A big 'Thank you' to Bernard Webber for sending in a fantastic photo of John Ashurst at the ripe young age of 98 ... 

Mr. Ashurst was Head Master from 1964 to 1971 and will be well remembered by those students under his care.

The photo is posted in the 'Teachers' section in Photos

I am posting a copy of a message I received personally, albeit last december, in the hope that someone might be able to help John ... Hi Doug I'm afraid I'm a total stranger and this is a very long shot. An old friend of mine, Howard Kidd, who is not very PC savvy has asked me if I could try to find a contact for a childhood friend of his, Simon Barrow, who went to Peter Symonds. I see you seem to be still very involved with Peter Symonds and I just wondered is you might be able to help me. All I know is that Simon was in the Upper 6th at Peter Symonds in 1971. If you can help, I'd be most grateful. My name is John Graham-Hart and my email address is johngrahamhart@gmail.com Many thanks John G-H

Mike Conlan

 I have taken the liberty of posting a copy of a letter to the Symondians Association from Mike Conlan's Widow ... perhaps some of us can help ...

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Dear All,

 

Hard to believe, but yes, it's ten years on June 4th since Mike sadly died. As a means of marking the occasion myself and the girls are doing a hike up various mountains between the 4th and 6th June to raise some money for The Royal Marsden Hospital who specialise in research for the rare type of cancer that Mike had. The link below will explain in greater detail.

 

As ten years seems like a poignant point in time,  I thought some of you might like to visit the Justgiving website and support the cause. Also please feel free to pass the link on to anyone who you think would be interested.

 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/michaelconlan

 

I trust everyone is well and survived the last fifteen months of Covid restrictions! 

 

Very best wishes .

 

Vron X

1976 Leavers

As some of you might be interested, I post 2 responses to a post relating to 1976 leavers, which dates back to 15 September 2001.

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1976 Leavers

Are there any leavers from 1976 out there?  I'm Neil Verran and would like to hear from anyone who can remember that far back!

 The original post dates back to 05 May 2001 as follows:

'Can anyone name each of the classrooms that ran from the centre of the school towards the squash courts? 

I think the first was Oswald Simpkins, then came Parker Smith, then Morys. The next two I can't remember. I think the last one on the block was Bowker. Then there were the two Art rooms - I think the first was Gater - can't remember the other, but it was the one that Renton used.'

 

Today we have:

IS THIS A RECORD ?

It has taken 19 years and 10 months to get a positive full answer, but hey, we got there, thank you to Dave Turner for your post today ...

The rooms are, from east to west, as follows:

Oswald-Simpkin, Parker Smith, Morys, Kenyon, Chelmsford, Bowker, Selborne

 

All of the above have been mentioned in other posts over the years, but not with great certainty. 

 A SOMEWHAT BELATED 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL 

from Chris and Doug

Wherever you may be,

 we sincerely hope COVID 

has not caught up with you, 

and that you remain safe

throughout 2021

Further to the very interesting article by Alan Ives about his experiences as a boarder, I have today posted in the Students Photos section, a photo of Alan and his brother John with their respective sports trophies.

I apologise to Alan, as the photo has been in my possession since 29th. October 2019, but somehow the posting to the site got overlooked (Put it down to 'Old Age')

Doug Clews