The Chronicle January 2020

29 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Theodor Abrahamsen OSE By School Archivist Chris Nathan OSE

In October, Theodor Abrahamsen OSE joined the very select band of centenarian OSE who were at the School before the Second World War. If that is not startling enough, he was amongst the very early foreign-born pupils to enter the School.

Modern VIth, gaining his Higher School Certificate and having accepted a place at St Edmund Hall; he was also Head of Mac’s and, in 1938, Head Prefect. He had been a member of the School’s 1st XV since 1936 (aged 16) and the 1st XI in his last two years. The Cadet Force had also always been an interest and he had passed both Cert ‘A’ Exams and had become an Under Officer in the OTC. Added to this he was Hon Sec of the Kenneth Grahame Society and also edited the Chronicle - not bad for a young lad who could barely speak the language six years previously. He was back in Oslo when the Second World War broke out and he took his ‘I have had an interesting life and all the way, the six years at Teddies have shown me the way. I owe so much, especially to Warden Henry Kendall, who showed me how to live and how to enjoy life. Who can ask more of a school?’ THEODOR ABRAHAMSEN

Not surprisingly Theodor (Teddy) had failed the Common Entrance exam and was placed in the lowest form where he felt the teaching was poor, with the masters being better at sport than academia. This was particularly difficult for Theodor with little English, still less Latin, French and Maths. However, his strength was sport where he excelled right from the start especially in rugby, football and cricket. He loved the life of the School right from the beginning and quickly became a popular figure with his different accent and appearance, very blond hair and blue eyes and a willingness to adapt and conform. He was placed in Macnamara’s under the legendary Arthur Macnamara, forever known as ‘Major Mac’, who Theodor described as ‘never failing to encourage a boy’. This, together with the close guidance of Kendall, ensured that Theodor quickly felt settled. His love of Chapel was another major factor, and he eventually served as a Sacristan. By the time Theodor left in the Summer Term of 1939 he was a member of the

Born in Norway, Theodor moved to live with his mother’s family in Riga in 1920 and, five years later, to the town of Onega, where his father ran a timber business exporting to London. This lasted until Stalin’s takeover in 1929 when the Abrahamsen family moved to England. A year later the 11-year-old Theodor entered Tenterton Preparatory School whose Headmaster, Alfred Bacon, was an OSE who, not unnaturally, liked his boys to go onto Teddies. At this stage Theodor had had no proper schooling and spoke no English. In the Michaelmas Term of 1933, he first entered St Edward’s – ‘a half-ignorant little foreigner’– and took tea with Warden Henry Kendall, a figure who, over the next six years, would become like a second father to him.