LOST  TOUCH
 

   Year Lists  and  Photos   

   Lost Touch?     Page 1     Page 2     Page 3     Page 4     Page 5    Page 6     Page 7     Page 8     Page 9    Page 10

   Lost Touch?     Shoreditch Technical Institute,    Coopers Hill Emergency Training College


Email / website address updates are on the latest Lost Touch page


Have you lost touch with an old friend or colleague?

If you would like to try to contact a former member of staff or student of Shoreditch, please e-mail the following information to  jill.sandwell@rogers.com    I will include the request in the next revision of this page.

Bullet the name of the person you are trying to find
Bullet  the approximate years he/she was at Shoreditch
Bullet  his/her last known address
Bullet  your name
Bullet  your mailing address (optional)
Bullet  your e-mail address
Bullet your phone number (optional)
Bullet  please include
"Lost Touch" in the subject header so I will know to include your message
         on these pages and not in the Directory

  Don't forget to look at the
News and Views Page — you will find letters on various subjects there.

 

Is someone trying to find you?   Please take a moment to check below

 

January 2009     

Hi Jill,
 
My aunt was at Royal Holloway and would like to get back in contact with Tony Love. I beleive he was at Shoreditch from 1963 to 1966 and used to live in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. He would be around 64 now.
 
If anyone knows where Tony is now, please feel free to contact me.
 
Thank you,
Stacy Aston

email:   stacy.aston@yahoo.co.uk


December 2008      

Hello Jill.

My name is Peter Smith, I was a member of 78 year. I live  in Chesterfield, Derbyshire and am still teaching Art and Design.  David Middleton (humanities) another former student from 77 year lives up the road from me.  Ian Buxton ( craft) 76 year I think is Deputy Head at The Bolsover School, Derbyshire

Hope to hear from you soon 

Peter Smith  (78 year)

email:   janeandpetersmith@talktalk.net


November 2008      

I was a student at Shoreditch College from 1977-1980 and was one of the few females to follow Stuart Salts course on Tnter Disciplinary Handicrafts. I still teach part time and married a former student (Justin Donovan 78 year).

Yvette Donovan  (nee Chandler)  1980

email:   yvettedon@hotmail.co.uk


November 2008    

I've just read the emails from Chris Bell (dated 2004!). I'm looking for contacts to the same people,  Ed Horton, Reg Whiffen, Malcolm Wilson, Johnny Froud etc.  I'm the Eva he talks about and I'd really like to contact Reg's wife Mary and the other women who were at Royal Holloway with me 1960-63 like Chris.  We all knocked about with the Rustlers Group.  I've tried his email but it no longer works. He must have changed it since 2004.

Eva Barnes (née Sanders) La Bonnelière, St Paul en Gâtine, France 79240

email:   ebarnes@club-internet.fr


August 2008     

Giday Jill,

By pure chance I stumbled on this Shoreditch web site. My name is Dave Silcox and I was at the Ditch from 1960 to 63.  In 66 I left for New Zealand and have lived here ever since. For the first two years at the Ditch I shared a room in College block with Mick Edwards. We still phone each other regularly and always get together when My wife and I are in the U.K.[incidentally I met my wife at the Freshers`ball almost as soon as I arrived at the Ditch in 1960].  Mick Edwards still lives in Frome in Somerset.  I occasionally catch up with Drew Down who left the Ditch in 1964.

During one of our visits to the U.K. we went up to the Ditch, we met members of the staff; when I enquired about people I had gone through with we were told that 1963 was too far back for any records to be kept. We were amused to be part of pre history.

Cheers

Dave Silcox 1963 year

email:   silcoxdh@ihug.co.nz

 

FOLLOW UP

September 2008     

Hi Jill,

Thanks for the reply, we have just returned from a month in England where we met up again with Mick Edwards and his wife. If anyone is interested in old motor bikes Dru Down gives a radio broadcast on Radio Cambridge on a Sunday.

Regards,   

Dave Silcox 1963 year

email:   silcoxdh@ihug.co.nz


August 2008

Hi Jill

I shall be visiting the uk in September, and will be in London from the 17 to 21 September.

I hope to visit the college on one of those days,and if anyone from the 1959 year is out there and would be interested in joining me for a visit please contact me by email.

Don Spencer (1959  year)

email:   sec55@slingshot.co.nz


March 2008

John Bailey is hoping to organise a reunion on the day of the Goodbye Tour for 1960 Year ::

It is the 50th anniversary this year for my student year, 1960, to arrive at Shoreditch.  I would like to make every effort to find as many as possible to attend the visit on April 19th.  At the moment about half a dozen look possible.

email:   John Bailey    jhelides7b@onetel.com


November 2007   

Hi Jill,
I would like to trace Howard Norton.  He was with me on the supplementary course 1961 to 1962.  He went to teach in Witney after leaving.  

Regards
John Ricketts

email:   
tiana@parkfarmholidaycottages.co.uk      (new email address Dec. 07)


DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON THE FOLLOWING?
(reposted because his email address was accidentally left out)

February 2007    

Dear Madam ,

I live in Perth Western Australia and I am trying to find out the history of my half brother John Richard Purton -- known to me as JACK. He was a student of Shoreditch College and I am trying to find out about his life. Can you help with any information please.

What I do know is, that he died March 14th 1944 age 22 years while serving as a sub lieutenant (A) with H.M.S.Saker., Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, His Remembrance with honor Lee-on-Solent Memorial WW2. I have only one photo of him, Can you please offer me any information. I would be most greatful.

yours truly

Ray
Raymond A Purton
email:
 purton2000@westnet.com.au


October 2007

Hello there!
 
My very good friend - and former mentor,  Alan Marshall,  has drawn my attention to your/our website.  I am a '64 vstudent and,  over the intervening years have written a number of times to the college,  and personally to then Bursar, (Wilson?  With a club foot?),  asking if we had an almumni,  or an old boys' newsletter,  - or something,   but never received even the courtesy of a reply.  So I assumed that,  having gone to the Antipodes,  I was now classed as a leper and an untouchable.   ( I do remember once discussing a teaching appointment in the Channel Isles with a member of the staff and he said that,  "If you go to work there this college will have nothing more to do with you!").   So I reckoned that I was probably now blacklisted by STC.   But heck,  there WERE good reasons for my deserting UK!   We had a ghastly domestic accident where one of my daughters was maimed - and I had an overwhelming desire to get as far away as possible from my (then) mother-in-law!!!  So I became a "Ten Pound Pom" and emigrated to Perth,  West Australia after teaching in UK for only 3 years.   I played-out my full working life teaching in these parts and retired at age 65.  I am now 78.  Regrettably I did not do much teaching of "Manual Arts" - as it is called out here.  Most of my career was as a TD and Maths teacher.
 
My address is:- 
Roger Dracup,  11 Kempenfeldt Avenue,  Sorrento, West Australia,  6020. 
My e-mail address is:-    
rojun@alumni.ecu.edu.au
 
I am quite happy to make contact with anyone who wants intercourse with me.  Alan Marshall has told me that there is a Perth address in your www which,  despite a cursory glance,  I have not managed to detect.
 
My 3 years 'in a Ditch'  were most enjoyable and memorable;  a truly valuable experience which,  obviously, changed the direction of my life.  I came to Shoreditch as a mature student having previously served 2 years in a bank,  followed by 13 years in the Colonial Police serving in Palestine and Kenya - combatting terrorism in both countries for many years.
 
I have a few anecdotes which might be of interest.  Our History Lecturer,  Ted Joy,  a man for whom I had a great respect and liking, once told us that history recorded that the first person ever to be killed by a motor vehicle was killed at the gateway entrance to STC.  I can't remember the details, but it might be an interesting bit of history.
 
One of the English lecturers,  a Welshman by the name of,  I think,  Thomas,  once told me that the golden years of STC were just after WW2 when all the students were ex servicemen - all keen to excel,  all mature students and all keen to get out and earm money ASAP.  He told me of one sports meeting when some students,  who were ex RAF,  hired a Tiger Moth and came over the venue and bombarded it from the air with flower bombs.
 
I was privileged to spend 2 weeks on the Foudroyant;  a great experience.  I know nothing about the capstan.   My understanding is that Foudroyant was/is built of teak  -  NOT the traditional oak.  It was built in Trincomalee hartbour,  (Ceylon - now Sri Lanka),  hence the teak.  I forget what its first name was but it was captured by Napoleon and re-named Foudroyant,  which means 'Thundering'.  When Napoleon was defeated we got it back and left the name unchanged.  Your www suggests that it has been refurbished and is still afloat in, presumably,  Gosport Harbour.
 
The STC Principal who took a chance on admitting me to the hallowed halls of STC as a mature student without even the barest of academic qualifications,  was Ted Marshall.  He was the first to occupy that delightful new house by the college gates. He died in harness and, as the college was on Easter vacation at the time,  and as I lived fairly close,  I was asked to represent the student body at the funeral.  My wife was heavily pregnant with twins at the time,  (we arranged our pregnancies so that the births would hopefully occur during vacation times so that I could be at home and look after the other kids while worthy spouse was confined!).   The day was 10 April 1964 - a date I remember well - a bright sunny spring day with hosts of golden daffodils everywhere,  and,  as the coffin was coming in one door of the church, the Bursar,  Wilson?,  was running down the aisle to find me to tell me that my wife had just been taken to hospital.  So, as the coffin came in one door,  I exited hastily through another.  My twins were born a few hours later at Guildford.
 
"Willy-bobs"  took over as Principal.  I had a great love and respect for him,  and he did me some good services later on.  I remember once when some students must have climbed the 2 towers on either side of the entrance and had strung a banner between the towers, proclaiming "NATIONAL WILLY-BOBS WEEK'.  I never worked out how they managed to do it; they must have had mountaineering experience.  Willy-bobs took it in good part.
 
Out here in Oz I dragged my 4 children kicking and screaming into sailing.  We did very well and won quite a few accolades - culminating with one of my twins being chosen to represent Oz in the World Championships,  which were held that year in the Gulf of Mexico.   After that we tended all to be burnt-out with sailing, so we all switched to the comparatively new sport of Triathlon where,  again,  we all did fairly well.  I represented Oz 5 times at World Championships and finally won the World Championship for my age group in New Zealand in 1994.  My 48 y.o. son and 2 grandchildren still compete at State level with considerable success.   I was awarded the ASM  (Australian Sports Medal),  for my services to sport.
 
On the distaff side we have had some terrible accidents,  starting, of course,  with the one which part-caused us to emigrate in the first place.  I have 3 daughters - and they have all had broken spines - 2 from sky-diving and one from 'rolling' her MG.  One of them,  on her 13th jump,  fell 6000 feet with both 'chutes failed.  She did a lot of damage but has lived a normal life ever since she recovered - that was 25 yearsago.
 
I was delighted to see the photos of the old place.  We were the first students to inhabit the new halls of residence. I thought they were luxury.  Three square meals a day - and all for free.  I loved it.  On looking out of my window one morning I found that the grass quadrangle was 'different'.  I did a double-take and realised that there were large 'candle-cactusses' everywhere,  and a few cows and other impedimenta.  The boys had raided a film set during the night and had brought their loot back to college.
 
Sincerely,  
Roger Dracup   '64
rojun@alumni.ecu.edu.au


October 2007

Terry White:   Dai Williams:    1953-1956
their last address unknown

My Name:  Keith Tracey
My address: 7128 Dale Road, Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada, V0N-3A8

My e-mail address:    ktracey@dccnet.com


September 2007

Dear Jill
Enjoyed seeing Shoreditch website.  I was there in 1958-60.  Chris Hope-Scarrett rang to tell me about you putting together all the info on the Ditch.  Would like to find out about:-
 
  1. Gerry Fox.  left 1961 after supplementary course in 63 went to Nigeria to teach
  2. Jack Hart.  left 1960 to teach in Leeds
  3. George Ilsley.  left 1959. Was secretary of CU. Last heard he was a lecturer at Neene College, Northants
  4. Hubert Tebb.  left 1960. Taught in a special school in the Wirral
  5. George Coburn? (not sure of his surname) President of the Christian Union 1958-59. First teaching post in a country school in Surrey
  6. David O. Jones.  left 1959 to teach English at Neath Grammar School. South Wales 
  7. Ged Friday.  left 1961. Taught in Kent then went to Timber Development Research in Princes Risborough 1967.

I taught for 35 years in Wensleydale and Hagley W. Midlands.  Now running my own business. See our website www.ashemcrafts.com 

 
Thanks for your help 
 
Peter Hindle.
ashemcrafts@onetel.net.uk


September 2007

My email has changed to   m(at)sheehan2(dot)wanadoo(dot)co(dot)uk   <where (at) is replaced by  @  and (dot) is replaced by  .  in both places, because of problems with spam email;  if you click on the link it will translate automatically into the correct format>

Skype:  thames.rower

Thank you  
Mick Sheehan  '73 Yr

 

 

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