Thursday 6 September 2007

Notable old boys

Everyone seems to know that Stephen Fry (actor and author, born 1957) and Captain Mark Phillips (Princess Anne's first husband, born 1948) attended the school.

Stephen Fry and his brother Roger were at the school during my time, but because I was several years older I never noticed their existence and probably they never noticed mine.

Wikipedia's page about Uley mentions that Rik Mayall (comedian and actor, born 1958) is another old boy.

From when I was at the school, I seem to remember that Sir Peter Scott was mentioned as an old boy, but as he was born in 1909 he would have been about 26 when the school was founded. Maybe he was associated with it in some other way?

What is meant by "notable"? I have a rough rule of thumb that people become notable when a page about them appears in Wikipedia. And yet actors of quite modest accomplishments may appear in Wikipedia, while old boys such as Richard Guha and Azad Shivdasani (with very considerable accomplishments to their names) do not. This seems rather unsatisfactory.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had a long search on the web for Info about Rik Mayall, and have found several references to him having gone to Stouts Hill, but they all look like thay might have the same source as wiki. I found nothingh I wouyld trust 100%, and I have not found his name any where else in my papers.
He is from Droitwich and there were other boys at Stouts Hill from there or thereabouts. He went to one of the Worcester Schools later.
I know one old boy who is the CEO of his family owned and run company employing some 500 people around the world. No names at present, but I've told him about this blog.

Anonymous said...

I was born and grew up in Uley and have fairly strong connections with Stousthill in particular; whilst I am not in a position to substantiate this, I have fairly clear memories of Rik Mayall attending the school some time around 1970. My mother knew Stephen Fry fairly well, though I have no recollection of him myself despite being a direct contemporary (and also subsequently at Cambridge)

Some online reference state that the swimming pool was established in 1976; it wasn't, and had been there since the mid-60's at the very latest. From its general design, I would estimate pre-WW2. There are also references to football matches with the village kids, which I am fairly certain never took place, because Stoutshill played rugby rather than soccer. I certainly never played football against them, but was a regular on the tennis courts and fishing in the lake. I recall the gym was fairly impressive by 1960's standards and I think Mr Scott Clark was in charge of Games & PE.

I also have personal memories of Stoutshill dormitories in the village itself - in South Bend and adjacent to the erstwhile Kings Head pub.

Jonathan said...

Hello Anonymous, it would be nice to leave your name in some way!

It's quite possible that the current swimming pool was established in 1976; I wouldn't know. In the 1960s, when I was there, there was a different oval swimming pool, which seemed always too cold to me, so I hardly ever used it. My parents lived in Nigeria at the time; I was accustomed to warmer water.

Stouts Hill played soccer up to the age of about 11; after that, rugger (as we called it at the time).

Anonymous said...

I just remember the excited little boys coming into "Martins" village shop on a Sunday to refill their tuck boxes. I worked in there as a teenager in the 70's so was likely to have seen Rik Mayall (I like to think so). I also spent many hours enjoying the beauty and solitude (back then) of Uley Bury where I believe Stephen Fry would walk, maybe our paths crossed from time to time. I lived in Uley from 1970 to 1979.
A great place.

Jonathan said...

The Wikipedia page about Uley still lists Rik Mayall as a pupil of the school, but the Stouts Hill page doesn't. I've compiled a list of Stouts Hill pupils which is pretty complete for most years, and there's no Mayall on it, so I suspect the Wikipedia Uley page is wrong (it probably gets few visitors).