Meeting 17 February 2004
We lunched on February 17 at the RAC Club. Numbers were down to seven. That is not unusual for this time of year because we are only just reawakening from the long summer of inactivity. Cherry is off travelling again! This time it is to South America to travel up over the Andes and down the Amazon. The account of his trip to Antarctica that he sent to the Old Portmuthian last year remains unacknowledged and unprinted. Nobody expressed surprise because all previous contributions had been similarly treated. We took a vote to decline the school’s invitation to subscribe to the Development Fund due to the lack of interest in the affairs of some overseas OP groups by elements of the OP committee.
Walker-Powell reported that he stayed with John McEldowney in Hobart in January. John provided one or two anecdotes about spare time activities and the housemaster, Captain Stansfield’s, family at Red Gables boarding house during the wartime evacuation to Bournemouth. We are hoping to entice John to one of our gatherings soon. We are delighted to know that Jan Webber is planning a trip to Sydney towards the end of the year. She continues to work tirelessly to introduce OP’s visting and living in Australia to our group.
Our illustration is of the Camp Draft Championship. A Camp Draft is a superb test of horsemanship. A steer has to be navigated around a ‘Figure 8’ course and thence a 360 turn. All has to be accomplished at breakneck speed.
The next 4 meetings are on Tuesday May 18, August 10, November 9 2004 and February 22 2005. Those of you with flexible travel plans please make a note; we love to see you. Gap year students, backpackers and others who may be short of a bob in Australia should not be deterred by the thought of an unsought expense; I am sure we can work something out.
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