On Friday 27th May, St Margaret's Church, Westminster, was filled with the family, friends and former colleagues of Sir John Chilcot (Ha./Sc. 1952-57) for his memorial service. The address was delivered by Professor Sir David Cannadine, which he has shared for those who were unable to attend the service.
We are saddened to announce the death of Sir John Chilcot GCB PC Hon FBA (Ha./Sc. 1952-57), who died on 3rd October 2021 at the age of 82.
The College will swing wide the gates this evening to welcome all to the Midnight Mass in the Chapel. Many of those attending will end up sitting in the wings of the Chapel that were added by Sir Thomas Jackson after the Great War.
NEWS (13th May 2014): Brighton College's most recent building, New House, has received a prestigious award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for architectural excellence.
Christmas is a time of giving and of time spent with loved ones, and wherever you are this Christmas I wish you well. I am tremendously proud of my connection with the College, and especially with the Old Brightonians. This year I read with great pride about not only the achievements of the school, which are nothing less than astonishing, but also of the wonderful acts of kindness and generosity within the Brightonian community. In his end of term letter Richard Cairns wrote of the sense of community that the College enjoys; 'I want everyone who leaves here to feel that by their presence they can make the world a little bit better. I want them to recognise that they can make a difference and should.' I would like to urge my fellow OBs to embrace this philosophy.
The inaugural drinks for Oxbridge OBs were held on Thursday 18th April at the Oxford & Cambridge Club. Hosted by Old Brightonians President and Hon. Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Sir John Chilcot (H/S. 1952-57) the drinks were a great success, proving to be a jocular evening with much bating between OB Oxford & Cambridge graduates.
The College is currently enjoying unparalleled success under Head Master Richard Cairns and his team, something which we can all be proud of whenever we were at the College. It has somewhat put the College on the map as it were. It has also been a memorable year for the Old Brightonians, for completely different reasons. The year started with a memorial for Sgt Major Chris O'Connell when a few hundred OBs turned up on a freezing January morning to pay their respects to a man who had inspired and been a father figure to many. It had already been a year since Chris O'Connell died, but the effect that he had upon the pupils under his guidance was as palpable as ever.
We were fortunate with a glorious spring day, indeed St David's Day, for our 7th Vice-Presidents Luncheon, hosted by Peter Miller (C. 1945-49) at The Army & Navy Club.
Brighton College continues to give us all cause for celebration, gaining this year not only the best results in Sussex but also being named the ‘Sunday Times UK Independent School of the Year 2011-12’. The Head Master Richard Cairns and his staff are to be congratulated upon this achievement and of course all of the pupils and staff, past and present, who have contributed to this accolade. It is an achievement that all Old Brightonians should celebrate, and as President of the Old Brightonians I would like to pass on my congratulations for your efforts. We all have different memories of our time at the College, but it is truly a school that we can all be proud of.
Malcolm Jenkins (H. 1951-55) writes reading the August newsletter about Sir John Chilcot, O.B. President, prompted me to revisit an old photograph taken circa 1954, of some of the inhabitants of Hampden House, including John Chilcot. The photo was taken at the top of the bank, which was out of bounds to all but prefects’ feet, with the old tin sheds which housed Hampden at the time, in the background!
In June 2009, Sir John was announced as the chair of the inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.
Welcome to the Old Brightonians, founded in 1882. We are lucky to have an active network, and we are proud of our long and industrious relationship with Brighton College. I attended Brighton College as a Lyon Scholar in 1952 and left with both wonderful memories and a fine education which I furthered at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
The sun shone gloriously through the windows of the library of The Army & Navy Club, lending delightful views of St James’ Square below as we gathered for the sixth annual Vice-Presidents’ Luncheon.
I arrived at my last annual dinner ‘in charge’ on an extremely cold evening thankful that, at least, we had no snow. After a short panic attack about missing table decorations, which turned up elsewhere in the school, I joined a packed Café de Paris for pre-dinner drinks before we repaired to a slightly chilly Dining Hall for dinner.
It hardly seems three years since David Gold asked me to put myself forward as your President and that my tenure is almost at its end. During this time I have much enjoyed re-connecting with OBs whom I first knew at the college and those many others from both before and after my time on the College staff. I have had much pleasure in presiding over and representing you at various functions and reunions, here at the college or away in London and New York, as well as being generally associated with the college at a time of growth and continuing pre-eminence.
The recent great successes enjoyed by the College – surely a source of joy to all of us who love the place – have caused the Press to suggest that it was previously a ‘backwater’. So it seems right to refer to the work done in the last fifty years, that work itself laid on earlier foundations. After all, the decade before then produced Lord Alexander, Lord Skidelsky and Bishop Bavin (to say nothing of Sir John Chilcot) among others! And these last fifty years began with a visit from the Queen. Backwater...?!?
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