Old Cambrian Society "e-Newsletter"

Old Cambrian Society

e-Newsletter - 31 Dec 2005 !!! ........... Happy New Year !!!

Dear Old Cambrian,

I planned to send this Newsletter out "some time in December", so I've JUST made it!! It's been such a busy time at work, lots of activity on the web site, and of course the build-up to, and now the wind-down from, Christmas. Well, as this is New Year's eve, may I take this opportunity of wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy 2006.

I begin this newsletter on a rather sad note by publishing death notices for three prominent Old Cambrians:

Obituary - Jack Asiyo (Grigg 1969-1972) - Jack passed away on 22nd December 2005. A memorial service was held at the School Chapel on Thursday 29th December 2005 at 9am, and Jack was buried on Friday 30 Dec 2005 in Rachuonyo. For more details, please see the Obituary notice that has been published on the web site - http://www.oldcambrians.com/Obituary-Asiyo,Jack.html - and I welcome any memories from those of you who remember Jack. As a former Secretary of the Old Cambrian Society (Kenya) for many years, Jack was the dynamo behind many of the OCS functions in Nairobi over the past 20 or so years.

Obituary - John Heppes (Hawke 1939-1943) - John passed away on 28th December 2005. This was very sudden and unexpected, and our thoughts are with his widow, Peggy, at this time. John initiated the first of the recent Old Cambrian reunions which have taken place in Ontario, and we will all miss him greatly. I have created an Obituary page for John at: http://www.oldcambrians.com/Obituary-Heppes,John.html

Obituary - Mr William Read "Samaki" Salmon (Staff 1945-1964) - "Samaki" passed away on 4th December 2005. An Obituary notice is published on the web site at - http://www.oldcambrians.com/Obituary-Salmon,William.html.

New Feature Article - Captain BWL Nicholson RN, CBE, DSO, First Headmaster of the Prince of Wales School 1931-1937
I am delighted to announce the publication of a fantastic article on the founding Headmaster of our great school.

http://www.oldcambrians.com/Nicholson.html

I am extremely grateful to the authors of the article - Brian McIntosh (Rhodes 1953-9), Christopher Collier-Wright (Hawke 1954-9) and Ron Bullock (Scott 1948-53) - and I know that the difficult research required for this piece of work took hundreds of hours of their time. We are extremely grateful to Cynthia (née Astley) and Alastair McCrae (Rhodes 1943-6) who provided many of the photos for the article.

We now have major articles on the web site for the architect of the school buildings at Kabete (Sir Herbert Baker), the first Headmaster (Captain Nicholson) and the third Headmaster (Mr Fletcher). My dedicated researchers (BMcI, CC-W and RB mentioned above) now plan to write a feature on Mr Bernard Astley who was the second Headmaster of our school (1937-1945). We are extremely grateful for the co-operation of his widow (Barbara) and daughter (Cynthia McCrae) who will be providing much-needed source material and photos.

Impala Project - (placing all Impala magazines on CD/DVD) - can I PLEASE have your orders!!

Martin Langley (Nicholson 1956-1961) is over half way through scanning and digitising the Impala magazines that have so far been sent to us. However, we don't have the full set yet, so I make yet another plea for anyone who has any Impala magazines tucked away in the loft, or buried somewhere amongst their memorabilia. Please have a look at the list on the web site of the magazines that we are "missing" - http://www.oldcambrians.com/impala.html . If you can help in providing any of these editions, please let me know.

Now everyone, I need your orders!! I really need to get some commitment from those of you who want a copy of the CD/DVD, as we need to know how many to produce. We only plan one run, so if you haven't already done so, please let me have your order.

Reunion - Old Cambrian Society (UK) - Annual Dinner - Friday 28th April 2006 at the RAF Club, Piccadilly, London

We're going back to the "tried and tested" Friday evening in April in London ....... and back to the very popular RAF Club, Piccadilly. I am very grateful to Alan Murdoch (Rhodes 1950) who is a Club member and is hosting us for the evening. Details of the dinner, menu and order form can be found on the web site at: http://www.oldcambrians.com/events2006dinner.html Tickets are priced at £30 each, and we have a limit on numbers of just 110. So, to avoid disappointment, please contact me as soon as possible with your reservations. We hope to launch the sale of Impala CD/DVDs at this function.

Reunion - Old Cambrian Society (Ontario, Canada) - Saturday 6th May 2006 - Toronto area

The very active Ontario branch of the Old Cambrian Society is planning a function on Saturday 6th May 2006, so please put that date in your diary if you live in that part of the world. More details will follow on the web site when arrangements are finalised. The Impala CD/DVD will be on sale at this function, having been launched the previous week at the London reunion. I plan to be at this event ............ hope that doesn't put you off coming along!!

The Brettell brothers

WAM Brettell and DGM Brettell attended Oswestry School, Shropshire during the late 1930s and early 1940s, both joining up to the air force on leaving school and both losing their lives tragically before WWII was over. Oswestry School records from this period are very patchy and they know little about them. However, their parents (who came from Kitale, Kenya) donated a lovely silver communion chalice to Oswestry School chapel in their memory. We know that "WAM" attended the Prince of Wales School (possibly in the mid to late 1930s) - see the Roll of Honour in the article on the Chapel Appeal - http://www.oldcambrians.com/ChapelAppeal.html. Oswestry School will be celebrating its 600th anniversary in 2007, and one of the governors has asked me if any of our "old boys" remember either "WAM" or "DGM", as they would like to feature the tragedy and also link their school with our school. If anyone could point me in the direction of any more information about the boys and their family, and whether "DGM" also attended the Prince of Wales School, I'd be very grateful.

Congratulations!! to Dave Drummond (Clive/Grigg 1947-1951)

His new book Queen of the Mara is absolutely FANTASTIC!! I've created a page on the web site - http://www.oldcambrians.com/Books-QueenOfTheMara.html and this contains a downloadable order form.

Keep spreading the word . . . . . . .

Registrations for an Alumni page on the web site continue to come in to me at a rate now of about 10-15 per month; but we could always do with more. My OCS e-mail address book now has 1,012 entries in it but some of those are reluctant to send me the information required to set up an Alumni page for them (......that's their right!!). Please keep spreading the word to Old Cambrians out there, and suggest that they contact me.

Web site "hits" - http://www.oldcambrians.com

The web site celebrated its '3rd birthday' at the end of November, and statistics are remarkably steady now, averaging just over 4,700 visits per day to the web site during 2005..........1.72 million hits in one year !! My ISP has been putting pressure on me to take out a commercial contract for hosting the web site due to the amount of traffic we get, but I have managed to persuade them that this is just a fun thing and totally non-commercial.

I make my usual plea........ If you are planning a gathering/reunion of Old Cambrians, please let me know so that I can advertise it in an e-Newsletter and on the web site.

That's all for now! Happy New Year!

& Secretary, Old Cambrian Society (UK)