John Wordsworth was born at Harrow-on-the-Hill, the grandson of the youngest brother of the poet William Wordsworth. He was born into a clerical family, his grandfather being Master of Trinity College, Cambridge and his father was Bishop of Lincoln. John was a precocious child, the third in a family of seven and the elder of two brothers. He became a distinguished classical scholar, holding the positions of Fellow and Tutor at Trinity, then Chaplain Fellow, Prebendary at Lincoln, and Oriel Professor and Residentiary Canon at Rochester before being elevated to Salisbury in 1885, at the age of 42.
Three years into his term of office at Salisbury, Bishop John inaugurated the Salisbury Church Day School Association. Salisbury had reached a time of educational and political crisis and the Association set about the task of raising the £14,000 necessary to build three new primary schools and to add an infants department to the existing St Thomas’ School, thus accommodating another 1121 children. In addition the Bishop founded his own school at a cost of £3,000, entirely at his own expense. He purchased a piece of land adjoining the grounds of the palace and started building in 1889. Whilst building work was being completed, the Bishop started his school in January 1890 in his own palace, the pupils moving to their new building in April 1890 when the new school was officially opened. The school was known at the time as the Bishop’s School, being renamed the year after the Bishop’s death as "Bishop Wordsworth’s School".
John Wordsworth was married twice, first to Susan Esther Coxe (1870) who died at the palace in 1894 and then to Mary Anne Frances Williams (1896). There were four sons and two daughters to this second marriage. The Bishop undertook three major foreign visits during his episcopacy, the first to New Zealand as he recovered from the death of his first wife and the others to Sweden in 1909 and to America in 1910. He died at the palace on the 16th August 1911, working right up to the very end. A friend, Canon Woodall, remembering a conversation held some years before recalls: "Some years ago.....when walking with him on the site of the present St Mark’s School he said ‘I should like to see Salisbury a great educational centre. I should like to found a school which shall be equal to the greatest and best of our public schools.’ " However, it was perhaps his care for and love of children which underpinned his foundation. The school’s motto "Veritas in Caritate", surely remembered from his father’s epitaph in 1885, survives him to this day.
Novelist And Winner Of The Nobel Prize For Literature
From William Golding at BWS edited by John Cox as a memorial tribute.
"William Golding was a teacher at Bishop Wordsworth's School for three different periods of his life. He is well known for his book 'The Lord Of The Flies' which he based on the boys he so patiently observed.
William Golding would repeatedly walk up and down the room during some classes. Pupils later wondered if this regular, constant movement came from his naval experience. Even in later years he was "as sharp as a tack, missing nothing that was going on in class". Steady silences prevailed in these lessons and for some acquiescent pupils that seems all that can be remembered. Whether for his own research or not he is recalled as active in certain lessons - both of English and Religious Knowledge - in questioning boys and eliciting their ideas, insights and self-perceptions. It seems that, whether to young boys or potential Oxbridge scholars "his idea was to provoke us into thinking, which most schoolboys did as little of as possible". He also showed the importance of empathy when studying different religions - each one presented as if he believed in it. William Golding clearly had authority and discipline whether dealing with pert or precocious boys, or with the member of a play production crew who played the Russian (rather than the British) National Anthem before a performance, or with the culprit who attempted to conceal an ignited sparkler in his desk. He was a leader, not least in his running of the school's Sea Cadets and command of the whaler at Marchwood on Southampton Water. Many remember his dependence on boys' rations on trips away, and also his close observation of them, presumably not only as commander but as author as well. Rather like Robinson Crusoe unable to move his new craft William Golding and his cadets found theirs too large to move round the house.
For one absorbed in his own creations William Golding gave much to school life. He regularly sang with the choir in chapel services and was a soloist in the live 1945 BBC Radio broadcast of 'The Finding of the King' (written by F.C. Happold) shortly before leaving the Royal Navy and rejoining the staff at Bishop's. He also played the oboe in the school orchestra. At one particular rehearsal the school orchestra was sounding even more excruciating than usual. "Mr Golding. Can you give us that 'A' again?" Golding was a stickler for correct English usage. "I'm afraid I can't give you that one" he replied, "but I'll give you one like it!".
This image is a drawing by Old Wordsworthian James Starzacher
He brought his dramatic expertise from outside school to bear upon play productions such as Oedipus Rex in December 1940 before leaving to join the Royal Navy. A lecture he gave on mediaeval stained glass is recalled as knowledgeable and interesting and as master in charge of a trip to Figsbury Rings he gave permission for the boys to form into two groups - one to attack the fort and one to defend it. The author's opportunity for close observation of boys in conflict was further extended.
William Golding had been an unpublished novelist for some years. Many pupils can recall being given sheets of manuscript to read. These readings were tantalisingly piecemeal but enough to show some readers that the extracts were rather in the style of C.S. Forester's 'Hornblower'. In time he acquired the style of 'The Lord of the Flies', so much of it apparently written in class and reputedly finished under cover of his old green-tinged gown during a Founder's Day service.
To most colleagues he was courteous but reserved. In music and chess he could engage in close partnership but companionship was limited to a few. To some his involvement with his own work was a debit and others viewed his published writing as concerned with negative aspects of life. Perhaps a typical pedagoguery was evident in an encounter between J.P. Hellmann, Senior Master at B.W.S. from 1946 to 1961, after they had both retired. "Well, Golding, I am pleased that you are so successful with your novels. I cannot stand them myself but my people think the world of them". Other colleagues of more sympathetic perception found him a man of compassion and capable of being a good raconteur when in the mood."
In March 2005, a commemorative plaque for William Golding was placed outside the School entrance in The Close. A ceremony to mark the unveiling of the Salisbury Civic Society plaque took place in the presence of Lord Congleton, the Society President and Brigadier Alistair Clarke, the Civic Society Chairman. Also present were Patrick Paisey, Chairman of Salisbury District Council and Salisbury Mayoress, Mrs Sue Nettle. William Golding’s son and daughter, David Golding and Judy Carver and Arthur Bowden, a former pupil of William Golding, attended the gathering in the Close. We were fortunate to have two previous Headmasters, Mr Glyn Evans and Mr Clive Barnett at the opening. Dr Stuart Smallwood, the current Headmaster, opened the celebration and Mr John Cox, Senior Teacher and former Head of English gave an amusing speech about Sir William Golding. Brigadier Alistair Clark spoke for the Salisbury Civic Society who were pleased to commemorate the Nobel Prize Winner.
Ralph is one of the UK’s most highly-regarded and internationally celebrated actors.
Ralph Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes was born on December 22, 1962 in Suffolk, England, to Jennifer Anne Mary Alleyne (Lash), a novelist, and Mark Fiennes, a photographer. He is the eldest of six children. Four of his siblings are also in the arts: Martha Fiennes, a director; Magnus Fiennes, a musician; Sophie, a producer; and Joseph Fiennes, an actor. He is of English, Irish, and Scottish origin.
Ralph joined Bishop Wordsworth’s School in 1976 and left after his sixth form years in 1981. He acted in school play productions including A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt, in which he played Cromwell, directed by Chris Newman and Love’s Labours Lost by William Shakespeare in which he played Berowne, directed by John Cox. In 1990 he returned to take part in the School’s centenary celebrations by giving an illustrated talk on acting Shakespeare.
Fiennes has been honored with two Academy Award nominations, the first in 1994 for his performance in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning Best Picture, Schindler's List (1993). Fiennes' chilling portrayal of Nazi Commandant Amon Goeth also brought him a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA Award, as well as Best Supporting Actor honors from numerous critics groups, including the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York, Chicago, Boston and London Film Critics associations. Four years later, Fiennes earned his second Oscar nomination, for Best Actor, in another Best Picture winner, Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996). He also garnered Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations, as well as two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another shared with the film's ensemble cast.
His long list of film credits also includes the award-winning drama The Reader (2008), co-starring Kate Winslet; Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar®-winning The Hurt Locker (2008); the Neil Jordan-directed films The End of the Affair (1999) and The Good Thief (2002); István Szabó's Sunshine (1999); Maid in Manhattan (2002); the animated The Prince of Egypt (1998); Oscar and Lucinda (1997); Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994); and Wuthering Heights (1992), which marked his film debut. Fiennes notably portrayed of the evil Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter blockbuster film franchise. His nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin played Tom Riddle, the young Lord Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009).
Fiennes made his feature film directorial debut with a contemporary version of Shakespeare's political thriller Coriolanus (2011), in which he also starred with Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave. He will star next in Mike Newell's screen adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (2012), with Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, and in the highly anticipated Skyfall (2012), the next film in the Bond series, from director Sam Mendes.
Member of the Governor-General of India's Executive Council from 1932 to 1937 and member of the Indian Public Schools' Society (IPSS)
Christopher was appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Estonia in January 2012. From 2007 to 2011, he was Deputy Head of Security Policy Department in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for UK policy on NATO, European Security, military and civil-military operations and co-operation, as well as maritime security. From 2009 to 2011 he was the chairman of Working Group 1 of the international Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, leading work on operational co-ordination and regional capability development. From 2002 to 2007, he was seconded to the European Union in Brussels as UK liaison officer to Javier Solana, the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, and policy adviser to Dr Solana on Asia/Pacific issues. Christopher has worked in both the FCO and MOD on Balkans issues and was posted to the UK Delegation to NATO in the 1990s.
Former rugby union footballer who played flanker for Saracens and England. Often portrayed as the 'silent assassin' at both club and international level, Hill was renowned for his effective and abrasive style of forward play. Big hits, shrewd driving and energy-sapping support play, were features of his exceptionally well-rounded game which made him one of the most highly rated flankers of his era. 2003 Rugby World Cup winner
Bath Rugby, England and British & Irish Lions rugby union player. Egerton made his international debut for England on 23 April 1988 at Lansdowne Road against Ireland. Of the seven matches he played for the national side he was on the winning side on five occasions. He also played for the British and Irish Lions team which defeated France at Parc des Princes in October 1989. Egerton played his final match for England on 4 August 1990 at Vélez Sársfield against Argentina
Born in Birmingham, Hill was educated at BWS and Exeter University. Joining Bath Rugby as a scrum-half straight from university, in these amateur times his day job was working for Lloyds Bank. Unlike his half-back partner Stuart Barnes, Hill loved training. Nicknamed Duracell, he spent all his available time there, and his dedication spelled the inevitable introduction of the professional era. After assistant posts at Gloucester and Harlequins, Hill also spent a season as head coach of England Students and the backs coach as Ebbw Vale RFC. In 2002 he was appointed head coach of Newport RFC. A year later he joined Bristol Rugby, leading them back to the Guinness Premiership after two seasons, and then to third place and the playoffs in the 2006–7 season. In July 2009, he agreed to join French third division side Chalon-sur-Saône as head coach. In May 2010, Hill was named as head coach for Worcester Warriors. Richard Hill in his first year as head coach, coached the Worcester Warriors back into the Aviva Premiership and held a contract at the Warriors until 2014
Worcester Rugby and Scotland rugby union player. Heathcote was born in Inverness whilst his father Gareth, a Nimrod pilot, was stationed at RAF Kinloss. The family returned to England when Heathcote was three, and he has represented England at age group level. He made his first team debut for Bath against Gloucester on 24 September 2011. He scored his first points against Leicester on 3 October 2011, and claimed his first try against Worcester in the LV= cup. On 19 November 2012, he was called up to the Scotland squad (being eligible to play for Scotland having been born in Inverness) and made his international debut off of the bench in the test against Tonga on 24 November 2012. At the end of the 2013–14 season it was announced that Heathcote would be ending his contract one year early and moving to Edinburgh for the 2014–15 season, citing the progression of 'his career and international aspirations.' In the summer of 2015 Tom joined Worcester Warriors
England and Great Britain Olympic hockey coach. Recognised as one of Britain's most successful men's coach, his Reading side brought the European Club Championship to Britain for the first time in over 20 years in 2003 and subsequantly coached coach Racing Club Paris
Concert pianist and Professor of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music. One of Britain’s leading pianists, Hamish Milne was born and grew up in Salisbury of Scottish parents and studied with Harold Craxton at the Royal Academy of Music and then in Italy with Guido Agosti (who had studied with Busoni). At the Accademia Chigiana in Siena he was lucky enough to hear the classes of Casals, Cortot and Segovia at the end of their lives and, in particular, to hear those of Sergiu Celibidache, which made a deep impression on him that lasts to this day. He is interested in film, books, people and cricket, ‘in a completely eclectic and disorganized way’. Hamish Milne has appeared as soloist with most of the leading British orchestras, has given over two hundred broadcasts for the BBC and has toured on four continents. He is also well known as a chamber musician.
An ECM recording artist, bandleader and composer, Andy Sheppard is one of Europe’s leading saxophonists and one of a very few British musicians to have made a significant impact on the international jazz scene, playing and writing for settings from solo to big band and chamber orchestra. Sheppard has composed over 350 works that incorporate a strong and characteristic sense of lyricism alongside a very personal use of rhythms from Asia, Africa and South America. Sheppard took up the saxophone at 19, highly motivated after encountering the music of John Coltrane, and three weeks after getting his first instrument was playing in public with the Bristol-based quartet Sphere. After a period in Paris where he worked with groups including performance art band Urban Sax, he returned to the UK in the mid-80’s recording the album “Andy Sheppard” for Antilles/Island, with Steve Swallow as producer, the beginning of a long musical association that continues to this day. Since then Sheppard has recorded for labels including Blue Note, Verve, Label Bleu and Provocateur.
The English oboist Nigel Shore is currently principal first oboe at the Komische Oper Berlin. After four years with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, he became a much sought-after player in numerous chamber orchestras internationally, such as the Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and the Kammerorchester Berlin. Over the last twenty years solo engagements have taken him regularly to Japan, Russia, the Middle East, North and South America and throughout Europe, for concerts with artists such as Peter Schreier, Hartmut Haenchen, Saulius Sondeckis, Paul Goodwin, Frank-Peter Zimmermann, Jochen Kowalski and Paco de Lucia. He was a founding member of the Berlin Oboe Quartet, which commissioned and recorded many important new works for oboe and string trio, Ensemble Aureus which undertook concert and education work worldwide for the Goethe- Institut and, more recently, KO5, the Wind Quintet of the Komische Oper Berlin, which continues the lively tradition of wind chamber music established at the Comic Opera in a regular series of Berlin concerts.
Oakes was head boy at Bishops where he was also heavily involved with the Salisbury Playhouse and their youth theatre, Stage 65. He graduated with a first in English Literature from the University of Manchester. He attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 2005 to 2007. He played the villainous William Hamleigh in the television miniseries The Pillars of the Earth (2010), produced by Ridley Scott's production company. Subsequently, Oakes was cast in the television miniseries The Borgias (2011), airing on Showtime. He played Juan Borgia opposite Jeremy Irons. Continuing a career on television playing morally dubious characters, Oakes had a role in The White Queen for BBC One and Starz playing George, Duke of Clarence. It was broadcast in mid-2013. Oakes has directed a number of theatre pieces alongside his acting career. In 2003 he took a stage adaptation of The Wicker Man to the Epping Forest Theatre Festival. Rehearsing in and around his home town of Salisbury, Oakes "got kicked out of the [Cathedral] Close for rehearsing pagan rituals for [his] open-air production of The Wicker Man.” At University he directed numerous plays including Martin McDonagh's Beauty Queen of Leenane, Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter and Anthony Minghella's Whale Music. Also whilst at University, in 2005 Oakes assisted director Natalie Wilson on a production of "Smilin' Through" which was co-produced by the Truant Company, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Contact Theatre, Manchester Later that year, Oakes once again turning to literary adaptation, took a production of Stephen King's The Boogeyman to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. With his and Bell's theatre company, Dog Ate Cake, in 2009 Oakes directed a small tour revival of John Maddison Morton's Box and Cox. Oakes frequently directs at Shakespeare's Globe extending their Read Not Dead Series, a study devoted to performing fully staged readings of the entirety of the Early Modern Canon of Drama: Most recently Oakes directed Robert Greene's The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and Lewis Theobald's "Happy Ending" version of John Webster's Duchess of Malfi, "The Fatal Secret". David recently directed an extract of Robert Daborne's A Christian Turn'd Turk as part of a special Read Not Dead event at Shakespeare's Globe. Four directors with four scholars were teamed up with actors and presented their arguments and selected scenes at a special hustings event on Thursday 29 May 2014
Otto Plaschkes did not fit any popular stereotype of the film producer. He was a man of rich culture, equally passionate about books, art and music. He was possessed of incorruptible honesty and had the exquisite manners of a scion of the old Austro-Hungarian empire, even though he had left his native Vienna before the age of 10. Perhaps if he had not been such a nice man, of such uncompromising taste and an incorrigible socialist, he could have enjoyed a more flamboyant and financially profitable career in the film business. Plaschkes's father, a butcher, came from Bratislava and his mother from Budapest, but they had settled in Vienna by the time Otto was born - perhaps in 1929, though he always suspected his mother had added a year to his age to qualify him for the kindertransport with which he arrived in England in 1939. He was temporarily adopted by a family in Liverpool. Luckier than most Jewish refugees, he was subsequently reunited with his parents and his older sister, and grew up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where his father established a sausage casing business. At Bishop Wordsworth school, his teachers included William Golding, and his contemporaries later claimed to recognise themselves in Golding's novel, The Lord Of The Flies. All agreed that Otto was the original of Piggy. The character would have been right, and Golding never denied the claim. Plaschkes went on to read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and later took an education diploma at Wadham College, Oxford, but he had already discovered the cinema. This was largely thanks to the Cambridge Film Society, which had hit a high point in its membership and programming under the chairmanship of Roger Few. Its undergraduate committee included Tom Pevsner, later producer of the James Bond series and a constant friend to Plaschkes, and Michael (later Lord) Birkett. Another lasting influence from this time was Lindsay Anderson and the Free Cinema movement, with their watchword, "an attitude is a style and a style is an attitude". Thus enthused, Plaschkes wrote to Sir Michael Balcon, who took him on at Ealing Studios as a runner. He was soon promoted to production assistant, though he also worked in the cutting room - and anywhere else where he could satisfy his passion to know everything about film craft. At Ealing, he established some lifelong friendships, including the producer Anthony Havelock-Allen, and the director Jack Clayton, whose biography Plaschkes recently wrote for the new Dictionary Of National Biography. In 1960 he was assistant director to fellow-Viennese Otto Preminger on Exodus, and, in 1962, production assistant on Lawrence Of Arabia. By this time, he had already embarked as a producer in his own right with a film for the Children's Film Foundation, Bungala Boys (1961). Plaschkes found his true place with the 60s renaissance of British cinema, starting as co-producer of Georgy Girl (1966), directed by Silvio Narizzano, with James Mason, Alan Bates and Lynn Redgrave, who took over the role after her sister Vanessa withdrew from the project. After that came The Bofors Gun (1968), directed by Jack Gold from John McGrath's play, and an American production, Larry Peerce's A Separate Peace (1972), for Paramount. As executive producer for the American Film Theatre, Plaschkes produced Peter Hall's film of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming (1974); Bertolt Brecht's Galileo (1975), directed by Joseph Losey, who had directed the original stage version in New York in 1947; Pinter's appreciative direction of Simon Gray's Butley (1976), with Alan Bates and Jessica Tandy; and, perhaps most notably, Lindsay Anderson's adaptation of David Storey's In Celebration (1975). Jack Gold's screen version of David Garnett's The Sailor's Return (1978) is one of the most underestimated films of its time. Plaschkes's most commercially successful film was Hopscotch (1980), a civilised thriller, directed by Ronald Neame and teaming Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson. His most recent production was Shadey (1985), directed by Philip Saville from a script by Snoo Wilson, with Antony Sher as an eccentric trans-sexual with the ability to project telepathic film images. Notable television productions included two directed by Desmond Davis, The Sign Of Four (1986) and Doggin' Around (1994), and another Sherlock Holmes adaptation, Douglas Hickox's The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1984). A brief, unlikely episode in Plaschkes's career was as head of production, from 1984 to 1986, for the buccaneering Cannon Productions, under its colourful Israeli founders Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus. He was also, for a while, an inspiring teacher at the National Film School. At the time of his death, he was working energetically on three new projects for the cinema. As a conscientious member of the American Academy of Film and Television Arts, Plaschkes went earlier this week to a West End preview theatre to judge the Swedish film nominated for the Oscar for best foreign language film, Kay Pollak's As It Is In Heaven, the story of a talented conductor struck down by a heart attack. Since he had already seen the second film to be screened that night, the French Les Choristes, he left the cinema after watching the Pollak, only to suffer his own fatal heart attack minutes afterwards. Plaschkes met his future wife, Louise Stein, a woman who shared his artistic interests, particularly in opera, at an end-of-shooting party for The Homecoming. They married in 1975. She survives him, with their only daughter.
British sculptor of works ranging in scale from the monumental to the domestic. The sculptor Peter Thursby, who has died aged 80, produced his first work in the wake of the second world war, a time when new and brutal abstract art came into being, challenging the semi-abstract and the figurative. His early sculptures were hard and aggressive, with form sacrificed to surface qualities. In time a more human modernism took over. His work ranged in scale from the architectural and monumental to small pieces for domestic interiors. He worked with a range of materials, from cast concrete, stone and slate to bronze, stainless steel, aluminium and silver. His father was an army officer, and Peter had a rather military bearing himself. His handshake was firm, and his manners and his attire (when not in the studio) were both impeccable. He was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and his childhood was spent in Jamaica. Back in England, he attended Bishop Wordsworth's school in Salisbury. The author William Golding was his English teacher, and Peter remembered Golding provoking his pupils into "thinking" – something that was not normally on the curriculum. After doing his national service, he began to study art at St Paul's College of Education in Cheltenham (now Gloucestershire University). He then studied with Paul Feiler and Ernest Pascoe at the West of England College of Art. Attending their life classes honed his natural drawing skills and laid down the ideas which informed his first sculptures. At Exeter College of Art and Design (1954-60), the teacher Edward Atkinson stimulated Peter's interest in sculpture. Throughout the 1950s Peter's output was almost exclusively in the form of paintings. By 1957 his canvases had become not only richly textural, but also fully abstract. His small series of red, black and grey paintings entitled Metal Objects in Space was praised in La Revue Moderne. His switch to sculpture was marked with early success when, in 1962, he won first prize in an exhibition held in Gloucester entitled 19 Young Sculptors. Referencing the human form, Peter's early totemic sculptures were dark, coruscating pieces. These evolved into winged creatures thrusting into space. Marjorie Parr bought one winged creature at his solo exhibition at Plymouth Art Gallery in 1964, and he showed regularly at the Parr gallery. Gradually his organic sculptures became subsumed by the mechanical. New bronze table-sculptures took on a resemblance to assemblages of engine parts. Not all of his audience was convinced, although Eduardo Chillada, Eduardo Paolozzi and César Baldaccini were also engaged in making sculpture from reclaimed materials. Peter made a number of tensile, poised aluminium sculptures, their linear forms in tune with new modernist architecture. They foreshadowed Peter's large public sculptures of the 1980s. Cast in bronze by the Morris Singer Foundry, these monumental works, weighing up to three tonnes, were erected in the US, Germany and the UK. Water was brought in to flow over many of them, creating movement, light reflection and sound. Peter was not averse to semi-figurative work if he felt the subject called for it. Such was the case for his 1970s Podmen sculptures and his later Sarum series and Flight series. Intrigued by satellites and space travel, he produced a number of ringed and domed sculptures in the 1970s and 1980s, works which both reflected and refracted light. He also made a successful Tower series in which sculpture becomes architecture. A good communicator, he gave generously of his time to art education and arts organisations, including the Royal West of England Academy, of which he was president for five years (1995-2000). In 1995 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West of England, Bristol.
The 8th Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton. He began his education at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. He later attended Prior Park College, Bath, then run by the Irish Christian Brothers. He trained for the priesthood at the Venerable English College, Rome and was ordained Priest on 18 July 1948 in the Leonine College, Rome. He continued his theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and obtained his Doctorate in Divinity in 1951. Returning to England he was appointed curate in the Pro-Cathedral parish where he served from 1951 to 1964. He acted as Chaplain to the Bristol Maternity and Homeopathic Hospitals. He also became part-time Chaplain to the University of Bristol in 1953 and was appointed full-time Chaplain in 1964. During this time he opened the University Catholic Chaplaincy which continues to serve students today. In 1967 he was appointed as Parish Priest of Our Lady of Lourdes, Weston-Super-Mare, until he became an Auxiliary Bishop on 25 April 1972, and, on 20 December 1974, the 8th Bishop of Clifton. In addition to his work in the diocese he held a number of national posts. He was a member of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Believers (1973 to 1983), and Chairman of the National Commission for Non-Believers (1973 to 1983), Vice-Chairman of the Liturgy Commission (1977 to 1983), and also Episcopal President of the Catholic Child Welfare Council (1976 to 1983). In 1982 he was Chairman of the committee concerned with spiritual preparation for the visit of Pope John Paul II to England and Wales. He was Chairman of the Committee for Art and Architecture from 1983 until 1999, as well as Episcopal Adviser to Marriage Encounter from 1980. He presided at a Diocesan Synod which took place from 1987 to 1988. From the early 1990s until 1999, Bishop Alexander was the Patron of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage Hospitalité. During 1996, Alexander organised a panel to review the Neocatechumenal Way and later banned the organisation within the Clifton Diocese. In February 2001 Bishop Alexander was recognised by the University of Bristol for his contribution to the life of the City and the University and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws (LLD). He was succeeded as Bishop of Clifton by Bishop Declan Lang on 28 March 2001. On retiring as Bishop of Clifton he served as Parish Priest of St Joseph's, Weston-super-Mare.
Royal Artillery, Anglican priest. Educated at Foster's School, Sherborne and Bishops. After World War II service with the RA he completed his studies at King's College London. He was ordained in 1952 and became Curate of High Wycombe. He was with the Church Missionary Society from 1955 to 1974 when he became Provost of Sheffield.
Land mine amputee and motivational speaker. Chris Moon's life story is one of consistently overcoming incredible odds. Working for a charity clearing landmines in Cambodia he is one of the few westerners ever to survive being captured and held hostage by the Khmer Rouge, not only negotiating himself out of his own execution but that of his two colleagues. You're not likely to meet someone more fortunate to be alive than Chris Moon. He should be dead many times over and his exploits have been covered in a Discovery documentary with the cheerful title:I Shouldn't Be Alive. Chris is a former British Army Officer with three years operational experience who left to work for a charity clearing landmines. He's survived being taken prisoner in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge (one of the most brutal terror groups in history) and negotiated his release and that of two colleagues from threatened execution. In 1995 he was blown up in a supposedly safe area of a minefield in remote East Africa losing an arm and a leg. He survived initially because he treated himself. About fourteen hours after was injured he arrived in South Africa where doctors said they'd never seen anyone live with such a small amount of blood. He recovered three or four times faster than was expected and after rehabilitating himself within a year after leaving hospital he ran the London Marathon, raised significant sums to help disabled people in the developing world and successfully completed a full time Masters Degree. Chris taught himself to run and is believed to be the world's first amputee ultra distance runner. In 1997 completed the gruelling Marathon De Sables. Since then he's run the world's toughest ultra marathons and most recently the Badwater Death Valley 135 mile Ultra, where the temperature averaged over 50 degrees Celsius. He did this recently and took 12 hours off his previous best time to complete it in 41 hours 51 minutes. Chris talks with passion, humour and authority on: the process of achievement; overcoming challenges; mindset; motivation; leadership; risk; health and safety. He delivers the shared experience of the many organisations he's worked with and the power of personality and presence to effect change. Chris has been speaking and running personal and team development programs obtaining top results for ten years and when it comes to challenging the concept of limitation and changing behaviours, he literally walks the talk.
Tom was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Adlam was twenty two years old, and a temporary second lieutenant in the 7th Battalion, The Bedfordshire Regiment, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place on 27 September 1916 at Thiepval, France, for which he was awarded the VC. In civilian life, Adlam was a teacher at Brook Street School in Basingstoke and a member of the National Union of Teachers. Adlam served in the Second World War with the Royal Engineers (Movement Control Section), and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. His Victoria Cross is displayed at Salisbury Guild Hall.
A special paving stone to commemorate Salisbury’s only Victoria Cross winner was unveiled on Tuesday 29th September 2016 at the Guildhall Square War Memorial.
Special Air Service Regiment, executed by enemy forces during SAS/SOE Operation Bulbasket in 1944
Frederick Neal Robertson of Lockerly, Hampshire joined the RAFVR about September 1937 as an Airman u/t Pilot. Called to full-time service on 2nd September 1939, he was then posted on loan to 769 (FAA) Squadron at Donibristle, where he flew Gladiators and Swordfishes and practiced carrier landings on HMS Furious. In October 1939 Robertson was posted to 66 Squadron at Duxford. Over Dunkirk on 2nd June 1940 he destroyed a Ju88. Immediately afterwards his Spitfire was hit by flak, making it uncontrollable. Robertson baled out and landed on a beach five miles west of Dunkirk. He managed to get on one of the last boats to leave. Robertson shared in destroying a Do17 on 10th July. He was posted away on 18th July to join a group of pilots at Uxbridge. They were flown to Hullavington, picked up Hurricanes, flew them to Abbotsinch and there embarked in the carrier HMS Argus, where they were joined by four more officers. They were told their destination was Malta and they were now 418 Flight. The Argus sailed on 23rd July, arrived at Gibraltar and sailed for Malta on 31st July. At dawn on 2nd August they flew off to Luqa. On the 16th 418 Flight combined with the Malta Fighter Flight becoming 261 Squadron. Robertson damaged a CR42 on the 20th, probably destroyed a Me200 on 25th September, damaged a Me200 on 4th October, damaged a CR42 on 23rd November, destroyed a SM79 on the 28th, destroyed a SM79 at night on 18th December, destroyed a Ju87, a CR42 and probably two others on 19th January 1941, destroyed a CR42 and damaged a SM79 on 1st February and destroyed a Ju88 on the 4th. During the night of 8th/9th February 1941 Robertson damaged a Ju88, on the 25th damaged a Do17, on 5th March destroyed a Ju88 and a Me109. On the 16th he damaged a Me110 and on the 23rd he destroyed two Ju87s. In this engagement he was hit by return fire and his Hurricane, V7495, was set alight. Robertson baled out and landed in a field near Luqa. He was awarded the DFM (gazetted 18th March 1941). Robertson was rested at the end of April 1941 and returned to the UK via Cairo. He instructed at 60 OTU and 54 OTU. Commissioned in March 1942, he was posted to 219 Squadron at Tangmere. Robertson later served with 153 Squadron at Portreath. In April 1943 he joined 96 Squadron at Honiley. He was killed on 31st August 1943 as a Flying Officer with 96. Robertson was 25 and is buried in Cambridge City Cemetery.
Chubb was the first chair of the new Department of Political Science at Trinity College, Dublin, and was responsible for numerous publications which became standard works for those wishing to gain insight into Irish government and politics, most notably his The Government and Politics of Ireland, which was published in four editions. He was described as the "Father of political science in Ireland" and the "virtual inventor of Irish political science" His first appointment was as Political Science Lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin. This was the first full-time appointment in political science at a time when Irish politics were not openly discussed. When the department of Political Science was founded in 1960 at TCD, Basil Chubb became its first chair, a post which he held until his retirement in 1991. During his career, he produced a number of texts, including The Government and Politics of Ireland, which the Irish Times described as "the secular equivalent of an Irish political bible". He also held a number of public office posts, including chair of the Employer Labour conference (which played a crucial role in national economic policy) and chair of Comhairle na Ospidal (the Hospitals Council) from 1972 to 1979. He was a frequent broadcaster in the coverage of Irish political campaigns and helped demystify the topic for the general public through his television appearances during the Irish elections.
I began my career as a scientist with a BA in Zoology and a DPhil in experimental embryology from Oxford University. I began to see how my scientific training could be clinically relevant to healthcare, but I needed to gain a deeper understanding of health problems. Hence, after my DPhil, I applied for medical training at Guy’s Hospital, London. At this time, my plans could be summarised as: “The challenge of birth defects had been largely approached from a clinical perspective. We know little of the processes in the embryo and fetus that cause disabling childhood disorders. My aim is to use the embryology knowledge I have gained, together with clinical training, to make inroads into the questions of pathogenesis and prevention of congenital malformations”. Throughout my clinical course, I moonlighted in research within the Paediatric Research Unit at Guy’s Hospital. I began working on a mouse model of spina bifida, which I am still studying today! I found the period of medical training both varied and stimulating, as I moved seamlessly between learning how to manage patients on the ward and studying mouse embryos that failed to close their neural tube in the lab. After graduating in medicine, I completed my house officer jobs at Guy’s and Newcross Hospitals, and then returned to full-time academic research. I went to the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University, USA where I gained valuable postdoctoral experience. Then, I returned to UK and ran a small team at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund’s Developmental Biology Unit, University of Oxford. I moved to the Institute of Child Health in 1992, initially as Senior Lecturer and from 1996 as Professor of Developmental Neurobiology. I became Institute Director in 2003 and stepped down from this role in September 2012. My latest enthusiasm is heading our new Birth Defects Research Centre, which opened in 2012 at the Institute of Child Health. This Centre is the first of its kind in Europe, and provides a focus, and critical research mass, for scientists and clinicians studying the causes and developmental mechanisms underlying congenital disorders in children. As part of this effort, my own team is working to understand the genetic basis of spina bifida, to unravel the events in the embryo that underlie this disorder, and to pursue new therapies that may enter clinical practice in the coming years.
Head of The Exeter Diabetes Genetics Centre, Professor of Molecular Medicine at Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter, Consultant Physician at Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust. Great-grandson of Bishop John Wordsworth, the Bishop of Salisbury, who founded BWS
Baron Macdonald became the first pupil of barrister Helena Kennedy, was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in July 1978 and became a Queen's Counsel in 1997. As a junior barrister he defended a number of terrorist suspects (both Provisional IRA and those from the Middle East), fraudsters and major drug dealers, he was also on the defence team for the Matrix Churchill trial. In the late 1990s, he was a co-founder of Matrix Chambers (a set of barristers' chambers specialising in human rights cases) with Cherie Booth and Tim Owen QC. In 2001 he became a recorder (a part-time judge) in the Crown Court. In August 2003 it was announced that Macdonald would succeed Sir David Calvert-Smith as DPP in October of that year. The appointment was immediately denounced by Opposition spokesmen as "rampant cronyism" and a "provocative appointment" due to Macdonald's business relationship with Cherie Booth (wife of then Prime Minister Tony Blair) and his lack of prosecution experience. Government officials, including both the Attorney General and Solicitor General defended the appointment as it had been made by an independent board consisting of First Civil Service Commissioner Baroness Prashar; Sir Hayden Phillips, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Constitutional Affairs; Sir David Omand, Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office; and Sir Robin Auld, Lord Justice of Appeal. A few days after the announcement the press uncovered details of his earlier conviction, sparking fresh controversy. A fellow lawyer, David Pannick QC, writing in The Times defended Macdonald's appointment, and attacked the tabloid campaign against him; Macdonald's predecessor also dismissed the relevance of the drugs offence; and a report in The Independent also found support for the appointment from within the legal system. As DPP, Macdonald established the Counter Terrorism Division, the Organised Crime Division, the Special Crime Division and the Fraud Prosecution Service. In office, he often took positions which were critical of the government. For example, he opposed ministers' rhetoric around the "War on Terror", preferring to see terrorist attacks in the UK as law enforcement issues. He was prominent in criticising government attempts to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days, arguing that due process protections should not be undermined and that the reform was unnecessary. Near the end of his term, leaders in The Guardian and The Times were strongly supportive of his record in office. In his last month in office he warned against excessive use of surveillance powers being introduced by the government, saying: "We should be careful to imagine the world we are creating before we build it. We might end up living with something we cannot bear." He was awarded a knighthood in the 2007 New Year Honours
Respected probation chief steering his service through difficult years. Sir Graham Smith was an outstanding figure in the probation service for 20 years, first as chief probation officer for inner London (1980-92), and then as chief inspector of probation at the Home Office (1992-2001). In both these posts, during a period of rapid and turbulent change, the service was fortunate to have someone with the political skills and confidence to argue strongly for its place centre-stage within the criminal justice system. In his last annual report, he wrote: "One thing is certain - there cannot be a successful criminal justice system without an effective probation service." Smith was born in Salisbury, where he attended Bishop Wordsworth's school. After national service, he worked briefly in insurance before going to Newcastle University to complete an applied social studies course. He joined the Durham probation service in 1965 and, after four years, became a senior probation officer. Two years later, he moved to London. He was assigned to the probation service after-care unit in Borough high street, working with homeless, disturbed, and often heavily convicted offenders. A senior manager recalls him as "immensely flexible and resilient, not deterred by the unknown, intractable or the apparently insoluble". He found immense satisfaction in this setting, and continued to see offenders - and use his basic professional skills - long after he had moved to more senior positions. Smith was 40 when he was appointed chief probation officer. He set about his new tasks with determination and energy, and worked at a punishing pace: he was never ill, never missed a probation committee meeting, and rarely any of its sub-committees. He was always well briefed, focused and clear about his aims. He made a point each week of visiting one probation office and meeting all the staff. He used his communication skills to great effect with the media, and devoted time to building contacts outside the service. Increasingly, he travelled abroad, particularly to America, and was much in demand as a keynote speaker at international conferences. A dedicated and forceful leader during a period of unprecedented change, Smith was determined to raise professional standards, and establish clearer objectives. Although often involved with the wider national scene - he was a very successful chair of the Association of Chief Officers of Probation,representing the service to ministers - he was never an absentee landlord. Of all the initiatives and developments he inspired, the one which probably gave him most satisfaction lay in the area of pre-trial services and bail information schemes. He faced a daunting task when he moved to the Home Office shortly before the appointment of Michael Howard as home secretary in 1993. There was a dramatic change in policy - while prison had been seen as a last resort, it was now claimed that "prison works". It began to look as if probation was moving back-stage: the national training scheme for probation officers was scrapped, the probation budget was cut, and, with the proposals in the 1995 green paper, Strengthening Punishment In The Community, some began to fear that the very future of the service as an independent agency within the criminal justice system might be at risk. Smith had a very difficult hand to play and not too many cards. He had to strengthen the credibility of the inspectorate within the Home Office, persuade the service that it had to accept greater accountability, and - most importantly - ensure that effectiveness and "what works" programmes were developed, without which he was convinced there was no future for the service. In the absence of a national probation service, there was no national voice, and he filled that gap. He needed all his political nous and sensitivity to cope with the often conflicting demands of the politicians and the probation service. He was made CBE in 1990 and knighted in 1999.
British journalist, who over a period of thirty years has presented most of main television news programmes of the BBC and ITN. Harvey began his BBC television career in Bristol working in production, before trying his hand as a news reporter in 1975, then moving on to the launch of breakfast television in Britain: Breakfast Time on BBC One. From there he went on to present the One O'Clock, Six O'Clock News and flagship Nine O'Clock News on BBC One. From national news, he moved to become a presenter on South Today, the BBC's regional news service for the Southampton region, as well as having presented on BBC Points West in the Bristol region, and also presented nationally once more, on BBC News. He left the BBC eventually to become a presenter on the ITV News Channel produced by ITN, where he first presented the breakfast programme with Lucy Alexander before moving to his own programme after breakfast in the daily schedule Live with Andrew Harvey. Since the channel's closure in December 2005 he now conducts media training through his company, HarveyLeach
Born in Tiverton, Devon, Mark, the son of an intelligent but under-educated meat inspector, had ‘the best education money can’t buy’ at Bishops. With 10 GCEs and Five A levels, Mark studied maths at Oxford, law in Glamorgan and then became a maths teacher, a job he did in South Wales for 20 years. Labbett became interested in quizzing when working at Butlins, where he supplemented his wages with his winnings on the quiz machines. He has appeared on a host of TV quiz shows, including Mastermind (his special subjects on his two Mastermind appearances were the Olympics and The Simpsons), Countdown, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Only Connect, and University Challenge. Mark has made his face and his brain famous via The Chase, ITV’s hit quiz show that attracts up to five million viewers as contestants try to beat The Beast or the other ‘Chasers’ in the general knowledge game show. But not many do....
Institute of Physics Nuclear Industry Group 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award. Studied Mathematical Physics at Sussex University before taking a graduate apprenticeship in nuclear engineering with Rolls-Royce & Associates Ltd. Moving to CEGB to teach nuclear engineering before rejoining Rolls-Royce to run training and won two National Training Awards before project managing several R&D contracts and eventually moving back into technical management. Seconded to do some UK government work in the USA in the mid-noughties, then successively became a Chief Engineer, Chief Design Engineer and Chief Technologist. Along the way he became possibly the UK's longest serving research reactor manager and (his proudest achievement) a Sir Henry Royce Engineering Fellow. e still has a penchant for what some consider to be dangerous sports, and still caves, if mainly from the armchair these days.
British journalist and author. He is a regular contributor to The Independent and The Guardian, and has written more than 20 books about television and film. The subject of censorship has been a constant theme throughout his work. e trained as a journalist at the London College of Printing (now the London College of Communication, University of the Arts) (1978–1980) and won its 1979–1980 Journalism Prize. He gained a Higher National Diploma in Journalism and the National Council for the Training of Journalists' Pre-Entry Journalism Certificate, both with distinction. After five years in local newspapers and national magazines, as a reporter and sub-editor, and editor of New Video Viewer, Hayward joined the staff on the features desk of TV Times (1985–1989). He turned freelance in 1989 and has since written for publications in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France and South Africa. He has contributed to The Independent since 1993 and The Guardian since 2009. Hayward's books include Who's Who on Television, TV Unforgettables, Prime Suspect and The Making of Moll Flanders. He also wrote the biographies Phantom: Michael Crawford Unmasked and Julie Christie and collaborated with Sheila Mercier on her autobiography, Annie's Song: My Life & Emmerdale. In 2001, his book In the Name of Justice: The Television Reporting of John Pilger was published by Bloomsbury. It was described by the Far Eastern Economic Review as "an excellent introduction to abuses of power around the world" and by Julian Petley (The Independent) as "a fascinating account of the changing nature of censorship on British television". Den Shewman, of the American film trade magazine Variety, wrote: "Anthony Hayward's excellent account of Pilger's work shows how [his] sensibility [to justice and injustice] has driven Pilger to create 50 British television documentaries over the last 30 years, programs that have changed public policy and saved lives… Pilger's professional life has been dedicated to exploring tragic situations, and Hayward stares unblinkingly into these horrors". However, in a negative review of the book, the British journalist Jon Snow wrote in The Observer that its "range from hagiography to catalogue" left him thinking that "the Pilger story is deserving of more" than the book delivers. In 2013, Profiles International Media published an updated account, Breaking the Silence: The Films of John Pilger, as an e-book to tie in with Pilger's documentary film Utopia. Which Side Are You On? Ken Loach and His Films, Hayward's 2004 book, was described by the New Statesman as "an eloquent insight into the work of Britain's finest and most courageous film director". As well as providing a biography of the director and his work, the book revealed for the first time the real reason for the banning of Loach's television documentary series Questions of Leadership, which allowed trade union members to bring their own leaders to account at a time when they were facing the challenge posed by the policies of the Thatcher government. Loach and Central Independent Television had been commissioned by Channel 4 to make the programmes, which were eventually withdrawn by Central. It emerged that the media tycoon Robert Maxwell had put pressure on Central's board, of which he had become a director, to withdraw Questions of Leadership at the time he was buying the Daily Mirror newspaper and needed the co-operation of union leaders, especially Frank Chapple of the electricians. As well as giving scores of radio and television interviews, Hayward has been chair or speaker at many events, including the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts (2001, 2004, 2006), the Ways with Words Festival, Dartington (2001), the Mashamshire Arts Festival (2005), the Bradford Film Festival (2006, 2007) and the AV Festival (2008). The discussion with John Pilger that he chaired at the 2006 Hay Festival was included as a bonus feature with the DVDs John Pilger – Documentaries That Changed the World and Heroes – The Films of John Pilger 1970–2007.
British chairman of Aviva Group and former chairman of KPMG International. Sharman qualified as a chartered accountant in 1965. He joined Peat Marwick Mitchell the following year, and rose through the years to become chairman of the renamed KPMG in 1997. Sharman was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1980 Birthday Honours, for services to the British community in the Netherlands. On 2 August 1999 he was created a Life Peer as Baron Sharman, of Redlynch in the County of Wiltshire and entered the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat peer. He retired from the House of Lords on 30 April 2015. Lord Sharman was a member of the ABN AMRO Supervisory Board from 2003 until ???. He was chairman of Aviva Group from January 2006 to June 2012, was a non-executive director at Reed Elsevier until April 2011, and on the board of BG Group and Group 4 Securicor. Other previous board appointments include chairman of Aegis Group plc; deputy chairman of G4S plc; Young & Co's Brewery plc and AEA Technology plc. The Times 'Power 100' states that Lord Sharman earns over £400,000 a year from his management roles. Since November 2012, he has been the Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to Morocco. He attended the 2014 Moroccan British Business Conference, held in London, alongside Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf
Chubb was the last private owner of Stonehenge, which he donated to the British government in 1918. He attended the local village school and then Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury, where from the age of 14 he worked for a time as a student teacher. He then attended Christ's College, Cambridge where he was awarded a double first in Science and Law, leaving with Master of Arts and Bachelor of Law degrees. He became a barrister and amassed a considerable fortune. In 1902 he married Mary Bella Alice Finch, whose uncle, Dr. W Corbin Finch, owned Fisherton House, which was a mental asylum (later the Old Manor Hospital, now Fountain Way). Five years after her uncle's death in 1905, the business and buildings were transferred to her. Following financial difficulties, a limited company was formed to run the hospital in 1924, and Sir Cecil became chairman. Whilst he was in charge, the hospital became the largest private mental hospital in Europe. There is a plaque in the hospital commemorating his life and work. Sir Cecil also served on Salisbury City Council, was a Justice of the Peace and became a successful racehorse owner and breeder of Shorthorn cattle. Stonehenge was put up for auction in 1915 by the Antrobus family following the death in World War I of the only surviving male heir. Cecil Chubb's interest in the local area led to him attending the sale, with him bidding and purchasing Lot 15 on a whim for £6,600 (about £472,000/€601,000/$777,000 today), as he wished to avoid the stones being acquired by someone overseas. It is also speculated that he bought the stones as a present for his wife, only for her to be less than pleased with his new purchase. He gave Stonehenge to the nation on 26 October 1918. To mark his generosity he was made a baronet in 1919 by Lloyd George. Chubb's arms feature a trilithon representing Stonehenge.
Commander Johnny Rawlins was the Navy’s youngest jet pilot and one of its most experienced aviators in fixed and rotary wing aircraft. The son of a bricklayer, John Trevor Rawlins was born in Salisbury on June 12 1932 and won a scholarship to Bishop Wordsworth’s grammar school. As a teenager he saw damaged Flying Fortress bombers returning from raids over Germany, and the skies filled with gliders on their way to the Allied landings in Normandy. Aged 17 he started work as a scientific assistant at Boscombe Down and when the Navy opened a scheme for short service commissions in the Fleet Air Arm, Rawlins volunteered, and joined No 24 Pilot’s Course. He flew solo after eight hours in Percival Prentices and was awarded his wings on May 1952. Of the 13 pilots on his course, six failed, four were killed in flying accidents, and two more were killed in action over Korea, leaving Rawlins the only survivor. On the night of Thursday May 13 1965 Rawlins rescued two wounded Royal Marines from the Radfan Mountains. He was embarked in the commando carrier Albion, flying the Wessex V helicopters of 848 Naval Air Squadron, when en route to the Far East Albion was diverted to Aden, where the British protectorate was under threat from Soviet-armed rebel tribesmen. Rawlins became detachment commander of a flight of four helicopters, deployed ashore to assist the marines operating in the hinterland, where a company of 45 Commando was under siege in a mountain pass at Ad Dimnah. Rawlins was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct. A month later, he was disembarked again, this time in Borneo to support Commonwealth forces resisting Konfrontasi, the assault by Sukarno’s Indonesia on Malaysia. Much of the jungle over which he flew belonged to the Iban people, who had seen their first white man only a generation or two before. They had been headhunters but they proved very hospitable to the visiting British military, not least when they found that they could cadge helicopter rides between parts of their territory which otherwise took many days to reach on foot. Flying from sites along the border of Sabah and Sarawak, and a helicopter base on Labuan Island, Rawlins’s helicopters ferried troops, guns and supplies between observation posts, which were switched rapidly to thwart Indonesian attempts to cross the border. After 15 months’ deployment, and the overthrow of the Sukarno regime in Indonesia, Konfrontasi was defeated. Rawlins was appointed MBE for his distinguished services in support of operations in East and West Malaysia.
Lieutenant-Colonel George Woolnough was awarded a Military Cross after leading an extremely hazardous night attack in the Italian campaign in 1943. George Frederick Woolnough, the son of an Army schoolmaster, was born at Aldershot on December 7 1914. The family lived in India for four years but returned in 1923, and George was educated at the Bishop Wordsworth School, Salisbury. He gained a scholarship to the RMA Sandhurst, passed out third, and won a half blue for Athletics. He also represented the Army in the Inter-Services Championships. After being commissioned into the Wiltshire Regiment, in 1936 he accompanied 2nd Battalion to Palestine during the Arab Revolt. On the outbreak of war he went to France with the British Expeditionary Force. During the withdrawal to Dunkirk, with the Germans hard on their heels, a fellow officer with lofty concepts of military strategy suggested they construct a roadblock by moving a hedge to the middle of the road, then add a road sign to direct the enemy into a nearby pond. After the evacuation, for which Woolnough was mentioned in despatches, in March 1942 he took part in the campaign in Madagascar against the Vichy French. They captured the town of Antisirane after a 17-mile forced march in darkness. The invasion of Sicily followed, and in June 1944 the battalion took part in the breakout from the Anzio beachhead. When they were pinned down by intense machine-gun fire, Sergeant Maurice Rogers led a charge and knocked out two of the posts before being killed. Woolnough, who was a witness to this gallant action, contributed to the award of a posthumous VC. After the battalion was withdrawn from Italy it joined the British Second Army for the final phase of the war in north-west Europe. Woolnough then served in BAOR, Singapore and Cyprus. He was on the directing staff at the Iraqi Staff College, Baghdad, before returning to Cyprus in 1958 to command 1st Battalion during the Eoka campaign. He and his men had to deal with more than 50 incidents involving bombs, mines, ambushes and armed assaults. He was again mentioned in despatches. He was the last CO of 1 WR and the first of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment after the Wiltshires amalgamated with the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1959. A number of staff appointments followed before he retired from the Army in 1965. He then moved into a cottage in a Wiltshire village and became secretary to the Friends of Salisbury Cathedral, a post that he held from 1966 to 1980. He was also a regional superintendent for St John Ambulance, a member of the parish council and a stalwart supporter of his local church.
The Battle of Jutland, the battle which won the war, as the new exhibition at the National Museum of the Royal Navy makes clear, was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916.
Five Old Wordsworthians were involved in the battle and two of those were lost when their ships were sunk.
Read the complete article by David Seymour, MA (Oxon), MPhil (UEA) - (BWS 1965 - 73)
Remembering Arthur Frank Whatley by Bea Tilbrook and Wendy Lawrence.