Old Princethorpians

Reacquainting myself with Princethorpe over the past months has reawakened many happy memories.

I left in 1982 and moved to London to study Physics at Imperial College. I worked really hard for a few weeks, but then realised that there were more attractions at University than studying, and so spent much of the next three years climbing mountains.

When it came towards the end of the final year, exams were looming and I had the competing needs of job hunting, and studying to make up for what I hadn't done along the way. So when IBM offered me a place on their graduate training scheme I took it so that I could focus on getting through my exams. Twenty six happy years later I am still there.

One of many reasons I stayed with IBM through the early years was that I was allowed plenty of time off for  mountaineering expeditions. My first real taste of the mountains was while I was at Princethorpe. When I was about thirteen Mr Cooper organised a joint trip with Lawrence Sherriff school to camp for a weekend in Snowdonia. He took us round the Snowdon Horseshoe. I felt a strange mix of elation and abject terror while crawling on my hands and knees across the narrow part of the ridge on Crib Gogh. I decided there and then that I was not going to let a fear of heights stop me. The fear gradually evolved into something I would describe as a well developed sense of self preservation which is usually a great asset in the mountains. I also remember the Primus stove we borrowed for that trip which Mr Cooper (quite rightly) made me take home and polish twice before it was clean enough.

My first exotic trip was at the end of my first year at Imperial College. A group of eight of us went to Greenland for a six week trip. We had a scientific objective (collecting spiders) which we successfully accomplished and we actually found a species that had not been observed in Greenland before. (Had anyone actually looked??). The trip was a great learning experience in many ways, not least in terms of human interaction. Small groups in close proximity for long periods of time tend to magnify issues and communicate badly - perhaps I should have come up with the concept for Big Brother in 1983 and made my fortune!

Through my twenties and thirtiies I managed to fit in trips to Alaska, Himalayas, Greenland, Karakoram, Spitzbergen and regularly climbed in the Alps. During the winter a small group of us from the Alpine Club used to regularly head off  after work on a Thursday evening and drive through the night to Chamonix. We would arrive at about 6am, head up into the mountains on skis to stay in a mountain hut and climb Saturday and Sunday. We would then drive back during Monday to be fresh (!) for work on Tuesday morning.

By 1996 I found that work was taking me out of London most weeks, and I was sick of fighting with the traffic in and out of London, so I moved back to the Midlands, not far from Princethorpe. I met Janet not long after, and soon we were married with two fantastic little boys, James, now 10 and Jack, 8. James is soon to move to secondary school so we visited Princethorpe with him last summer. I was struck by the amount of change since my time there - substantially improved sports facilities,  building renovation, no boarders, and girls. On the other hand it was great to see some familiar faces amongst the staff. As I walked as a prospective parent into the Chemistry lab I remembered a day when I was in Sixth Form. We were in a Chemistry lesson and I had spilled some chemical on my shirt. My good friend Simon Jones who was a boarder offered to let me borrow one of his. His room was down at the Convent on the Coventry Road. Fr Clarkson and some prospective parents walked into the Lab just as I was shirtlessly exiting through the window to walk down to the Convent. I didn't look back!

It was during this visit last summer that it was suggested I might write something for the next issue of  this newsletter. The best delaying excuse I could come up with on the spot was that I was planning a mountaineering expedition to Antarctica at the end of the year and that it would be better to write it when I had something fresh to write about. A group of seven of us from The Alpine Club chartered a 60ft yacht  to sail down to the Antarctic Peninsula. The four day, 650 mile voyage down from the bottom of South America across The Drake Passage in a small boat was quite an experience in its own right.  By local standards the weather was kind to us, with strongest wind about 65 knots, and 4 - 5m seas. It was miserable being seasick for the first two days, but then I got my sea legs and began to enjoy the sailing. The trip was very successful - we managed six first-ascents and a couple of repeat ascents. In part we were reasonably lucky with the weather. Also we adopted a different logistical approach than most previous expeditions down there - hauling food and fuel to camp high on the glaciers for longer periods rather than using the boat as the base, which meant we were well placed to use good weather when it arrived. Meanwhile back in the UK the weather had been similar to what we were experiencing in Antarctica. Strong winds around Cape Horn had delayed us getting back to Ushuiaia in Argentina. We had planned in a couple of days of contingency before our flights and actually used it all. Airport chaos due to snow threatened at this end. We were very relieved to get back on time on Christmas Eve.

So Mr Cooper's trip to Snowdonia has much to answer for, and I will always be grateful. I am also very grateful for the encouragement, inspiration and friendship I have received from many staff and fellow pupils. One of the kindest acts that I ever experienced was from Fr Kennedy. I joined in second year (now called Year 8) and was doing my best not to show that I was having a tough time settling in. He came over to me one day in the playground and talked to me. I don't remember in any detail what he said, but from then on I knew I had a friend that I could reach out to. That made a huge difference to me, and remembering the positive impact one can have on others is something I try to remember in my professional life as well as my personal life.  I strongly value my friendship with Simon Jones. We sat next to each other in 3rd year (Year 9) and have been best friends ever since. He always copied my Maths homework, did it neatly, and therefore always got better marks than me. Any debt has been repaid a million fold since then.

As I live near Princethorpe I have the privilege of seeing some of the current student population growing up in the community. Though much has changed since my time it seems Princethorpe is doing well, and long may it continue.

After Princethorpe (1974 - 1976), I qualified as a Chartered Accountant with E&Y London and moved with E&Y to Sydney in 1986. Since then I have worked in Chief Financial Officer roles for companies including THORN EMI, Parmalat Dairy and various entrepreneurial Australian companies.

For the last 7+ years I have been self-employed as a finance consultant and am currently consulting to a French company involved with the manufacture of 4WD heavy lift equipment. I got married to Josephine in 1990 and we have an 11-year old daughter, Rachel. We live in the northern Sydney suburb of Belrose, about 10 km from Dee Why Beach.

My fond memories of Princethorpe include the 'Movies Night' in the study hall, lining up for beetroot crumble pie on Sundays, having mumps in the sick bay and Saturdays at Leamington Spa, Rugby or Coventry City.

I was particularly fond of the pottery/art classes with Mr Skiffington and religion with Sister Lynda O’Dea. Sadly Sister Lynda passed away in 1987. Father O’Connor was also a good Maths teacher.

To date, the only “Old Princethorpian” I have kept intermittent contact with is Michael Binney who was last in HK I believe. I would love to hear from/receive news of any member in my classes of 1974 to 1976 (Form 4 and Form 5).

Since leaving Princethorpe in 1994, I went to University in Bristol and studied to become an accountant. I did that for a number of years before getting married to my wife Mary and moving to an island just off Auckland, New Zealand.

Now I have had a complete career change and am work for the Ministry of Social Development here helping review national legislation, translate it into policy and help oversee its subsequent implementation.

My memories of Princethorpe are around the teaching staff mainly, the people who created sparks in me, Mr Darkes and Mr White are two who always come to mind. Unfortunately I am not in direct touch with people but through Facebook keep up with a fair few from my year.

I have been in Hamilton, New Zealand for almost 7 years and am now dual-nationality British and Kiwi. 

Since leaving Princethorpe in 1992, I studied Chemistry at Oxford (thanks to Windy Miller for sending me off on that path!) but I no longer work in a chemistry-related area.  I now have a really interesting job as a Business Analyst for the farm improvement company that's responsible for, among other things, the artificial insemination of around three-quarters of New Zealand's 4-million dairy cows.  Where else could you talk about semen regularly at work?! 

When I'm not working, I'm busy looking after my two young boys; Alex, 4, and Adam, 1.  I'm still in touch with a few ex-Princethorpians, and have been very good friends with Leigh Hunt since we both left Princethorpe in 1992.  It was through Leigh that I met my husband, Scott.  Leigh and I still see each other regularly - he and his family live in New Zealand now too!

Since leaving Princethorpe in 1984 I was offered a scholarship to study mining engineering at the Camborne School of Mines (now Uni of Exeter) and emigrated to South Africa in 1992. The geography teachers at Priggers (Mr Kitterick et al) part inspired me to do this subject.

I met my wife (from Sunderland!) at a remote diamond mine town there and worked in various locations until 1998 when we decided to move to Australia. We initially worked in outback nowhere, WA then made our way across to the eastern seaboard where we based ourselves and then spent some time in Papau New Guinea and Indonesia mining the shiny yellow metal and some coal.

We now enjoy life in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Queensland - the house survived the recent flooding, but we had seven days without power which made life interesting in the middle of a hot and humid summer, just as well we camp a bit.

I’ve met up with a few likely lads from my Priggers era during visits to the UK and enjoyed having a beer with them recalling the capers we got up to as boarders.

It would be good to know of other OPs living in this part of the world – I’ve been trying to locate a certain “CV” from Malaysia who was at Princethorpe during 1982/3 to 198? – any leads? He and Eddy Enwonwu were consummate entrepreneurs and may have done a bit of studying in-between their various schemes, then again, probably not!

On a sad note, my older brother Mark Pesch passed away in 2004, he was at Princethorpe too so some guys may remember him. My younger brother, Warren (another OP) now lives in London.