I arrived at 9.30 Saturday morning after an overnight stay locally to see a couple of people on Collingwood Green sorting out the RHSA marquee. I then went to my pre-arranged meeting with Debbie Hitchen in the Art block behind the Jellicoe Room. I was impressed to see the level of work produced by the students. We had our meeting about what my business could do to help the current pupils of the School and decided to come up with some proposals over the next academic year. The pupils that I met during that time were gracious and Debbie kindly provided some distraction for my children Zaccary 10 and Olivia 8 who came with me for the weekend. They were particularly impressed as they came away with some fabulous bracelets.

At 10.30, after leaving Debbie to her teaching, we ventured over to Collingwood Green to see that Ted Pearn, Ian Rocket and Tony Hall were trying to sort out the problems with the marquee. At this point a class of students was brought over to help with the erection of some alternative marquees. I must point out that the children got together without a word of complaint and assembled the marquees which was particularly impressive.  Olivia and Zaccary made offers of help and Zaccary gave a hand to Ted when required and Olivia appointed herself rubbish collector as quite a few pieces of paper we covering the green from a previous class.

At this point some more old boys arrived Derek Alsford’s senior and Junior, Graham Phillips, David Sewell and Paul Waldie. By 12pm there saw the arrival of 3 previous staff members, Mr and Mrs Good,  Mr Pattison (doing fantastically well given his years) and ex worgie all suited and booted in his new action man uniform , Mr Ian Good. A group of four old girls who left in 1999, 3 old boys who were returning for the first time since the 1950’s, Andy Chapman and his wife and son Finlay and later came some of my contemporaries Jamie Wallis, Morgan Austin and Rich Corner. The latter three men spoke of arriving Friday evening and having enjoyed a pint or two down the pub and were feeling a little fragile but still on great form. The boys then sat for a while taking pleasure in recalling stories of escapades at School to a shocked Marketing Director Sophie Braybrooke and Ted Pearn, all in the best humor. Sophie then kindly invited the attendees to have lunch in the DH which was delicious and enjoyed by those who went.

At 2pm the pre-arranged tours started with pupil escorts who were as charming as expected. Mr Pattison was escorted by three girls to start with but a late comer robbed him of the pleasure of continuing with all three. Everyone on the tours returned at 3pm awed at the changes in the School and impressed and delighted by their guides.

At 4pm Rob Mann gave a fascinating insight into RHS300 in room G11 and what the plans were and revealed the recently accepted proposals for the new School museum. The museum is to be located in the old gym store and offices. It was fascinating to see the amount of archived material Rob has managed to collate since undertaking the project.

Once finished the ex pupils scattered to the pub and to prepare for sunset. My children were kept entertained by some lovely Cornwallis girls playing volleyball and later Rob Mann kindly invited them to play with his children while we sat and enjoyed a drink overlooking the playing fields.

At 7pm guests returned for Sunset, at this point I met up briefly with Ed Dennis and his wife who had only just arrived for the evening buffet.  The Headmaster and Ted Pearn took honorary place on the dais with a quality musical performance from the band and the well known precision of the guard, truly enjoyable. A delighted crowd applauded a job well done.