Sheila Baily
The AOSA has been told that Shelia Baily died in March of pneumonia. She was 99 and the wife of the late Ken Baily.
Both Shelia and Ken were members of the South West Guild in the past and may be well known to some of you.
Old Scholars' Sports
There is are some Old Scholars' sports fixtures starting from 10.30 followed by dinner on Saturday the 8th March 2008. This is also Martin Gosney's last year in school before retirement and so the match and dinner are something to send him off.
If you are in the area please consider dropping by to lend support - I know there is a School Committee meeting that weekend on site!
This is being organised through Facebook and there is a Facebook event called "Old Scholars Weekend 08" - not to be confused with the Easter reunion.
The Facebook description:
Old Scholars 08, March 8th!
Ladies: Hockey 10:30 and Netball 2:15
Men: Football 10:30 and Hockey 2:15
King's Croft, Pontefract- Dinner 7:15pm
Its Martin's last year so it would be good if as many as possible came to the meal... then head to town after.....
Missing Members
Please look at the missing members page and let the membership secretary know of any of the listed members current details you know. Thanks.
Geoff Sharpe
Geoff Sharpe (1952-59) died on Saturday 19th January after a fall at his home. His funeral was on Friday 1st February at Bramcote Crematorium, nr Nottingham.
David ('George') Woodhead delivered the following Eulogy:
Geoffrey T. Sharpe: Requiescat in pace
G is for generous – not an epithet I would have applied to Geoff. Indeed, I was surprised to find it among any list of his attributes, especially enumerated in a recent letter from a member of the opposite sex – Carol Atkinson - who had been his hostess on numerous occasions. I am sure she never received as much as a posy for housing him for weeks on end. My wife, Colin’s wife, and John’s second wife, Peppi, certainly didn’t. He attended the ‘stag do’ to my wedding and the whole ‘do’ of my son’s wedding and we are still waiting for our promised wedding presents. However, I suppose I am talking about the ‘petit apartheid’ of generosity and not the generosity of soul; that which enabled Geoff to forgive the shortcomings of his friends while tolerating large chunks of humanity and avoiding the rest – avoidance being the wise policy for someone who suffered fools less gladly than most.
E is for erudite – as for example his professorial knowledge of chosen bits of political history. He would happily read apparently dry-as-dust accounts of ancient legal wranglings and extract the human drama hidden in them: as with the earliest serious rail accident and the legal ramifications that led to major improvements in rail safety. When, in the pub he was regaling me with this type of historical minutiae, I would order another pint of JHB and wonder how he – and we - had got on to the subject. He was not one to talk about the relative merits of Rooney and Renaldo, fortunately. It was no surprise to me that he improved the exam results of the Kimberley Comp by getting an A* in Latin in his mid –fifties, after over thirty years of supposedly brain-cell-degrading alcohol abuse, nor that in the same decade his Mensa test results were nearly off-the-scale.
O is for orifice – hastening to say that I am limiting my recollections to the olfactory and aural apertures, both of which he had less-than-endearing methods of the Herculean cleansing apparently required by those Nature had endowed him with. About ten years ago I did present him with a Malaysian ear-scraper on my return from that country. However, the biro top with clasp always seemed the preferred instrument, whose use was only fully nauseating if you had just taken a bite of your guacamole sandwich. The worst excesses of nasal cleansing were demonstrated during the brown-stain years of snuff inhalation. That he voluntarily gave up this snorting bears witness to the vileness of the habit.
F is for family – it is sad that his parents, his father’s two sisters and his mother’s two sisters only had one child between them. He was greatly attached to his mother for all the normal reasons but partly because of her lonely life as a merchant seaman’s wife; and to his father, especially in his last years – who was on his own for nine years because Geoff’s mother died in the first months of his retirement. He went on visiting his father’s sisters in London into their nineties, even when they told him they were leaving their money to the Methodist Mission or the neighbours. His mother’s sisters, Olive (her 97-yr-old twin) and Dorothy (10 years younger), both survive him. Dorothy he particularly liked to visit – in Brighton - as, until recently, she was quite happy to go with him to the pub.
F is for friendship – Geoff was a true friend, as is proved by the people gathered here. Friends are all he has to mourn his passing - and celebrate his life. I applaud the latter, relatively-modern, view of the funeral service – particularly appropriate in Geoff’s case where tears, if any, should be tears of laughter as we remember our bit of his life. It is, however, very difficult for me, and many of you, no doubt, to think that in a few minutes we will be in The Stag celebrating his life without his being there - to blow the dust off his wallet, count the number of his friends and curse the fact that he has so many to buy a round for. It might be ‘bizarre and grotesque’ to think that he is chuckling at this rather extreme way of yet again avoiding the expensive round.
R is for rationality – like many bachelors, Geoff had a large streak of sentimentality running through him, especially in his attitude to his friends’ children, some of whom engaged in letter-writing exchanges with him from an early age, when he was not actually with them to entertain them with his totally uncondescending drollery - and the sort of anal humour that appeals to the young, and appealed to him. On these occasions the Peter Pan in all men would surface – and, being a bachelor, he had no other responsibilities towards them than that of an avuncular, knowledgeable clown. Yet, sweet reason was Geoffrey’s guiding light in the world of men. He could be a tetchy, occasionally grumpy, companion or boss, but he was very seldom unfair or biased in his attitudes either towards individuals or to events in the wider world. Even the Guardian could not get away with false rhetoric or non-sequitors when Geoff cast his eye over a particularly subjective piece. Their misprints would amuse: their irrationalities annoy.
E is for English – not the jingoistic sort, though Geoff did seem quintessentially English, more the protector-of the-language sort. I taught the subject for over thirty years, but Geoff was always enlightening me with bits of that aforementioned erudition. One example, was and is the phrase ‘begging the question’; like most people I used it as ‘perhaps answering one question but only posing another’, whereas, as Geoff explained, its proper meaning is ‘avoiding the question’ usually by answering some other unasked question. His table-manners might have been sloppy, but his intellectual processes weren’t.
Y is the ‘ poor forked animal’ that is man, according to Shakespeare’s King Lear – at the age of 17 Geoffrey took the part of King Lear in the school play. There were many imperfections in a performance of such a play given by teenagers – my Kent was not the most secure; this I seem to remember, the lines I couldn’t – but Geoff’s gravitas and his phenomenal powers of memory (he knew everybody’s part) meant that the title-role was performed as well as it could be in the circumstances. The year before he had taken the part of Noah in the (supposedly all-Negro) school play. Noah takes a little light refreshment while waiting for the flood to abate, requiring the actor (Geoff) to feign drunkenness and remark to the world-at-large, ‘I feels congenial!’ This was definitely a case of clairvoyant type-casting. At around this time, I asked him to umpire a House cricket match and he reluctantly agreed. He read the 47 convoluted Laws of the game, with their even more convoluted Notes, and, as the only umpire, duly stood at both ends. When we had eight to win off the last ball – impossible to achieve unless it was a ‘no-ball’ with a consequent extra ball – the opposition bowler, their captain, bowled the ball underarm. As this is a ‘change of action’, the umpire and batsman should be informed (Law 26, Note 2), so Geoff, having understood and remembered the ‘Note’ on one reading, immediately shouted ‘No Ball!’ Unfortunately our no. 11 batsman missed the ball so all the drama dissipated. However, as Geoff was a member of our House, perhaps it was a good thing.
T is for Thomas; it is also for ‘tuss’ – I am not able to find a dictionary definition of this dubious-sounding word but, according to him, I was frequently betussing him. It seems to have meant ‘causing to disorganise his well-organised life’. Simple betussment might be arriving late to take him to a pub, thus depriving him of n minutes of drinking time; serious betussment might be arranging to meet at a designated place, say a railway station, and being on the wrong platform or at the wrong station, thus wasting major drinking-time waiting at the wrong place – never his fault, just another betussing. However, on one occasion, just before his eyes were lasered a few years go, I stood on the correct and empty platform of Tamworth Station as his train came in. He got off the train without accident and I was just about to greet him, when something stopped me, and he proceeded to walk straight past me, two feet away. No sooner had the medical profession sorted out his eyesight, than his hearing began to go, but it was still my fault: ‘You’re mumbling, Woodhead.’ My reply was, ‘But I’ve always mumbled. You’ve had no problem before.’ Despite this, it was deemed my fault and, therefore, another example of the betussing of Sharpe. ‘Tuss’ as a noun, while still pejorative, seems, paradoxically, to involve a certain element of endearment.
S is for sailing and skiing – his shared ownership of ‘Sunbeam’ with John Atkinson and his delight in sailing, given his father’s profession, did not cause too much surprise even when he crewed for hardened yachtsmen to circumnavigate Britain or flew to America to sail down its Eastern seaboard. But skiing - and golf - did take me by surprise: first, he was over forty when he started, and second, he was one of the least sporty people I have known – as demonstrated to those who have been driven by him. However, John was always risking his life in adrenalin-rush sports from racing unsafe cars and high-performance motor-bikes in his youth to jumping off mountains with a thin parachute attached to his back in his fifties, so sailing in mountainous seas and skiing down black runs was just another excitement. Thinking of Geoff doing these things was more difficult to envisage. However, he always said that skiing was one of the best experiences of his life, with après-ski being the icing on the alpine cake.
H is for Hardy & Hanson’s – not just because of the H but that for most of his time the job of Head Brewer in a moderately-sized family brewery suited him and he suited it. He enjoyed being treated reverentially by suppliers who showered him with gifts at Christmas. One supplier from Scotland wrote to say that he was sending Geoff a pair of pheasants by rail. When they did arrive they had obviously been stuck in a siding for weeks so Geoff put them in the bottom drawer of a cabinet and wondered why all the brewery cats had found their way to his office. In his generosity, he gave them to me. I plucked and gutted their yellow maggot-ridden carcases, put them uncovered in the oven on a low setting and took Geoff for a beer or three. I can still taste that amazing midnight feast – and recall the gamey smell which pervaded my bachelor-flat for many days. Despite his joy in this job, and others here-and-there with Bass, there is no doubt that the year studying for an MSc in Brewing Science at Birmingham University – after six years as a chemist in Tetley’s laboratories – was the year most treasured by him during his working life. Here he was firm friends with all nine post-graduates and, although their expertise took them to different parts of Britain and the world, their collective friendship has stood the test of time. No doubt the hours spent together in the Sportsman Inn were critical in the cementing of these friendships, each making sure the other got home all right – and that they all knew an enzyme from a spirochaete.
A is for Ackworth – where Geoff met John in 1952 and they both met me in 1956. I could write a book about school-days – but haven’t, you’ll be glad to hear. It was the annual pilgrimage to Ackworth for Easter week-end which became part of his life not associated with John or me as, apart from the early years, neither of us attended for more than a few hours, if at all. Once again, recent messages to me from Ackworthians old and young show how much affection he generated – without, superficially, having the gregarious charm to inspire such feelings. In fact, when we were at school, I would have said he was positively misogynistic. He is particularly remembered for organising and compèring the annual Old Scholars ‘Pop’ entertainment for the last ten years. This is one of his memory-bank of jokes:
Tony Blair is visiting an Edinburgh hospital and stops at a bed to inquire after the occupant’s treatment. The answer is puzzling:
‘Wee sleekit, cowerin, timorous beasty,
Thou needna start awa sae hastie,
Wi bickering brattle.’
Blair is confused so he just grins and moves on to the next patient, who responds:
‘Some hae meat and canna eat
And some wad eat that want it’
Things only get more alarming when the next patient responds to his enquiry:
Fair fa your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding race’
Now seriously troubled Blair turns to the accompanying doctor and asks, ‘Is this the mental ward?’
‘No,’replies the doctor, ‘This is the serious Burns unit.’
R is for reading – his own library bears testament to the eclectic nature of his reading, knowing that he actually read the books on his shelves. He was as happy reading a ‘Round the Horne’ script as ‘The History of England’ by Lord Macaulay. Local publicans can bear witness to the time he spent reading, the Guardian crossword and its articles only taking a small proportion of the eight hours normally spent in the Bell, the Fox and Crown or the Stag. Listening and goggle-boxing were a small part of his life although he was fond of listening to Rambling Sid Rumbold or singing along to Gilbert & Sullivan. At school the music master discouraged him from attempting choral music as his tonelessness was a distraction to the rest of us, but by dint of solitary and determined practice he eventually mastered the art of singing in tune – no nightingale but an improvement on the original corncrake.
P is for being p….d - periodically too happy. My wife’s experience of entertaining Geoffrey has too often coincided with the Brewing School Dinner so her view of him is coloured by this effusion of over-happiness – on his part, not on hers. Having said that, Geoffrey in his cups was usually full of incoherent bonhomie rather than any real aggression – apart from the occasional, ‘In God’s name…!’ No-one, not even his friends’ wives, could stay hostile to him for long – as long as his visits were reasonably short…and infrequent.
E is, let us say, for ‘endearing eccentric’ – as Carol Atkinson wrote to Joyce and me in her letter of condolence: ‘I remember him at his best as funny, witty, generous and kind and an amusing and intelligent partner in crossword puzzles’. Let us carry with us our individual recollections of Geoff Sharpe at his best.
Ackworth Old Scholars Association
For decades the School has had strong support from its thriving Old Scholars' Association (A.O.S.A.) and scholars themselves have been both supported by the Association and enabled to maintain contact with each other via the initiatives it promotes.
Over the years Old Scholars have contributed significantly to the school - as representatives on the governing body (the school committee) and at the annual General Meetings, in providing 'know-how' about specific careers, in supporting money-raising ventures for extra facilities (e.g. the Sports Hall and Music Centre) and refurbishment schemes (e.g. The Fothergill Theatre) and in producing the O.S. magazine. They continue to remember Founder’s Day (18th October) by following the school’s example of organising a traditional meal to mark this important date and all that has stemmed from it since 1779. The school motto ‘Non sibi sed omnibus’ is evident in so many of their initiatives, so much that anyone joining on one their gatherings for the first time will be assured of a warm and sincere welcome.
Each year a comprehensive magazine (called the Annual Report) is produced giving perspective on the previous twelve months and providing useful information on Old Scholars and their careers as well as an update on events in school. This magazine is circulated to all members of the organisation and is now distributed automatically to all school leavers. It also includes details of the travellers’ passport – the splendid scheme that enables those travelling near or far to seek short-term free accommodation from fellow O.S. in many parts of the world.
Every Easter hundreds, representing many generations gather for a long weekend at the school and, additionally, regional guilds encourage attendance at their local meetings held throughout the year. A wide range of activities is organised over the weekend and those attending have chance to be as active or relaxed as they wish. The school's updated accommodation is made available and early booking is advised, especially for those who wish to be resident.
Old Scholars' Cup
Each July since 1991 the scholar who is considered to have contributed most to the wider life of the School is awarded the Old Scholars' cup. In 2007 the cup was shared between two worthy recipients - John Ward and Becky Riddle.
Diana Chadwick presenting the Old Scholars' Cup to John Ward and Rebecca Riddle
Easter 2008
This year Old Scholars will gather on Friday 21 March and the detailed programme and booking form will be sent to all O.S. and to any others who make contact by the website or phone. Sal Wright and John Golding will again mastermind the weekend's events and the school's catering staff will be present to answer everyone's dietary needs.
A very warm welcome is extended to all Old Scholars, their spouses/partners, children and grandchildren as well as to all past and present staff. Leavers from the 1980s and 1990s are being specially sought.
The President
Since last Easter Easter Diana Chadwick, former School Deputy Head, has been the Association's President.
She has had the pleasure of visiting the Scottish, Manchester, London, East Coast, West Riding and West Midlands Guilds and hopes to see the others in the near future.
She will be present throughout Easter weekend and hopes that all attending will make themselves known to her if she doesn't immediately recognise them! Having had much individual and group contact with pupils in the 1980s and 1990s when dealing with public examinations, careers and Higher Education applications, she is especially keen to check those pupils' progress! She is therefore requesting strong attendance from those whose careers span the last 10 or 20 years. Both she and the Association would appreciate a written update (well before Easter, if possible!) from anyone who cannot join us so that this information can be displayed over the weekend in Centre Library. Those attending will be asked to add their details to the same display, if, of course, they are prepared to do so! Such information will be kept for Association use only.
Diana will be delighted to see any staff (past or present) who are able to support the weekend and knows that old scholars will especially appreciate their presence.
She sends warm greetings to all throughout the world.
17th October 2007
The 126th Annual Report of the Ackworth Old Scholars' Association has been distributed.
If you are a current member of the AOSA and have not received a report then please get in contact with the membership secretary to confirm that we have your current address.
29th September 2007
ATK has asked me to post that the 2007 AOSA magazine is finally at the printers.
A.O.S.A. Subscriptions
At the Association's AGM this Easter it was agreed that subscriptions should be increased for the first time in many years.
If you are a cash or direct debit payer and have not received a letter from Michael McRobert please get in touch with him asap.
17th May 2007
Dear Friend,
It is with sadness that I have to inform you of the passing of Hilary Smith at the age of 95.
For many years, Hilary had been a strong supporter of the Association, having held the post of Chairman before he was nominated to be our President in 1976-77. His familiar figure will be missed at the Easter Reunions, and he was planning to attend this year but was taken ill prior to the event. He also supported the Midland Guild with the same enthusiasm.
Our thoughts and condolences go to Anthea and the family.
Please convey this notice to others as you deem to be necessary.
Yours sincerely,
Keith
Hon. General Secretary
Easter at Ackworth 2007
The following images have been supplied by Charles Stuart. His Easter 2007 album can be viewed on Nero photoshow.
Site News
13th February 2007
Various pages have been updated and a copy of the Easter 2007 booking form as well as the provisional programme can now be found on the Easter Gathering page.
7th January 2007
Happy new year to everyone.
My apologies for not updating the site over the last year - despite my requests I've had almost no contributions other than the information from last years president and so the website is out of date.
Thanks to Richard Deeley for cleaning up the AOSA lamb logo used on the navigation bar.
The booking forms are late!
Once again Sal and myself have had extremely busy years which have meant that we haven't been able to give the AOSA a great deal of time.
In addition, after making a significant loss on the gathering in 2006, a new pricing structure for the weekend has been agreed with the school and this has meant the income and expenditure estimations used to produce the prices for the booking form are currently being revised.
In short, the booking forms will be produced asap but they will take a few more weeks.
Please be patient. Many thanks, John
4th February 2006
Belated happy new year to all!
The booking forms for the Easter 2006 gathering have been posted.
Unfortunately an early draft of the form was distributed and there is an obvious mistake. The three columns on the right hand side are all listed as "Saturday". They should read "Saturday" "Sunday" and "Monday". Apologies for any confusion this has caused.
If you have not recieved a copy or would like more copies then there are electronic copies of the form available from these links: cover page and inside page. (Beware: neither of these are particularly small documents - the cover page is 4.2 Mb and the inside page is 0.9 Mb, so if you follow the links there will be a delay whilst the file is downloaded.)
5th October 2005
Apologies for the continued lack of content.
Outdated information has been pruned and I have added a new page with a brief bio of the current president.
8th May 2005
I've updated the merchandise pages from the old website.
23rd April 2005
I've added an RSS fead to this site. Click on the XML logo at the bottom of the navigation bar to see the RSS XML feed and paste into your favourite aggregator to keep up with new information that gets added to the Old Scholars website.
Don't know what RSS is? Here is more information.
20th April 2005
Well a fairly wet Easter reunion has been and gone. I wasn't able to take all the pictures I was planning on due to weather and being busy running around during the weekend so the site isn't going to change much soon. I was however able to obtain some information from some of the guild representatives about forthcoming events. These will be added to the Guild pages. In addition there have been some changes to the colours that are available for sale and these pages are in the process of being ported from the old site and updated. Finally I have been asked by Tim Fulford to add a notice about a member of staff's retirement - see the news page.
20th March 2005
Well the Easter Gathering is nearly upon us.
It is not too late to book if you want to stay, there are rooms still available!
Even if you don't need accomodation please drop by if you are in the area and say hello - who knows? Maybe your photograph will end up on this site!
Speaking of photographs, I am intending to take a few pictures during the reunion to liven up the site and add something to break up all the text.
At Easter I am going to attempt to conduct a straw poll to see if the site is being visited and to extract some views on whether this site is useful. Expect a degree of change.
Transmission ends...
5th March 2005
Well another couple of months have gone by and not much has happened here. Sorry but I've been busy, real life has a nasty habit of getting in the way of doing other work!
So what's new...
It would appear that people are looking the website, many thanks for the comments received - they are much appreciated.
It is not long to go now until the AOSA Easter gathering. If you are thinking of coming upto school during Easter please don't leave booking till the last minute and get in touch or send me a booking form asap.
If you are coming to Easter and are thinking of doing an act for pop on Monday night please be advised that this year we will not be getting access to the Green Room. Therefore if your act requires any props or costumes make sure you bring them with you!
If you are in central London on the 17th April 2005 please come and support those of us running the Marathon - if there are any other old scholars taking part it would be good to know.
3rd Jan 2005
Well, back after a week and a bit away - happy New Year to all.
The entries for the Old Scholar's reunion have started to land on my doorstep. If you are thinking of attending then get your entry in soon to benefit from the discount.
If you have any ideas for the development of this website or have information that you think other old scholars might be interested in then please send it to . I am neither a web site designer or writer by trade and am maintaining these pages as a hobby in my spare time. The success and "freshness" of this website will therefore depend on the ideas and content you as members can provide.
Thanks,
John
December 2004
The Old Scholars website is a subject that is usually mentioned in the termly committee meetings held at school. At the last meeting held on the 28th November 2004 I volunteered to take over the maintenance of the existing website and attempt to get it up to date. Therefore the site will gradually undergo a metamorphosis over the coming months as I can devote time to it.
So that the existing content is not lost, the old pages have been preserved for the time being and the useful information in them will be migrated as time allows. The old pages can be found here.
One problem that might arise during this process is that the company (set up by an old scholar) that did the original web site design was due to cease trading in mid December 2004. I have been attempting to get in contact with them so that the registration of the domain name www.aosa.org.uk can be transferred to the association. At present I have had no luck with obtaining replies to letters or phone calls, so if the changes to this site cease it may be because I have lost access to the ftp server.
Watch this space...
Hope you all have a happy Christmas and New Year.
Best Wishes
John Golding
Assistant Easter Secretary
Ackworth Old Scholar's Association
