|
|
|
|
Steve Le Feuvre
|
| |
Stephen Vibert Le Feuvre
| House: |
Junior/Clive |
| Years: |
Jan 1970 to Dec 1975 |
| |
Very many happy memories of six years spent at "Patch". Lost touch with many of my old friends,
but through the Internet have managed to get back in touch with a few. Through this web site, maybe
I can contact the rest of the A-level year of 1975.
I remember mostly vividly my first day, arriving at the School one
boiling hot afternoon in January 1970.
Steve Le Feuvre - Jan 1970
First day at "Patch"
I was met at the steps of Junior House by Ferdi Keon,
who was to be my Housemaster for the year. My tin trunk was off-loaded from Dad's car, and a
fellow "rabble" was summoned to assist me with lugging my worldly possessions to my dormitory.
My brother, Phil, had left the School in December 1969 after his O-levels, and he had been in
Clive House. So, following the well established traditions, I too was destined to join the house
with the most impractical colour sport shirts imaginable - white!! Oh, but how proud I was to become
to wear the white of Clive over the next six years when representing "the" house.
Fellow rabble and me struggled up the steps with my trunk, proceeded past the Prefect's Common Room
immediately on the right once inside the door, past the table tennis tables and the Prefect's
studies, out through the door at the end of the building, up the path, right turn then up another
set of steps, and left into the dormitory......the Clive/Scott dormitory in Junior House was the
one closest to the Housemaster's house. My bed was about three from the other end of the dorm,
and with great relief we placed my trunk at the end of my bed.
Phil had warned me that Junior House was basically a set of wooden sheds, but only when
I reached my allotted bed did it suddenly dawn on me just how basic the conditions were. I had
spent my last year of primary education (1969) at Nairobi Primary School, being a prefect in charge of
a dormitory of twenty or so ten and eleven year olds, who were only a year or so younger than me.
Prior to that I had spent a couple of years (1967 & 1968) at Nyeri Primary School. Both of those
schools had fantastic boarding facilities compared to what was before me now.
Almost in a daze, I followed instructions from my Prefect, Ajinder Chadha, to go and bid farewell
to my parents, and to return to unpack my trunk. Thank goodness boarding school was not a new
experience for me, because the knowledge that the first exeat was (diliberately set at) a month
away, would have made me beg Mum and Dad to take me home with them had I not been used to this
sort of regime. Afterall, I was a brave man (of 12 years old!!), and tears were only an inner thought or
possibly to be shed in silence under the blankets in the dead of night.
Back in the dormitory, slowly and carefully unpacking my trunk, in a world of my
own and wondering what I'd let myself in for, when I was jolted from my inert state
......"Steve! Fancy seeing you here!"..........a very familiar voice, I thought to myself,
but the setting is wrong. There, sitting on the bed next to me, just what I needed and at exactly
the right time. Beaming from ear to ear, my old pal Narendra Ghadially, a classmate from
Nyeri Primary! (Someone, afterall, was looking out for me from on high). Having not seen each
other for over a year, neither of us knew the other had applied to attend Nairobi School. A
gentlemanly shake of the hands was the accepted form of greeting in those days, even for best
friends both in their "hour of need". Fate (or whatever) had brought us together again, not only
at the same school, but also in the same house, and with beds next to each other in the same dorm.
Maybe this place was not going to be that bad afterall. The next day we were to find that we had
both been put in Form 1A, purely on the basis of our entrance exam results (CPE - Certificate of
Primary Education).
Narendra and I helped each other through those first few weeks, and I am eternally
grateful to him for the support he gave me during that time. Fagging was still "legal" in the
School in 1970, and Narendra and me were "chosen" to fag for the Head of Junior House - Kirit
Shah (Scott 1965-1970) - a thoroughly decent bloke who was fair but firm when dealing with his charges.
Spending a year in Junior House was an excellent way to be introduced to the philosophy and traditions of the school, and as
a "rabble" one was very subservient to all the seniors around you outside of the confines of the distinctive wooden buildings
that were "home" during 1970. Looking back, I have to say that on balance it was a fun year.
The years between 1970 and 1975 were 'action-packed' to say the least............
Steve Le Feuvre - 1975
Prefect in Clive House
In 1976 went to Wye College (London University), and graduated in 1979 with a BSc(Hons) in
Agricultural Economics.
Farmed in Jersey, Channel Islands, until 1985, and since then have been employed in the field of Intellectual
Property. Senior Partner and Managing Director of Lysaght & Co., a Jersey-based firm of Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys that registers Intellectual Property
rights world-wide, but specialising in the "developing" countries of the world.
Married in 1981 to Suzanne (née Le Quesne), and we have two daughters: Joanne (b.1982) and Victoria (b.1987).
I have been attending the Old Cambrian Society (UK) Annual Dinners for several years, and in April 2002 I was
appointed Secretary, replacing Peter Simpson who has served the Society in this capacity for 36 years...... what a hard act to follow!
Steve Le Feuvre speaking at the Old Cambrian Society Dinner
at the Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi on 1st Oct 2004
(Registered 1st Nov 2002 - and last updated 25th Aug 2005)
|
If anyone wishes to contact Steve, please Click Here
to e-mail him
|
| |
