News 2002

A Brief Resume by Webmaster

January 2002

HANKS to your excellent cooperation we have successfully updated our Email List and introduced our new password. As might be expected there are a few stragglers who have yet to catch up with the rest of us. Last month we recruited 35 new members bringing our total to 303. At the beginning of the year when we launched the website in its present form, we aimed at 200 by the year end. We have exceeded that by 50% and the linear growth rate continues. Perhaps by this time next year we will be nearing 600. The more members we have the better chance that old contacts can be renewed.

Our program to update the Postal Mail list has NOT been a success. There are still about 400+ OLs on the list whose details have not been verified for many years and who remain out of contact. For reasons of time, effort and finance, webmaster is unable to launch a postal check. Hopes that this might be achieved by website members has yielded very little information on these OLs. One can only hope that those on the Postal List who acquire computers will eventually stumble on our website by accident. Any ideas?

Several more contributions appeared in December and there are more in the pipeline. Use the "What's New" facility to go direct to the new stuff. As some of you will have discovered we now have a theme tune (which you may have heard many times before - in the Services on the parade ground or in Lewes on November 5th). Unfortunately those of you with old or non-standard browser software will not hear it. This is unfortunate but such is progress. Internet Explorer version 6 is now available on magazine cover CDs and elsewhere and it is free and easily installed with Windows 98 and above.

We still need those early Barbicans Nos 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 from the pre-1936 period. Unfortunately if there are any of these still in existence they are probably held by our very old members on the postal list who cannot be easily contacted ! Do you know any of these Old-Boys ? Give them a ring !

Another item that we still need is a copy of the recording of the School Song that was recorded on bakelite 78 rpm disks around 1948-50. One member thought he had the record but has been unable to find it after a thorough search. Pity! Can anyone else help out ?

Please take a good look at our website and see if you can up with something of interest or make some suggestions about how we could improve it .

It has been suggested that we should allow our membership to extend to those old-boys and girls who just missed the Grammar School era but benefitted from those facilities and traditions that carried over, eg Staff, House System, Trophies, Prefect System, Chapel, etc. Do they have an alumni organisation of their own? Do they have their own reunions ? What do you think ? Food for thought !

February 2002

E continue to grow, acquiring 23 new members last month, and we had 680 site visits. Several new items appear on the website. See "What's New".

The appeal for sponsorship for this website has brought in a few enquiries and we continue to be hopeful. The bottom line is that if no financial support for the running of the OL website is forthcoming it will eventually close down. Your webmaster cannot support it alone. The website is getting too large to be hosted by Freeserve and we shall soon have to pay for the space it uses and the hosting service provided.

The Barbican magazines that we have been lent are all now available on the website. There are still six not yet found, all from the early 30's, and it begins to look as if these may be lost forever. Our only hope is to ask the OLs on the Postal List, but that will have to wait until we are able to send them a mail shot.

Recently, John Barton lent a copy of the "Floreat Lewesia" record to us for transcription onto audio cassette. You can read about it on the website on the History index (or go direct from What's New ). We hope to have this record professionally digitally remastered and made available on audio cassette for members, but we need 50 OLs to subscribe before going ahead with this work. Any cash left over after expenses incurred will go to support the website. This is an opportunity to show your support for the work done by webmaster and those who have assisted.

Several new contributions on various topics have arrived in this last month and they can be seen by using the What's New facility. We are hoping that more material about the school comes to light in the Spring when it becomes less cold in your attics and the spring-cleaning season arrives. There should be many more photos out there, especially rugby teams and the like.

March 2002

E apologise for the late arrival of the March NewsLetter. On February 27th my computer died a sudden and unexpected death - a black screen and not so much as a peep out of it. A post-mortem revealed that the Celeron 400 processor had turned into toast. The good news was that it only required a new Celeron processor (a 500 this time) and an extra fan to get it going again. All data on my hard disk remained intact and so, six days later, I am back on the job. So when I talk about slaving over a hot computer you will know that I am not joking ! It could have been much worse.

We continue to grow, but this month the increase in our numbers was small for reasons that are not obvious to me. I have spent some time sending emails to OLs whose names appear on Friends Reunited website but there seems to be a marked reluctance for most of them to register as members. Why ? Are the questions in the 'Bona Fides' quiz too difficult ? Do they suspect that it is a con ? Most of them are in the younger age group so perhaps they feel intimidated by the old-fashioned style of the webmaster, perhaps ? There are still hundreds of OLs out there with computers who are woefully ignorant about our website.

Can I make a suggestion ? Could some of you OLs from the 50's and 60's go to the FriendsReunited website and send a few emails to OLs from your years telling them why they will almost certainly find lots of interesting things on the website ? Maybe you can persuade them to register !

This month there are several new items which appear on the "What's New" page. Coverage of the 1966 school play "St Joan" with cast list, photos and an original program. There are also some new anecdotes and photos.

Our greatest success this past month has been the response to our appeal for support to cover the running costs of the website and its further development. Not only have we had 44 direct donations, whose names appear on the "Support | Donations" page, but we are now sponsored with a generous sum from Plummer Parsons, Chartered Accountants, of Eastbourne through the good offices of their Senior Partner, Alastair Stewart, an Old Boy. You will find a reference to this under "Support | Sponsors". Our thanks to Alastair.

As you may have read on the website, all donors receive a complimentary audio cassette with a transcription of "Floreat Lewesia", the school song, sung and recorded by the boys themselves in 1949 and issued on 78 rpm gramophone records. Sales of the record then helped raise money for the building of the school's memorial chapel - a memorial to the young OLs who died during the second world war. I am sure that Mr Bradshaw would have been most surprised if he had known that his record would be used to promote Old Lewesian affairs more than fifty years after it was made !

What is a little surprising is that we have already had 6 donations from overseas, Australia, Canada and USA. One remarked that listening to the boys singing Floreat Lewesia, fifty years after he had last sung it at school "brought a lump to my throat". It can have that effect.

Our objectives for March are
1. To double the size of our donations list.
2. To publish more photos and other material from you.

In the background there are other developments taking place to move our website to a new host and to introduce new facilities about which you will learn in due course. All this requires effort and finance. I do the work - it's up to you to help with the necessary funds.

April 2002

irstly, thanks to the 63 members who have sent donations towards the cost of running this site. This together with our Sponsor's support has brought in a useful sum that is well on the way to keeping us solvent this year. If any more of you feel the urge to express your pleasure and support for the web-site you can find the details on-site under "Support / Donations".

This year instead of being financed directly out of my own pocket as in the past, we are keeping proper accounts and relying on your donations to cover the costs. You may be surprised to learn, as indeed I was, that the cost of running this outfit for the first quarter of this year was about £330. Of this about £40 was postage, £85 on costs associated with producing tapes of "Floreat Lewesia", £45 on internet charges, and £160 on the postal mail-shot - of which more below.

It is your donations that have allowed us to do these things that I could not previously have afforded to undertake out of my own funds.

You may have noticed when you accessed the OL website, we have moved from Freeserve to be hosted on a professionally run server where we have more space for continued expansion and a wider range of facilities which will come on stream later this year. Not only have we changed our server but also our name and web-address. We are now the Old Lewesians Organisation and our new inner site web address is www.old-lewesians.org.uk . We pay for this hosting service which we hope will prove satisfactory.

To clarify the organisational arrangement, for those that may be confused, the Old Lewesians Organisation is an internet based, non-profit making, off-shoot of the Old Lewesians Association (the official Old Lewesian body). We are, in effect, the communications arm of the Old Lewesians Association. Our mission is "to act as a focus and point of contact for Old Lewesians and to provide means of communication by whatever method seems appropriate". The Chairman is John Davey and your webmaster does most of the graft ! We have our own bank account and keep records of our financial income and outgoings. Other members may be co-opted to deal with specific issues at a later date. If you live in or around Lewes, are newly retired and would like to help, please let me know.

Another venture this month, that you, being an Email member, will not have been involved with, is that we have sent a letter to all of the 430+ OLs on our Postal List to confirm or update get their details and to tell them about the web-site, should they be unaware that it exists.

There are several objectives to this exercise.
1. To identify and remove names of OLs that who have moved without leaving a new address, died, or have no further interest in the Old Lewesians.
2. To make known the existence of the website to those who have acquired internet facilities but did not know there was a website ( about 35 ).
3. To enquire if they have any suitable material for the website. This has turned up several promising leads including the possible whereabouts of the missing Barbicans !

This mailshot was done by a firm that specialises in this sort of thing (you wouldn't want me to lick 430 stamps and 430 envelopes, would you?) and this was easily our largest outlay this quarter.

The replies to the mail-shot are still coming in and the Mail Lists are being updated day by day. By the end of next month we shall assume that those that have not replied or whose envelopes have been returned un-opened are no longer contactable. We can then be assured that our lists are pretty well up to date.

Names removed, other than those known to be deceased, will appear now on our new "List of the Lost" page. If you know where they are let me know.

This "List of the Lost" can also be used by you seeking information about individuals that you are looking for but do not appear in any of our lists. Let me know their names and I will post them up.

Our Email List has grown to about 390, helped by the influx of former Postal members, and we will easily exceed our target of 400 by the end of April.

We have several new contibutions to the website. Probably the funniest is John Davey's account of the visit by a candidate for headmaster in 1960 when Mr Bradshaw resigned. The story, as told, is almost unbelievable, but another member found a photo of the candidate which makes the tale even more enjoyable. Go to the "Whats New" page and check it out.

On a more serious note we would like to draw to your attention to mis-information that was put on the website some weeks ago, in good faith, which has been discovered to be untrue. On our page about the "walk-out" it was stated that Mr Fanner, the headmaster from 1960 to 1967 had died at his own hand.

Further investigation by a member who had connections with the family has revealed that although this is widely believed it is in fact NOT true and he has seen documentary evidence to prove it. Mr Fanner died of post-operative complications after elective surgery. The original source and motive for this ugly rumour are not known. We apologise unreservedly for this mistake and would ask any OLs who may have inadvertently passed it on to pass on a correction.

There are still copies of the "Floreat Lewesia" tapes available, which we distribute on a complimentary basis to OLs who make a donation towards the upkeep of the site. I have fifteen cassettes here with a print-out of the words, ready packed and stamped, waiting to be sent to their new owners.

Now is the season for spring cleaning. If you turn up any interesting photos or other mementoes of your school days please let me know.

May 2002

Revising our Membership Mail Lists

he past two months have seen a sharp rise in our Email List numbers as a result of the postal mailing of OLs on the old postal mailing list (from the Old Lewesians Association). Of the 430+ OLs on the list, 60 were found to have internet facilities but did not know there was an Old Lewesians website. They have boosted our Email List to over 410. About 120 have confirmed their postal address details, so they are known to be living at this time. Many of these are pre-war pupils.

About 30 letters were returned "not known at this address". In the absence of any other information they have been removed from the postal list and placed on our "List of the Lost" for a few months just in case some of you know where they now live. Many of them are probably deceased.

About 220 letters did not elicit any response (so far). Presumably these OLs have been dead for many years or moved many years ago and the current occupants could not be bothered to return the letters (as requested on the envelope). There was only one reply notifying a death and that was from the widow of Henry Knight (31-38) of Storrington who died in 1996.

The net result of the mail shot is that we now have about 570 contactable members; 410 with an email address and 160 with a recent postal address. We estimate that there are probably about 1400 more living OLs who do not know about the Old Lewesians or the website. Based on existing membership statistics about 1000 of them will be living within a thirty mile radius of Lewes with highest concentrations in Lewes, Seaford, Newhaven, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill. As the news of our website filters through the grapevine and use of the Internet increases we can expect a slow but steady rise in our numbers. Our estimate is that we can expect our total active membership to rise to about 700 by the end of this year.

Quite a few OLs responding to the mailshot mentioned items they have that might be suitable for the website. The majority of these are photos of sports teams. We will be contacting them soon with a view to borrowing their photos. Our best "find" was the 1935 panoramic photo, of which more below.

Panoramic Photos

We have recently acquired yet another panoramic photo - for 1935. This came to light as a result of our letter to all postal members. Jack Chaplin (LCGS 1932-38) who lives at Kingston near Lewes (see postal list) responded that he had a 1935 photo. He has since sent it to us and it has been added to the website. Jack has been in contact with me by phone and is very lively and interested in our website. He is hoping to spend some time exploring it when he visits his daughter soon.

More Panoramics

A study of the dates of our panoramic photos shows that before the war there was a panoramic photo taken in every other school year. This would suggest that we now have all of the photos up to 1939. During the war there were more serious matters to attend to and in the immediate post-war years the shortages of materials delayed the restart of the series. The earliest post-war photo we have is 1948. I think it very likely that this was the first. It was the first one that I remember being taken. Was there one taken immediately after the war that I have forgotten? 1946?

We have two obvious gaps in our post-war series of photos which would suggest that there was a panoramic photo taken in 1953, the Coronation year, and another around 1958. Bob Robinson who was at LCGS from 51 to 55 is convinced that he had one but has not yet found it. John Carpenter, at LCGS from 1956 to 1960, is equally sure that he has one taken about 1958 and it is on its way to him from his 80-year old mother who had kept it safe in spite of a house fire!. John can remember it being taken. Do any of you have another panoramic photo taken in those years or later, in the sixties?

Colin Silk - Our old English master and Rugby coach

Anthony Bannister writes :-
"You and others may be interested to know that I saw Colin today, and had a pleasant chat with him. Now in a wheelchair and battling against failing eyesight and hearing, he remains as indefatigable as ever. The legendary twinkle is still in the eye!"

"Colin and Beryl had come to Lewes Little Theatre to see a rehearsal of 'The Tempest', which opens next week. Colin particularly wanted to see it as he had directed the last production of the play at LLT nearly 40 years ago. You will probably know that Colin has been a leading member of LLT for many years and directed a number of plays from the Shakespearean canon between the late 40s to mid 60s."

Films

Bill Piper asks :-
"Are you aware of a chap called Graham Kerwin who was at the school during the late 60's. He was keen on photography and made at least two films (movies) around the school. One was a spy spoof based on 007, with Mr Voigt in the starring role. There was a secret installation in the boiler room which was being investigated and led our heroes to Paris. Mr Fanner was also involved. The second film was an animated cartoon of several members of staff - a bit similar to Terry Gilliam's animations on Monty Python. I remember the chapel tower becoming a rocket and lifting off. I heard that Graham had been killed in an aircrash in Africa but I wonder if copies of the films still exist . . . "

If you know any more about this topic please contact Bill Piper by email.

The Missing Barbicans

You will be pleased to learn that we are to be given a small cache of school memorabilia by the Bradshaw family, the surviving members of our founding headmaster's family. It is most probably NRB's personal collection. We are given to understand that it contains 50 photos, many of the chapel project, manuscripts by NRB himself and, surprise, surprise, the first 24 issues of the Barbican bound into three volumes ! So we WILL be able to complete our collection of Barbican excerpts later this year. See our next NewsLetter.

Donations

We are pleased to report that our list of donors has risen to 75 this month. Their names appear on the "Support | Donations" page of the website. We do hope that more of you will come forward and show your support for our efforts to bring you back in contact with your old school and school-friends. There are several tape cassettes of "Floreat Lewesia" waiting to be sent to OLs making donations to support our website. If you appreciate our efforts and wish to see it prosper, please help.

Reunions

As you will know from the brief report on the website under "Trustees | Reunion", a reunion was held in September 2000 at the school attended by 234 Old Lewesians. This was organised by the Old Lewesians Association and the Chapel Trustees. The OLA organised this reunion using their old postal mailing list which had not been updated for years. Given the state of the mail list that number would indicate a high level of support among those surviving OLs who actually received an invitation.

At that time our internet website and email facilities did not exist. Now we have our website and mailing lists and with so many more new Old Lewesian members, especially from the mid-fifties and sixties, it would in principle be possible to draw on a much larger membership base to organise another reunion in a few years time.

To gauge the level of support for reunions we are taking a straw poll. Without making any committment to attend at this early stage, would YOU attend a reunion in September 2004 ? If so, send me an email containing only two words "REUNION YES" . If not, an email with the two words "REUNION NO" . My email system will detect these words and automatically sort the votes into "yes" and "no" folders. I will report the voting results back to you in the July Newsletter.

PLEASE DON'T engage me in any discussion about reunions at this stage. I cannot enter into a debate on this topic with 400+ members without giving up my day job! This is just a quick poll so that we can all get a feel for the collective degree of support for a hypothetical future reunion. NO PLANS HAVE YET BEEN MADE OR CONSIDERED . There is no hurry - think about your response before rushing to vote.

Obviously, one cannot be sure what one's situation may be in two years time so please make a judgement on the basis of your most probable decision at the time. I will remind you next month about casting your vote in the June Newsletter. The result will be declared in the July Newsletter.

June 2002

Revising our Membership Mail Lists

he revision continues. The revised Mail Lists are now in three sections:
1. The Email List. Data confirmed 2002
2. The Postal List for those without email, addresses confirmed 2002.
3. The Lost List which contains those who did not reply to the earlier postal mail shot and whose fate is unknown. If you can positively confirm the whereabouts of any of them, please send an email to your webmaster.

Our central records have telephone numbers for some of these OLs. We are now using the phone in an attempt to locate them - but this is a slow process and will not be completed for some time.

Panoramic Photos

Further enquiries have drawn a blank regarding school photos taken in the interval between the 1951 and 1955, and in the interval between the 1955 and 1961. Nobody has come forward with any solid evidence that any were taken. This is rather surprising given that 1953 was coronation year and that Mr Bradshaw retired in 1960. One would have thought he would have wished to have photos taken to celebrate these occasions.

Reunions

In last month's NewsLetter we announced a postal vote to gauge the support for a future reunion. Members were asked, without making any committment to attend, if THEY would attend a reunion in September 2004. Those who probably WOULD were asked to send me an email containing only two words "REUNION YES" . If they probably would NOT, they should send an email with the two words "REUNION NO" . My email system detects these words and automatically sort the votes into "yes" and "no" folders. So far only a minority have expressed their view about future Reunions.

Can I remind those of you who have not yet voted and wish to vote, to do so before the 30th June. One vote only per member if you please. I will report the voting results back to you in the July Newsletter.

Mr Mould

Peter Gem sends the following:-
" Very sorry to have to report the death of John Mould on the 30th of April at his home in the south of France. He had a long battle with fibrosis and did, sadly, not have an easy end.

Few pupils will realise what an hilarious colleague he was in the Common Room. I cannot recall anyone who made us laugh more with his outrageous punning and his imitations of Japanese soldiers (see one of my pictures). He finished as Senior Interpreter in the Council of Europe which I gather he managed with quite extraordinary skill being able to turn a totally boring speech about, say, the dimensions of coal trucks being used transporting the stuff from A to B which would normally be enough to send the entire Assembly to sleep into something which made them laugh - and this while still preserving the exact substance of the report. Many officials asked for him to be their translator because of this extraordinary ability.

Sadly he could be quite gruff in the classroom, I think, and this humour may not have shone through. As a matter of interest he spent his 21st Birthday in a German P.O.W. camp in Italy but turned it to good effect by getting one of the guards to teach him German in which he became fluent in return for him teaching the soldier English! "
Peter Gem

Membership

As a result of our postal mailshot, recruitment through FriendsReunited and the grape vine we have substanially increased our numbers in the past month. We now have valid the addresses of 439 Email members and 184 Postal members - a total of 623 with the prospect of many more to come.

July 2002

June - A quiet month

his past month, with its various alternative attractions such as Jubilee events, World Cup, Wimbledon, not to mention holidays, gardening, house maintenance and other outdoor activities, has been a quiet month on the Old Lewesians website. I will be the first to admit that expansion of the website has not been my top priority this month. As a result there are few new items for those who have tuned in. This summer hiatus will probably continue for as long as the weather remains fine and warm. Come the cold and rain, website activity will, no doubt, revive.

Reunions

Over the last two months we have been running a postal ballot on the likely support for a hypothetical reunion. Members were asked, without making any committment to attend, if THEY would attend a reunion in September 2004. Those who probably WOULD were asked to send me an email containing the words "REUNION YES" . If they probably would NOT, they should reply with the words "REUNION NO" . My email system sorted the votes into "yes" and "no" folders.

Of the 440+ members on the email list who could vote
140 - 31% voted YES
8 - 2% voted NO
about 300 - 67% DID NOT VOTE .

The 400 postal and "lost list" members did not take part in this ballot.

Those OLs who organised previous reunions please take note.

Membership

We have increased our numbers in the past month by about 20. We now have valid addresses of 456 Email members and 185 Postal members.

August 2002

Our Website - A Reminder

he address of the OL website is www.old-lewesians.org.uk . Please keep webmaster informed of any email or postal address changes. July was very quiet as members took advantage of the warm weather. Computers and email were abandoned as the Old Lewesians took to the great outdoors. This summer hiatus will probably continue until September when the holiday season draws to a close. We have increased our numbers in the past month by 14 - well down on our average of 25. We now have valid addresses for 465 Email members and 190 Postal members. There are still a pool of "Lost" members to be tracked down.

New Material

A new piece on the website is the contents of the first issue of the "Barbican" (No.1) that appeared in 1931. This chronicles the first year of the Lewes County School, as it was then called. This will be followed up in the next few weeks by Barbican Nos. 3,4,6,7, and 8.

War Service in the Royal Sussex Regiment

Ron Burley (1931-36) would be interesting to know if any other OLs are also ex-wartime Royal Sussex Regiment (B.E.F., Dunkirk and Middle East) veterans. Please contact Ron by email at burleyR7@aol.com .

September 2002

he warm weather and holiday season has kept our members out in the fresh air. We are expecting somewhat more activity in September when the weather breaks and grandchildren return to school and older children return to full-time education.

The commercial web-hosting service that we employ for our site gives me a comprehensive breakdown of the statistics about the usage of the site and it shows a dip of about 20% in the number of visits made in the summer months.

Membership

We have increased our numbers in the past month by a mere 5 - much below our long-term average of 25. We now have valid addresses for 470 Email members and 190 Postal members. There are still the "Lost" members to be tracked down.

We have invested in a UK-Info 2002 Phone Directory CD and will soon be doing some active recruitment by phone, so we can expect a modest surge in our numbers this autumn. As a service to members we could run a search for a long-lost school friend. It could be successful if they are alive, have uncommon first and last names and live in the UK. Searching for Bill Smith and John Brown would be a waste of time - too many! This we could do on an occasional basis - please don't send long lists of names!

New Material

The OL Forum allows you to put your questions, comments and text contributions onto the page without my intervention. The idea may be new to some of you but the purpose is to allow a wider discussion of all sorts of ideas, happenings and matters that need clarification. Provided it is in some way relevant to Old Lewesians and does not cause offence, you can put what you like on the page. The content will be regulated by your webmaster.

Other items in the pipe-line are several rugby photos from the late 1940's and those five Barbicans, Nos. 3,4,6,7, and 8, from the 1930's. We are also hoping to have biographies of some of our late masters written by members who knew them well - but more of that at a later date.

October 2002

Website Activity

HE fine weather has continued through the month and relatively little new material has arrived for the website. However, as the official statistics on our website show there has been a sharp recovery in the number of "Hits" (visits to the site) in September.

We have a number of projects in hand and will try to bring you something of interest for the you this autumn. Watch the website !

The Forums

A new feature this past month has been the creation of four separate forums (OL Affairs, Arts, Sport and Science) where any of you may insert text for all to see (and reply to if necessary). This is done automatically without my intervention. It is your opportunity to raise topics with the OL fraternity at large as you wish in an open forum.

So far this novel feature has not aroused much interest but this, I suspect, is due to unfamiliarity with the concept for most of you. I do hope it will catch on. Give it a go ! Get it moving - it could be good fun.

Think of these forums as school notice boards. You can pin up your own notices as you wish (no defamation or rudeness please). Use it perhaps to bring to light matters of common interest to Old Lewesians. Or ask direct questions, eg "Does anybody know what became of Fred Bloggs after he left school in 1955 ?" . Answers can be posted on the forum for all to see or sent directly to the enquirer by email.

One useful aspect on these particular "notice boards" (there are four of them) is that you can REMOVE your contribution if and when you feel it necesary - just identify the item, click on the delete button and ZAP ! This is useful - you can see how your contibution looks and if you are not happy with it then delete it. You can have as many goes as you wish.

Sports Photos

Peter Funnell from Dallington has sent us two 1st XV rugby photos from '44 and '45 and also a 1st XI cricket team. Peter is a postal member and can be contacted via the Postal List. He is still active in the farming business and has organised reunions of the lads and lassies who travelled down from Heathfield to Lewes in the 40's and 50's on the No.18 bus.

Recent Passings

We have learned of two recent deaths of members.

Larry Holding writes :- " It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that one of our members, Mr. H.J.J.Warr (Joe Warr) died peacefully in the Victoria Hospital Lewes in the early hours of Sunday 8th September. If further details are required please let me know. "

Joe supplied seven of the pre-war Barbicans for transcription to the website. He was 76.

Ian Harris writes :- " I have just heard of the death of Keith Beard, who you will remember from your own time at the school. Keith made his career with Sussex Police, retiring as a Chief Inspector. He lost his first wife, Brenda, at an early age but remarried and is survived by his second wife, Margaret."

Keith I remember as a very heavily built lad, an excellent swimmer, and rather unusual in that he had one blue eye and one brown one. Mr Bradshaw once told me a tale of how he had fallen foul of a young constable in Lewes over some minor traffic infringment. The keen lad, wielding his note book and pencil, was asked "do you know Inspector Beard - well I'm his old Headmaster", whereupon the note book and pencil disappeared as if by magic !

Our Website - A Reminder

The address of the OL website is www.old-lewesians.org.uk . Please keep webmaster informed of any email or postal address changes.

Note for HOTMAIL users: Would those of you who use "xxxxx@hotmail.com" email addresses please attend to their mail boxes regularly. Many of these newsletters get returned from hotmail.com as being "undeliverable", presumably because the mailboxes are full.

Membership

We have increased our numbers in the past month by a mere 5 - much below our long-term average of 25. We now have valid addresses for 475 Email members.

Our Postal List and Lost List have been drastically revised this last month due to our investment in an "Info 2001" CD. This disc allows us to find the addresses of members with whom we have not had recent contact. The upshot is that our Postal List has shot up from 190 to 295 members who were alive in 2001 or later. The Lost List has shrunk in consequence. The CD has proved to be an excellent investment - a great tool for finding people - especially effective for finding those with uncommon names.

November 2002

Passwords, Mail List and Website Security

OST of the progress made in October has been concerned with the reorganisation of members' data into a coherent database. Up to now we have had two separate groups - the Email List and the Postal List - each being kept in duplicate on an address book and a web page. This has been difficult to manage and keep free from errors. Now we have a unified database and this gives us much more flexibility.

Another feature of this is that we are now able to keep our private data more private than before. In effect a small part of the website is now a password restricted area. In the last few days you will have had a number of automated emails from the OL server with details of your personal password. This password is now required to access the restricted parts of the database such as the unified "Member List" containing members' addresses and other details.

An important feature of the new system is that YOU are now responsible for keeping YOUR data UP TO DATE and CORRECT using the "Update" page. No more will you need to contact webmaster to ask him to change your email address or whatever. If you spell your email address incorrectly or forget to update when you change ISP then you will beyond contact. However if you get in a real mess I will come to the rescue and sort out the database problem directly.

Provided you have have kept your email address up to date you can always recover your password using the "Password" page. It is sent automatically by email to your last known email address.

The links to relate to these protected pages are those in red at the bottom of the "Members" index at the left of the screen. You will see that there is a link to a page called "LOG ON". Once you enter your password here you should be able to see all the other protected pages that are concerned with members' data. If you don't or can't log on you can't see them.

To ensure that your browsing on the OL website is as smooth as possible you are advised not to block "cookies". If you find that the LOG ON process does not give access to the secure pages then you may find that this is due to "cookies" being blocked. A "cookie" in this context is a small file in your browser that remembers that you are logged on each time you move from one page to another. It is quite harmless and it disappears as soon as you shut down your browser.

The Forums

Last month we reported the creation of four separate forums (OL Affairs, Arts, Sport and Science) where any of you may post up your thoughts, questions or answers to other members. This is done automatically without webmaster intervention.

A few brave souls have launched into this new world of open discussion between old lewesians but mostly you are reading the notes and waiting to see how it develops. I have hopes that it will eventually take off.

As I said last month, think of these forums as school notice boards where you can pin up your contribution to the chit-chat and take down your notes when they have outlived their usefulness. To see and contribute to the Forums you need to LOG ON.

Visitors

Now that we have a better means of protecting our personal data we can allow visitors from outside our immediate circle to look at our non-protected pages. This should open our website to many people beyond the members themselves, eg children and grandchildren of LCGS pupils, many people in Lewes and in East Sussex who are interested in the mid-20th century educational history, etc, etc.

So now there is a direct link from the Home page at www.old-lewesians.org.uk , which can be found by search machines, directly to the welcome page of the main site.

If there are any of you that are concerned about any particular part of the general site being open to visitors - please contact webmaster with a view to possible bowdlerising or anonymising the sensitive part.

For the convenience of our Visitors (should we get any !) we have provided a GUEST BOOK based on the forum model for them to make comments, ask questions etc. Members may answer visitors questions in the book if it is a topic of general interest or you can reply by email to the visitor. Please let the visitors have their say and keep members' business on the forums - that's what they are for.

HOTMAIL and some other ISP's

Those of you who use "hotmail.com" email and possibly some other mail boxes should empty their mail boxes regularly. Many of these of these NewsLetters get returned as being "undeliverable", presumably because the mailboxes are full.

The Info-Disk

Our Info-Disk 2001 CD with a searchable list of virtually every adult in the UK has already allowed us to find several long-lost school-mates. If you have a special old friend with whom you lost contact we may be able to find him. It works best if your target has an uncommon surname, first name and initials. In some cases we can provide you with a list of possible targets with the given name and leave you to take the search further by post or phone.

Late News - Death of Mel Tayler

From John Etherton

Mel Tayler was the only daughter of Spud Tayler (Latin teacher and master of form 3A), and she was therefore an honorary OL. She went downhill very quickly with a lymphoma and died in a London hospital on 23rd October. Her partner Clare Nesbitt was with her - nesbittce.uk@virgin.net. The funeral is at 2-30 on Friday November 1st, at Mortlake Crematorium, off Townmead Road, off Mortlake Road, London. She was head girl at LCGS Girls 63-64 and was head of town planning at Harringay and Westminster. She had retired early and become an artist.

December 2002

NewsLetters

S PART of the streamlining of the OL website we are now putting the monthly Newsletters directly onto the website instead of sending the whole text to each of you by email. This will reduce the effort and time required and also overcome the difficulties of non-delivery that occur with neglected mail-boxes. Instead of the full email newsletter we will send out a brief email reminder that a new Newsletter is on the website and the topics it contains.

Bill Euston

This month we have three new items that come from Jenny Euston. A short biography of our old English master with some photos, a letter that Dick Page sent to Bill about his tour of South America in 1976 and a letter to Bill from Mr Bradshaw. Those of you who remember Bill Euston will, I am sure, be very pleased with Jenny's contribution.

Sports

We also have had a few more team photos this month, rugby and basketball. There is also a link to the website of the Lewes Rugby Football Club - specifically to its history page where you will see a few names of past members of LCGS. Their main site at www.lewesrfc.org.uk is about the club as it is today.

Cliff Richard

We have had a query from a Ms Sam Dwyer, who is researching for a TV programme about Cliff Richard the singer/entertainer. If any of you have any memories of the episodes where Cliff Richard visited LCGS in the context of Religous Education, please contact Sam Dwyer directly at sdwyer@worldofwonder.co.uk .

Our Postal Members

Our new integrated database of members contains almost 800 entries of whom nearly 300 do not have email facilities and are therefore unable to access the website on a regular basis (if at all). About a year ago we started to revise the old postal mailing list inherited from the Chapel Trustees and last spring we organised a bulk postal mail shot to them asking them to confirm their continued existence and current addresses. The revised data was added into our integrated database.

These postal members are unable to track down old friends on our mail list as they have no access to the Mail List on our website. To help them we are sending to them, within the next few days, a printed mail list of all our members, plus some news about the OL website and some advice about getting access to it with the help of friends, relatives, or local libraries. This printed mail list is about the best we can do to keep in contact with these members given the relatively high cost of printing and postal mailing. The cost of this operation will be covered by the funds of the Old Lewesians Organisation, generously provided by some of you as voluntary donations.

We are sorry to report that we have recently learned that Ian Lamborn died last July.