Lusimus February 2014

Morgan Award – page 4Foundation – pages 2 & 3 Nicholas Mellor – page 6 Hugh Brunt – page 10 Sport – page 16

Julian Henderson (1968), the new Bishop of Blackburn outside Blackburn Cathedral after his inauguration in October 2013Argyrios Georgiadis /Demotix/Press Association Images

LusimusTHE RADLEY BROADSHEET

Issue 28, February 2014

Lusimus . THE RADLEY BROADSHEET

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Foundation Progress Report from Anthony RobinsonRecord year for the Foundation; over £2 million received in gifts and pledges during the 2012/2013 financial year; tremendous support from around the world; Foundation Bursary Award Holders increase from 27 to 29; Rowing Tank on campus, funded by the Foundation, becoming a reality.

Results for 2012/2013

The generosity and kindness of Radley’s supporters in the UK and across the world continues to astonish all of us in the Foundation. During the 2012/2013 financial year we received 363 gifts and pledges with a value of £2.073 million. Over £13 million has now been donated since the Foundation began in 2000.

To put this in perspective, the three ‘Appeals’ in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, run with such commitment and enthusiasm by Wardens Silk and Morgan, ably supported by Tony Money, Sue Brown (now Van Oss) and Jock Mullard, each raised about £1 million in the values of the day. All three Appeals, brilliantly executed, were vital to the development of Radley, but Richard Morgan realised that more regular fundraising would be essential in the future. His vision led to the creation of the Foundation in 2000 and, as a result, we are now able to help people and support the College in a wide variety of ways.

At the outset an initial target of £50 million seemed beyond our wildest dreams; fourteen years later we are a quarter of the way there and, maybe for the first time, £50 million feels achievable.

Our Supporters

We are immensely grateful to those who supported the Foundation during 2013 with gifts of every size and type - cheques, recurring direct debits, stocks and shares, art, legacies and legacy pledges. Each and every one of them given out of affection for Radley and a keen desire to help.

The Jeff Doyle Prize for Exemplary Sportsmanship

A beautiful silver Loving Cup was donated to the College, via the Foundation, in memory of Jeff Doyle (1983) to encourage and reward ‘Corinthian Spirit’ in the playing of all sport at Radley. Charlie Betton (2011) was the first winner and was presented with the cup and a cheque for £75 at the Warden’s Assembly at the end of the Summer Term. An extract from his citation follows: During the first match day of the rugby term when, as the most-improved player in Midgets 1 the previous season, he sustained a very nasty dislocated shoulder, he sat propped up in the middle of the field while the match continued on a new pitch. Nearby a Sherborne boy had a bad leg break. Charlie was on gas and air and so was the Sherborne boy. Charlie was hoisted into the ambulance followed by the Sherborne boy. The Sherborne boy’s gas and air had been removed to get him into the ambulance and Charlie instinctively gave up his own supply, passing his tube straight into the hands of the opposition. There was something wonderful in that image, of the two stretchered boys lying stricken in the ambulance with the Radley red and white hooped shirt holding out a hand to the light blue of Sherborne.

Anthony in Kuala Lumpur with three eminent ORs: Ainul Jaafar (1990), Munir Aziz (1991) and Khairul Mohammad (1989).

The Far East

In the Far East it was a similar story to the US and I felt hugely honoured to meet, among many memorable ORs and parents, a Brain Surgeon, a Judge, an OR fluent in Japanese and Chinese, a world-renowned Orthopaedic Surgeon, several QCs and Lawyers, a long haul Airline Pilot, a number of high-achieving Entrepreneurs, a Government Advisor on Investments and one of the leading characters in the recent BBC TV programme about Radley. Others are in the middle of glittering careers and some are starting out in life.

Everywhere I go, people ask the same question: “How can I help Radley?” I always return inspired and uplifted as it is truly wonderful to feel such warmth and support and to see success being achieved by so many modest, understated and delightful ORs.

Warden Sewell

Legacies

There is an important balance to be struck between building up our Endowment and Capital Funds to finance bursaries out of income long term and raising funds that we can commit immediately to Foundation Bursary Awards. Both are crucial if we are to sustain our Bursary Programme.

History reveals how earlier efforts have faltered for this reason – notably during our founder Warden Sewell’s time in the 1850s and 60s and later during Warden Vaughan Wilkes’ attempt to maintain his ‘decimals’ during the 1940s. It has always been part of our DNA that one in every ten boys should receive a free education, but this ambition has proved elusive. We hope that future legacies will help us avoid the disappointments of the past.

Anthony in Boston with Michael Wynne-Willson (1933) aged 93, a WW2 Squadron Leader, generous supporter of the Foundation and much loved character. Sadly, Michael passed away in December.

The USA

It has been a great joy to be out and about during the year seeking help from our many supporters. Particularly memorable was the trip to the USA (Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington) last June and my visit to the Far East (Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur) in November. We have 165 ORs, parents and former parents in the US and 108 in the Far East and many have achieved wonders in their lives and careers.

It was a privilege to meet so many interesting and gifted people including, in the US, a former WW2 Squadron Leader, a former Head of PR at The White House during Watergate (!), arguably Radley’s most distinguished portrait photographer, an engineer (with eight Henley finals to his name) who helped prevent even greater disaster at the Pentagon on 9/11 and an OR who owns his own polo field.

Boston


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One of thirteen photographic portraits donated to the Foundation by Dmitri Kasterine (1945) for the new Sewell Centre Art Galleries

Anthony RobinsonDevelopment Director, OR and Former Parent

If you would like to donate online, go to:www.radley.org.uk/MakingGift.aspx

Additional thanks

The Foundation is indebted to the Council of Radley College for financing the running costs of the Foundation throughout 2013. As a result, every pound raised has gone towards the Fund chosen by each donor. We are also deeply grateful to the Warden for his unfailing support and encouragement.

I am extraordinarily fortunate to have a superb team of five with whom to work and I would like to pay tribute to their tremendous contribution to the Foundation over the years. Fundraising is a massive team effort that involves everyone at Radley but no Development Director could have a better support crew than Hamish Aird, Jock Mullard, Jan Glover, Lucy Johnsson and Kim Charlton. I thank all of them for the commitment, energy, skill, wisdom and laughter they bring to the Foundation every day.

Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank all of our donors, past, present and future, without whom the Foundation would not exist.

From Peter Norris (2008), a recent Foundation Award holder:

Even with the help of a Music Scholarship, my parents were unable to afford the Radley fees. Thankfully, with the support of the Foundation, I was able to come to Radley after all. I hope I managed to fulfil both my musical and academic potential. I certainly loved every moment. I have recently gained a choral scholarship to Portsmouth Cathedral as well as offers from Cardiff University and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. All of these things wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the generosity of the Foundation. I can't thank the Foundation enough, a truly fantastic fund.

The Future

The most discussed issue among the young ORs I meet is their worry that, in spite of being in good jobs, they may not be able to afford a Radley education for their sons. ‘Affordability’ is a concern shared by the Foundation Trustees and the possibility of ‘top-up bursaries’ becoming available from the Foundation in the future is currently being considered. For such a scheme to become reality, the ultimate target for the Foundation would need to be £80-£100 million rather than the present £50 million.

Extract from a letter sent to the Warden by a Radley parent

We would like to make a donation of £25,000 to the Radley Foundation.

We believe that a first rate education is not only the right of each child but also the long-term path for the future prosperity and social development of the UK.

We firmly believe that Radley College acts as a beacon of excellence. Its integration with the community as well as liaison with other schools demonstrates that the private/public education divide can and should be bridged.

Accordingly we are pleased to be able to support the Radley Foundation.

Our son is thriving at Radley, both in and out of his Social, and this is due generally to the Radley ethos and in particular to the welcoming, active atmosphere in his Social under his Tutor’s leadership.

Providing another student with the opportunity to experience and benefit from this remarkable institution gives us great pleasure. We shall liaise with the Foundation Office to ensure this donation is made in a tax-efficient manner for the Scholarships & Bursaries Immediate Use Fund.

Foundation Bursary Awards

Bursaries remain a top priority and we are delighted that, at a time when six Foundation Award Holders completed their Radley education and the numbers could easily have dropped, we have been able to increase the number of Foundation Award Holders from 27 to 29. The College would like the Foundation to fund at least 70 places and this remains our biggest challenge.

The best news of the year is that applications for Foundation Awards have been the strongest ever. In December 2013 twelve ten-year-olds, all from state school backgrounds, were interviewed and assessed and found to be bright, talented and highly impressive. The College would like to make more Awards than the Foundation is able to afford, so this adds great urgency to our efforts.

January 2014: the river in flood with the boathouse surrounded by water

Rowing Centre

Planning permission is being sought for Phase One of the Rowing Centre project - the building of a Rowing Tank on the main campus next to the Running Track. It is hoped that a Planning decision will be made by the end of January and that building can start in the summer and be completed by the autumn. The present heavy flooding down at the river, where the floodwaters are a foot above the top of the causeway leading to the Boathouses, emphasises the Boat Club’s urgent need for a tank.

The building will contain a simulated ‘boat’ for eight rowers (an VIII) or eight scullers (an octo). The design has been invented by a Russian, Valery Kleshnev, to replicate as closely as possible the experience of rowing or sculling on a river or lake. The Foundation will be funding the cost of the Tank, thanks to the generosity of many former wet-bobs and current and former wet-bob parents; £273,000 has been raised to date but we still need to find the final £80,000 necessary to complete Phase One.

An artist’s impression of the new Rowing Centre

Armed Forces Fund

Our first Rupert Thorneloe Bursary Award Holder started at St Mary’s Calne last September and is flourishing. Another AFF application is nearing completion and we hope to announce our first Dougie Dalzell Bursary Award shortly. The date for the next Silver Ball in London has been fixed for 28th November 2014. Will Bailey (1968) of Planit Events has very kindly agreed to provide the venue again and Richard Huntingford (1969) will be chairing the organising committee for a second time. We are indebted to them both.

St Mary’s Calne will be holding a Gala Opera Evening at The Merchant Taylors’ Hall in the City on Wednesday 5th March to raise funds for the AFF. Please go to their website for details.


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. THE RADLEY BROADSHEET

The Richard Morgan Award Fund

Richard Morgan

An Old Radleian – we shall call him AD – sat cross-legged on the floor of a local Community Centre and made an instant decision. He was going to help one of these children from the nearby housing estate to change their life completely. AD was struck by the aura of despair and

despondency that hung over the twelve boys as they described their everyday existence; he was shocked by their lack of ambition and hope. “If I were to offer one of you a completely different sort of education to the one you know now, would you be interested?” “Absolutely not”

was the reply from eleven of the boys; but one said “tell me more, please”.

And so started a long journey that would lead to the creation of ‘The Richard Morgan Award’ within the Radley Foundation and to the eventual arrival at Radley of the first Richard Morgan Award Holder. In an act of extreme generosity and kindness, AD pledged £180,000 to the Foundation for the education of that boy – two years at a local prep school and five years at Radley. He wanted to pay tribute to Richard Morgan’s achievements at Radley and asked for the Award to be named in his honour.

The first steps were tentative: several informal visits to Radley to see the College and to meet a few key people – often a daunting experience for any ten-year old. Slowly and gently he explored the campus and absorbed the atmosphere. The Warden and Hamish Aird chatted with him quietly to assess whether he had the

STOP PRESSIn recent weeks another ‘whole education’ gift of £200,000 has been confirmed to the Foundation. This will create an additional Richard Morgan Award and life-changing opportunities for another talented ten-year old. We are immensely grateful to John and Doone Chatfeild-Roberts for their magnificent support. Further Richard Morgan Award gifts are in the pipeline.

academic potential to cope with the demands and rigours of a Radley education. Both felt confident that, given time, he would thrive – but there was a lot of catching up to be done.

Against all odds and to the delight of many, he passed Common Entrance, having worked hard at his prep school and been brilliantly taught. We hadn’t expected this excellent result; it was a bonus – and very good news for his self confidence.

The story will continue

The Foundation currently helps to finance, to varying degrees, the education of twenty-nine boys at Radley. The Warden and Council would like to increase this number to seventy as quickly as possible. Long term this needs to be financed by income from the Foundation’s capital Funds – notably The Silk Fund. If we wait for The Silk Fund to grow to £50m, progress is likely to be slow. The Richard Morgan Award Fund fills this gap, as all gifts are used immediately to fund entry bursaries for boys whose families need help with the fees. The combination of The Silk Fund and The Richard Morgan Award Fund is helping us to increase the number of entry bursaries each year.

The Radley Foundation is currently made up of ten Funds, each of which has a specific purpose. Together these ten Funds give the Foundation its character and purpose. This is the fourth in a series of articles giving a little more detail about one of the Funds. Richard Morgan was reponsible for setting up the Radley Foundation in 2000 and has maintained great interest in it over the past 14 years. His experience as Don, Tutor and Warden led to an inspirational vision for Radley’s future.

From Saga Magazine November/December 1995


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James Pout’s short animated film, The Hungry Corpse

James Pout (1993) teamed up with director Gergely Wootsch under the Collabor8te scheme to make a short animated film, The Hungry Corpse, in which an ancient, rather hungry, corpse meets a pigeon with a broken wing in London’s bustling yet desolate Trafalgar Square. Bill Nighy voiced the Corpse and Stephen Mangan was the Pigeon.

James Pout talks during the early stages of the project:

The look of the film has always been quite clear in my mind – I want it to be dark, textured, hand-drawn perhaps. It needs to feel old. The Collabor8te team share this opinion so we started looking at animators whose work echoed this. I came across Gergely Wootsch’s work through the RCA website and found a film on Gergely’s site that I particularly liked called Ordaemonium. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but there was an edge to it that resonated so we approached him and his producer Steve at Beakus (an animation studio).

In our first meeting, Jess and David (Collabor8te Execs for Rankin Film Productions) and I outlined the style we had in mind. We also asked a lot of questions since we were all new to animation. Gergely and Steve had the answers and they also asked me a lot of questions about the story in return, which I took as a good sign!

In a subsequent meeting, with Gergely attached, we dug deeper into the script and devised a way of compressing more story aspects into it without making it significantly longer. He got me thinking about the story again and this led to some more fine-tuning of the script. (I think we’ve made it better). Since then, we have been concentrating on design and casting. The former involved Gergely taking a few weeks to come up with some preliminary material that he would then send to the Rankin Film Productions team and myself. This period of waiting was an exciting one – we had given Gergely a vague outline of what we were after but essentially had no idea what he would produce. This was

important though – being new to animation I was reluctant to give too much direction. Also, it was important that Gergely imprint his own vision on the world/ characters. He did. I – we – felt that Gergely really captured the world I was trying to express in the script and, after we made a couple of suggestions, we ‘locked’ a corpse that we are very happy with. As for casting, we (Dave and Jess from Rankin Film Productions, Gergely, Steve, myself as well as Amy, our casting director) are working from a list of actors for the two speaking parts.

We all have a clear idea of exactly what we want and are hoping to fill both roles and then record over the next few weeks. In the meantime, Gergely is working on an animatic. This will give us a firmer idea about the set up of every scene as well as the length of the film.

The Hungry Corpse is my first screenplay to go into production. Over the last few months while ‘collabor8ting’ with the director, Gergely Wootsch and the rest of the team on the film, I have also been developing two feature screenplays. My writing ‘officially’ began when I moved to Berlin in 2008/9 where I was accepted as a fellow on the Nipkow Programme, a MEDIA-funded organization that provides professional and financial support to filmmakers in the EU. It was through them that I wrote my first feature screenplay.

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My day job – to support my writing – is at H2O Motion Pictures, working with Andras Hamori as an associate producer. H2O is a film production and sales company based in the UK, Canada and the US. We are currently in the process of putting together two feature films for production in 2013.

Reviews:Following our prize at the Leamington Underground Film Festival there have been some nice words written by reviewers of The Hungry Corpse:

“The winning film in my view clearly surpassed the rest. The Hungry Corpse, an animation, tells the heart-warming and beautifully presented take of the ‘living’ corpse of an old man who is frustrated with his useless existence and desperately lonely. A little pigeon, who has problems of his own, befriends him and the two of them find solace in each other. I was moved and longed for more of the same.” (Sundari Cleal in the Leamington Courier)

“... a panel of judges had to pick one film to take home the £1000 short film prize, and that film was The Hungry Corpse. Starring Bill Nighy as the (under)world-weary zombie who is unable to satiate his appetite, and Stephen Mangan as a kind hearted, but lonely pigeon, The Hungry Corpse is a moving story about isolation and friendship. Although Nighy and Mangan’s characters appear in three dimensions, they stand out against the scenery and the other characters, who take on a flatter and less refined aesthetic, simultaneously pairing the pigeon and the corpse together as well as separating them from the rest of the world.

Nighy delivers his lines with a laborious tone, depicting an ancient and exhausted soul, whilst Mangan conveys a jittery but sunny disposition through his voice, providing some light comic relief.

Visually stunning and emotionally captivating, The Hungry Corpse is a deserved winner of this year’s LUC’s Short Film Prize.” (Ben Vassey blog)

From Michael Robinson (1941)

ArchimedesI went to Radley in the summer term of 1941, and was there throughout the war. Rationing was in full swing, and Eastbourne College were billeted with us.

I was living with my parents in Sussex and travelled to and from school by train.

My brother, Gordon Robinson (D Social 1934), had bought a kestrel from Harrods which was the start of a lifelong interest in falconry. This was encouraged by his Social Tutor, since my brother had contracted polio as a child and could not play his part on the games field.

I had inherited from him an interest in birds of prey although I never found the time to indulge in the ancient sport, which is very time consuming, and should never be taken up without much forethought!

I had, however, discovered the nest of a tawny owl, with young, in a hollow ash tree close to Radley's Little Wood. I kept an eye on it at regular intervals and finally took one of the young before it was fully fledged. I attached jesses to its legs and kept it in precisely the same way as one would a peregrine falcon or goshawk.

Fortunately my Social Tutor was equally understanding, as was the Bursar who allowed me to keep my newly acquired friend in the small summer house in his garden on the right hand side of the main drive towards Memorial Arch. I called my friend Archimedes. My next target was to find a regular food supply. I had friends in the Octagons who allowed me to set traps in their studies, but, after a time, with a diminishing mouse population, I had to locate an alternative source.

Fortunately I had two good friends in the kitchen garden. One was Mr. Town, the head gardener; the other was Vic who looked after the pigs, and I believe helped with feeding the beagles.

I had another friend in F Social who had spirited a single barrel .410 shotgun into College; he allowed me to borrow it from time to time.

By prior arrangement with Mr. Town I would walk up the raspberry and currant bushes with him to flush out the odd blackbird in the kitchen garden. I supplied Vic with rat traps with which he caught starlings and sparrows for me (twopence a starling and one penny for a sparrow!). It worked well and Archimedes thrived. He became completely imprinted and even rode on the handle bars of my bicycle. I would take him home by train in a wicker basket.

There was one occasion at home when he had been flying free, when he decided to settle in the top of a sycamore tree and I could not lure him down. I got out a high pressure hose which persuaded him to make for dry land, and he dried himself off in the airing cupboard, and was none the worse for the experience.

The following term he came to an unlikely end. I went to feed him in the summer house, and a wild owl had managed to get through the wide wire mesh and there was my Archimedes lying dead on the floor without a scratch on his body or a feather out of place. I never discovered the cause of his death.

The .410 shotgun was subsequently put to good use on Thrupp marsh and once on College Pond at night! Plucking, drawing and cooking then took place in the primitive facilities available in the Social in those far off days.

The great thing was not to get caught, but I suppose, in retrospect, it was good preliminary training for Sandhurst.

The war was still on.


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Last summer I met Rory Cunningham (2007) at Summer Fields School where he was working and we discussed the talks at school that had left the most lasting impression. He particularly remembered a talk by Clive Stafford Smith (1973) which had provided an extraordinarily vivid account of the lengths one needs to go to in order to uphold human rights, and challenged perceptions of what a career as a lawyer might entail.

Clive was Senior Prefect when I was at Radley and, knowing of his work with Reprieve, I got in touch with him. We had dinner and soon discovered that we had both seen at firsthand how interconnected our lives were with events that have shaped history in Waziristan and Libya, and how some of the personalities involved had shaped the World in way that has had such a devastating impact on trust and security across the globe. For me it provided fresh insights into the nature of extremism, and the complexity of fighting terrorism.

That day Clive had been representing Abdel Hakim Belhadj, in a private case against the former Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the ex head of MI6, Sir Mark Allen. It made me wonder what path had Clive taken after Radley that had led him from a school at the heart of the Establishment to challenging the very bastion of British security – something that so many Radleians have, over the years, sacrificed their lives for. And what was it about Belhadj’s own story that had captured Clive’s attention?

Belhadj was seeking an apology for being handed over by the British Government to Colonel Gaddafi, who had

then imprisoned and tortured him. Given the sensitivity of some of the evidence and the Government’s sovereign immunity, Clive had decided that a civilian case was his only chance of getting the case heard.

As a young man Belhadj was opposed to Colonel Gaddafi’s regime and he had organized an opposition campaign against Gaddafi in the early ’80s. Incurring Gaddafi’s wrath, he had fled the country. If Belhadj had been able to mount an effective opposition, history might have been very different for all of us. There might have been no IRA training bases in Libya, arms supplies to Northern Ireland, Lockerbie bombing or murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher. But Belhadj found himself on the run from Gaddafi’s agents. Leaving the country via Saudi Arabia, Belhadj arrived in Afghanistan, in 1988.

What was Afghanistan like in 1988, and how safe was it? A civil war still raged with the Soviet Army engaged in its biggest campaign since the end of the Second World War. During the previous year I had found out that, so long as you were prudent, you could move around the country with relative impunity. The perceived Russian occupation had united the patchwork of tribal leaders, and they had banded together quickly to create networks that spanned the country, controlled by a small group of leaders who had made their political bases in Peshawar, Pakistan. The most important crossing points were in Waziristan down which arms supplies flowed along with the occasional journalist and relief worker. Once inside the country, mosques provided a refuge from Soviet patrols in the plains while much greater safety could be found in the

Mujahideen Markaz (or bases) in the mountains. These were often only accessible on foot, up narrow ravines that led to caves cut into the mountain or low, well hidden huts. Some of the mujahideen commanders like Amin Wardakh had invited doctors from the West to set up clinics in the valleys they controlled. There was a small group of leaders who had all studied together at the French Lycee in Kabul. One classmate, Homayoun Tandar, had won a scholarship to the Sorbonne and had helped build support in France for the mujahideen. Working with a group of French doctors, Amin had already established a network of clinics. He had invited me to join him to help set up an immunisation programme for the children.

Without a functioning telephone system and no mobiles, it was relatively easy to avoid being caught by Soviet patrols, so long as visits to villages were unannounced and we did not stay longer than a couple of hours, and longer journeys were undertaken under the cover of darkness. Two hours was long enough to immunise the children and carry out a basic health survey. The greater risk was from rival mujahideen groups, jealous of the political support that this welfare programme generated for Amin Wardakh. Amin urged me to be wary of a group of Arab mujahideen or more specifically Wahabis who set up their base on the other side of the mountain. Amin had heard that the leader of this group was keen to cleanse the Jihad of any foreigners like us. At the time we were unaware that the leader of the group was Osama Bin Laden. Once this group tracked us down in a remote village, and I spent an anxious afternoon hidden beneath a table of pomegranates

whilst they searched the village. It was therefore relatively easy for someone like Abdel Hakim Belhaj to live in such a country out of reach of Gaddafi’s agents.

In 1992, after the Mujahideen took Kabul, Belhadj travelled widely, before returning to Libya in 1992 where he formed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and once again tried to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi. From 1994 he led an insurgency campaign from a base in eastern Libya. After three unsuccessful assassination attempts on Gaddafi, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was crushed in 1998, forcing Belhadj and other leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group to take refuge in Afghanistan.

It was a very different Afghanistan: the Russians had withdrawn and the Taliban had come to power under the leadership of Mullah Omar with his base in Kandahar. Osama Bin Laden had formed al-Qaeda. An insight into the emergence of this new country and evolution of the Taleban came when I returned to Afghanistan in 1993. That year Afghanistan was a patchwork of warlords who had either carved out their fiefdoms by delicately brokered political alliances, or more often than not by terror and extortion. Revenue was collected at road blocks at the entry points to a warlord’s territory, and this revenue was occasionally supplemented by kidnap and ransom. Large parts of the country including the region around Kandahar were black holes. International organisations like the United Nations had lost touch with what was happening there.

In 1992 I had set up Merlin with a couple of friends and a year later returned to Afghanistan. UNICEF asked if I would investigate what was happening in Kandahar, particularly in terms of children’s health. I wanted to see if we could set up

a Merlin clinic or even rebuild the city hospital. Being on a mission to set up a clinic where none existed was like having a kind of badge of indemnity in such a lawless place. Most people could see the benefits of a clinic even if it was only to extract more ‘taxes’ at the roadblocks.

One of the most notorious brigands on the road between Quetta in Pakistan and Kandahar was Shah Wali Shah. In previous years he had reputably kidnapped two diplomats, a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross and ten Chinese road engineers. My fixer in Quetta advised my colleague and me to keep the lowest possible profile on the journey on the journey to Kandahar. This meant leaving Quetta in the early hours of the morning and crossing the border in the boot of the car, until we were safely out of Shah Wali Shah’s territory. The journey did not go to plan and I had another unique insight into the complexity and contradictions of life in Afghanistan.

Just over the border we reached a small hamlet called Spin Boldak. There was a meeting of elders going on and our fixer insisted we stop, make our introductions and have a glass of tea. Not only that, but he asked if anyone was travelling to Kandahar and could take us with them. Pashtunwali, the Pashtun code of honour, governs how you should treat travellers if such a request is made – of which the two most important are hospitality (Melmastia) and protection from their enemies (Nanawatai). The offer of a lift came from none other than a certain Shah Wali Shah.

And so we found ourselves later in the day riding with Shah Wali Shah in a very new Land Cruiser with darkened windows escorted by a pickup truck, both

Perspectives from a road less travelled – Encounters in Libya and Waziristan

Nicholas Mellor (1974) on the edge of Waziristan (the Afghan edge)

Working with the Libyan Government this summer, there were constant reminders of the narrow margin between normality and anarchy. These coffins marked the human cost that week of the continuing struggle for power in Benghazi


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vehicles brimming with men and weapons – all in the hands of the one person we had sought to avoid. Late in the afternoon we turned off the road, up a narrow track protected by an old Russian tank to a fortified base. We were offered tea and boiled sweets and wondered if this was a prelude to life as a hostage. It turned out that Shah Wali Shah, like our fixer, was simply trying to arrange someone who would take us safely on the next leg of the journey.

Kandahar proved lawless with the occasional crackle of small arms fire. We were received by the mullah who shared his displeasure with the warlords who had carved up the City between them. The hospital was in ruins.

Not all travellers on that road fared as well as we did. Shortly afterwards a woman was abducted at a checkpoint and her husband sought out the local mullah for support in saving his wife. The mullah was a tall man who had lost his eye in the fight against the Russians – and his name was Mullah Omar. Amin Wardakh recounted how Mullah Omar managed to arm his scholars (Talebs) and forcibly intervene to rescue the wife. As news of this intervention spread the Mullah received requests all the way to Kandahar, and he gathered more and more talebs with him along that road, meting out justice on the way. So the Taleban emerged, almost by accident, to fill the vacuum created by the violence and lawlessness.

By 1995, a council of mullahs had replaced the warlords in Kandahar. Mullah Omar’s influence had spread across the country, and the relative stability had enabled Merlin to restore the hospital in Kandahar. A year later we had a network of clinics that stretched westwards as far as Farah province and were training women as midwives.

Insisting on access to health for women was a prickly issue for some mullahs, but progress was made.

It was not relations with the mullahs which were to cause us to close the programme but the US cruise missile strikes in 1998 in retaliation for the al-Qaeda bombings in East Africa. The volatility and enmity caused by those strikes made the local relationships too precarious to continue. It took a full blown ISAF assault on Kandahar before the clinics could be re-established.

In 2002, after the 11 September attacks and Gaddafi’s reconciliation with the West, an arrest warrant was issued for Belhadj by the Libyan authorities. The Gaddafi government alleged that Belhadj had developed “close relationships” with al-Qaeda leaders, and specifically Taleban chief Mullah Omar. My own experience had shown me how difficult it was to travel in the country without getting mixed up in ambiguous company.

The allegations also described how Belhadj had financed and run training camps for Arab mujahideen fighters. The so-called ‘War on Terror’ gave Gaddafi the chance to manipulate the West into rounding up one of his persistent opponents.

Tracked by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after a tip-off from MI6, Belhadj was arrested with his pregnant wife in 2004 at an airport in Beijing. Both were then detained at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. After being detained in the airport for a couple of weeks, they were put on a plane to Bangkok, placed in the custody of the CIA, and retained at a secret prison at the airport. Belhadj and his pregnant wife were then flown to Libya on the rendition aircraft N313P, and taken to

the Tajoura prison. Belhadj was held in Tajoura for four years, then transferred to Abu Salim prison and finally released on 23 March 2010.

The following year Belhadj became one of the leaders in the Libyan revolution that followed the Arab Spring uprisings. After the liberation of Tripoli he became the leader of the Tripoli Military Council (TMC) and eventually set up a new political party, the Hizb Al-Watan.

As far as his case against the British Government is concerned, he declared in June: “I have said the same thing from the beginning that I don’t want any money but a formal apology from the British government for what they did to me. It was illegal... ...The case is in the court and it’s up to the honourable judge to decide.”

As I listened to Clive Stafford Smith talk about Abdel Hakim Belhadj and reflected on my own encounters in Libya, Waziristan and on the road to Kandahar, it was a reminder of how misleading simple narratives can be. It also highlighted the importance of humility and insight when grappling with the rights and wrongs of foreign interventions, and the extraordinary complexity of the crisis in Syria.

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Nicholas MellorNicholas Mellor is the co-founder of Merlin and head of 2020 Education, an international programme launched in 2012 by Momentum World, an education and training organisation. They aim, in partnership with others, to encourage schools and other groups to engage young

people with global issues through local projects, and to promote and share their ideas through training in media, communications and enterprise.

He is also the Coordinator of the Turning Point Campaign which emphasises the importance of working collaboratively with older generations. It is inspired by the extraordinary story of Satish Kumar, who fifty years ago, decided to take a message of peace to the leaders of the world’s nuclear powers. He spent two years walking from his native India to Moscow, Paris, London and Washington, relying on the kindness of strangers and carrying nothing but his belief in common humanity – and four symbolic packets of tea.

Clive Stafford SmithClive Stafford Smith is the founder and Director of Reprieve, a legal action charity which uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith has spent 25 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.

After graduating from Columbia Law School in New York, Clive spent nine years as a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights working on death penalty cases and other civil rights issues. In 1993, Clive moved to New Orleans and launched

Clive Stafford Smith (1973) and Reprieve fellow Shahzad Akbar (on the right) on the anti-drones march to Waziristan in October 2012

Clive Stafford Smith (1973) with Imran Khan at the Waristan Grand Jirga (council) in Islamabad in 2011 in order to open a dialogue on the CIA’s use of drones in Pakistan

the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, a non-profit law office specialising in representation of poor people in death penalty cases.

In total, Clive has represented over 300 prisoners facing the death penalty in the southern United States. While he only took on the cases of those who could not afford a lawyer – he has never been paid by a client – he prevented the death penalty in all but six cases (a 98% 'victory' rate). Few lawyers ever take a case to the US Supreme Court – Clive has taken five, and all of the prisoners prevailed.

In 2001, when the US military base at Guantánamo Bay was pressed into service to hold prisoners beyond the reach of the courts, Clive joined two other lawyers to sue for access to the prisoners there. He believed that the camp was an affront to democracy and the rule of law: his ultimate goal was to close Guantánamo and restore to the US and its allies their legitimacy as champions of human rights.

Meanwhile, Clive travelled the Middle East to find the families of the ‘disappeared’ prisoners, undeterred by the interventions by unhappy US allies – including the Jordanian secret police, who took him into custody in 2004.

To date, Clive has helped secure the release of 65 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay (including every British prisoner) and still acts for 15 more. This is a phenomenal number – far more than any other lawyer or law firm – and demonstrates Clive’s peerless ability in his field. More recently, Clive has turned a strategic eye to the other secret detention sites, including Bagram in Afghanistan and the British island of Diego Garcia.


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This article first appeared in the print edition of The Spectator of 23 November 2013:

From primary school onwards, we’re handed this starter pack of right-on notions – and if we question them we’re regarded as pariahs.

For two blissful days last week I was at Radley College – what you might call the posh person’s Eton – as the school’s Provocateur-in-Residence.

Delightful place: like an especially agreeable gentleman’s club with a first-rate school attached. My only criticism – and it’s not really a criticism, more a rueful observation – is that even in this Helm’s Deep of immense soundness, the Orcish forces of lentil-eating progressivism have begun tunnelling beneath the walls and infecting the defenders of western civilisation with their malign and slithy creed.

Or to put it another way: if you cannot rely on the boys of Radley College to stick up for man’s unalienable right to hunt foxes, what the hell can you rely on?

We’re talking here, remember, about an establishment so pukka that any boy whose father is caught standing on

a touchline and found not in possession of a shooting stick and tweed suit of at least Edwardian vintage is pegged out on the college golf course with croquet hoops and left to be devoured by the school’s beagle pack.

That’s why, when I put it to some of the young gentlemen that anyone who thought foxhunting ought to be banned on the grounds of ‘animal cruelty’ needed his head examined, I was so surprised to find one or two of them disagreeing with me.

Actually, that’s not true. I was not, in fact, remotely surprised by this display of politically correct groupthink. I’d seen flashes of it after all in pretty much every subject we’d broached, from the NHS to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs to the EU. But I had slightly hoped – hoped, note, not expected – that this might have been one of those areas where personal insight would triumph over cant.

So I asked whether any of them had tried foxhunting. One of them put up his hand. ‘And it’s fun, right?’ I asked. He nodded. ‘Why is it fun?’ I prodded. ‘Because it’s exciting, is it not? Because it’s about the most thrilling, high-

adrenaline sport there is, with the most flagrant contempt for the culture of health and safety, and by far the coolest kit?’ My young friend agreed that this was so. In that case, I suggested, was it not quite, quite wrong for some modish, upstart notion about vulpine rights to be allowed to trump arguably the finest traditional sport devised in the history of mankind?

The boys weren’t so sure. One of them felt that if you approved of foxhunting, you were halfway towards wanting to revive bear-baiting. Another pointed out that there was a time when folk held similar attitudes towards black people.

‘Ah, but there’s a key difference,’ I suggested. ‘Black people actually are people and always have been, whereas foxes aren’t. At no stage in the future are we going to suddenly discover otherwise and be forced to reconsider our lazy prejudices. Foxes are not people, never have been, never will. Foxes did not write the complete works of Shakespeare. Foxes did not build the Taj Mahal…’

Well my audience conceded me that point, at least. But they still seemed to think I was trying to cheat them with some manner of cunning rhetorical trick. I got a similar ‘does not compute’

response on the morality of the 1945 atom bombs. Even when I pointed out that the bombs had shortened the war and saved the lives of countless Allied troops, the boys had difficulty accepting the notion that the lives of our own men ought to take precedence over those of the innocent Japanese women and children we nuked.

I was reminded, rather, of Allan Bloom’s opening lament in The Closing of the American Mind: ‘There is one thing a professor can be absolutely sure of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative. If this belief is put to the test one can count on the student’s reaction: they will be uncomprehending.’

Exactly. Bloom published that book in 1987 – since when, I’d suggest, things have got an awful lot worse. We seem to have reached a state of intellectual decline where virtually the whole of western culture has forgotten to think and argue from first principles. Instead, from primary school onwards, we’re all handed this starter pack of the various right-on notions we’re now supposed to believe in – and if we dare to question them we’re written off as pariahs, freaks, dangerous troublemakers.

‘You want to be a real public-school rebel, not a fake one? Well, I’m here to show you how…’ I told the sixth-formers of Radley (and visiting girls from St Helen’s, Abingdon) at one of my talks. I meant it, too. If there was one thing above all I wanted to instil in these impressionable young minds it was this: take nothing for granted; question everything; think for yourselves. Only that way do you stand a chance of making the world a better place, as opposed to repeating all the mistakes my own generation has made.

And maybe some of them – most of them, probably – looked at where I stood and saw not a role model but a grim and scary warning of what happens to those who make it their business to fight against the intellectual current. But if at least one of them got the message that true rebellion these days does not involve climbing onto the roof and machine-gunning the parents and staff on Founders Day but rather in challenging the cosy right-on shibboleths of our intellectually decadent, relativist culture, then it will all have been worthwhile.

In a later article James Delingpole “came out” as an Eton parent.

James Delingpole of the Spectator: Is even Radley not safe from the lentil-eating progressives?


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Join us for Handel’s Messiah in the Garsington Opera Pavilion Friday 11th July 2014.

Stephen Clarke, Precentor, writes:

As many of you know, after her brave struggle with ovarian cancer for almost five years, my dear wife Helen died last year. As Helen was very much part of the Radley community I know many of you join me and our two children in feeling a deep sense of loss.

I would like to invite you to join me and many members of the wider Radley community at a special fundraising concert in aid of the Helen Clarke Fund on July 11th 2014. Handel’s Messiah will be sung in the amazing setting of the Garsington Opera pavilion by the choir of New College, Oxford with celebrated soloists Lucy Crowe, Christine Rice, Paul Nilon and Christopher Purves under the direction of Prof. Edward Higginbottom.

When Helen was first diagnosed the condition was already far advanced making the outcome almost inevitable. Her fervent hope was that future advances in early diagnosis and treatment might be made which would improve the life chances of women in the future. In honour of Helen’s wishes a charitable trust has been formed, with the objective of funding a specific three year research project in ovarian cancer at the Weatherall Institute, University of Oxford, a world leader in the field. To fund this crucial work the charity will raise £150,000.

Fabulous efforts to support the fund have already been made by both boys and staff through a wide variety of means, including collections at the end of services and concerts, a photographic exhibition, the picking of apples from around campus to make apple juice, boys collecting lost golf balls, a sports day run by one of the socials, a second hand uniform sale, and many others too.

The fund is extremely grateful to Radley College, New College and Garsington Opera for their support and for providing the unique opportunity to hear a world renowned choir perform this musical masterpiece in the exquisite setting of the Wormsley Estate, near Stokenchurch (under an hour from London and about 20 minutes from Oxford).

In addition, as a special concession, Garsington Opera is generously offering the

opportunity for supporters of this event to become affiliate members of their annual opera festival.

Those attending the concert are invited to arrive in the afternoon in order to enjoy the spectacular gardens and grounds of the Wormsley Estate before the start of the performance. Take a short trip in a vintage bus to the 18th century Walled Garden, enjoy traditional afternoon tea overlooking the famous cricket pitch, admire the spectacular views over the deer park from the Champagne Bar, or stroll around the Opera Garden. During the long dinner interval guests are invited to picnic al fresco in the deer park or in specially designed tents, or dine in the beautifully dressed restaurant marquees with food provided by Jamie Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts. As patrons depart, candles and the moon’s reflection in the lake ensure a memorable evening.

To book tickets please visit www.helenclarkefund.org or call the Garsington Opera box office on 01865 361636

If you would like to support the Fund further, then specific movements of the Messiah can be sponsored individually, or a more focused gift can also be discussed. Please email me ([email protected]) if you would like further details.

If you are unable to attend the concert but would still like to support the Fund, then please email me or visit the website above.

I look forward to seeing you in July, and thank you very much for your support.

Helen Clarke Fund Registered Charity Number 115 1067

Handel’s Messiah in the Garsington Opera Pavilion Friday 11th July 2014

Bertie Johnstone (2007) and James Tufnell (2007) cycled 1000 miles from Land’s End to John O’ Groats over 9 days finishing on September 9th. Bertie raised over £5,000 for the Alzheimer’s Society and James raised over £4,000 for Scope. Bertie completed the ride despite being crashed into by a car in Carlisle. After a trip to A&E in an ambulance and the purchase of a new bike he was able to continue.

Bertie Johnstone and James TufnellLand’s End to John O’ Groats

Here they are (above) in a Greek restaurant in London in October 2013. All together again for the first time since September 1963.

A bottle of fine wine for the first person to identify all six. Claimants can email: [email protected]

(For a little extra help, the front four are shown below on a bridge in France a few days earlier.)

They came from near and far and many adventures over the past 50 years to reunite, for the first time in that 50 years, and to celebrate that great adventure – an educational and hilarious journey to Greece and back, undertaken by six intrepid newly-fledged ORs in a Land Rover that was a little beyond any of their fledgling driving skills.

Danger – ORs at largeDo you recognise these men?

Helen Clarke

Garsington Opera Pavilion in the grounds of the Wormsley Estate


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Hugh Brunt (1999) was a choral scholar at New College, Oxford, where he read Music. As co-founder and Principal Conductor of the London Contemporary Orchestra, he has led innovative programmes at venues including the Roundhouse, The Old Vic Tunnels, LSO St Luke’s, Village Underground and Latitude Festival. In 2010 the LCO was recognised by the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards for its audience development work.

In addition to his work with the LCO, Hugh has appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival with the Britten-Pears Composers Ensemble, and in 2010 conducted performances of Tom Stoppard/André Previn’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre with the Southbank Sinfonia. His repertoire includes works by Adès, Birtwistle, Feldman, Messiaen, Saariaho, Turnage, Varèse, Vivier, Xenakis and Zappa. Hugh has conducted numerous

Benjamin Britten’s centenary was on 22 November 2013 – so November was a very busy month for John Bridcut (1965).

He wrote and directed Requiem on BBC Four on Remembrance Sunday, 10 November. The programme showed the journey of the musical Requiem from its origins in plainsong to Penderecki in the 21st century.

On Thursday 14 November John Bridcut wrote, produced

and directed Britten’s Endgame shown on BBC Four, a rich and poignant film about Britten’s final years, and the impact of what Peter Pears called “an evil opera”, Death in Venice.

On Friday 22 to Sunday 24 November John was in Aldeburgh all weekend as part of the Radio 3 team. The coverage included Singing for Britten, his radio documentary about amateurs who sang for the composer.

John Bridcut – Britten Centenary

Hugh Brunt – London Contemporary Orchestra

Benjamin Britten c1965

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premieres by young composers including Francisco Coll, Shiva Feshareki, Gabriel Prokofiev, Mark Bowden, Emily Hall and Martin Suckling.

Recent engagements include the City of London Sinfonia, Rambert Dance Company, Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain, Mike Figgis’s Just Tell The Truth (Deloitte Ignite 2011) at the Royal Opera House, and a critically acclaimed performance of Grisey’s Vortex Temporum at the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival. In Europe, Hugh has performed at the Musikverein, Vienna, and assisted at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg (Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face). He has participated in masterclasses with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Martyn Brabbins) and the London Sinfonietta (Elgar Howarth). Future engagements include Vivier’s Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele in the disused Aldwych Underground station as part of the LCO’s Imagined Occasions Series, and Shostakovich’s The New Babylon with the City of London Sinfonia.

Collaborative projects include Imogen Heap (with the Holst Singers), Belle & Sebastian, Ron Arad and Foals (most recently on their third album Holy Fire). Hugh conducted Jonny Greenwood’s score for Paul Thomas Anderson’s

Chris Neale (1990, second from left in the back row) is a member of the Swingle Singers. 2013 was the group’s 50th anniversary year with concerts in North and South America, Russia, China, Dubai, Europe and the UK. They released an anniversary album in December.

Chris Neale – Swingle Singers

Soon after graduating from Nottingham University Rupert Taylor (1992) started a company which has just been awarded “Best UK Ski Tour Operator” at the World Snow Awards, hosted by the Daily Telegraph. They reached the finals after assessment from a panel of judges made up of industry experts, and then the public was asked to vote. Despite their small size and niche offering

they managed to harness more support than the household names such as Crystal and Inghams. Rupert says: “Needless to say we’re delighted to have won! It’s fun to be in the industry spotlight, it’s helpful for sales, and it’s great for our team spirit. Above all, it is a great reminder that the experiences that we offer are not only unique, but are highly valued by our supportive alumni. Those

alumni include several ORs who have spent part of their gap year with us in Canada.”

The company, Nonstop Ski & Snowboard, specialises in coaching courses aimed at gap year students and career breakers, as well as holidaymakers keen to really improve their skiing or snowboarding, specifically their off-piste skills.

Rupert Taylor – Best UK Ski Tour Operator

Academy Award-nominated The Master (starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams). His performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, WQXR (New York) and Sky Arts.


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Steve Fairbairn (1961) sent this article in September:

I recently designed a new banknote for the Central Bank of Iceland which is due to be launched in October (2013). It’s the eighth one I have done for them. They are putting on a party for VIPs, (which I am apparently to be and have to make a speech). I dislike being the centre of attention and am dreading it a bit.

My wife Margrét and I have also written a new children’s book (our third) and there’s to be a crush-and-cackle party

and English which sometimes involved correcting the locals on their own grammar and spelling.

The banknotes were done at various times, the first four in 1981 when there was a currency changeover. The 10, 50 and 100 krónur notes are no longer in circulation and have been replaced by coins. The 500, 1000 and 5000 krónur notes have been slightly modified from the original designs for increased security, although from a design point of view I like the older ones better (shown right). The latest note, 10,000 krónur, contains a lot of tricky security features including 3-channel multicolour offset with see-through (front to back) register, 2-colour intaglio, fluorescent 2-colour letterpress, fluorescent features that only show up under black light, a complicated watermark and an Optics security thread with a transparent window. I don’t think I would like to forge it!

The first of our kids’ books, Nonnikonni og kúlurnar (Ronnie-Connie and his Magic Marbles) was published in 2006, followed by Úti í myrkrinu (Out

in the Dark or The Night Scarf) two years later. The title of our latest one is Með hættuna á hælunum (With Danger on their Heels). It is a thriller, rather more sparsely illustrated than the other two. Margrét and I work on our books in very close collaboration although I am obviously more involved with the graphics side of things.

My illustrating work began at Radley. Alexis Dogilewski, then a sub- editor of The Radleian, noticed that I could draw a bit, and shortly I was taken on as an ‘art editor’ which meant basically the fellow that drew the pictures. I illustrated several issues of The Radleian, the pictures including a day-in-the-life in Bayeux Tapestry style (February 1965) and a localised spoof of one of those dreadful trash mags that we used to read (Summer 1965). Charlie Mussett was Art Master at Radley and it was thanks to a book that he lent me from his library that I discovered something called ‘Graphic Design’.

After Radley I went to Bath Academy of Art at Corsham where I studied Graphics or Visual Communication as it was officially, though seldom, called. I learnt all about printing, photography and even paper- making and I also met my Icelandic wife Margrét there. She was on a Fine Arts course.

And thence to Iceland where I discovered that I could pursue my hobby and actually get paid for it. Which is exactly what I wanted to do in the first place!

We now have two daughters and five grandchildren (collectively known as The Bandits). We live in a house just outside Reykjavík with the

sea on three sides and have a cottage in the country about half an hour’s drive away. We built the cottage with our own hands and have recently been felling some of the first trees that we planted there because they had got too big. Surprisingly perhaps, trees grow excellently in Iceland as long as you keep the sheep out.

And of course Margrét and I also do our art together – often involving optical processes; things that change shape or colour as you move past them and sometimes things that use mirrors. Some of our work can be seen on www.margretandsteve.com although the website hasn’t been updated for some considerable time.

around its launch at the end of October. I believe I am expected to write my name on some books or something because I drew the pictures.

I think I speak reasonable Icelandic these days – at least people are sometimes surprised when I tell them that I’m not Icelandic, which is only partly true because these days I have an Icelandic passport.

I learnt German at Radley with ‘Dickers’ Waye which, in retrospect, helped a lot as far as grammar is concerned – I even got a prize for German once, but only because the other fellow (there were only two of us who did German in the sixth form) – was playing cricket when I wasn’t.

Over the years while I worked in advertising (I’m pretty much retired now) I often used to get roped into translating and reading proofs in Icelandic

Steve Fairbairn – Designer in Iceland

The new 10,000 krónur note, designed by Steve Fairbairn, is dedicated to the Icelandic scholar, essayist, and naturalist, Jónas Hallgrímsson

Earlier banknotes

Some of Steve Fairbairn’s artwork for the Radleian Magazine in 1965


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Jo Asser (1977), screenwriter of Starred Up, was awarded the Best British Newcomer Award at the London Film Festival in October. The film was directed by David Mackenzie (1979).

The title of Asser’s uncompromising debut feature refers to the practice of placing violent young offenders in an adult prison. Amanda Posey, Jury President for this award, said: “Starred Up is an original story told with an individual and

authentic voice, at once moving, provocative and always gripping.

“The material, even from a new screenwriter, was intelligent and distinctive enough to attract very high quality filmmaking talent and actors, and to help elicit extraordinary work from all involved.

“The whole jury felt Jonathan Asser brought a fresh, resonant and surprising perspective to a classic conflict.”

Jo Asser – Best British Newcomer

George Stinton (2004) and Tom Cabot (2001) came to Radley to give a talk on joining the Royal Marines

OR Royal Marines

A scene from Starred Up, directed by David Mackenzie and starring Rupert Friend, Jack O’Connell, Sian Breckin and Ben Mendelsohn

From: film.list.co.uk:

First-time screenwriter Jonathan Asser has drawn heavily on his experience of running therapy groups in prison, and the resulting film is as defiantly compassionate as it is brutal and nerve-wracking; there is hope here, with several characters offered a crack at redemption. Starred Up is also great value as a thriller and manages to highlight the consequences of confinement, staff corruption and the power structures that exist between inmates and officers.

Asser’s script is authentically abrasive and peppered with welcome snatches of humour, while Mackenzie and cinematographer Michael McDonough (Winter’s Bone) capture the volatility of the environment without surrendering sensitivity to character. The cast are uniformly excellent, with even the Australia-born Mendelsohn’s wavering ‘Laandan’ accent thankfully not breaking the spell. Starred Up gives you a good sharp shake and, in doing so, truly opens your eyes.

Jo Asser is completing his next script, which has a working title Pretty. The film centres around Keith Pretty, an ex-con who blows his chance to train at a local boxing club so turns to bare-knuckle fighting and prostitution.

Jo is also working with David Mackenzie on another project, details of which are still under wraps.

Starred Up is due to be released by Fox Searchlight in the UK in March.

Jo Asser with Clare Stewart, BFI Head of Cinema and Festivals, and director David Mackenzie

Edu Hawkins – Southbank Centre

Edu Hawkins (1999) held an exhibition of his photographs with David Redfern at the Southbank Centre in November as part of the London Jazz Festival

James Maycock – Danny Boy

James Maycock (1980) wrote and directed the documentary ‘Danny Boy – The Ballad that Bewitched the World’, shown on BBC Four in December

Jake Wilson – All’s Well for 6.2

In a 6.2 lecture at Radley in November, Jake Wilson (1991) sang All’s Well, his cycle of songs inspired by the journals, letters and biographies of Scott and the four men who perished as they returned from the South Pole in 1912

Hamish Mackie’s Exhibition

Hamish Mackie (1987) held an exhibition of his sculpture at The Gallery in Cork Street, London in October


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BBC – A Very British Education

From The Daily Telegraph:

Florence Waters interviews two Radley College alumni to see how they have fared over the years since appearing in the BBC’s documentary Public School in 1980.

“Come along you vile boy,” says Mr Goldsmith as a pupil walks into his very first lesson at Radley College. He then throws a stern look at the TV camera observing the scene.

For better or worse, a few things have changed since the BBC’s very first education-related fly-on-the-wall documentary. Made in 1979 and shown in 1980, Public School followed pupils at the all-boys boarding school in Oxfordshire, where, as headmaster Dennis Silk told the boys in their first assembly, young men acquire the “right habits for life”. What were these habits, did they stick and were they worth £3,000 a year? This week a one-off film, A Very English Education, finds out what became of the “vile boys” from that documentary.

On one level, the new film is a good excuse to dig up archive footage of a world in which schoolmasters poured out glasses of cider for 12-year-old boys and said things like:

“Well done, you’ve got a full scholarship to Radley… Now I’m not going to let you have more than one glass of cider because you’ve got a hockey match tomorrow.”

There is a satisfaction too, in catching up with gregarious schoolboys like Paige Newmark – “everybody w---s here, nobody has any qualms about saying it” – who is now a theatre director in Perth, Australia; and precocious ones such as Rupert Gather, who fancied himself a “cultured intellectual”, didn’t quite know the meaning of terms such as “ivory tower” but used them liberally anyway – and who is now an investment banker.

Coming two weeks after the depressing conclusions of the State of the Nation report on social mobility in Britain, the one-hour film inevitably has a more probing side. It sets out, gently, to examine the pros and cons of the system. In 1979 public boarding schools such as Radley were “a club”, as one mother now puts it in the film. Now they are internationally famous both for delivering top education, and for contributing to the nation’s insoluble divide.

Among the chosen six alumni is David Roper-Curzon, the eldest son of the 20th Baron Teynham.

Aged 16, he refused to go back to school because he was “fed up of being told what to do”. Roper-Curzon went to boarding school at eight. “I remember clinging on to my parents’ car as they drove away. It was a shock to the system. You know.” Roper-Curzon says he was a “bit of a loner” at school. “Those who were into the arts like me – and the two or three others at Radley – would have sat separately at the lunch table, and probably got scowled at.”

His best memories of Radley now are “the bacon sandwiches, and the chapel organ which had just been built and made a terrific noise”. Roper-Curzon

is now a sculptor, and he and his wife work hard every day to prevent his inherited mansion (with “about 15 bedrooms”) from crumbling. There are certain things that still haunt him from the termly grammar tests. “Every time somebody on the news says ‘ha-RASSment’, I scream at the telly, ‘HARASS-ment’.” But despite voting with his feet as a youth, Roper-Curzon sent his youngest son to a private boarding school, and seems to have no strong feelings about Radley or the public school system.

By contrast Tim Huxley, a vicar’s son from Newcastle who was “down the list” on the pecking order at Radley because of his Geordie accent, has a great deal to say about his school days. “Pivotal,” he says, calling headmaster Dennis Silk “the most influential man on my life besides my father”. In the school holidays Huxley returned to the North where the coal mines were closing. “At the time I thought: there’s something quite unjust here… I wanted to make people more aware of what the world was.” He turned his anger at what he calls a “sense of entitlement” that was ubiquitous at Radley to his advantage, becoming secretary of the debating society. “The time is ripe for a revolution!” he shouts in some

1979 archive footage. Perhaps unexpectedly, Huxley, now the CEO of a shipping company, turns out to be the biggest advocate of the private school system (probably the least enthusiastic is former scholar Donald Payne, whose interview is very moving). So what happened and why does he now think that the private school system is “fundamentally not unfair”? “When I shook off the 18-year-old radical I realised the best way to help the world was to create jobs.” Speaking to me from a bar in Hong Kong, his home of 25 years, he says, “A lot of people leave those schools with a sense of social responsibility.”

Huxley is the most frank about how boarding school affected the boys’ characters. “You don’t show emotion. I don’t show emotion. People still criticise me for that.” Why? “It’s a sign of weakness. I suppose somebody might have exploited it.” Unmarried and childless, Tim quotes his former headmaster saying he’s acquired “good habits for life” – and can look after himself (“I’m always out of the office by midnight”). It’s followed by one of the most telling questions in the film: “Do you think you look after yourself too well?” This is followed by a long silence before the reply, “Maybe.”

David Roper-CurzonPaige Newmark Tim HuxleyJames Lovegrove

Rupert Gather

Donald Payne

In 1979, the BBC made a documentary series, Public School, about life at Radley. In A Very English Education, broadcast in October 2013, film-maker Hannah Berryman found some of the boys, to see what sort of men they became.

Hamish Mackie’s Exhibition

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AGM & Committee Lunch at RadleySaturday 10 May

Networking Party at RadleySaturday 7 June

Vyvyan Hope Lunch at Radleypostponed until 2015

– meet the new Warden

Radley Rugby Centenary Event details to be announced soon

Shell Parents Drinks Sunday 21 September

Silver BallFriday 28 November

Calendar of Events 2014Radleian Society & Foundation

West Country Dinner in Bath – November

More than 60 people attended our recent dinner in the Roman Baths & Pump Room in Bath with a great mix of ORs and current and past parents

Charlie Syer (1999) playing Mr Godot’s patient and long-suffering personal assistant, Mr Snook, at the Waterloo East Theatre in October/November

Oli Christie’s company Neon Play (www.neonplay.com), who create iPhone and iPad games, received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. Since their launch in 2010, Neon Play has had over 50 million downloads, with hits including Flick Football, Paper Glider and Traffic Panic London. As a Queen’s Awards winner, Oli was invited to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and other members of the Royal Family

Oli Christie – Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation

Past and Present Lunch – October

A Lunch for Past and Present members of Common Room was held in October. among those present were: Peter & Jennifer Boyden, Simon & Rosie Claxton, Peter Cline, David & Florence Corran, Michael & Dawn Cuthbertson, John & Margaret Doulton, Anthony Dowlen, Dave & Sue Fielding, Mark & Snezzy Floyer, John & Judy Harris, Charles Hastings, Michael Jenkins, Peter & Angela LeRoy, Michael & Marion Lewis, Jane & Olivier Masséglia, Richard & Rosie Pollard, Robin & Helen Rees, Richard Smail, Bob & Clare Stoughton-Harris and Christopher & Lucia Turner

Charlie Syer in G()D()T


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Radley RugbyCentenary

Eventdetails to be announced soon

SAVE THE DATECharlie’s Hong Kong Dinner – November

Charlie Crofton-Atkins (1985) organised a dinner for OR friends at the Hong Kong Club in November Back Row : Giles Morgan, Stephen Bamford, Mark Cox, Rupert Harrow, Patrick Watts, James Mackay Front Row: Charlie Crofton-Atkins, Nick Studholme-Wilson, Lucy Rooney neé Hudson

Newcastle University Supper – December

44 undergraduates from Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria attended an excellent supper in Newcastle with David Edwards, Simon Barlass and Jan Glover from Radley and Rupert Henson, Chairman of the Radleian Society Committee.

DEAR MARY YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED

Q. A small matter, but one I would like your advice on. When you have mid-row seats in the theatre, and people are half-standing to let you through, should you face them or turn your back? The former can seem a bit intimate, the latter can seem rude as they are getting your backside thrust at them. – H.A., Sandford-on-Thames

A letter from Hamish Aird in The Spectator

A. It is incorrect to face your fellow audience members as you pass. The brief mimicry of mating is highly intrusive, but worse is the potential for germ-breathing. You can sweeten the insult of presenting your back by drawing attention to yourself and apologising from the aisle before progressing along the row.

TheSilver Ball

in London with Downe Houseand St Mary’s CalneFriday 28 November

in support ofThe Armed Forces Fund


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Lusimus

Radley College, Abingdon, OX14 2HR Web: www.radley.org.uk

Anthony Robinson, Development Director Tel: 01235 543151

Email: [email protected]

Lucy Johnsson, Administrator &PA to Development Director

Tel: 01235 548543 Email: [email protected]

Kim Charlton, Database Manager Tel: 01235 543172


Jan Glover, Events Manager Tel: 01235 543171


Hamish Aird, Foundation Philosopher Tel: 01235 548574


Jock Mullard, Publications Tel: 01235 543103


Contact Details

The Radley Foundation – Registered Charity No. 272671 The Radleian Society – Registered Charity No. 309243

AthleticsThis is just a short note to all those Mariners who so kindly presented me with a mounted Radley blade and also enabled me to purchase a replacement car.

Over 200 people came to the Henley Party and it was slightly sad that it clashed with GAUDY but when the date was finalised neither Jock, the Mariners Committee nor I realised it would, since we assumed Gaudy would be on the Saturday. The party eventually finished about 8.30 p.m. when the President and I left the Cricket Ground and got a lift up the Hill.

So Jock is not infallible but he has kindly agreed to send you this. Though it is an 09 plate it had only done 18,000 Motability miles. It has had a slight shock since I got behind the wheel !

See you next Henley and thank you also for sending in your spare badges for the parents and supporters of the 1st 8 and the Quad, which qualified so well.

Various donations to the Harry Mahon Cancer Research Trust have enabled me to send nearly £5,000 to Professor Cerundulo to purchase a 2nd Blood Cell Counter machine which should be arriving as I write this. Over £90,000 has been raised since 2001 - a true testament to Harry’s memory.

Finally I must thank Jock for all his help over the years, organising this party with Simon Shaw and Henry Morris, and taking such superb pictures for all to see in the Old Radleian, not forgetting Richard Morgan for his thunderous eulogy.

Donald Legget

Thank you from Donald Legget

Rowing

The Bewl Bridge vets crews heading onto the rafts with Tom Durie (1970) at 5 and David Henderson (1969) at 7

428 scullers completed the 11 km course and Mahe Drysdale, the London Olympic Gold medallist, was the overall winner. Sean Morris (1957, above) won the Masters G category (65 to 69), giving him a victory for the third year at this regatta.

Oli Wynne-Griffith (2007) rowed for Yale and Tom George (2008) for Princeton – both in the top Heavyweight crews for their universities.

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After Cambridge and three years teaching at Radley, Ed Pearson became Project Director of the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation in August 2013. He represented Rwanda in a triangular series with Uganda and the MCC.

George Gundle (2007) represented Oxford in the 200 metres, 400 metres and the 4 x 400 and 4 x 100 metres relays in the Varsity Match in May. He also competed in the Oxford/Cambridge v Penn/Cornell match at Cornell and the Oxford/Cambridge v Harvard/Yale match in Boston (picture above). He is Treasurer of the Oxford University Athletics Club.

Head of the Charles, Boston, October

Silver Skiff International Endurance Regatta, Turin, November

The home team: L to R: Jan Glover, Jock Mullard, Lucy Johnsson, Anthony Robinson, Kim Charlton, Hamish Aird

Documents

Lusimus February 2014