A few months ago, myself, David Nix and Owen Tatford set out to connect with every boy who had been in our year group at Ferox (1982-87). Partly inspired by the recent Hillside gathering of the same vintage and with an organised OT Reunion to focus the mind we set to our task. Google searches, LinkedIn and Facebook enabled us to connect with 14 of the 15 boys in our year group. A decent effort considering the one we couldn’t contact was expelled before our O levels and six of the 14 now live abroad. Owen won the prize for the longest journey, travelling from Melbourne, Australia to attend both the OT Reunion on the Sunday and a lunch on the Saturday. Stewart Cook also made the trip from France.

Over various emails we established that eight of us would make it to the Reunion but with questions such as “do I need an invite”, “what’s the dress code” and “where’s the Upper Hundred” on the morning of the event we had our doubts. Happily, on a gloriously sunny day, 36 years after leaving Tonbridge, eight Ferocians from 1982-87 congregated on the Upper Hundred. Some of us have kept in touch but the beauty of a Reunion is that you have a chance to reconnect with old boys who you haven’t seen since leaving school. Most of us have aged gracefully with a combination of grey hair, no hair, facial hair and some middle-aged spread. Exceptions to this were Manu Sachdeva (dyed hair) and Charlie Carrick (set of Jurgen Klopp teeth). The eight of us cover a broad range of careers from scientist and medicine to media, law, insurance, teaching and business. And impressively, a professional singer in between his doctoring, Simon Worrell.

As is so often the case, there have been significant changes over such a long period of time but refreshingly some things remain the same. Gone are the communal showers and studies so every boy has his own. Even the cockroaches that scuttled around the changing rooms in our day appeared to have gone. The Novi dormitory has gone but many of the old dormitories remain as they were and the dining room appeared to still have the same tables and chairs. Standing around in one of the dorms, we realised that our year (that included three of the returning old boys) was probably one of the last years to be caned for misdemeanours. The removal of the fire escape and bars across the windows between two of the dorms has put paid to the favourite escape hatch for a cheeky cigarette on the roof. The emphasis now is much more on pastoral care with messages on the walls to emphasis both speaking out and looking out for your friends. For those of us with teenage boys it was a reminder of how the school has changed for the better, especially post covid, in looking after each boy at the School. The garden was very much the same but with upgrades – a tennis court that doesn’t have holes on its surface and goals for football after tea.

The facilities at the School are mindboggling. They were excellent when we were boys in the 80s but new facilities abound, covering virtually every aspect of school life from academics to music, drama and sport.

Back on the Upper Hundred we were met by the Headmaster, James Priory, who welcomed us back to the School. We spoke to him separately about what had changed since our time and in particular the day of the Chapel Fire which was a year after we left. Some of us recalled returning to the School the day after the fire and remember what a terrible event it was in the life of the School. The reconstruction of the Chapel has been exceptional and has been witness to the marriage of one of the old boys in our group, David Nix.

John Gibbs was of course at the Reunion, a fixture at Tonbridge for the past 50 years. I was reminded by Ben Bentley that he narrowly avoided running over Gibbo in 1987 in a borrowed car outside the main gates en route to a point to point. We also reconnected with Kurt Seecharan who was our Head of School and is now housemaster of School House.

The Head remains as magnificent as ever and it was reassuring to see the OTs put their opponents to the sword on such a glorious afternoon. We were treated to plenty of refreshments and a barbecue as we caught up on old stories and what we had each been up to over the preceding 36 years. A big thank you to Tara and Adrian for organising the event.

So the gauntlet has been thrown down to all OTs. Hillside managed to get seven OTs together from their year and now Ferox have beaten that with eight. Not that it’s a competition but the challenge is to see who can beat it. As a group we plan to meet again in the not too distant future and certainly within the next 36 years!

Paddy Brice
(FH 82-87)