Dear Old Lathallian,

Lathallan School Former Pupils' Newsletter - May 2014
 

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Lathallan Rugby Sevens - 26 April 2014
 

Many thanks to Fasque House Hotel and Gaelic Property for their support with the new strips, and to Aberdeen Asset Management for sponsoring the tournament.


Results:

Jim Ball (1948-1953)

Lathallan rugby in the 1980s...

Alan Dickie (1962-1966)

Mr Dickie wrote to us recently about his memories of Lathallan in the mid-1960s:

"Charlie Easmon would have been a year or two older than me.

Julian Scopes, William Grieves, Bruce (BMS) Williamson, David Strachan, Nigel Pennie, John Balfour, the Smith Brothers from Alyth, Archie Brown, etc. all contempories.

The teachers I remember were RB of course, Clarke for English, King for history etc, Mills for French, Wally Roger for Latin and Greek which I never could get the hang of.. The matron was Mrs Forrest, assistant matron Roberta MacPherson. The Groundsman was Jim and the old fellow who cleaned our shoes was Peter.

Kingy (Mr King)  lived in the house near the rugby field and he had a daughter Pamela and a son Alistair who went to Lathallan too but he was quite a bit younger than me."

Richard Mill (1996 - 2000)

Last Train Journey – May 1966

Pipe Band 50th Anniversary, 1964-2014

Mr David Waller, (1939-44)

Alastair K Shepherd (1968-1973), Chairman of the Old Lathallian Association, writes:

"David Waller, who was a pupil at Lathallan between 1939 and 1943, was recently in touch with a copy of his memoirs 'Life at Lathallan School'.  David and his brother Ian (who became a Daily Telegraph journalist but is now sadly deceased) came to Lathallan on the outbreak of war; they lived near London but their parents felt that remote Lathallan might be safer from enemy bombers!
 
At that time Lathallan had 23 pupils.  David mentions that as far as uniform was concerned he recalls the blazer being grey with a top pocket embroidered with a large intertwined L and S;  the peaked cap was piped with red down each of the quadrants, and a grey and red striped tie, grey shirt, short trousers, grey stockings and black shoes completed the outfit.  However the most essential item in his overnight attaché case was his gas mask.  I would like to point out that apart from the gas mask this was exactly the same uniform as worn by me in 1972!
 
The war affected Lathallan in many ways.  For instance, the dormitories on the top floor of the house were changed with the beds brought down to the ground floor with the classrooms moved upstairs to the top floor.  The dormitories had ceilings shored up with pit props to get extra protection should the school be hit by a bomb.  Outside the windows on the ground floor a thick brick blastproof wall was built to protect the school from exploding bombs.
 
Of the 23 boys, three were Polish boys who were sons of Polish Air Force Officers. Two were Smolenski and Wasilewski, the later being a Senior Commander in the Polish Air Force in the Fife area.  As far as I can ascertain there is no reference to the identity of these boys in any of the school archives.  I would love to hear from anybody who could shed further light on these boys. Of the three English boys David travelled with each term to London, one was called Osbourne.
 
David mentions the shock of the compulsory communal cold showers every morning, come rain or shine.  This was followed by physical training outside taken by Mr Pearson, who was an ex-First World War army officer and knew all about army discipline!  Following a short run a well deserved breakfast was served.
 
The staff was very small initially, consisting of headmaster Mr Nock, Mr Pearson, Miss Stewart (who taught geography and art) Miss Aitken (the matron) and Miss McDonald (the Cook).  Mrs Nock, widely regarded as Mr Nock’s spy in the school, also taught music and the piano.
 
On Sundays the entire school walked to the local church in Largoward, which had a very strict Presbyterian minister.  As David came from a non-religious family his hellfire sermons came as something of a shock.  David remembers word for word part of one of his sermons :-  “You may think that Sodom and Gomorrah, those evil cities turned to stone by God because they were full of evil people, has no connection with this village of Largoward but I say YES there was a connection!” – followed by a mighty thump on the Bible and the raising of clouds of dust.
 
Mr Nock was promoted to Colonel of the local Home Guard in charge of protecting the area in event of invasion, and this did not sit easily with some parents who felt that he should be spending all this time looking after the school.  The boys also helped the war effort by digging up their gardens to grow vegetables, also helping local farmers with potato picking in their fields and the entire school was taught how to knit so they could knit scarves for the soldiers at the front.  David recalls it was a strange sight to see all the boys sitting in the library knitting scarves in khaki colours which gradually made the final length of 6 feet.
 
The lack of staff meant boys had to help in the kitchen and used to have fun hiding in the dumb waiter and being lifted up from the ground floor to the first floor - almost certainly risking a beating from Mr Nock if they were caught.  It seems from David's memoirs that the most abundant food in the school was lumpy porridge which was made the night before, and rabbit which was easily and cheaply available from the grounds!
 
As the old Lathallan School building was destroyed by fire in 1949, David never returned from the south to his old school but I am hoping to see him at the opening of the war memorial in November. 
 
If anyone would like a digitised copy of David’s memoirs, please contact Andrea at the school.  I now have a number of memoirs of the “old” Lathallan and am keen to increase my archives."



David Waller today

Allotments are relaunched!

 The allotment work taking shape leading up to the relaunch.

“Cut the Ribbon” at the Opening Ceremony of our new allotment which has been designed and built by the School’s Eco Group and parent volunteers. The Ribbon Cutting took place  on Tuesday 18th March 2014.

Junior School was hosting an Alice in Wonderland themed Tea Party too.

Kathy Johnstone from sponsors Dobbies opened the allotment and is pictured above with Mr Richard Toley, Dr Steve Appleyard and the Senior Eco Group. 

J. Erwin Dunlop,   
Latin Teacher at Lathallan(1971)     

J. Edwin Dunlop, former teacher at Lathallan School dropped us a line from sunny Florida...

"I have been involved with the music industry for years, and I have three albums released. They are all available on I-Tunes and Amazon. My newest album: "Celtic Songs by Erwin and the Selkies" made it to record of the week over here last year.

I remember Dick Heslop. He taught Art while I was there

I remember Raymond Burton as a classic gentleman from the old school. I was initially puzzled by his seeming coolness to having hired me. It turned out it was because my wife, Diana, is from Florida -- an American, for goodness sake, a term not to be lightly bandied about in polite company, being a virtual swear-word. Further, it seemed that Raymond had been a POW in World War II.

They either escaped towards the end of the war, or the allies freed them, but in any case, they proceeded (with more patriotism than common sense) to march back to England. Their uniforms by this time were either faded or non-existent, and they were spotted as Germans by a squadron of American Mustangs who proceeded to machine-gun the entire group. Raymond was unhurt. He would re-tell this story frequently, and I would always respond with re-assuring comments, like "Oh, that's terrible. How awful! Those darned Americans", etc, etc.

The Burtons' favourite activity was the berry-picking in the rear garden in the Summer behind the school. Hundreds of pounds of fruit were gathered and made into jam which lasted for most of the rest of the year.
 
Wasps were a problem around the classrooms at Lathallan. It never seemed to occur to Raymond that he should hire a "wee man" to spray the place to get rid of the wasps. When I suggested it, the response was that "we've never done that before" -- the classic Raymond Burton response to anything that cost money. The wasps were especially prevalent around Gordon's French classroom. The boys would make a practice of collecting the wasps in jam jars all morning, and then releasing them In Gordon's French class all at once. Twenty minutes of entertainment followed, with Gordon leaping around all over the room to catch the wasps, with the boys cheering him on.
 
One more story. During a parent interview, Raymond was busy explaining the curriculum in great detail. The mother (poor thing) innocently asked: "But, Mr. Burton, when do the children play?" Raymond gave a classic response: "Play? Did you say Play? -- they don't play at Lathallan........................."

Best always,
J. Erwin Dunlop, Sr. Partner     
Latin Teacher at Lathallan in 1971"    

Neil Macmillan (1955-1961)
Ontario, Canada
 

Another Old Lathallian from across the pond also has been in touch...

"I feel very fortunate to have been educated at Lathallan. Harry Nock was an exemplary headmaster in terms of discipline, academics and generally noble conduct. I greatly appreciated being taught by him in Maths and French. I also greatly appreciated playing sports under Raymond Burton and was pleased when he came to Strathallan in 1964 to see our first rugby game against Merchiston and was impressed with my wing-forward play. All the other teachers and staff including Mr. King and Mr. Rogers (the Classics master), as well as the matron, the nurse and the headmaster’s secretary were unimpeachably good as well.

I excelled particularly in Classics and eventually matriculated at King’s College Cambridge in those subjects. Although it is difficult to maintain contact with former Lathallians when we all go on to many different schools, I naturally maintained contact with W.G. Reid, who went on to Strathallan with me and my Aberdeen friend, Keith Irvine, who went on to Fettes.

I returned to Lathallan briefly in 1980 before moving to Africa and then again in 2000 at the time of my niece’s wedding in Aberdeen. I adored the beautiful setting of Lathallan, especially the shoreline along the beach to Gourdon and Johnshaven harbour. I left Lathallan with very high ideals and have attempted to maintain and even broaden them since then.

Although it has been well over 50 years since I left Lathallan, my memories of my five years there are still crystal clear – and they are all positive!"

We look forward to welcoming Mr Macmillan to Lathallan in September when he will give a talk to the Senior School on his life at Lathallan and career path.

Katie Harper visit

Katie Wilson (nee Harper) called past during the Easter Holidays fondly remembering her years from 1988 to 1990, Katie qualified as teacher of Seconday English in 2005, currently 2^nd in Department of a large Secondary school in Kent.

Former Pupils' Sports Club

There will be Lathallan Former Pupils sports club in the Summer of 2014 with 12 Old Boys (or soon to be Old Boys) interested in such a venture. They have provisionally decided on entering several rugby 7s and 10s tournaments next Summer when the majority are back in the area after University term ends. It will also be a way of connecting old school friends.

There are sponsorship opportunities available, if you wish to have your company name/ logo on the team strips and profile given at the matches, the club would be delighted to hear from you. A great way of supporting this new rugby team, have a connection to the school and raise your company profile at the same time.

If you are interested in taking part and/ or sponsorship, please contact James Cowie (2005-2011) on fpsports@lathallan.org.uk

The Gift - BBC new programme

Rachel Ozers from the BBC has been in touch with Lathallan. "Wall to Wall is a television production company  working on a new series for BBC One provisionally called 'The Gift'. I just wanted to tell you a bit about it and see if you thought it might be the sort of thing any Old Lathallians might be interested in. It would be great to know what you think.

The concept is all about resolution and reconciliation – helping people to make amends for something that they have done or to express their gratitude to someone who has affected their life in a really profound way. We’ve found that holding on to an unpaid debt of gratitude or the burden of guilt can have a really negative impact on both the physical and mental health of an individual, and leave them unable to move on with their lives. Yet people often find it difficult to do this themselves. For example they no longer have contact with the person who helped them when they needed it most, or don’t perhaps have the courage to make an approach to an old friend alone.

We’re putting together a team of professional mediators and specialists in tracing people, to responsibly put these people in touch, and support them through a meeting.

One of the areas that I’m looking into is that of people who have lost touched with important individuals from their childhood, and this is why I am contacting you. I wondered if any of the members of your Leavers Association felt like this about anyone from their past. Perhaps someone they would to apologise to for the way they acted while at school? Perhaps a childhood nanny, old friend or even a stranger who was really there for them when they were younger and who they would love to find? Perhaps someone they really regret hurting who they’d finally like the ability to make amends with? Is this something you’ve come across anywhere at all? It’s often difficult to realise – especially when you’re young – exactly what a person meant to you until it is too late to tell them. It’s a concept we’d really like to explore in the series, and an area in which we could offer something of a searching specialism to help people get back in touch.

It would be great to speak further if you think this might be something that any of your leavers might be interested in. I have had a quick look at your alumni list and it seems that people go on down a whole range of really interesting paths, and we would love to be able to tell some of those stories. I’m on this email or direct line 020 7241 9310 "
Rachel Ozers, BBC

Lathallan Foundation

The school has ambitious plans to improve and develop its facilities and to enhance the experience of Lathallan pupils, staff and visitors.

We also plan to make a Lathallan education more accessible to gifted children whose families might not be in a financial position to send them. Therefore we wish to create more bursaries and scholarships.

Our fees alone will not allow us to achieve all that we plan in order to ensure that the reputation of Lathallan as a school of educational excellence continues to grow into the future. That is why we have developed the Lathallan Foundation.

It will be a focus of fundraising for school projects, and we are asking former pupils, former and present families, former staff and all friends of Lathallan to give what they can to the Lathallan Foundation. If you are able to support the school in any way, please get in touch.

If you wish to meet with the Headmaster, Mr Richard Toley, to discuss the Lathallan Foundation and how you may help, Please contact Andrea Watt, Head of Development and Alumni Relations to arrange a meeting andreawatt@lathallan.org.uk (01561 362220) and indeed for any enquiries about the Foundation, Bursaries, Legacy giving and ongoing support.

Old Lathallian's section for website coming soon...

Coming Soon -Old Lathallian Member's website!

Coming soon and an email will follow to announce the exciting new Old Lathallian section of the Lathallan website. You can upload all your details, pictures, search for your year group, see events and reunions!

Please look out for the email soon with the link and password to log on and register to your details and set up your own profile!