The Chronicle 682

8 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

The Warden on his travels

The emergence of great rock music provided the soundtrack to my school years. I spent a lot of time building a guitar and listening to Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Yes… I remember seeing Black Sabbath at the Southampton Gaumont in 1974 when I was 15. A few of us had a band in the Sixth Form and we were good enough to play gigs. We had a very pretentious name, Aylu, which we believed to be the Ancient Inca word for noblemen – to this day, I have no idea if this is true! Once in the Sixth Form I became a pillar of the school community. I had always been bright and I started working harder. I was a College Prefect, in the 2nd XV and spent a lot of time on the stage. I really enjoyed the responsibility that came with being in the Sixth Form and the privileges of being a Prefect: we were top of the school, had our own private dining room – we had dinner when everyone else had prep – and I was put in charge of various school facilities. I was one of those people who just ‘did stuff’ and got involved.

I was also asked to take the Head’s classes on occasion so it was an excellent taste of what was to come. I was only interested in two universities: Cambridge and Durham. I wasn’t too disappointed not to get into Cambridge because I had read so many good things about Durham. I got a place at Grey College and really looked forward to it. Did you have a gap year? I worked on a project at The Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough analysing the output of a computer combat model – the computer was the size of a house. The project was to help with the design of what eventually became the Eurofighter, Typhoon. It was well paid and a fascinating project but sitting in an office with three other people didn’t really suit my natural temperament. I was getting by, enjoying living in a slightly wacky household in Fleet, and then someone rang me up and asked if I wanted to teach Geography at the Prebendal School in Chichester, and I jumped at the chance.

This environment turned out to be much more suited to my outlook and disposition. I got involved in almost everything, teaching not just Geography, but Divinity, Latin, English, Maths, Science and Games, and I ran canoeing – a bit of a surprise as I had no qualifications at all. After the Prebendal experience I jumped on my bicycle with a friend and headed off to the South of Ireland, cycling from Hampshire to Swansea to catch the Cork ferry. Cycling is a wonderful way to travel and the pace allows you to really enjoy the surroundings and to stop and chat to people along the way. I spent several weeks cycling around Cork and Kerry and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Tell us about your time at Durham? I had a wonderful time. In those days, you generally travelled to university by yourself on the train – nowadays parents are much more involved – and I remember the spectacular view as I arrived at Durham