Dear Member,
Many apologies from me regarding the lack
of newsletters, mainly owing to (1) My having moved house and (2) my having been
in hospital after a minor stroke. But I’m glad to say I’m fully
recovered now. To repeat myself, my address is now 3 Badgers Walk, Cedars
Village, Dog Kennel Lane, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth, HERTS WD3 5GA, a
retirement village where I have bought a bungalow. It was a
wrench to leave my old house with all its memories of my husband and myself, but
it was a bit oversized for me to live in and run, so I decided to
join my friend, Anjali Paul (nee Dutt) whom some of you may remember from our
schooldays at MHS, and who I used to visit, 5 minutes away from where I
used to live. Sadly, Anjali died suddenly just before I moved
here (2007). She was a good friend, and it was very sad. She
was captain of Windsor House, (my house) when I was at MHS from
1940 - 1943, all those aeons ago! I used to visit Anjali
frequently, and that was how I came to know Cedars Village.
Some more MHS news is that I was contacted
by a gentleman whose Grandmother, Daisy Badal, was also a student at MHS in
the 1940s. Daisy is still with us I'm pleased to say, and if
anyone would like to be in touch with her, please let me know, and I will delve
around in my messy study for her current address! (My apologies for
being unable to supply this in this current newsletter. Put it down
to the fact that your Hon. Sec. is still all at sixes and sevens).
We hope to see many of you at our
forthcoming reunion lunch at the Bombay Brasserie in London, on 23rd May this
year (2009).
Salaams and samosas,
Hazel (Innes) Craig
New Members:
Our website
www.oldmhs.com has attracted some ex-MHS students to join OMHSA.
These are: Dianne (Williamson) Bonny (MHS 1942-45); Roger
Griffiths (MHS 1963-65); David Ghey (MHS 1943-44);
Frances Ghey (MHS 1939-43); Lucinda (Gibbs) Wharrie (MHS
1968-72); Ronen Ghose (MHS 1950’s); Ron Ghose (MHS 1981-82); Pradip
Verma (MHS 1961-75); Raji (Samuel) Woodland (MHS Teacher 1961);
Menno Ziessen (MHS 197-59); Barry Morrow (MHS 1950-57); Shantha
Arulanaantham (MHS 1969-71) and Daisy Badal.
We have had the pleasure of meeting some of them at our recent reunions.
Contacts:
Recent contacts
- Brian Parker with his reminiscences of books he received as prizes on
Speech Day during his school year (1947) and who would like to contact Ira (Rao)
Dash; Frank Jacobs who is visiting Darjeeling and Mount Hermon, where
his mother Elizabeth Badal attended in 1935-45; Thinley Dem from
Bhutan (MHS 1972-82), Sheila Ingram whose mother Margaret Pierce-Jones
attended Mount Hermon School during the 1930s/40s and would like to hear from
any "oldies" who might remember her; Kitty Katzell (formerly Mildred
Engberg) in school from 1926-34; Pratab Singh Rai (MHS 1954-67)
who lives in Darjeeling and who is a regular visitor to OMHSA and other Mount
Hermon websites; Trevor Schubert (MHS 1957-65); Andrea (Phillippe)
Porter and Sandra (Phillippe) Robinson (MHS 1959-61).
We were also contacted by Gaye Davis, daughter of Daisy Badal who
has now joined OMHSA as a Life Member and who is looking forward to attending
our next reunion,with her daughter. We have had contact with a
charming young lady, Susan Eason, from the USA, who came across our
website. She contacted me as she is interested in hearing from any of our
older members who may remember her great-great-grandaunt, Carolyn Stahl,
who was Principal of Queen's Hill and Mount Hermon between 1918 - 1928 (See
History of MHS page). She has recently visited the old school, travelling
half-way across the world, just to see the place where her "Aunt
Josie" worked. She has sent me a lot of early photographs of both
Queen's Hill and the newer Mount Hermon School, which had just been built,
(1925) as the photographs clearly show building materials scattered about, from
her Aunt Josie's collection. I have intermingled these photographs in the
appropriate parts of the Photo Gallery, and have marked them as from the
"Stahl Collection." These photographs Susan kindly sent me have
survived the years (about eighty) pretty well, though some editing was
necessary. The pages that have been updated with her pictures are: History
of MHS, and in the Photo Gallery - Old School, School Staff and Older
Darjeeling.
Reunion 2007
Our Reunion Lunch
at the Bombay Brasserie, London on Saturday May 26th was a great success.
There were 17 of us altogether, including guests, and those who attended were
Fazle Khundkar, Menno Ziessen, Liz Ellis, Dianne Bonny
& husband, Shantha Arulanantham, Elizabeth Goold, Cindy
Wharrie, Joy Broad, Tariq Rahman & little daughter, James
Sinclair and two guests, Terry Martin - author of "The Iron
Sherpa" a book about Darjeeling and the DH Railway, Fabien
Raymondaud (Guest) and Hazel Craig Hon. Secretary OMHSA.
On 19th December 2007,
Just before Christmas, there was a mini-reunion (courtesy Jimmy Pyke) at the
Shikara Indian Restaurant in Chelsea Cloisters, London, with some old
North Pointers and MHS Classmates of 1954-55 - Barry Morrow, Menno
Ziessen and James Sinclair. Photographs of the event have been
published on the "Look At Them Now" page in the Photo Gallery.
Menno and James also met up with OMHSA member Ronen Ghose who
lives in Milton Keynes, in November last year.
It was really a joyous reunion for Menno and Ronen after 50 years, and
they had many school memories to share.
Reunion
2008
Our
Reunion Lunch for 2008 took place at the Bombay Brasserie, London on Saturday 26th
April. Those members who attended
were Fazle Khundkar, Ida Smith (Ray), Liz Ellis (Betty Halden),
Joy Broad and her daughter, Terry Martin, author of the excellent
book on the D.H. Railway, who we have made an Honorary Member, and who brought
along with him three guests, Fabien Raymondaud, Marilyn Metz and Peter
Tiller. Marilyn and Peter have
strong associations with Darjeeling and its unique railway.
James Sinclair brought ex-North Pointer Jimmy Pyke with him
as Jimmy is a regular attendee of our annual reunions,
and of course I attended myself. We
had hoped for more OMHSA members to attend, but unfortunately most of them had
previous engagements for the day. Still
it was a friendly gathering and the meal was very enjoyable.
Sad News:
It is with great sadness that
we have to report that our loyal OMHSA member, who was always at our annual
reunion, Joyce (Ezekiel) Thorne, died in January 2006.
We also received sad news in January 2008 from Winnie Schultz Daussman,
that her school friend and OMHSA Member, Mary Ann Melchert (Hostetler)
MHS 1933-43, sadly passed away in November 2006. It is with great sadness
too that we heard news of the demise of Jeroo Gilder on April 1st 2006.
Another member who sadly died just before Christmas 2008 was Vanda Williamson.
She was a very supportive member of
OMHSA. And as mentioned before, Anjali
Paul (Dutt) died shortly before I moved to my new address (2007).
All these members will be sadly missed.
Recent
News:
Ex-North
Pointer, Jimmy Pyke, who is a regular guest at our London reunions, has
returned from Darjeeling, which he visited in March 2008. He paid a
courtesy call on Mount Hermon and was invited to tea by the Principal, Mr.
George Fernandez. He said the school is now looking very impressive!
Next
Reunion:
Our
next reunion is planned for Saturday 23rd May 2009 at the Bombay
Brasserie, Courtfield Close, Courtfield Road (Opposite Gloucester Road Tube
Station), London SW7. The cost of
the meal is £25 a head and drinks can be had at the bar at a special discounted
price.
Our
website address is www.oldmhs.com
Please contact James Sinclair (Jimsin12@aol.com)
if you have changed your email address, postal address or phone number for our
records. We would particularly like the email address for Joy Abrahams
(Callow) as emails to her old address are bouncing.