DECEMBER 2004 REUNION

A sunny December morning augured well for an enjoyable Reunion for the 120 or so elderly OTs who had decided to relive their schooldays without the company of their ladies (they hadn’t seen many of those around the School in their day, no doubt ). The mild conditions suggested maybe climate change is a reality, but for OTs of the generation starting at Tonbridge between 1930 and 1951 not many are likely to complain about such balmy weather for the time of year.

As a group, they cut a fine figure, distinguished in a rather old-fashioned and stylish way. Many had journeyed far, not just from Europe but even one OT from South Africa, to attend the Reunion. One 90 year-old had sent regrets, prevented from leaving the Western Isles at the last moment due to his wife’s ill health.

As usual, the first phase of the day consisted of attempts to recognise erstwhile friends and contemporaries, preferably without peering at their name badge, while drinking an introductory coffee in Old Big School, with its memories of daily newspapers and the summer ritual of year-end exams under the reproving gaze of past headmasters. For the Reunion it was a sobering thought that all had known during their years at School only Sloman, Whitworth or Waddy, whereas on the walls there now hang the portraits of three successors, soon to be joined by that of Martin Hammond.

Coffee in Old Big School, and the shorter pre-lunch drinks, gives the greatest opportunity to meet up with a good number of ones contemporaries and indeed to talk with those formidable, much more senior OTs. Almost half had been at Tonbridge during the Second World War, some remembering aerial dogfights and the dreadful sight of formations of Heinkel bombers flying northwards. One OT had been at Dulwich, which was briefly relocated down to Tonbridge early during the War, before switching over; his allegiances must have been strained by the rugby match watched later during the Reunion. Some coincidental links emerged during the coffee and drinks sessions, including the strange fact that no less than five members of the mid-1950s boxing team were present, perhaps demonstrating determination…. We were also joined by several distinguished former members of staff and Mike Bushby with a regrettably wonky knee.

The service in Chapel provided the opportunity for even senior OTs to show off those singing skills developed in adolescence, particularly when given the stirring challenge of Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer; no Welsh rugby fans would have sung the tune with greater gusto. And before finally signing out with The School Hymn, so very early C20th in sentiment and sound, we listened to an excellent address from the Chaplain, Martin Beaumont. He highlighted the word Inestimable from the General Thanksgiving, linking it unerringly to the love and joys brought by family and friends, as well as to the deep values developed during ones years at Tonbridge.

Good wine flowed at lunch in Big School, redolent of the annual summer-term Gilbert and Sullivan shows starring Tom Staveley and Bathy. By now bonhomie and the pleasure in recollecting times past were tangible. In fact, an ideal audience for the speeches, first from our esteemed President, Anthony Hudson, also currently Master of the Skinners, whose ‘implosive P’ caused the sound system some difficulty but who was nevertheless warmly applauded. Then it was the turn of the Headmaster, Martin Hammond, to address probably his last OT Reunion audience before retiring after 15 years at Tonbridge. And what a story he had to tell! An independent Management and Governance Inspection had recently concluded that there are no material aspects for improvement at Tonbridge, “a truly outstanding school”. If that sounds rather Panglossian, the results in work and play speak for themselves. After several years at number 3 in the A Level table of independent boys’ schools, behind Winchester, we have irritatingly just been edged to number 4 by Eton but nevertheless pas mal. Almost half the boys sitting A Levels achieved three A grades and the same proportion are Oxbridge candidates. As for sport, in the summer the First XI had played 17 matches and won 15 (including against Eton) and this autumn the First XV was so far unbeaten in 9 games, with Dulwich later in the afternoon and then Wellington to come, suggesting the likelihood of a clean sweep. Other outstanding results had been achieved in sailing and cross-country running. Music continues to flourish at Tonbridge, as evidenced by the current performances at the E.M.Forster Theatre of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a new opera composed at Tonbridge.

The Headmaster finished by describing the aims of the new Tonbridge School Foundation, whose funding target is to double the existing endowment. In the short/medium term, plans are to improve sports facilities and construct new buildings for English, modern languages and information technology; in the longer term, the aim is to widen access for able boys from poorer family backgrounds. Martin Hammond emphasised how the School is hoping that OTs will play their part in making the Foundation a success, thus underpinning the future of Tonbridge, particularly through establishing legacies (as already a number, including your correspondent, have done).

Well fortified, we took off in different directions, ably guided by a number of boys, to see something of what the School has become. Larger than in our time, now with 750 boys and Vishal Mashru as Head Boy, Tonbridge has developed its fabric of new buildings in impressive manner, including the Cawthorne Lecture Theatre, the E.M.Forster Theatre, the Orchard Centre, and the Vere Hodge Centre for Arts and Technology, where clocks show the time in New York, Tokyo, Stockholm and Tonbridge, and departmental-head David Dixon was expounding the joys of computer generated industrial design. On the wall in the Memorial Corridor a notice advertised the Mathematical Olympiads with an intractable problem suggesting the chances of winning the National Lottery are between one in 100 years and one in 1 million years ! In the Modern Language block, boys are encouraged to learn German with ads for a well known beer (Bitte, ein Bit ) and Spanish with the temptation of Mexican food. Behind the times the School certainly is not.

So off to the New Fifty, or Martins for us old fogeys, to see the First XV grimly hanging on to beat Dulwich 21-20, leaving only Wellington standing in the way of an unbeaten season. Then for the final act, we dispersed to our old Houses for tea, looking at walls bearing the once awe-inspiring names of house-praes and leafing through albums of fading House photos showing those impossibly fresh-faced boys we once were. Our Secretary, Peter Morris, and the Clerk to the School, Robin Dunn, had succeeded admirably in providing for our Reunion of the older generation of OTs what Martin Hammond at lunch hoped would be “an enjoyably nostalgic day”.