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.
Current President
2019-23 James Morrow
Biography to follow.
Honorary Presidents (emeritus)
2010-2014 Lowry de Montfort, OBE
Lowry was one of three brothers, from a clerical family in West Cork, who attended Portora during the late 1930s and 40s. Commissioned into the Indian Army during the later stages of World War II, he completed his military career with the British Army, seeing service with the Parachute Regiment during the handover of the British mandate for Palestine and Trans-Jordan in 1948.
Back in UK, he trained in London as a ‘Tea Taster’ and spent the next 30 years in Colombo, managing private and commercial tea plantations in Ceylon. In 1976, the Government of Sri Lanka nationalised the tea industry and Lowry and family moved to Dubai. Here in the Emirates he took a senior position as the Administrative Officer (Middle East) for Sir William Halcrow & Partners (Consulting Engineers). In retirement he settled in Hammersmith, London.
A long time member of the Army & Navy Club, he has sponsored the Annual OPU Dinner at the club on numerous occasions. He was elected our Honorary President (emeritus) at the AGM 2010.
Sadly, Lowry died in December 2014 and in recognition of his contribution to the OPU (London branch) we have purchased a gavel to control unruly members at the Annual General Meeting.
Past Presidents
At a meeting of the OPU (London) Branch in June 2002, a discussion took place as to how we could mark our 50th Annual Dinner in 2003. Amongst the suggestions put forward was this, the production of a booklet telling something of the lives of our London Presidents.
Like the society in which it lives, Portora has changed in many ways over the 100 years or more that have passed since the oldest of our Presidents went there as a boy. By the end of the 19th century, it had become a mainly boarding school taking its pupils from the length and breadth of Ireland, with an admirable reputation as a Public School of the United Kingdom, producing as it did men who went on to be leaders in government, at home and throughout the Empire as well as in the church, the arts, the armed forces, business and the professions. To be able to add 'OP.' after one, name allowed a sense of justifiable pride.
Today, Portora Royal School retains its good name and position as a leading Ulster school, still producing men of worth. Ids catchment area is limited now by being a day school, but Fermanagh is lucky to have such an outward- looking establishment at its centre. OPs still go on to run government and the family business, many leaving their native soil to develop the skills found in a sound education at Portora, in all facets of life across the world.
It's a different world now, but all the better for its Old Portorans.
Ian H D Scales February 2003
Acknowledgements
It is invidious to name names, but:
Much information that follows has been collected by Colin Armstrong, whose hobby it is to know about Old Portorans. Instead of throwing away old editions of the OP News, he collates them.
• Jeffery Switzer, too, has been an invaluable source.
• Who's Who and Who was Who, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, together with Chambers Biographical Dictionary have noted a considerable number of OPs which include many of our Past Presidents.
The dozen-or-so Past Presidents still alive have willingly contributed the story of their own lives, together with memories of their contemporaries.
There are two ways of tackling these potted biographies: one is to produce a list of achievements available to the readers of Who's Who and the like, but these can always be found in a local library and add little to one’s knowledge of the person involved and anyway not all have achieved such fame as to be included in works of reference.
The other is more interesting: to attempt to write a story about each man while avoiding too much romancing. Facts need not be suppressed – ‘perish the thought’ as GVB was wont to say – but wherever possible adding a little colour. Where personal knowledge isn't available, as in the many cases of long-deceased men, well then the facts must stand on their own.
Despite considerable investigation, the lives of some Past Presidents remain a mystery. If the interest is sufficient and these gaps can be filled, a second, updated edition may be considered.
2004-06 Gerry Lowe, OBE
2006-08 James E Wilson, MA, MEng
2010-12 John H V Booth, BSc
2012-14 Dr Michael West, BSc, PhD, DSc
2014-16 Robin Preston
2016-19 Ian Sanderson
