Honorary President, Lowry de Montfort, OBE (2000-14) and Michael West (2012-14) at the Army and Navy Club, planning the 2013 AGM and Dinner.
OPU (London branch) Presidents – part 1 (1953-69)
1953/54 W C MacFetridge, MD
Entered Portora 1895 (lived 1951 in Hove)
1954/55 Vice Admiral Sir Nicholas Edward Archdale, 2nd, Bart, CBE.
Born 1881, he entered Portora in 1892 and left at the age of 15 when he moved to the Royal Naval Academy, Gosport, in 1897 being appointed a Midshipman at HMS Britannia.
As a Lieutenant he joined the Submarine Service in 1902. It had only been formed some two years earlier in response to the Kaiser's naval development of this weapon, so in those days the ships were at the least basic and dangerous, not to say experimental. For two years Archdale specialised in the development and use of torpedoes before joining the staff of HMS Vernon in 1905 where the was employed with minesweepers and destroyers. He rejoined the SM Service in 1908 and in 1911 went to Hong Kong with the China SM flotilla; he was promoted to command of the flotilla in 1913.
In the early years of World War I he commanded flotillas attached to the Forth and the Hazard, taking part in the bombardment of German positions on the Belgian coast. Promoted Captain in 1918 while in command of the flotilla attached to HMS Vulcan, he was appointed CBE in 1920 for services as Senior Naval Officer in Copenhagen during operations in the Baltic, when he was in command of the depot ship Greenwich. While in Copenhagen he met and married Gerda Sievers.
During the 1920s he was successively head of the mining department of the Vernon: commanded the cruiser Ceres in the Mediterranean; was Captain of the Dockyard and King's Harbour Master at Rosyth; and commanded the battleship Malaya, after which he was promoted to flag rank in 1929. In the same year was appointed Naval ADC to King George V, retiring from the Royal Navy in 1930.
He then spent sixteen years with the Ministry of Home Affairs in Stormont as general inspector.
He was promoted Vice Admiral on the retired list in 1935 and succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet in 1943.
Sir Edward accepted chairmanship of the League of Remembrance in 1950, when the League - his 'last ship' as he called it - was in difficulties, taking it into smoother waters, his kind and charming manner winning the respect and affection of all who served under him.
He died in July 1955, a few months after his year as our President.
1955/56 Lt.Col Sir Thomas Moore, Bt, CBE, MP
Born in 1886, Moore entered Portora 1901, then Trinity College, Dublin. He joined the regular army 1908, served first in France in 1914 and then on the GHQ staff in Ireland 1916-18, followed by service in Russia 1918-20 as food controller before returning to Ireland 1920-25, the last two years spent in the Ministry of Home Affairs at Stormont.
He retired from the army in 1925 as a Brevet Major, having been mentioned in despatches twice, awarded the OBE in 1918 and made a CBE in 1920. For his services in Russia he received several East European honours, including the Order of the White Eagle of Serbia (4th class), St. Vladimir of Russia (4th class) and the Hungarian Order of Merit (2nd class).
From 1925 to 1964 he was the Conservative & Unionist MP for Ayr. He was knighted in 1937 and'created Baronet in 1956. During his time as a MP he sponsored nine Acts of Parliament, mainly to do with the protection of animals. A Vice President of the RSPCA, he was also a trustee of the International League for the Protection of Horses and Chairman of Ang10:-Italian and Anglo-Hungarian Societies relating to animal welfare.
Four legs may have been good, but two legs were essentially bad in his eyes, for he was a frequent speaker in the House on such matters as corporal punishment, of which he was a strong supporter.
It was during the 1930s that he notoriously supported the Nazis and claimed to be Hitler's friend, visiting him in 1933 and being a founder of the Anglo-German Fellowship in r935, where he remained a Council member until September 1st. 1939. Described as 'the only major proponent of Nazi Germany' among MPs, he said in the Commons that Germany 'had been rescued by Herr Hitler'. In his turn Adolf called Moore 'a man of peace'. He attended the 1936 Nuremberg Rally and praised the Anschluss with Austria in 1938.
In 1940, with a background like that, the Government was hard-pressed to find a suitable job for him to do and eventually decided that the job of Chairman of the Home Guard Joint Parliamentary Committee was right, being sufficiently far from the front line, where he remained unpromoted for the entire period that the Home Guard existed during the war.
Moore's association with all the leading animal protection societies in this country had shown that there was a gentle side to his nature too (though it should be mentioned in passing that one of the first things Hitler did after coming to power was to pass three laws for the protection of wild life -something else they had in common.) Moore was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Freeman of London and a Past Master of the Company of Needlemakers. His commercial interests included life assurance, engineering companies and he was a bookseller and publisher.
He died in Monkton, Ayrshire in April 1971.
1956/57 Prof. J G Smith, OBE, MA, M.Comm., LL.D, D.Litt
Entered Portora 1895, then TCD. Mitsui Professor of Finance, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce and vice-Principal of Birmingham University. Lecturer in Pure & Applied Maths. at University College of South Wales; Acting Professor of Economics & Political Science, Queens University, Belfast; also Assistant Professor of Commerce, University of Birmingham.
He was Sponsor of North Stafford University College from 1949 - 53 and Chairman of the Midland Region Price Regulation Committee.
Smith was a member of the Fiscal Inquiry Committee for the Irish Free State early in his career in 1923 and served on many other Governmental Committees.
At one time he was President of Section F of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and a Member of Council there.
At university, he never spared himself in the service of his pupils, who _ benefited from contact with his balanced and realistic mind. He could be cynical and would not abide humbug and pretentiousness at any price. What he really hated was what he called "the frequency of insignificant speech" in public life and when he encountered it he was not afraid to speak his mind.
He died in Kings Norton in 1968, aged 87.
1957/58 Captain F E Manico
Entered Portora 1895 (lived in 1951 at Petworth)
1958/59 Captain C Emerson-Huston, MRCVS, JP
Entered Portora 1904 (lived in 1951 at Barrow upon Soar, Leics).
1959/60 Dr. A W J Knox
Entered Portora 1908 A doctor in Surrey, lived, 1951 at Cobham.
1960/61 Major G H Wood
Entered Portora 1906 (lived, 1951 at Hornsey, N8).
1961/62 Revd. C F H Carroll, MA
Charles entered Portora in 1909, the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman from Cork. Having taken his BA at Trinity, Dublin, he became a Deacon of the Church in 1916 and was priested in 1917 while Curate at Garrycloyne and thereafter at Layde & Cushendun, Donaghcloney, St. Donard (Belfast) and Swanlinbar.
He moved to the Church of England in 1927, to Hove, Sussex as a Curate, then to Ellacombe and to St.Michael, Teignmount, Devon. In 1934 he was appointed Vicar of Binham, Norfolk and remained there until retirement in 1962, thereafter living at Fakenham, Norfolk nearby.
1962/63 W S Gunning
Billy entered Portora 1910 and went to work for the Ulster Weaving Co in Belfast and later in London as their agent there, living in Epsom.
He was the Secretary of the London OPU for a number of years from its foundation.
He went on a world tour in 1960, meeting a host of OPs in New Zealand and in Canada, all of them younger than he and whose years at Portora ranged from 1915 to 1945.
On retirement he went to live in West Chiltington, West Sussex, where he continued a labour of love, being deeply involved with Parish church matters.
1963/64 R Meara
The son of a country clergyman in Armagh, Dick entered Portora 1911, a contemporary at school and a life-long friend of Billy Gunning (q.v.). He was a factory inspector and worked as an engineer with the CEGB. He was the founder Treasurer of the London OPU. On retirement from work he went to live in Hove, West Sussex, though afterwards moving again to Armagh to be with his sister, a clergyman's widow, living in the Cathedral Close there.
A charming and friendly man who never knowingly missed our Dinners if within hele.
1964/65 Dr W F Whaley, MA
Entered Portora 1907 (lived, 1951 at Ramsgate).
1965/66 Major E J Mecredy, MC
Eric James Mecredy entered Portora in 1907 and distinguished himself there in rugby, shooting and rowing, ending as Captain of the School. He served with distinction in World War I and was awarded the MC as well as the Croix de Guerre avec Palmes.
He served again throughout World War II and died in 1982, aged 86.
1966/67 General Sir Charles Jones, GCB, CBE, MC
Charles Phibbs Jones was born in 1906 of a Dublin family in Haddon Road, Clontarf, the second son of a Resident Magistrate, which meant that the family moved around Ireland, from Ballybunion in the south to Londonderry in the north. Both his elder and younger brothers were at Portora and he was the father of General Sir Charles E W Jones, OP, until recently Black Rod.
His early education was at Monkstown Park Prep School, Co Dublin. He entered Portora in 1919, followed by the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and then read engineering at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1925, he saw service with Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners, India, 1928-34, where he learned practical military engineering.
During World War II, in 1939-40 he was Brigade Major of 127 Infantry Brigade (TA) with the BEF in France and Belgium. In fierce fighting on the River Yser he won a MC when personally shot up two German tanks, halting the enemy advance in its tracks, thus buying precious time during the retreat towards Dunkirk. He served in the Staff College, Camberley 1940-41, then with Home Forces until 1942, followed by appointment as CRE Guards Armoured Division in UK & NW Europe until 1945. He was Chief of Staff, Malaya Command, 1945-46; Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade, 1948-50. Director of Plans in the War Office in 1950 and GOC 7th. Armoured Division BAOR, 1951-53.
He was appointed Commandant of the Staff College Camberley, 1954-56, followed by a spell as Vice AG in the War Office, 1957-58. Director, CENTO, 1959; GOC 1st Corps 1960-62. GOC-in-C Northern Comd Master General of the Ordnance, 1963-66. ADC (General) to the Queen, 1965-67.
As a 'retirement job' he became National President of the Royal British Legion, 1970-81 and many will recall his appearance on TV at the Albert Hall for the 11 November service, speaking the epigram "They shall grow not old…”
An extrovert with tremendous enthusiasm for whatever he did, he dived into trouble with both feet – earning the nickname of 'Splosh' – but usually coming out of it smelling of roses.
He died in 1988.
1967/68 T E Dickson, LLB
Entered Portora 1918 (lived, 1951, at Liphook, Hants).
1968/69 Prof C B Falls, CBE
Cyril Falls, the elder son of Sir Charles Falls, MP 1924-29 for Fermanagh & Tyrone, entered Portora in 1902 and having completed his secondary education went on to Bradfield College and then to London University.
In 1914 he joined the 11th Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, part of the remarkable 36th Ulster Division which had grown out of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force raised by Sir Edward Carson.
Falls went to France in 1915 and served on the Western Front for the rest of the war at regimental duty on the staff of the 36th and later the 62nd Divisions, being twice mentioned in dispatches. Finally he served as liaison officer with the French, being twice cited for the Croix de Guerre.
At the conclusion of the war he was asked to write the history of the 36th Division and as a result later in 1923 being invited to join the Committee of Imperial Defence team who were writing the official history of the war. He remained with the team until 1939, writing the official volumes on the Egyptian and Palestine campaigns, the Macedonian campaign and one volume on the Western Front in 1917.
A fluent and prolific writer, he also published numerous articles and reviews which made his name familiar to the public at large. In 1939 he became ‘The Times’ military correspondent, a task he fulfilled with great distinction until 1953.
In 1946 Falls was elected to the Chichele Chair of the History of War in Oxford (which also made him a Fellow of All Souls), retaining the chair until 1953.
He wrote two works on Irish military history, ‘Elizabeth's Irish Wars’ and ‘Mountjoy: Elizabethan General’. These were followed by a stream of books including the noteworthy The First World War’, written forty years after its end. At the same time he was contributing a weekly commentary on political affairs for ‘The Illustrated London News’.
In his writing during and after World War II he never claimed to produce a major contribution to strategic thought, but he did much to improve the public's understanding of the nature and problems of war. He always endeavoured to convey the realities – not just the horrors – as experienced by the fighting men, typical of the humanity reflected in his personal life.
Falls's contribution to the knowledge of things military were recognised by his being appointed CBE in 1967.
Cyril Falls became our president in his eightieth year and died three years later at Walton-on-Thames in 1971.
