Rest in peace, Heneage Brooke

Marian Wood has got in touch to tell me of the unfortunate early death of Heneage Brooke (aged 64) on the 6th of March, 2021. I also heard about it earlier from Roger Knott-Fayle, without the details.

"Private funeral 12th April at 15:30 after drive through Uley. Donations to RAF Benevolent Fund. Undertakers Clutterbuck of Cam."

Heneage was at Stouts Hill from 1965 to 1970; he was two or three years younger than me, and I don't remember him from the 1960s, but I met him briefly at the 2010 reunion, and he appears in a couple of my photos of the event.

Key to visitors

Here are the people who've contributed to this blog so far, with whatever I know about their dates at the school, and links to their own Web sites, if any.

• Roger Dawson 1944-48
• Anthony Sweeting 1945-48
• David Woodall/Mackinley-Woodhall 1946-51
• John Corps 1945-52
• Derek Brian Hulme 1950-53 (approx)
• Nigel Cant 1949-55
• Christopher Ellis 1952-57
• Michael Langley-Smith 1952-57
• Ken Merron 1955-57
• David Dawson 1954-60
• Nick Benn 1955-60
• James Sillavan 1958-62
• Richard Guha 1959-62
• Jonathan Marler 1959-62
• Jeremy Blatchford 1961-63
• Mike Curtis 1959-64
• Jeremy Cape 1960-64
• Chris Hale 1961-64
• David Ireland 1959-65 (?)
• David Llewellyn 1960-65
• Julian Williams 1962-67
• Jonathan Palfrey 1963-67
• Emile Farhi 1963-68
• Charles Llewellyn 1962-68
• Robert St Maur Mills 1963-68
• David Povey 1963-68
• Peter Dawson 1965-69
• Andrew Porter 1966-69
• Jonathan Hely-Hutchinson 1968-69
• Roger Fayle/Knott-Fayle 1965-70
• Stephen Fry* 1965-70
• Richard Madley 1968-70
• Jonathan Tilney 1968-70
• Andrew Pike 1964-71
• Richard Leitch 1966-71
• Robin Kimmons 1967-71
• Ashoak Daryani 1965-72
• Bob Davidson 1968-72
• Michael Lawson 1968-72
• Laurence Robinson 1968-72
• A.J.G. (John) Morris 1968-73
• Colin Richards 1968-73
• William Greeves 1969-73
• David Clemes 1969-74
• Huw Warren 1972-74
• Jason Crossley-John 1973-75
• Justin Tugwell/Hunter 1970-77
• Andrew Gordon-Johnson 1973-?
• Robert Darell 1974-79
• Alan Davis 1974-79
• Richard Mechan 1974-79
• David Morris 1975-79
• Tim Ridley 1975-79
• Paul Reynolds 1975-79
• Giles Walker 1975-79
• Michael D. Walker —
• Sarah Cromie —

*Stephen Fry hasn't contributed to this blog, as far as I know, but I've occasionally referred to his autobiography Moab is my washpot (1997).

Any dates you may see elsewhere on the Web are unreliable: it seems that many people misremember their own dates. I take dates from the Stouts Hill Magazine whenever I can.

When people have changed their surnames since leaving the school, I've given both names like this: name-then/name-now.

Stouts Hill for sale!

Very suprised to see whilst reading this months edition of Cotswold Life that agents Knight Frank have Stouts Hill for sale. Further reading suggests that the time share company will cease trading and the site is for sale as a whole including the cottages that were built within the past twenty years. Price is listed as offers in excess of £2m. Here's the link:

http://www.knightfrank.co.uk/properties/residential/for-sale/uley-dursley-gloucestershire-gl11/cir160299

Alan Davis

School photo 1941

It seems worth mentioning that Laurence Robinson has contributed a school photo from about 1941 to my Stouts Hill collection on Flickr, as this is the earliest photo I've received so far (see the link to the photos on the right). We see the boys looking relatively cheerful, considering that their country was fighting a great war and not yet winning.

Rest in peace, Anthony Cromie

Kim Scott-Clark writes again:

"Sadly I have been asked to advise that Anthony Cromie passed away on Sunday 21st Feb. I feel embarrassed to find myself only emailing you with 'death notices' but I know that a posting by yourself on social media will be read by far more old boys than I can reach."

"Ant and Sue Cromie left Uley some years ago and moved to Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales to be nearer their son Andrew and his family. I will be honest to say I am not sure of his exact age but over 80yrs. He had been ill for the past few months but am pleased to say that he remained at home where he was cared for both by his family and health workers - he passed away peacefully with his family beside him."

"Funeral arrangements are still being made but I understand that a cremation followed by a church service in Llandrindod is likely. Please do pass on my email to anyone if asked as I am more than happy to answer questions from anyone."

And so the last headmaster of Stouts Hill School goes to rest (deputy headmaster in my own time). I had a brief friendly correspondence with him in 2007, and met him at the 2009 reunion. Condolences to Sue and the rest of his family.

The following announcement has appeared at Telegraph.co.uk:

"Anthony Cromie passed away peacefully at home on 21st February 2016, aged 83. He will be sadly missed by all the family and friends. A service will be held at Hereford Crematorium on Saturday 5th March at 10.45am followed by a Thanksgiving Service at New Life Church, Llandrindod Wells at 2pm. Any donations can be made to The Bracken Trust." (Placed by Sarah Coates)

Two more photos

I've recently added to the collection on Flickr a school photo and a cricket team photo contributed by Charles Hamilton (SH 1946-53) from his time at the school.

Message from Kim Scott-Clark

"I am very sorry to say that my mother Paddy Scott-Clark passed away last Saturday. She died at Gloucester hospital ten days after undergoing emergency stomach surgery. Although her death was not sudden and her family were able to be with her it is obviously a shock to everyone that knew her. I realise that there are many old Stouts Hill pupils including yourself who will have fond memories of her and I would be extremely grateful if you could spread the word of her death. There will be a Thanksgiving service at St Giles Church, Uley, on Friday October 31st at 12.30pm and anyone will be very welcome."

I pass this on just as it comes, with my own regrets, having corresponded occasionally with Paddy in recent years.

Old boys list

In 1979 and 1980, Jeremy Lee-Browne compiled a list of Stouts Hill old boys, with their dates at the school and their addresses at the time. John Morris has removed the addresses—most probably out of date by now—and passed me the edited list as a PDF file (thanks to John for this effort).

The list is seriously incomplete. I suppose Jeremy included only those whose addresses he could find, so (for instance) I'm not included myself. Naturally, the early years are under-represented, although it does include some fairly senior old boys.

April 2009: I've now made my own list, compiled from information in the Stouts Hill Magazine. This list is also incomplete and there is more to be done with it, but I contribute it as a work in progress.

You can find both lists here.

June 2011: I've done more work on my list, which has gone from 12 to 19 pages, with a better representation of senior old boys, and also includes more dates previously missing. I hope to add more information later this summer.

December 2011: I've added old boys' info from the 1954 Magazine, and a few minor corrections from John Morris.

The Latin lesson

From Life of Brian: Romani ite domum.

Word verification

In July I turned on word verification for this blog, forcing people to type in a random word before adding comments.

The purpose of this is to prevent spammers from using programs to add automated comments to the blog, which has become a real nuisance.

I'm now turning word verification off again for a trial period, because Blogger has implemented a new spam-filtering system. I'll see how it goes.

27th of October: I've turned word verification back on, because the blog is receiving about 20 spam messages a day, and the spam filtering system doesn't reduce the nuisance much. I still get all of them arriving in my e-mail inbox, and still have to delete all of them. Much better if they don't get onto the blog in the first place. I'm sorry it means a little extra trouble for anyone wanting to post messages on the blog; blame the spammers.