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In
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In The News - February 2009 |
Three Accies on Radio 4 failed to get a mention in last month's 'In the News'. On 22 January, Gyles Brandreth, in the programme Five Meet to Make Up Myths, discussed five authors, Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson (EA 1861-63), JM Barrie and Bram Stoker, who all knew each other and used to frequent many of the same venues in London in the 1880s and 90s. The myths were Dorian Gray, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Peter Pan and Dracula, all to a greater or lesser extent, living double lives. Sherlock Holmes was based on Dr Joseph Bell (EA 1847-54), who was reputed to be able to tell the route his students had taken to lectures because of the colour of the mud on their boots. The other mention was on Radio Scotland’s phone-in discussion programme on 30th January. Geoff Mawdsley (EA 69-83), who is director of the independent Scottish think tank 'Reform Scotland', contributed his views on the suggestion that up to £10,000 per year should be made available to children from disadvantaged backgrounds for private education.
In February, The Telegraph ran an obituary on Jim Galbraith (EA 38-43), who has died, aged 83. Jim was a civil servant who spent most of his career in the Department of Employment. As a measure of his tact and integrity, after he had retired he was invited by both the CBI and TUC to be its representative on the employment tribunal. In his final year at the Academy, he won a number of prizes for classics, captained the First XV and the First XI, was Head Ephor and Dux of the school to boot. Another significant death was noted in The Scotsman. George Wilton (10-23) has died in Cambuslang at the age of 103. We had thought that Mac Henderson (17-23) was the oldest living Accie, but he is a mere youngster at 101. George studied electrical engineering at Glasgow University and later worked for the SSEB. While on the subject of longevity, we note that Chris Graham (17-18) will celebrate his hundredth birthday at the end of this month. Unless we are told otherwise, we are still of the belief that Mac is currently the oldest Accie.
Credit crunch or no, there is a good report about one Accie in the financial world this month. The Faculty of Actuaries has awarded the inaugural Sloan Prize to Colin Wilson. It is not that Colin is an Accie but that the prize was made possible by a gift to the Faculty by Ronnie Sloan (48-60). Ronnie is quoted as saying that he "proposed the creation of a new prize to be awarded for the best contribution… by a student or recently qualified actuary in order to encourage greater participation by younger members of the profession."
In letters to The Scotsman editor, we only noticed one contribution from an Accie in February. In a letter on the 9th, John Edward (73-87), in charge of communications for the European Parliament in Scotland, was encouraging us all to become involved in the European elections to be held on 4th June.
On 21st February a Scotsman article on the poor conditions for winter mountaineering in Scotland quoted Rob Durran (73-81) recalling winters of old: "1986 was a fabulous year; it was sub-zero for weeks on end." Rob was a member of the EA mountaineering club and another Dux of the school (we seem to be collecting them this month).
To other sport now and with the Six Nations in full swing, Accie rugby players continue to get a lot of coverage in the press and on the airwaves. Saturday's spectacular 26-6 win over Italy saw two of them playing and with photographs in the Scotsman. Mike Blair (86-99) continues to captain the Scotland team and was quoted in the paper, "our success came from guys with pace and creativity." Mike had also featured on Gaelic STV's A Day in the Life on 26th February. Back to the Italy match and playing alongside Mike at half-back was Phil Godman (90-95) whose Scotsman photograph shows him charging down a kick by Italian Pablo Canavosio. Paul Loudon (92-06), who last season played in only one U-19 match before joining the under-20 side, played for Scotland in their win against Wales on 6th February. He went on to captain the team in their match against France in Chalons on Friday 13th, though the date did indeed prove unlucky for his side. It was a better result on Friday against Italy, however, with Paul again captaining the side, this time to a 14-10 win. Tom Brown (92-95) plays for Scotland's U-19 team, in which Alex Blair (95-08) is frustratingly sidelined at present because of injury. The U-19s also had a win against Italy this weekend with a score-line of 55-13. Finally, Danny Teague (86-99) was in the club international squad for the game against Ireland and in Club rugby, the Edinburgh Accies had a good win against Howe of Fife, scoring 38 points to 7.
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