Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

The following were Senior Grecians during, or just after, my time at CH.

1955/56 Alan Everest MidB
1956/57 Peter Attenborough MaB
next three, order uncertain
Geoff Hines (LaB)
Jo Thomas (LaB)
David Simon (MidA)
1960/61 John Daniel (MidA)
1961/62 Andy Barker (PeA)
1962/63 Michael Pitcher (ThB/ThA)
1963/64 Michael Smith (MidB)
1964/65 Frank Hunter (LaB)
1965/66 Mark Cousins (MaA)
1966/67 David Norgrove (ThB)

Of these, David (now Lord) Simon and John (now Sir John) Daniel have since indubitably joined the ranks of the great and the good (MidA in their day was not nicknamed 'School House' for nothing). David Norgrove doesn't have a handle to his name, but was Mrs Thatcher's secretary, so maybe we can assign him to the fairly great and fairly good. Mark Cousins has a Wikipedia entry (which he may have written himself).

Here are some partial additions. Others can possibly complete them.

Morrison, 48/9 MidA
Dennis RM Silk, MaA (Headmaster of Radley School)
Peter R Birkett, LaA
Mackenzie, ThB (Captain of Swimming at CH)
Alan S Everest, 55/6 MidB
Peter Attenborough, 56/7 MaB (Headmaster of Charterhouse School)

And there was RWH Stevens of Lamb A in the early 50s.

1942/43 1st 2 terms Edward Kenney Coleridge A
1943 Summer term G.A.E, Godsave Coleridge B
1943/44 Geoffrey Smith Middleton A, Kent cricketer.
1944-45 R.F> Stacey Pele B
1945-46 John Fowling Peele A
1946-47 R.A.Leach Lamb B
1947-48 Peter Kendall Middleton A

1948/49 W.j.r.Morrison Middleton A
1949/50 D. R. W. Silk Maine A
1951 1st. 2 terms OSmond
1951/52 P.l.bIrkett Lamb A
1952/53 H.B.G. JOhnson Peele B

Let's see what I can remember:

1983/4 Justin Balding (Michalmas only) / Charles Forster ("CHAZ" on here) -PeA
1984/5 Ric Smith LaA
1985/6 Richard Aylwin LHA?
1986/7 James Jowett MidA
1987/8 Julian Atkinson LHA
1988/9 Ben Monaghan LaA
1989/90 Nick Hastilow MaA
1990/91 Michael Kimmer ThA

Edited: I forgot about Julian Atkinson

I had never heard of Cousins, so looked up his Wikipedia entry. I am very very impressed. The entry states: "...In 2009, Cousins and actress/director Tilda Swinton created a project where they mounted a 33.5-tonne portable cinema on a large truck and hauled it manually through the Scottish Highlands." I am fairly familiar with the Highlands so I can appreciate that one man and one woman pulling a 33.5tonne truck by hand over those hills was a seriously major achievement. Well done to both of them.
David

Foureyes wrote:I had never heard of Cousins, so looked up his Wikipedia entry. I am very very impressed. The entry states: "...In 2009, Cousins and actress/director Tilda Swinton created a project where they mounted a 33.5-tonne portable cinema on a large truck and hauled it manually through the Scottish Highlands." I am fairly familiar with the Highlands so I can appreciate that one man and one woman pulling a 33.5tonne truck by hand over those hills was a seriously major achievement. Well done to both of them.
David

You have the wrong Mark Cousins. The OB/SG is this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cousins_(writer)

(referred to on the disambiguation page as 'British intellectual')

What were the criteria for being chosen as Senior Grecian? Here are some suggestions from observations made in the 50s, which are of course are my guesses and subjective. The Headmaster never confided in me!

1. Leadership qualities.
2. Member of a school team and for > 90% this was rugby or cricket. Often the SG was a captain of one of these teams.
3. A first parting Grecian who usually would win an Oxbridge scholarship later.
4. A good reading voice.
5. He presumably had to be supported by his own housemaster and other masters probably had to approve the choice.
6. Usually he had been a house captain the year before becoming SG.

Unjustified favouritism could be involved. I know of one boy, who indeed had the characteristics mentioned above. But he (A) was appointed house captain in his next to last year, in place of someone who equally merited it (B). However (B) would leave after one year and (A) would stay on for 2 years to sit for an Oxbridge award, which he later gained. (A) was a favourite of the housemaster and (B), although not a favourite, was certainly a totally wholesome and appropriate fellow to become house captain. This master had overt favourites who otherwise did not receive special treatment, except in this one situation. It was believed by most that (B) was passed over simply because the housemaster wanted (A) to be a strong candidate for SG in his last year. When (B) was told he was not going to be house captain (he was a year older than (A) and had arrived in the house a year earlier), the housemaster told him, “this is no reflection at all on your character”. Finally (A) never became the SG. Some of this housemaster’s favourites maintained close contact with him for long after they left CH. As the housemaster told me much later, (A) did not.

Some people were predestined to be SG almost from day 1, 'nature's prefects' to use John Le Carré's phrase. On other occasions, it was horses for courses. Certainly this was true of Mike Pitcher. He was not even the senior person in his own house, and the boy above him was already house captain and fell into the 'nature's prefect' category. But MP was a sergeant-major, literally (in the CCF) and figuratively, and Seaman thought that was what the school needed; it was his way of halting the tide of the 1960s.
The 'school team' criterion was not very important for Seaman, to judge by my list in the OP. Your criterion (3) was a sine qua non, and criterion (6) certainly played a major role.

The above criteria seem plausible. One very surprising choice for senior grecian was the Mackenzie mentioned already, who was a pleasant fellow, yet satisfied very few of those criteria. There were other strong candidates. At the time it was rumored that he was chosen because he was a relative of HLO Flecker, the head master. That is unlikely to be true, but one doesn’t really know.

2002-3: Ben Barber - now a pilot, I believe
2003-4: _______ Akinyele (her first name escapes me but will be in a copy of the Blue, no doubt)
2004-5: Tamas Lorinczy
2005-6: Hannah Jenkins
2006-7: Oscar Jenkyn-Jones
2007-8: Alex Baskerville
2008-9: Rodney Vubya (formerly Serunjogi) - now working with a theatre company
2009-10: Lily Hayes

and that's about the limits of my knowledge!

Edited by author for getting it all wrong first time around

Eruesto wrote:

2009-10: Ben Eastwood

No, Ben was SG just last year - 2012-13. A fine young man, currently studying chemistry at Oxford (where he's joined his sister Jessica who was also an impressive all-rounder at CH).

ailurophile wrote:Eruesto wrote:

2009-10: Ben Eastwood

No, Ben was SG just last year - 2012-13. A fine young man, currently studying chemistry at Oxford (where he's joined his sister Jessica who was also an impressive all-rounder at CH).

Mea culpa! His sister, Jess, was a '10 leaver, and I seem to have mixed up the siblings.

Edit: I seem to have gotten this all mixed up... Time to edit the first post!

Following on from Michael:

67/68 Peter Smith (later Duffett - Smith I believe)

68/69 John Churchill

69/70 ?Christopher Tremayne

70/71 Brian Miller (sadly deceased fairly recently I believe)

71/72 Jeremy Olver

I may have Smith and Churchill round the wrong way. Peele A comes to mind as their House but I could be wrong. Tremayne I think was Col B, Miller Lamb B and Olver Col A.

AKAP or Howard H will hopefully be able to correct where necessary!