Issue 13 – The Corinthian Online

Issue 13, The Corinthian 2023

Feature Articles

GRENADE RAIDS

CO-EDUCATION AT STOWE

JF ROXBURGH VISION AND PANACHE

MAKING MEMORIES

Online Exclusives

THE STOWE LANDSCAPE

ARC DE TRIOMPHE

STOWE-X MUSIC

A BAT OUT OF HELL

I WAS A REAL MAD MAN

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Templa Quam Dilecta

(How Beautiful are thy Temples) Did you absorb beauty at Stowe? As an Old Stoic you will have heard, no...

Via Francigena

The Carlie Tufnell Charitable Trust We, four friends, had come to Siena in early June 2022 to raise funds for...

The Edward Guinness Appeal

For the QEF Care and Rehabilitation Centre I am sad to announce that since this article was written, Edward passed...

From the Head

The Enlightenment of Stowe This is an important moment for Stowe as we look back with pride over 100 years...

Music & Life after Stowe

I joined Stowe’s Music Department when preparations were in hand for the 50th anniversary in 1973. My contribution was to...

News from the Development Office

As the School celebrates its Centenary this year, we have the opportunity to look both to the past and to...

Stowe House Restoration: A history

As a 1680s building with many upgrades, expansions and add-ons over the subsequent two hundred years, Stowe House was always...

What does it mean to be a Change Maker?

As Stowe begins its Centenary celebrations, we have much to reflect on. A hundred years of change, evolution and of...

Colin Shillington Award for Sporting Achievement

The Colin Shillington Award for Sporting Achievement has become one of the most prized awards presented on Speech Day. It...

If you are going to school in England…

I was recently going through some old paperwork and discovered a five-page memo I received in 1965 from the English-Speaking...

Old Stoic Sustainability Networking Group

Are you involved in sustainability or interested in finding out more about it? Sustainability affects all of us, both personally...

Loggia Stoica (an anecdotal approach to sleep therapy)

I have never had any trouble getting off to sleep. I shut my eyes and that’s it – I open...

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Bookshelf

Bookshelf

OS SPORT

The Society continues its journey in making us relevant in the modern day as well as for
those more senior Old Stoics who are less technologically inclined. We continue to deliver a diverse range of fascinating events across the UK and overseas and seeking out our lost and disengaged members. I asked Old Stoics last year to “meet us halfway and get involved” and I am grateful to those who took up the challenge. Never more demonstrated than when I attended the first of the Centenary celebrations in Scotland on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

As I said last year, this really is not a one-person job, so I would like to recognise and thank the current Committee for their hard work. Firstly, to our OS President, the first female President, Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie formally Stephanie Fraser (née Struthers, Stanhope 86). Those who were privileged to hear her speak in Scotland know that she is no figurehead and how lucky we are to have her at the helm. Our excellent Vice-Chair, Toby Gauvain (Temple 89), who is passionate about looking after recent leavers and is tasked with starting the OS Croft Committee (named after Stowe’s second Head Boy, Colonel Andrew Croft DSO (Chandos 25)) aimed at getting more young Old Stoics involved early on. Continued thanks go to our erstwhile Treasurer, Nigel Wright (Chatham 78); to Talulla Rendall (née Barrow, Lyttelton 07) for organising all our main events; Simon Smith (Cobham 88) who has arm wrestled OS sport back from the brink so brilliantly and the force of nature that is Alexander Robertson (Walpole 11), who is responsible for global OS events and careers. We welcome the very talented Milla Marinova (Lyttelton 03) who is creating the ‘OS Academy’ in a TED talks style, getting the great and good to come and enlighten us and energise us at the same time. We are desperately short on new blood on the Committee – so if you want to put something back into Stowe, are someone who does not sit still, able to inject enthusiasm and have the time – please do contact the OS Office. My final thanks to former committee members, Jonathan Keating (Cobham 73) for his work on the new OS merchandise in the School Shop, which we all look forward to seeing and former Chair, Jonathan Hall (Bruce 79) for all his hard work with the OS Benevolent Fund. None of us would be able to do what we do without the incredible support from Bev and Steph in the Old Stoic Office so once again, a big thank you to them.

As to my aims for my tenure so far, I am grading myself at a B+ (Chair Assessed Grade!) – some very good things done but more to do. I continue to believe in ‘micro-ambition’ for our activities – sometimes they are oversubscribed, other times we are forced to cancel, so I need more consistent OS engagement with the Society and a wider group. This year we are going to listen and find out what people actually want, so we can deliver just that. I continue to surround myself with clever Old Stoics but I need more people on the committee to deliver the wants and needs of our diverse alumni. I am pleased with our progress with our younger OS, especially the COVID year leavers. Our wonderful university visits initiative has already been well received and will become a regular fixture. Let us see how I score myself following the Centenary.

Finally, I leave you with the thought of what it must have been like being one of the first 99 pupils going up the steps on the North Front into that wonderful building on Thursday 11 May 1923. Fear or excitement of the unknown? Who knows, but no matter what, starting their Stowe journey. As the first Headmaster, JF Roxburgh, so eloquently said of Stoics, that they would be “acceptable at a dance and invaluable in a shipwreck”. The depth and breadth of Old Stoic’s achievements over the years really is truly amazing.