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1997 leavers’ reunion – 9th/10th June

Girls who left in 1997 returned to Moreton for the weekend.  A great time was had by all – including members of staff who were delighted to catch up with them.  Even the game of lacrosse against current Moretonians on Sunday was fun …..  the score an honourable 3-2 to the school.

“It was a fab weekend, so so good to see everyone, so much fun.  I can’t remember the last time that I laughed so much.  A yearly reunion sounds great to me!”

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES …..

Thanks to all those who got in touch in response to the request for names of the girls in the picture of the Spanish and Russian plays in the Spring 2007 edition of the Update.  They are generally agreed to include Margi Renshaw, Anita Martyn Smith, Jane Hennessy and Julia Neild.

Below are some more memories from the 1960s:

I was one of the 29 to go to Russia in 1964.   I remember it well - I had to sell the pony to raise the £60 to go, and we were the first school party to visit Russia through ‘Intourist’.    Baron von Pahlen, Miss Moore and POM (Janet Norton) accompanied us, and we behaved abominably.   Fog kept us in Helsinki, so we went to see A Hard Day’s Night, surrounded by Finns.   We managed to get to the Bolshoi Opera Company to see Boris Gudinov - spectacular.   I remember that I sat in a box with Alison (Withington) Morton, and we held our hands up to our eyes pretending that they were opera glasses, and at the interval, a young man with a purple sweater was waiting outside our box so we ran away saying the one phrase which the Baron had taught us, which was ˜I don’t speak Russian’.    Horrors.  And there was much worse!   On the bus coming from Zagorsk (spelling?) we sang the Tsarist national anthem to whatever hymn it was with great gusto (practically the whole of the choir was on the trip) and our two guides nearly went ballistic!  The more ballistic they went, the louder we sang.   Cap guns on the train back from Moscow to Ostend, shooting the East German soldiers as they paraded up and down the train corridor.   Told not to get off at Warsaw and did, only to be hustled back on at gunpoint.

Julia Scott-Barrett

Learning Russian was one of the particularly memorable things about my time at Moreton.  I joined the school in T's and J's (with about seven others including Pam Turner, Buddug and Sheila Watkin).  When we went into Remove, we had the choice of beginning Russian or Greek and I chose Russian.  Henry Maas had just arrived at the school and his eldest daughter, Imogen, was a friend in my year.  (Years later I enjoyed attending Susie Maas' debut at the Wigmore Hall when I was a medical student.)  By 'O' level, there were just four of us learning Russian: Buddug, Sheila, me and Judith Quick (who left to go to Manchester High School in the sixth form). We had our lessons in comfortable chairs in a corner of the New Hall.  That summer (July 1969) was the trip to Russia was led by the Baron, Janet Norton and (I think) Miss Moore.  We went by boat to St Petersburg, train to Moscow, plane to Yalta in the Crimea and back to Kiev, coming home by train via Warsaw and Berlin. It was an amazing experience.  As well as the stunningly beautiful things we saw in St Petersburg, and fascinating things elsewhere, it was memorable visiting the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen on our way to Russia and seeing the announcement of the first men on the moon on a huge placard.

Julia Walport (Neild)

Anita Trevelyan (Martin Smith)

“I drew a deep breath and went to the Old Moretonians’ reunion – the first time after forty-five (yes 45!) years. I was the only person on the guest list for 1961 leavers but it wasn’t that difficult. I headed for the grey heads and spectacles in the room! Soon I found Jessica Young (my year but somehow not signed on), her older sister Felicity and Ebun Odutula (a wonderful Puck). By the end of a very enjoyable evening, our era had grown to about ten. Plus, we picked up snippets about others absent from this excellent event – Moreton networking from work experience to retirement!”

(Victoria Silvester (Lloyd-Davies)

Old Moretonians met at the Army and Navy Club, London SW1 at the beginning of October. There were Moretonians from the 1950s to 2000, with fifteen from the 1981 group of leavers meeting together for the first time in 25 years.

Seventy more recent leavers had a great night in Fulham in November - very relaxed and very noisy! Strangely lots of groups of single men turned up ... word had obviously got around since last year!!!

Fifteen Old Moretonians returned for lunch in the Marchant Gallery – better known to them as the Fiction Library.

“I just wanted to say on my own behalf how much I appreciated all the hard ‘private detective’ work you did on my behalf for yesterday’s tremendous success. I was impressed by all the care you had taken to ensure that we had such an enjoyable day. The kitchen provided very good food (a great improvement on times gone by) and it was so nice to be able to use the old Fiction Library again – a room that I always like a lot. Thanks, too, to the charming and patient girls who took us round the school (a revelation!) and hope that all their plans for university go well.”

Comment from an old Moretonian

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