Chronicle Summer 2023

27 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Chris Nathan OSE How long have you been the Archivist at Teddies? I have been the School Archivist since 2000. I love the variety of the work which is always surprising. There is always something new to learn. What did you do before you worked here? Of the 40 odd years between leaving the School and early retirement, 38 were spent in Sales and Marketing with an American multinational chemical company, in the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Scandinavia. I had a fantastic time working all over the world.

What is the strangest item which has been donated to the archive during your time at Teddies? An old oak wooden box, originally the property of Christopher Edwards, a very distinguished decorated military OSE who was at the School from 1886-93. The box has nothing in it except a label with his name stating, ‘a Maul of Lignum Vitae’. It was purchased in a junk shop a few years ago and sent in by another OSE. Lignum Vitae is a type of wood, which comes from the Caribbean and north coast of South America, just what the ‘maul’ was we will never know! Which item would you most like to add to the Archive? The original two-way correspondence dossier between Algernon Simeon, the first Warden, and his first architects William Wilkinson and Harry Wilkinson Moore, regarding the original St Edward’s School build in 1872-1890. Some correspondence we have, but a great deal we don’t!

What are your best memories from your time as a pupil in Segar’s? Segar’s was then in a block next to Cowell’s and was still relatively new with heating and mod cons that worked, which could not be said for the other older Houses at that time! I had two Housemasters, John Gauntlett and Bill Veitch (OSE), completely different in age, previous experience, and personality but both, in their own way, made a very positive impression on my early years. What do you think has changed the most at Teddies since your time here and what has stayed the same? The School is co-educational now and is no longer the tough, macho place, steeped in tradition, that it was in the 1950s. What hasn’t changed is the Quad with its original neo-Gothic buildings, which, while changed extensively internally, have fortunately remained unaltered externally. Do you have a favourite place in Oxford? Funnily enough, it’s the Randolph Hotel, for two linked reasons. During my time at the School, my parents lived and worked abroad and only visited me occasionally. When they did, we inevitably went to the Randolph for a slap-up lunch (at the time there was still some rationing). Warden Frank Fisher, mindful of the boys with parents overseas, would arrange a special breakfast or lunch at the same hotel on Exeat weekends to make sure they didn’t feel left out. Do you have a favourite quote? ‘When I want to understand what is happening today or try to decide what will happen tomorrow, I look back’ Omar Khayyam. What are you currently reading? It probably will come as no surprise that it is something historical! Andrew Roberts’s George III – The Life And Reign of Britain’s Most Misunderstood Monarch .