Welcome to the Old Wycombiensians’ web site, whether you are a member of the O.W. Club, or have not yet joined.

We are updating this as boys and teachers are thinking of the holiday ahead, and so the first thing we want to say is this:

IainJohnston1@texo.net

Peter Uppard (1957-1962) would like to be in touch with Bill Downing (1957-1961)

Roy Jones (1953-1959) would like to be in touch with Philip Muller (1952-1959) Please send the Editor any information.

I.A. Fairnington (fennosr@internode.on.net) would like to know the whereabouts of Julian Horner (1936-1943)

Steven A. John (stevenjohn1@compuserve.com) would like to hear from any of his x stream form from Sept.1965-July1968, in particular D.G.Barker, P.Costello, A.J.Reiss, R.P.G.Staynor, D.Stevenson, P.Morley, M.S.Newton, A.H.Jones.

Peter Gellard has tracked down a number of those doing A-Level Biology in 1952. He would like to contact John Webster and Jack Slade.

Paul German (1956-1963) would like to hear from anyone who remembers him. (Paul.German@nnc.co.uk)

TO ALL MEMBERS

Some weeks ago we posted out to all members the Old Boys’ Magazine, together with a letter outlining details of the Annual Dinner, and asking you to send in the reply-slip if you wanted to come. I hope that very many of you will want to come to say "thank you" to Malcolm Cook for all his work for the club over many years. A number have indicated that they will be coming. I am sure that there are many more who have not yet sent in the reply slip. Could I remind you to do so as soon as possible. A list of those known to be coming will be published later. Certainly a number of teachers and former teachers hope to be there.

A copy of the Dinner letter and reply-slip occurs elsewhere on the website, if you happen to have mislaid yours..

If you haven’t received the Old Boys’ Magazine in recent weeks, we may not have got the right address for you. Please let us know your present address, and hopefully we can then send you the magazine and any other future letters.

A total of 1480 magazines were posted, 67 of which were for abroad. OWs are in many countries, with 15 in the U.S.A. 14 in Australia and one each in Cayman Islands, Poland, Swaziland for example. Did you realise that we have the National Snooker coach for Dubai? One of the things I hope to do will be to publish on this site lists of OWs in the different countries of the world.

While on statistics, 69 new members have joined the Club this year, including about 20 who joined on the suggestion of a friend. So do keep mentioning to any OW friends the website and the possibility of membership.

Many thanks to all those members who have already returned the questionnaire sent to you at the end of November. So much information has come in that we have had quite a backlog. We have now virtually caught up with everything. A number of you have made suggestions and more of these are given below, together with my response. The Committee are considering all the ideas and suggestions. Please continue to give me all your news and ideas.

It would very much help if those of you who have not yet completed and returned the questionnaire could do so, so that our records could become really accurate. Also when you reply, could you please make your e-mail address legible!

TO ALL NON-MEMBERS

If you feel when you’ve read the Annual Dinner letter, that you would like to come, do join the Club and come to the dinner. We will arrange the seating to suit you.

Richard (Ernie) Peake

Editor: What are your memories of the early 1970s? If you were here in a different decade, do let us have your memories, and they will be published.

Dear Sir,

Your web site requested information as to the whereabouts of *****. I too would also like to know, as in a maths Class in about 1987, as class representative, he "confiscated" my lighter and threatened to take it to Ian Clark’s office and now I would like it back!!

Many thanks to Peter Draper and Jeremy Edwards for putting names to a lot of faces on the Tylers Wood and Cricket photographs, published earlier. Peter Draper and John Sydney recognised the actor as Bernard Peatey in the Pirates of Penzance in about 1946-1947. Ian Fairnington recognised the room as a Chemistry Lab, not a Physics Lab. This was run by "Dago", while the Physics Lab. was under "Greasy" Millington down the corridor on the Upper Floor. Ralph Stockwell too has named a couple from the group photo. David Pratt named some Chess Players. John Saunders has sent in a number of other chess photos, and Peter Draper has said that he will do the same. Tony Wood and B.Veale have also sent in information. Many thanks to all!

Have you any photos that we can copy?

This month’s puzzle photograph

A number of OWs said that they thought that OWs could help the R.G.S. students by providing guidance for Careers, and opportunities for work-experience. I have discussed this with Joan Allen, Head of Careers, and she would very much welcome all offers of help particularly in the following areas:

1. Each year there is an Introduction to Industry Course for all those in Year 10, who are 14-15 years old. The students work on tasks in small groups for the day, and it is excellent to have adult advisers for each of these groups
2. At lunch times there is a series of talks on a wide range of careers, e.g. Sports Management, Retail Management, Law, Medicine, Engineering, Tourism, Computers etc, etc.
3. Each year our students are expected to arrange Work-Experience/Shadowing, so that they have the experience of what a job is actually like. Joan is looking to increase the number of people in particular jobs, to give students as wide an opportunity as possible. Students have in the past shadowed an M.P and Chairman of B.R. as well rather less high-profile people.
4. Students sometimes decide to have a gap-year after their A-Levels before going to University and welcome opportunities to widen their experience in a job either in this country or abroad. Some like experience in the Commercial World, while some like to work for a Charity on a particular project.
5. One evening in June/July the students of the Lower Sixth and their parents will have the opportunity of hearing short talks and asking questions about various careers in which they have expressed an interest. A great deal of interest has been shown in careers in Business and Financial Services.

CAN YOU HELP?

If you want to find out more, do contact Joan.

We appreciate that you will only be able to offer help on the above if you live reasonably locally, unless of course you would like to make a long journey to look round your old School and meet some of those who taught you!

However, a number of students may read on the website that you have a particular job or live in a particular country, and might wish to contact you to ask some questions. I hope that you would not mind if an RGS students e-mailed you asking for some help. That I know would be much appreciated. There may be other things that you can offer apart from the ones mentioned above. Please contact Joan.

Can anybody name the egg-thrower? Rumour has it was someone who was to become Head-boy later. Is that true? Can the egg-thrower reveal his identity? We only want the information for the history of the school. We certainly don’t want to make an EGGSample of him. (Ugh!)

WERE YOU IN FORM 2E in 1963-4?

If you were, do you recognise yourself in this photo?

John Saunders writes with his memories of his form :

In those days the first year at the RGS (mainly 11-year-olds was always "2", something not logical but that was how it was! 2E was the youngest stream, with some boys (including me ) who had passed the 11-plus a year early at 10. Our form-master was Mr. Mervyn (Taffy ) Davies, as was traditional with the youngest boys in the school. Another tradition was that the Headmaster Mr. E. R. Tucker, would teach the youngest boys Latin. I am not sure that he did any other teaching at all, so we could well have been the last class of boys to be taught by him, as he died in the summer of 1964. In fact he often missed our lessons, as he was a very busy man, and I suspect because he was ill and he didn’t want anyone to know. As the youngest of the young (and therefore the lowest of the low), we were acutely aware of his Olympian authority: nobody ever dared step out of line for an instant. That said, he was generally good-humoured and could be playful at times. I recall him teaching us to decline the Latin noun "bellum". When he got to the genitive, he chanted "belli! bello! bello!", accompanying it with dramatic gestures, pointing first to his stomach (belly), then twice to the floor (below, below,). I also recall him challenging Chris Marshall to give the genitive plural of "urbs". Poor Chris mistakenly responded "urbum", pronouncing it exactly as if he had said, "er bum "! The Headmaster found this every bit as funny as we did, and the whole class (with one exception) dissolved in mirth.

Have you any memories of E.R.Tucker?

According to John Taylor, the OW Club was founded in about 1925. He remembers that an OW wearing his OW Club tie (Navy blue and Cambridge blue) on the train was asked why he was wearing an Old Etonian tie. As a result a second tie was produced, brown, blue and green as the colours of the three houses. (Do you remember the House System? It was ended in about 1972. ) Later on there was a third tie.

Has anyone got an example of the old OW tie?

John says that the first dinners were held at the Red Lion in Wycombe, and then in alternate years in London and Wycombe. He remembers coming out of hotels in Soho late at night after a very lively dinner and on one occasion the damage done was so great that they were not allowed to go back to the same place the following year. One young man had to be held down by three others.

Derek White-Taylor, (1967- present) whom so many will remember for his non-stop energy in German lessons, or his dead-pan expressions in the Staff Revues, retired from teaching early to run the Tuck Shop.