challenge of playing on top field and I never remember passing John. On one occasion travelling on the only piece of grass down the right wing I centred and of course John’s head rose above all others producing a corner. On the games field the friendship and rivalry between friend and foe is something to be treasured.

On my eighteenth birthday I had to register and did so as a Conscientious Objector. It could well have meant a term of imprisonment at least. However I was instructed to complete my Higher Certificate studies and expect to hear more in early September. Even just after Dunkirk Churchill had made it plain in Parliament that the reason for our fight for freedom was in fact to enable each of us to be able to follow what we believed, some challenge! At the end of the school year it so happened that I was invited to holiday on a farm in Leicestershire and so on returning home I immediately offered my services to a farmer, these were accepted and I was called in October to a Tribunal in Newcastle. Ayton support again, for Herbert Dobbing who had himself spent three years behind bars 1914/18 generously offered to accompany me. The Tribunal gave me Land Work till further notice. On appeal to another tribunal in York the instruction was widened to include Ambulance work or even teaching, I am proud to be British! I continued to work on farms in Yorkshire and Northumberland before studying at University. I was due to be released from my national service in November 47 but as I had gained entrance to University I was given a class B release enabling me to start studying in July 47 and commence the full course in October 47, what a wonderful opportunity.