Here – Spring 2009

While reporting his marriage to Elizabeth Parsons, Andrew Morgan (G 86-91) reports that, after his honeymoon in Rome, he travelled to Tokyo for work where he met Gaku Yokoyama (G 87-91). Apparently Gaku is very well and is starting his own business in the city. Andrew is now a freelance photographer having been staff photographer for EVO magazine for 9 years.

Courtesy of John Ineson (G 43-50) we have received a copy of the Times Supplement of 13th July 2008 in which Alan Judd reviews a book by Harry Ferguson on the early years of MI6, including Operation Kronstadt.

This operation was intended to extract a British agent, Paul Dukes, from Russian territory bordering the Gulf of Finland and involved Lieutenant Augustus Agar V.C., D.S.O. (1902-03). Agar was experimenting with Coastal Motor Boats in Essex. These were early versions of what in the next war would be known as MTBs – Motor Torpedo Boats. They were very fast, very flimsy and very temperamental. Powered by aero – engines that were allergic to sea – water, each had to launch its torpedo from the stern and then get out of its way. Agar was ordered to the Gulf of Finland with two boats and their crews on a secret mission: they were to get someone (Dukes, though they did not know it) out of Russia. Unfortunately the rendezvous failed and Agar did not meet Dukes until much later.

It was, with the tacit approval of the senior British naval officer in the Gulf, Admiral Cowan, that Agar now attempted to relieve the Russian bombardment of an Estonian fort by attacking the Russian cruiser, Oleg. He was so successful with his solitary torpedo that the Oleg sank and it was for this action that Agar was awarded the Victoria Cross. A few weeks later a strengthened flotilla of eight boats, with Agar acting as guide, attacked the Russian fleet again and succeeded in sinking two battleships. He was now awarded the D.S.O.

A full account of these exploits of Augustus Agar can be found on the OF website under Distinguished OFs.

Peter Gooding (K 53-62) reminds us that John Maulden (G45-50), who had been a National Service RAF jet pilot before joining the College staff, founded the RAF Section of the CCF in 1959. Among its first members were three who went on to join the RAF at Cranwell on the same day and graduated as pilots, and who then spent successful full careers as RAF officers. The photo shows (L-R) Jon Ford (S 58-62), Mike Allport (R 54-62), John Maulden and Peter Gooding, who met up for a day at Jon’s home in Norfolk to show their gratitude to John Maulden for starting them off! All three did gliding and 30 flying hours of a Flying Scholarship on the Tiger Moth in the school holidays, and have happy memories of trying with John Maulden to launch an open framework primary glider on the sports field with a long bungee cord – thankfully without success!

Jon Ford, Mike Allport, John Maulden, Peter Gooding

John Maulden remembers those days, at the start of the College RAF Section with enormous pleasure and says he was so fortunate to have such a fine dedicated group of chaps to work with.

When William Church began selling surplus seed from his Suffolk farm in 1902 he would have had no idea that he was starting a business that would be carried on by his great grandsons a century later. William had returned to the family farm from the Boer War and when the seed business flourished he moved, in 1913, to the present site in Bures.

William, with his wife Annice, had three children Freda Church (decd), Leslie Church (R 20-22) (decd) and Douglas Church (R 21-24) (decd). Leslie and Douglas joined the family business and eventually took over from their father’s executors, who had managed it since William died at the young age of 40. Freda had married and her son John Ineson (G 43-50) together with Leslie’s son Christopher Church (R 43-52) were the first of the second generation of the Church family to attend Framlingham. They were followed by Douglas’s sons Brian Church (R 50-53) (decd) and Anthony Church (R 52-56).

The directors of W.A.Church (Bures) Ltd. (circa 1990)
From left to right at the back Brian Church, Christopher Church and Anthony Church with John Ineson in the blazer in the front right.
The other director is Edgar Warden, not a member of the family.

The firm still continues today under Robert Church, who is Managing Director of the company and the great grandson of the founder.

Peter Craig (G 73-81)
Really enjoyed the 2008 Yearbook and felt compelled to respond. He was not really sure to which section he now belonged as he has not put pen to paper for 5 years since leaving the Royal Navy. He writes:

I have been prompted to write following receipt of the best OF Yearbook I have read for a very long time, it had something for everyone and was wonderfully fresh. I am a fully signed up member of the digital community but there is something about opening a magazine full of great articles and pictures that a website cannot compete with. I felt an upwelling of nostalgia as I read through the articles and looked at pictures that brought back my fun time at the college. Anyway I was motivated to get back in touch and perhaps have some messages from my generation which might inform or motivate people looking beyond school.

My family has not been involved with the college for some time, although I am sure my brothers or sister has attended the odd dinner. We have a long history with the school starting with our Garrett family connection. My grandfather, Dan Craig, was a local GP in Framlingham and the school doctor living with my grandmother Phyllis (nee Garrett) in a house near the castle – at least two masters have lived there since. My father, Frank Craig (K 45-53) ( Lee On Solent) his brothers Ian Craig (K 53-60) (Plymouth) and Robert (K 55-59) (Australia) attended Brandeston/Framlingham and one of their sisters was a school matron.  I also had cousins from the Marwood family go to the college. My siblings, Richard (G 74-82) (Cricklade), James (G 79-88) (Poole) and Charlotte (V 85-88) (Portsmouth) are OFs but none of our 14 children, probably because of changing times and the family migration to the South Coast.  Anyone wanting to get back in touch with members my family can contact me for information.

I left in ’81 and joined the Navy for 23 years where I regularly corresponded through the service column. Since leaving the service I have worked in the defence industry, initially in Sales and Marketing with Ultra Electronics but now with BAE Systems Insyte. I am having as much fun as I did in uniform, especially in my current role which brings me in regular contact with old military friends who are all now fairly senior. I lead a group of ex-military experts and software engineers in a process known as Visualisation and Experimentation.  I deliver an operability and software integration derisking activity for the new generation of Aircraft Carriers (CVF) being delivered to the Royal Navy.

In reality I immerse current servicemen in a virtual interactive synthetic environment and guide them through Carrier wargames to test the new systems designed into the Ship’s Mission System.

Over the last couple of years I have been in contact with a number of OFs  from my time – Alex Schmidt (M 79-81) (near Kiel), Shane Rimmer (Z 76-81) (Tunbridge) along with his brothers and father Laurie Rimmer – ex Headmaster, Marcus Spurrell (G 73-81) (Boston US), Justin Spurrell (G 73-82) (High Wycombe), Piers Moore (K 74-81) (Kingston Upon Thames), Bob Bellfield (K 81-83), Perry (G 76-81) and Maria (P 79-81) Trevers, James Kellet (G 77-80) and John Allen (G 76-81). I am also a member of the business network LinkedIn which the OF Society is now associated with – The OF LinkedIn network seems a bit under used but I can highly recommend it as a great networking vehicle. A lesson the military never really got across to me is the power of having a wide range of contacts – it is not enough to be good at your job you have to sell yourself and tell people you are good. Not a philosophy that sits well with modesty but it has helped me significantly since becoming a civilian.

For those leaving Framlingham to go to university I have been very impressed with the BAE Systems graduate entry scheme – a large engineering company with the will and resources to pluck something like 300 graduates a year from feeder universities and develop a career for them – worth checking out. They have a further scheme which identifies the best of the best which creams off a proportion of the graduates (and others) and grooms them for the highest ranks in the company. I was worried that when I left the military I would miss the energy and drive that most service men and women have – it is here in spades in the my industry!

Having spent my entire life at or by the sea – Framlingham was the furthest – I am now living in North Oxford, near Bicester. Perversely my work is now back on the coast so I am a weekly commuter. We seem to live on the crossroads of England so anyone who knows me and is passing at the weekend should get in touch with me via LinkedIn and arrange to stop by.