St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 3 / Houses

The 2005 Parachute Jump for Opportunity International: Nick Coram- Wright (Housemaster), AlexWiggins,TimWilliams, Ben Kerslake, Will George, JamieMuirandPeterGibbs.

footsteps. Over the years the boys in Cowell’s have shown themselves to be versatile, resolutely refusing to be pigeonholed into one particular aspect of School life. Those of us who have been here a while will have our favourite memories, be they in debating, chess, music or CCF. There are, however, two particular areas where I believe the boys of Cowell’s have set themselves apart from the crowd: House Plays and charity fund-raising. Donkeys’ Years (2007) by Michael Frayn was the first House Play to be performed in the North Wall – a triumph directed by Will George and Tim Williams that set the ball rolling. Black Comedy (2011) was rehearsed and produced in ten days by George Sephton, Max Narula and Miles Fisher. For various reasons it almost never happened but the results were spectacular, with broken glass, broken gnomes and general mayhem. Mayhem seems to be what we do best, perhaps because it gives the greatest leeway for disaster! Whether it be through our 24-hour events or parachute jumps in the Sixth Form, we have sought to do crazy things in the name of charity. Our most recent Biathlon to Cannes in February 2013 raised over £10,000 for SuchHope; who could begrudge a lack of sleep when making such a difference? The only question now is: Where next? Nick Coram-Wright Housemaster, Cowell’s (A)

Above: RAF: Harry Evans, Syu Ichimura and Tom Pote, leading NCOs, 2007. Left: Cowell’s, photographed fromthe tower of the Chapel. Bottom right:The cakemade for the House’s 75th birthday in 2011. Bottom middle: The 24-hour Biathlon to Cannes, 2013 – Housemaster Nick Coram-Wright on the right. Bottom left: 2012 Shell Film: Nirmal Radkevitch, Tanaka Chitsenga,MaxStern,DannyOlashoreandWillArrowsmith.

Above: Black Comedy, 2011: Maxine Mackintosh (Mac’s), Hamish Brewster, MikeyGarside,MikhailYakovlev,CeliaHigson,PeterShannonandNickDeKlee. Below: 2012 Shell Film, with Rohan Pandya andWilliam Pickford in the News Studio. Bottom: 2013 Staff Panto: Simon Larter-Evans (left) and Housemaster Nick Coram-Wright. Bottom left: House Singing Unison, 2013.

THE HOUSES Cowell’s (A)

alongside the assortment of objects that regularly find their way out on to the grass, including games kit and footballs. Any Head of House might blush slightly on spotting the empty wine bottle on the roof of the bow window outside his room. Over the last ten years there have been some notable sporting victories, all the more notable because they didn’t seem to happen very often, but more recently our footballers and rowers have taken on the best and been victorious. We recall our senior football team who won the competition in 2012 without scoring a goal; Sam Parkinson (1st XI goalkeeper) was most certainly the hero of the hour. Back in 2007 three of our Sixth Form were part of the 1st VIII at Henley: Jan Birkenstock, Alex Wiggins and Austin Carpenter. Titus Morley, John Pastre and George Adams followed in their

Just as St Edward’s celebrates its 150th anniversary, so Cowell’s has just passed a significant birthday of its own. How many people, I wonder, have walked into the building over the years without noticing the crest over the door, recording its opening in 1936? Back in 2011 our annual House Dinner became something of a 75th birthday party. No celebration would be complete without a cake and Baba came up trumps with her chocolate pièce de résistance . Look carefully and you might just about be able to recognise the House Staff; our Deputy Housemaster at the time was Mark Stephenson, here standing outside the front door yet without his iconic ironing board. The animals are there too

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