St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

Chapter 8 / Celebrations

Left: Diamond Jubilee Dinner, 1933. Below left: Jubilee, 1913, showing OSE, staff and parents. Below: Douglas Bader and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Lambeth, during the 1963 celebrations.

Chapter 8

CELEBRATIONS

W e celebrate a great many major and minor a play, the Presentations at the end of the year-long process of the Extended Project (in 2013 taken by the whole of the Lower Sixth), or the Christmas parties held in each House at the end of the Autumn Term. However, there are also larger-scale events, the biggest and best-known of the School’s more public celebrations being the annual Gaudy, nowadays held on the last day of the Summer term.The most important of such Gaudies were in 1913, 1933, the centenary year of 1963 and this year, 2013 – the 150th anniversary of the School. It is with those particular celebrations that this chapter is mainly concerned. occasions at this School. Domestic occasions for celebration include such events as the last night of

In the early days in Summertown, however, there were three major festivals in the School’s year, each of which was referred to as a ‘Gaudy’. The word comes from ‘Gaude’, the Latin for ‘Rejoice thou’. The first was on 20 February to celebrate the birthday of Simeon, Headmaster and later Warden, and the second was to commemorate the consecration of the School Chapel (hence the name Commemoration, shortened to ‘Commem’, by which this particular event subsequently came to be known); it took the form of a Garden Party mainly for parents and prospective parents. The third was an Old Boys’ Day, when the Old Boys’ Dinner would take place. The programme for these annual events became fixed in 1888. The Warden’s birthday remained a whole day’s holiday (until his death) and included the Prefects’ Concert; the Summer Gaudy was the largest event (usually around 5 June), and the Commemoration was changed to become a two-day event in the Autumn Term and included a dinner and School play. The annual OSE (later Martyrs) rugby match was always

Above: Bunting in the OSE Rhubarb colours in the Quad for Gaudy 2013.

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