Past Presidents, Wynn Anderson (2008-10), Michael West (2012-14) and Miles Henry (1988-89) at a
pre-dinner planning meeting in February 2013.
OPU (London branch) Presidents – part 4 (1990-96)
1990/91 Lt.Cdr. B H L Braidwood
Through his mother, Brian's connections with Portora go back to 1919 when first one of her brothers (Harry H G Dorman) and then a second (Eric S Dorman) were pupils at PRS, covering ten years between them. Brian's father raced in TT races and with Frazer-Nash cars and was a motor racing journalist, a way of life that failed to impress his would-be father in law, Dr Dorman of Keady as being suitable material for his daughter's hand, so he was persuaded to move to Ulster and read medicine at Queens. He, his wife and Brian lived in a converted fishing boat in the Musgrave Channel during this study period. Later, having qualified and spent the war years in the RAMC, he became a consultant surgeon in the Ards hospital.
Brian went to Brackenber House prep school (where there were also several Portorans-to-be: M T Knight and D W Strachan included) and in 1949 arrived at Portora in a car driven by Harry Crawford with Desmond, Harry's younger brother (another from Brackenber House).
In all, with but a 20 year gap to 1949, there were Dormans and Braidwoods at Portora from 1919 to 1968.
Possibly encouraged for a life afloat after Musgrave Channel, Brian left Portora and joined the Royal Navy and went to Dartmouth at the age of eighteen. While there, he met the visiting Douglas Graham, then Head of Dean Close, who had been Brian's Head at Portora, as well as discovering another OP on the Dartmouth staff, R C W Smyth.
Brian's career with the RN covered 34 years service, mainly in Mine Warfare and Clearance diving. Notable operations in which he was involved, include the disposal of Japanese World War II ammunition dumps in Singapore (where he met Surgeon Cdr John Gill, OP), aircraft salvage in many places, reef blasting in the Pacific, and the clearance of the Navy's bulk oil tanker Ennerdale which sank in the Indian Ocean, after which he was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct. Later, he assisted with the investigation of the bombing of ‘Rainbow Warrior’ for the New Zealand Government.
During the last fifteen years of his service Brian had a lot to do with NATO and he was always grateful for George Andrews' thorough grounding in French, helped by GCA's insistence that they listen to the BBC schools broadcasts. GCA was also responsible for the termly exchange scheme with College Çevenol, where Brian was soaked in French for three months.
Since leaving the Navy, Brian has continued to make a living from diving and explosives as a consultant, most recently a five-year connection with investigating the car ferry Estonia which sank in the Baltic in 1994 with the loss of 852 lives.
Still close to the sea, Brian lives in Weymouth and still finds OPs in his neighbourhood, like Brig. Bill Winder and Cdr Paddy MacAlpine, whose grandfather Jack Wheeler taught him PE at school.
1991/92 D F McCoy, MRIBA(I), FRTPI
Denis was born and largely brought up in Belfast, though his Fermanagh connections were closer, at the family farm on the border near Clones. Having proved to have a brain worth training, he went to Portora in 1955 fi the last three years of secondary education, leaving with the necessary 0- and A-level exam results to ensure entry to the School of Architecture in Belfast and later in Oxford, being awarded the Diploma of Architecture from the latter and being elected ARIBA a couple of years later. Having obtained work in the Housing Dept. for the City of Belfast, he continued his studies externally, taking the exams of the Royal Town Planning Institute, subsequently becoming a Fellow of that Institute.
The lure of London proved too strong, so he migrated to work as a planner with a highly respected architects' practice in Islington. The planning profession in those days was much under-represented in Northern Ireland so, having married (an Ulster girl) he moved back, this time to Co. Armagh where he became the County Planning Officer and it was while doing this job that he was elected a Member of the RIBA (Ireland).
Reforms were rampant in the Province – not all of them for the good – and including the abolishment of County Councils, so it was back to England again, Henley this time but largely working on schemes in Dumfries and Edinburgh, followed by joining the planning staff for the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea which was – with Denis's enthusiastic support – privatised, one of the very first such moves by Councils in Thatcher's Britain to off-load some of their responsibilities. The change enabled Denis to set up his own business as a Chartered Town Planning Consultant. From time to time he is appointed to Government work, determining planning appeals on behalf of the Minister.
Denis loves living near the Thames at Henley, with the freedom to use his boat for trips along the river, eating and sleeping on board and getting away from the hurly-burly of town life. Walking, too, is an active hobby, exploiting the wonderful network of footpaths that cover southern England.
1992/93 Revd P H Rogers, MBE, MA
When Val (Percival) Rogers became Headmaster at Portora in 1954, he set about implementing his vision for education, based in the classroom on religious studies and English literature as well as making Portora one of the first schools to teach A-level Russian and Business Studies. He spent much time on the river with the Boating Club. Indeed his favourite recreation was sailing on Lough Erne.
He involved himself fully in the life of the county too, preaching to Remembrance Day congregations in Enniskillen Cathedral and starting a Literary and Debating society in the town. He also found time to publish two books, ‘A Guide to Divinity Teaching’ and ‘The Needs of the Whole Man’. He served the school with distinction before retiring in 1973, during which time he planned and completed an extensive building programme largely funded by a successful appeal to OPs. It was during his headship that the number of boarders reached their highest ever level.
Born in Brentwood, Essex, Val attended Sir Anthony Browne's school there, distinguishing himself as an actor in the school plays and finding his vocation as a teacher. He read English at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford where he rowed with energy and joined the University Dramatic Society. He took a Diploma in Education and taught for two terms at Westminster School before moving to Haileybury where he was Master in charge of English.
Called up in 1940, he immediately married Mary Morwood who he had met in Oxford and then went off to serve in the RA in an anti-tank unit, ending his service as a Major with two mentions in despatches and a military MBE.
Val trained for the Church ministry at Bishop's College, Cheshunt and was ordained at StAlbans in 1947 before returning to Haileybury as Chaplain, English master and rowing master.
Next came Portora and then in 1973 Val went as a student to the International Academy for Continuous Education in Gloucestershire, to which he returned – after a year as Chaplain at Gresham's School – as-Dean of the Academy. He then spent a year as Assistant Priest at Trinity Church in New Orleans before returning to Ireland as Director of Ordinands in Clogher Diocese.
In 1984 he and Mary moved to Oxford to be near their children, where he busied himself with Bodleian Library, recording texts for the use of blind students. Mary died in 2000 and Val followed her a year later in 2001.
1993/94 H A Schaafsma
Hubert, whose father was in the Dutch Free Forces in the UK during the war, was born of an Anglo-Irish mother whose family traditionally sent sons to Dungannon. After the war his father's work with Shell took him and the family to the Dutch West Indies for a few years before returning to the UK. When it came to Hubert's and his brother's turn for schooling, they decided on Portora, starting with Gloucester House. At that time the family were living in a caravan in a field off the Rossorry Road, so the brothers turned up as day boys without a word of English, although they could speak Dutch, Spanish and some Portuguese. Nevertheless, now as a boarder, Hubert thrived under the regime, becoming head of Devenish House and then Head Boy.
At Portora, in Connacht under 'Pop' Barnes and Bobby Bell, he thrived again, possibly assisted by the fact that his parents were now in Persia and so he attracted attention from masters that other boys, with homes nearer, may have missed. He became Head of House, CSM of the CCF, Captain of Swimming and was in the athletics and shooting teams. He was the first Portoran to be awarded Gold under the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme.
Hubert went up to Trinity in 1963 and achieved a BAI Hon degree in Mechanical & Production Engineering, together with a BA in Economics, despite, he says, the great social life there going to the races, beagling, playing squash and certainly not least meeting his future wife there.
In 1967 he joined the De La Rue Group and started work as an Industrial Engineer in North Shields, working on Formica before being transferred to their banknote division in Gateshead and then to Lagos, Nigeria just after the Biafran War. Having done a three-year job there in one year, he was then transferred to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with instructions to turn round the loss-making company there, which he did. His duties. took him to most of South America before returning to the UK in 1973 during the miners' strike and the three-day week.
Hubert then turned round a loss-making book printing subsidiary of De La Rue and, with this tale of business success behind him, with his wife Ines, decided to set up their own publishing company called ‘Dragon's World’ in 1974. They were lucky in that their first book, 'Views' became No 1 best seller in the UK, with others books selling well too, so they were able to expand out of their own dining room and by 1995 were publishing in 17 languages worldwide, becoming the largest fable and fantasy sci-fi illustrated publisher in the world under their imprint ‘Paper Tiger’. They also developed the ‘Dragon's World’ imprint for children's non-fiction illustrated titles in natural history, homeopathy and children's encyclopaedias, of which the ‘Encyclopaedia of Things that Never Were’ won the Hans Christian Anderson Award from UNESCO in 1986.
Success such as this was only achieved by Hubert travelling 150 days a year and having a full time staff of 100, selling up to a million books a year, so with retirement in mind, rather than making it a public company, the business was sold in 1996. However, with their 14th Century house just about renovated eighteen months later, the pull of publishing became too great and 1998 saw the setting up of Pegasus, doing only a few books a year and giving young entrepreneurs advice on how to develop their own businesses. 'Hubert has recently purchased a 9th Century castle in Tuscany and reckons on the next five years being spent on restoration.
1994/96 C A K Cullimore, CMG, MA
Charles went to Portora in 1946 and stayed until 1952, by which time he was head boy of Munster House and worked with H S Scales towards their winning the House Championship for the first time since 1933.
Following a term as Head Boy of the School and having obtained a place at Trinity, Oxford to read Modern History, he spent his gap year in Huyton Hill Prep School with Major ‘The Man’ Butler and his somewhat eccentric brother before going up to University, achieving his MA degree in 1955.
Following a short service commission with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, in 1957 he returned to Oxford for the one-year Devonshire Overseas Course in preparation for service with HM Overseas Civil Service. Posted to Tanganyika as a District Officer, he served in Kondoa, Mpwapwa and Kongwa successively before leaving the Service in 1961 and joining ICI, four of his ten years with them being in Malaysia and Singapore as Personnel Manager for the Group.
In 1971 he joined HM Diplomatic Service, starting in Bonn and moving to New Delhi and Canberra, returning to the UK as Head of Department in the FCO responsible for Southern African countries. In 1989 he was appointed High Commissioner to Uganda and spent the rest of his time there until retirement from the Diplomatic Service in 1993. His being awarded the CMG speaks volumes for his success with the Service.
Having sampled 'retirement' for a year or so, he launched the Southern African Business Association (SABA) in 1995 with a partner, which has now expanded to about 140 corporate members covering all the SADC countries. He is now Chairman of the British African Business Association.
Charles has many fond memories of his time at Portora, including playing cricket, running cross country, dramatics under Mickey Murfet, along with an inordinate amount of time in the CCF under Buddie Halpin [who had been known to an earlier generation as 'Hairy' Halpin – Ed.]. He still retains an interest in the theatre, walking, gardening and – after a lifetime of it – travelling.
