Took place on Saturday 14th October 2017
Peter Austen did his usual excellent job of all of the work in Northampton with the venue, local radio, etc and then he handles the event on the day.
The reunion started at the usual time, and all of the regular early arrivals started to appear. There were some exceptions. David Baker, as we knew, could not come, and he has always been almost the first to walk through the door. An update on David can be found [here]. Just before we had started to set up, I received a call from John Ingham (1963), one of the original founders of these reunions. He had got as far as Coventry and received a call that his daughter had been taken in to hospital, so he turned round and went home. Mary Kelly arrived without Judith, as she was not well and Paul Boniface messaged to say he could not make it, due a health problem. All of these were 1963'ers.
We had some regulars who had perhaps forgotten the date change and booked a holiday instead, and of course there is always a clash of activities.
In the end we had 65 people this year. Our lowest number of people ever. You can see who came from the button on the right. In fact, it did have one benefit, once we got all of the people in to the function room ready for the speeches, it gave a good atmosphere as was busy but not overcrowded.We were pleased to welcome Tad Newton again. He has been several times over the years. He was a member of staff, but had also been a pupil at the school.
At 2:30pm we had out usual speeches. Slightly longer than normal. A few days before the reunion, Peter and I had discussed the future, and we agreed that as we had not got any volunteers last year to take over, and as the numbers were well down this year, it was time to call it a day. You can read the content of the two speeches from the links to the right, which try to explain the reasons, but also the possibilities for the future.Mid-afternoon Alan Hames and John Buckingham arrived. Alan (1959) had brought John (1963), and much to the surprise of the majority of people there, John was on crutches. John had a very nasty car accident earlier this year, caused by a young driver in another vehicle, who has been charged with driving without due care and attention. There were three vehicles involved, and a heavily loaded van landed on top of John's car. Both John and his son were injured. John is having to learn to walk again. We wish him a continuing recovery and hope that he regains as much mobility as possible, but his injuries were very severe.
During the afternoon people signed the cards for David Baker, but Gordon Brommage brought in two CDs of the performance of Iolanthe in 1964, to pass on to David. These had been taken from a reel-to-reel tape recording. We hope that he will enjoy those.
During the afternoon we also leaned that Mary had not this year been the person to travel the furthest to be at the reunion this year. Christine Kent (1968) had come from California. She has been over for almost 4 weeks, so she didn't just pop over for the weekend, but that could be the furthest distance ever.
All too soon, the end of the afternoon was approaching. Two groups went off to Dinner at Pamukkale, the Turkish restaurant in St Giles St. When we left there some time after 8pm, it had been a very good day, but the sad end of an era. Let's hope that we can make some other arrangements for the future.
A number of the people who could not make it this year mentioned health issues. There were quite a lot. John Buckingham was not the only one to arrive on sticks this year, David Shaw (1970) did too. He had had a knee operation. Is this a sign that we are not getting any younger!
Once again Christopher Burrows came with his wife, Margaret. He is from the class of 1950 (he actually left in 1949, but if they had had a fifth form it would have been 1950). He came for the first time in 2014 and explained that he met Margaret, who did not go to Trinity, on the first ever THS School Holiday. Christopher went on the 1948 holiday in July to Kessingland. At the centre where they stayed was a small party from a school near Warwick. They met and kept in touch and in 1955, after Christopher had finished his National Service, they got married. Read about it [here].
I cannot finish without mentioning Nick Smith. He has been a regular right from the start, but was not here this year. He had a date clash, which could not be changed. He and Pam were celebrating their Golden Wedding. They were in Wales for the weekend, celebrating.
Peter Austen would like to add "Thank you to everyone for their tremendous support over the last 8 years, and also for everybody's understanding and kind comments after we announced our decision to finish" Thank you all.
Finally from me. The collection this year raised just over £158. Considering the number of people present, that is a lot. Thank you for your generosity. Hosting this website costs money every year, and I intend to keep it going for as many years as possible, so this will help. Thank you.
Ian Dow