1947 - 1997 REUNION

Pat Bird's '50 Years On' reunion occupied his and my thoughts for some six months and below are the articles and entries which describe the main events in our search for the 'missing' members.

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Pat BIRD. Pat, who was in every sense the founder of this group, died in October 2001. We received the following note from his brother in law as we were planning our 'table' for the 2001 OHA Dinner:

Hi Bob
My name is Rob and I'm Mary's brother.
I'm so sorry to have to inform you that Patrick died suddenly on Saturday 6th October at his home in Alveston. He had a heart attack that took him instantly.
Mary is coping as well as one can with her grief.
Mary's son David and myself are monitoring Patrick's mail and answering where appropriate.
Regards, Rob

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In the event, 16 of the original 64 made it to the Dinner, leaving about 15 traced but not present, three believed to be deceased and the remainder untraced. No doubt the search for them will continue as long as any clues can be found. We heard at the dinner that Dave Hatherley is in Canada, but searches of on-line phonebooks and e-mail directories have not yet revealed his whereabouts.

David HATHERLY With much sadness, we hear that David died in Ontario on 13th May 1998. He was without doubt the brightest of our year and as the above note suggests, we were particularly keen to trace him for our reunion last year. The following notice has been e-mailed to us by Peter Coleman who notes that David lived quite close to him and yet he never knew.

Announcement, Kitchener-Waterloo Record 14 May 98 (119Kb)

MINI REUNION!

Mini reunion

Will, alias John, Ham, was able to put us in touch with Mike Paynter, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Mike has spent a few weeks in England (Feb.-Mar. 1998). Pat organised a mini get-together in a pub near Weston super Mare, when he, Gerald Bye, Will Ham, Bryan Brice, Mike (Spike) Paynter and Bob Pendleton spent a pleasant couple of hours recalling schooldays at HGS. We tried to get hold of Clive Rawlins who was temporarily living quite near but narrowly missed him. We hope to have a new address for him soon. We are most keen to hear from anyone who can add to our knowledge of the 'missing' members, especially Dave Hatherly, Brian 'Bob' Snell and Robin Jones. To this Pat has added a request for any news of Patrick Nye who joined the group later on.

Those present at the Annual Dinner shared a most enjoyable evening, both during the meal and in extended chats before and afterwards. Understandably, the Chairman was pleased to report a permanent increase in Association membership as well as record numbers. No doubt he would be pleased to hear that the '48-ers' were moved to repeat the exercise next year! Few of those present are readers of this page - the generation gap shows in matters IT! - but if any reader happens to be able to add to our knowledge of the present whereabouts of the missing 30, please let me know

1947 - 1997 PROPOSED REUNION

The Science Fifth, 1951-52 (jpeg - 151K)

A footnote to the notice of the AGM of the Old Huish Association to be held at the College on Thursday, 17th April at 7.30pm stated that Patrick Bird (tel 01454 414466) was hoping to meet as many as possible of those who joined the school in September 1947 at the Annual Dinner on Friday, 7th November. I got in touch with Pat and he already had a far longer list of names than I could remember (although in some cases he was unsure of first names or spelling). He noted that in a few cases boys joined the group later on. The important thing was that they were members of the forms that started in 1947 and took O levels in 1952.

Since writing the above, I have been in regular touch with Pat and we are compiling what is we hope a definitive list of those boys who joined the school in 1947. The statement about O-levels in 1952 above has proved a little misleading as it has become clear (to me! - Pat was one of those affected) that there were a few who were unable, by their age, to take O-levels then so carried on for a further year. The discovery that the 1947 and 1950 Form Lists are still in existence means that we now have what is probably the most complete list we are likely to get. Here follow the lists for 2B, 2H and 2P, 1947.

2B - Branton	2H - Hepworth	2P - Polley
Bird, P.J. dec'd 6.10.01 Butler, E.D. Bye, G.P. Coleman, P Collins, T.R.J. Dally, E.J. Ford, R.A. Ham, J. Hatherly, D.G. dec'd 13.05.98 Holcombe, D.E. Irwin, V.C.R. Knight, C.J. Marney, P.E. Mogg, G.E.W. Pendleton, R.C.H. Peterson, J. Rawlins, C.C. Reed, J.W. Smith, B.A. Snell, B.K. Taylor, J.K. Wallis, J	Amor, R.E.F. Banks, R.L. Broderick, J.E. Court, G.W. Dawe, D.G. Goss, T.H. dec'd 12.04.98 Howard, J.V. Jones, R.G. Keitch, T.E.F. King, K.J. Lee, B.K. Marks, R.D.G. Millard, L.W.J. Mockridge, D.G. Moody, R.K. Palk, C.W. dec'd Parr, E.A. Parrish, D. Pincombe, I. Shattock, D.J. South, M.E. Toller, W.	Adams, J.E.G.dec'd Beck, C.A. dec'd Brice, B. Carslake, D.W.J. Cobb, B.H.F. Davies, A.J. Dawe, M.J. Hodges, D.C. Knowles, W.T.J. Newport, P.J.H. Paul, J.E. Ponting, M.A. Priddle, E.E. Richards, C. Shepherd, T.J. Sinclair, I. Taylor, P.L. Ward, A.W. Webber, G.W. Wilkins, D.J.

We have phone numbers and addresses for those in red and hope soon to contact one or two others. We also submitted a Press Release for publication during August:

Old Huishers' Reunion 1947-97

A group of pupils from the former Huish's Grammar School plan to meet again fifty years after they first joined the school.

In the late summer of 1947, some seventy boys from towns and villages all over south-west Somerset prepared to join the school after winning places there in the very new "11-plus" examination.

Patrick Bird, now a retired Headmaster living near Bristol said, "I remember that first day very well. I was the only boy selected from Dulverton School and made a very nervous journey along the old Barnstaple line to Taunton. At Venn Cross a number of other Huish boys joined the train, one of whom was Bryan Brice, also a new boy that day. Happily we've remained good friends ever since."

Bryan, a retired Police Chief Superintendent, also lives near Bristol. Recently he met three others from his old class - John Dally, John Peterson and Colin Richards - all now retired. They decided to mark the 50th anniversary by attending the Old Huish Association Dinner on November 7th at the County Ground.

This suggestion was picked up by Bob Pendleton, another of the group, who is currently working in 'semi-retirement' at the Richard Huish College. Bob said, "I was able to suggest some other contacts and publicise the gathering on the College's Internet site. We have made contact with former fellow pupils in Canada and Fiji."

The school careers of the "Class of '47" spanned between four and eight years, and most have not seen each other since National Service and College courses intervened during the 1950s.

Any member of the '47 contingent who would like to join the gathering is urged to contact Patrick Bird, or Bob Pendleton on 01823 490783. NB: This was written before Pat's sad demise in October 2001

A further article appeared in the September issue of Scene, a local free newspaper. Our grand total of positive contacts was 27 names with possible links to a few more. The invitations to apply for tickets were sent out to Members on the 1st Oct. and I sent a further 16 copies to our contacts, some of whom were also acting for friends. A few others were already Members of the Association. One pleasing result of our efforts to contact as many of the original '47-ers as we could was a letter of support from Mr. J.R. Harewood, now the Rev. J.R., who especially recalled many happy hours in the old 25th Taunton (H.G.S.) Scouts. He was known to the boys as 'Tarka' on account of his swimming ability, and together with 'Bosun' Bill Cobbe, supported 'Skip' Bob Branton in the running of what must have been one of the leading Troops in the area. He writes that he quite recently visited Bill Cobbe and his wife in Congleton but in a sadder note adds that he has also officiated at the funerals of several other staff of that era.