Keith Upton Thank you Bill. Nice to see the OC Summer Outing to Portsmouth was blessed with good summer weather and that a fair number attended. All the time the school buildings were still standing there was a piece of me hoping they could be preserved or repurposed in some way, but now it is clear they are being demolished. …
Demolition News!
The last report on the demolition of the original buildings was: “massive posts are being concreted into the ground to support a hoarding around the site” We can now report that hoardings have been erected ready for the demolition to commence! Alan Green visited recently and reports:- “The high hoarding has now been completed and, to add insult to injury, it has …
Not Quite the Olympics
Featured picture is A School sports day with Mike Halson winning and also there Des Hodnett (73) and Pete Spall (71) +
‘Jock, Strap and the Swinging Buttocks’
This is a picture of a shortlived band in 1963. We were known as ‘ Jock, Strap and the Swinging Buttocks’. The band members were all students at the school. Dave Harris, Jeff Curd and Dave McAhearty on guitar and singers Tony Lanaway and myself( the drummer’s name has disappeared over the last half century.) We were formed to …
Summer Portsmouth Dockyard Trip –
“A reminder for the recent e-mail about The Old Cicestrians Summer Trip on Thursday 16th September. This promises to be an enjoyable day with a Harbour Tour by boat, lunch at an excellent pub with real ale for CAMRA enthusiasts, followed by Alan Green, our local historian, taking us on a short walking tour of Old Portsmouth. After that the …
Peter Hale (CHSB c.1933-1940?)
An Unforgettable 95th Birthday A 125-Wing operation from Celle, Germany, on 24 April 1945 is still vivid in the memory of 95-year-old Warrant Officer (Ret) Peter Hale RAF. He clearly recalls how the Wing, led by Group Captain ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, headed east towards Berlin on reports of a large concentration of airborne German aircraft only to find that they were …
John Haines (1944 – 2021) CHSB 1955-64
The ‘Chi High’ overseas group, including Tony Horne, Dave Richardson, and Keith Upton has decided that, as I know more than most about John, I should put down a few observations on his 76 years. Others within our network have added anecdotes and observations. Ormonde Avenue houses are not large – the Haines family was. However, Ken, Mavis, Margaret, John, …
Frank Haill (CHSB1948-1973)
‘Frankie’: Frank Haill at Chi High, 1948-1973: a son’s perspective ‘Frankie’ was quite a reasonable – even affectionate – nickname, as schoolboys’ names for their teachers go: by comparison with, say, ‘Baldie’ Ashton or ‘Pegleg Pelham’. I have certainly discovered in the years since leaving the school in 1965 that my dad was held in fond esteem by many old …
And the War Memorial
Paul Francis also asked about the War Memorial. Quite difficult to photograph but herewith. As I type this the annual Cenotaph event has just taken place.