Lathallan School Old Lathallian's Newsletter, November 2016

Science Centre Official Opening

The Lathallan Science Centre was officially opened on Thursday 29th September.

Professor Sir Graeme Catto, Chair of the Lathallan Board of Governors (pictured above) and Headmaster, Mr Richard Toley welcomed the guests who included donors, staff, parents and key representatives of those involved in the architecture and construction of the new centre

The named laboratories were opened by Professor Pamela King, daughter of the late Donald King, a former teacher at Lathallan for 34 years, Mr Alex Callander, former pupil (1969-1973) and Mr Steve Blackburn, Chair of the Lathallan Parents' Association. The Biology laboratory has been named after the late former Chairman of the Board of Governors, Sir Fred Holliday. Sir Fred's widow and son attended to officially open the laboratory.

(Above) Melanie Cassidy, Pipe Band Leader. Lorna Hutchison, Norman Hutchison and Alex Callander

(Below) Tom Cowie, Richard Holliday, Pamela King, Alex Callander, Steve Blackburn, Professor Sir Graeme Catto, Richard Toley. Seated is Lady Holliday.

Old Lathallian Alex Callander (1969-1973) opens the Physics Laboratory in his name.

Professor Pamela King, daughter of the late Donald King opens the Environmental Science Laboratory.

Old Lathallians Norman Hutchison, Chairman of Old Lathallian Association Alastair Shepherd and Alex Callander with the new periodic table - some elements are still remaining to sponsor at £200 each. Contact Andrea Watt on andreawatt@lathallan.org.uk

Sad News

We were sad to hear of the deaths of Old Lathallian Fran Ten Bos and Former Chairman of the Lathallan Board of Governors, Professor Sir Fred Holliday.
Their obituaries are published here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/09/07/frans-ten-bos-scottish-rugby-player--obituary/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/09/18/sir-frederick-holliday-marine-biologist-and-university-vice-chan/

Colin Adamson (1950-1956)

"My father chose to stay on in post-independence India as a jute boxwallah or businessman in Calcutta. But that did present parents with the problem of what to do about the kids’ education. Send them home to boarding school was the choice made by my and quite a few other parents . So there were a distinct group of us in the Lathallan of the 50’s. Unsurprisingly given the transition from tropic to artic, my first memory is of the cold – a winter when the corpses of the frozen redwing birds littered the snowy ground as we clumped through the rhododendrons. Our feet in our wellies were as cold as the birds.

The jollier souvenir of that winter was of Front Ave shut and snow-covered for weeks and turned into the Lathallan Cresta Run. All the boys’ names were celebrated in some incident flagged up on a map of the course – there was the pin marking Adamson’s Accident. Thank you Mrs Burton. In non-snowy times, were we sent up that same drive after breakfast for our morning ritual constitutional? Certainly the stroll was very handy for getting rid of the more inedible bits of breakfast bacon stuffed furtively into a blazer pocket.

The youngest boys were queued up outside the loo next to Matron’s surgery to announce in due course to the passing throng the success or otherwise of that morning’s bowel motion. Had you ‘been’? was the question with pencil poised over the form. Regularity was much-prized and encouraged by liberal doses of Syrup of Figs – some I am sure have been addicted to it ever since. For those whose parents were worried about their growth or stamina, there were great spoonfuls of what was called ‘Malt’.

We lived in the shadow of great events – made memorable with the gift of a day off. Our generation of children were the so-called New Elizabethans in honour of the new Queen. The whole school watched a black and white Coronation on a very primitive precursor of a home cinema system – rigged up thanks no doubt to the recently commemorated technical wizardry of the late Mr King. That was a day off as was the whole school trip to see that other great event of June 1953 - the Ascent of Everest movie in one of the Aberdeen cinemas owned by a Lathallan parent.

It was not all outings – for a while we were imprisoned by polio. No excursions permitted in those pre-vaccine days and isolation was the rigidly enforced precaution. It worked and as a bonus we were not bussed in for the interminable Sunday morning services at the Montrose Kirk.

It was not all winter. Sometimes the sun did shine and we watched an eclipse through smoke-blackened glass sitting on the grass terraces overlooking what was still a working garden. There were the threats that unless the culprits who had eaten all the strawberries owned up, the whole school would be… (write in your own memory of the sanctions to be applied). No strawberries obv.

But the summer and its long nights did offer a chance of escape to the more adventurous boys who took advantage of the scaffolding of fire-escapes (a legacy of the fiery end of the previous premises – still a very recent memory for the Nocks) to sneak off and wander around in their dressing gowns to come back with their tales (fictions?) of adventures for the rest of us too cowardly to join these midnight strollers. They claimed to have eaten all the strawberries.
We lived in the shadow of the nuclear Cold War. True it was much less important to us than the skool food and twice a week sweetie (tuck) distribution but still a consideration thanks in part to the Welsh geography? master. He claimed to have served in the US Navy and was keen to assert his status as the resident expert on the US armed forces. His party piece was to point out as we wandered on our walk along the shore path, the contrails of the B-52s loaded up with nuclear bombs that flew to the borders of Russia. “No need to worry boyos unless they don’t turn back!” the excitable Mr Evans announced. Fortunately, they always did when I was at Lathallan."

Colin Adamson
1950-56.

Dr. John Purser (1950-1955)

"I was at Lathallan from 1950-55 and have many memories, mostly good ones. Brotherton Castle was central to the best of them. I gardened in the summer. I was Irish and regarded cricket as an English game, so I preferred to garden. Good choice. Occasionally as a reward for endless hoeing and weeding of the terraces (the garden was really beautiful in those days with a monkey-puzzle in the centre) we got to pick strawberries under light supervision. I remember Robert the gardener, and another whose name I forget. They were lovely people and taught us a bit about real life as well as good gardening. Peter cleaned our shoes and did odd jobs and was as kind to us as we were unkind to him. He always had a bit of coconut ice or something like it for one's birthday. He knew our birthdays. Were I a person who prayed, I would pray for his happiness in whatever world there is for those who deserve our love.

In summer we would escape from the dormitories at night down the fire escapes and wander through the grounds, trying not to disturb the rooks. But some damned baby rook would always caw and set off the whole rookery. Duvvie (spelling?) Evans - a wonderful classics teacher ex-navy and with a Pacific Island wife of exotic dress and colour (the only colour in clothing or skin in those days) would realise we were in danger of being caught and therefore expulsion, and would come out of his house in the trees and shoot off a cartridge from his shotgun to scare us all back to bed.

Moonlight on the wet grass, barefoot in dressing-gown and pyjamas and maybe macintosh, was, when forbidden to be there, as magical as moonlight can ever be.

Those midnight walks through dew-laden fields and along the moonlit shore were as vital to me as study and singing, in which I was encouraged by Mrs. Nock. She would have a group of us up to her sitting room to listen to records and she would give us tea and cakes. She took us by bus to concertys at Stonehaven and Aberdeen. My first encounter with Beethoven's Appasionata. Mr, Nock seemed severe. I only discovered later that he thought highly of me and that he was also suffering from whatever it was that killed him. Had I known, i would have judged him more kindly.

The grey sea, the submarines skulking along the coast, the first jets to break the sound barrier above our heads, the fields - the huge fields - with neeps (we'd sneak one on walks if we were careful), and peewees and the whole Grassic Gibbon Kinraddie world was there for us, though I had never read Sunset Song, of course. The school library (with billiard table) got the local newspapers. I remember AI for cattle being front page news, occasioning many sad speculations with respect to my own sexual future, fortunately not realised.

One year there was a big snow and Mr. Nock had us make a Cresta Run on the north driveway, with snow bankings and so on. A whole week was given over to it as I recall, and two of the staff reached over 40 mph, I believe. A kind of freedom then in the educational system impossible today. Mr. Nock didn't just allow it: he encouraged it. Remarkable.
That'll do, except to say that somehow within the restrictions of post-war and social and educational convention, there was the chance beyond the formal schooling to discover that a world of dreams could become barefooted realities."

Headmaster's address

Mr Richard Toley, Headmaster

The last year has been one of development and growth at Lathallan School, both for every pupil striving to achieve their full potential, as well as for us as a school, with our brand-new Science Centre being completed.

Our core values of opportunity, confidence, respect, endeavour and modesty cannot be better exemplified than in the following pages. You will see pupils achieving success on the stage, in the arts, in music and on the field. As befitting a small, family orientated school, there have been a few all-school events, from the Junior School ‘Run to Rio’, to the Senior School taking on Ben Nevis as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Diamond Challenge. Brotherton Heritage Day saw all pupils from Junior and Senior Schools get together to celebrate the history of both the School and our Castle.

In addition to this the Science Centre has added a new dynamism to learning at Lathallan, and we look forward to the children using its facilities for many years.

Richard Toley BA (Hons), MPhil, PGCE, FRSA
Headmaster

Old Lathallians visiting

Old Lathallians visited over the summer Brian Morrison (1951-1958), Oliver Fry (1993-1996) and from the USA Chris Milliner (1997-2001) and all enjoyed their tours! Old Lathallians are always welcome. Andrea Watt works a Thursday and Friday and is delighted to welcome alumni and their families.

Brian McLean (1962-1968) visited with his daughter Jo Jo

School Photographs

Old Lathallian Tie

Lathallan Fundraising