We have been informed of the very sad and very premature passing of one of our old boys – Andrew Basigara who passed away on 16 October 2016. We have only just been informed. Andrew was in his late fifties and died of bowel cancer. He occasionally attended the Old Boys reunions. Andrew was a fantastic…
The 2018 newsletter which includes the minutes from the 2017 AGM is available in the Newsletter section
The Old Boys Association have been informed of the recent passing of one of our headmasters, Fr Francis Davidson. Fr Francis died at Ampleforth Abbey very peacefully on Monday 9 April. His funeral arrangements are provided. Should any Old Boys wish to attend his funeral, they are kindly asked to contact the Abbot’s Office (jbr@ampleforth.org.uk) Funeral…
We have been informed of the sad passing of an Old Boy Jack Slorach on 13 December 2017. A short obituary was printed in The Herald.
Old Boys will remember the war memorial which was situated at the fork in the main school drive. It would have been passed by boys countless times possibly not realising its true significance (certainly for the younger OBs). At the OB AGM in 2010, it was agreed that the memorial should be cleaned and the letters re-carved. Fr Benedict Seed re-dedicated the War Memorial on 26 May, which had been newly-restored and re-located at its original position.
Ralph Guilianotti has put together some interesting dates that we thought you might like to see. We are hoping that this will bring up some interesting discussions in the Abbey Forum.
Wee Dave’ Gavine, a former Geography master at the school has had the honour of having an asteroid named after him. Discovered in January 1989, ‘7120 Davidgavine’ was named after our friend Dave by an astronomer R H McNaught.
Carlekemp was bought in 1945 by Fort Augustus Abbey School as a prep school. Prior to 1945, it had been a family home. The Benedictine Abbess of Holme Eden, formerly the Abbess of the Old Convent at Fort Augustus and the sister of Old Boy Lord Carmont, told her brother to ask St Benedict to find a buyer for Long Bellenden, a handsome property he owned in North Berwick in East Lothian.
Peter Barry, nephew of our OB, the late Peter Barry, has kindly scanned a 1934/35 Hockey season notebook belonging to his father Thomas (Tom) Barry with notes about each of eight matches against Gordonstoun, Camerons, HLI and various XIs (Mr Threlfall, Mr Cundell, Mr Greenhalgh). It makes fascinating reading of a schoolboy’s perspective over eighty years ago.
A notebook containing photos, fixture lists, many newspaper cuttings, a ticket for the Scotland v England rugby match in 1939 and many precious cuttings and notes was recently discovered. The content of the notebook has been scanned and the whole notebook can be found here.
