WELCOME FROM THE OTS PRESIDENT

Gerald Corbett (JH 65-70)

It is a great privilege to be this year’s President of the Old Tonbridgian Society, taking over the mantle from such a distinguished predecessor as Sir Anthony Seldon (HS 67-72 and CR 89-93). When I told Chris Wilton (Sc 65-70), who ended his Foreign Office career as Ambassador in Kuwait - nearly as important as Sherard Cowper-Coles (PS 67-72) - he said he could understand the appointment as everyone else had been expelled. This was an overstatement, but I know what he meant. The late 1960s were a time when many of our institutions were being challenged. They had been conceived for a different era and had not moved on. Relationships with authority were shifting. The film If…, written by two OTs with Tonbridge supposedly the role model for the school it characterised, was sweeping the cinemas. Boundaries were being pushed.

I was in Judde House between 1965 and 1970. Peter Edwards, son of our housemaster Harold, recently told Johnny Allbrook (WH and WW 75-80) that his father said that I was the most difficult boy he ever had to deal with. It is not a badge I wear with pride. I was never a Prae; was always in trouble; ending up peeling endless buckets of potatoes; and doing early morning runs to pick up the House newspapers. I was a small boy in what was then a pretty robust environment. It developed in me a resilience and verbal kitbag which subsequently served me well in a number of Britain’s board rooms.

I was not very good at sport but loved it and reached the dizzy heights of the 2nd XI Cricket and the 2nd XV Rugby. I acted in lots of plays and Marion Kemp can still remember me as Chicquita, the Egyptian night club singer, in Salad Days. Fortunately, no one else can recall the moment. Debating was another highlight, particularly against someone a little younger called Seldon from Hill Side. I wore my Athena Society tie with pride at Sunday Chapel.

There were inspirational teachers who one never forgets. Geoff Parker was the History teacher who got me into Cambridge. Peter Pollard was the Head of English (‘Today we will read Hamlet. I’ll be Hamlet!’); Jonathan Smith; and, of course, Michael McCrum, who kept me at the School. Eventually I left and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

I met my future wife Virginia during our gap year on a kibbutz. She had also been to a Kent school, St Stephen’s in Broadstairs, packed with nuns and now closed. Barry Orchard, in his thank you letter to my in-laws for the wonderful wedding, said ‘I hope Gerald does not give you too much trouble. I’m sure Virginia will quickly tame him.’ Here we are 48 years later, with four grown-up children and 12 grandchildren. Fortunately, my visits to the domestic equivalent of the Niven Room are now few and far between.

My career was mainly in large public companies. I was lucky enough to be a director of 13, chairing seven of them. One of my final gigs was Chairman of the Marylebone Cricket Club from 2015 to 2021. The then Headmaster, Tim Haynes, announced my appointment on his noticeboard, a position I had never previously graced. Mike Bushby and David Kemp were mightily challenged as they thought that you had to be good at cricket to chair MCC. We hosted them to a memorable day at Lord’s in the Chairman’s box, with Tony Monteuuis (HS 59-64) serving the drinks.

You can take the boy out of the School, but you cannot take the School out of the man. We are shaped by the institutions which form us. In my case this was family; the little fruit farm I was brought up on; the prep school Westerleigh in St Leonards-on-Sea - now no more - and Tonbridge as the anchor. Its ethic has not changed - working hard; doing one’s best; telling the truth; playing for the team; being a good colleague. Tonbridge was a good School. It gave us choice; opportunity; confidence; aspiration. We did not fear failure. We knew there was another day. There was always hope. We boxed on, as Tim Francis would say, I owe it so much.

It is an even better School now - more diverse; more international; kinder; higher standards; well led. But the essential ethic is the same. At David Kemp’s memorial service the Chaplain told us we need not worry. God giveth the increase. Deus dat incrementum.