Dr Robert Holdbrook
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DULWICH COLLEGE BLACK HISTORY MONTH Following on from our previous Black History Month themes of Adding to History and Ancestors and Descendants with a focus on Black British histories and local historical figures, we turn our attention this year to celebrating the long-standing Black history at the College. A group of pupils have been working on an archives and research project and have been researching a selection of Black OAs who attended the College between the 1900s to 2000s. A continual engagement with our history helps to give context to our present and future and a sense of belonging and a connection to both our personal and community identity. We are delighted to use the events of this month – and beyond - to celebrate Our History. Ms Nathalie Whittington, Head of Wellbeing and D&I Alliance At Dulwich College, Our History spans more than four centuries of records and individuals. In preparation for Black History Month, the African and Caribbean Society have been researching a number of prominent Black OAs using the archives, as well as considering the question “how far back do these associations go?” The very first page of Edward Alleyn’s diary lists the mysterious “black aylec” under a list of servants in 1617, although the adjective seems not to refer to skin colour. We know that by the Victorian period the College was noted for its relatively diverse student body, and academics have conducted research into the school’s Indian population. For various reasons – many obvious, some less so – uncovering Dulwich’s Black student body can prove challenging, but the more one looks, the more discoveries are made. Family history can even be traced, with generation after generation coming to the College from the same family. Famously, Baroness Floella Benjamin’s mother worked at the College, Floella became a Governor, and her son was a pupil. This programme presents a selection, but not the complete cast, for the records demonstrate that there has been a long and continuing
SEPTEMBER 2022
Dr Robert (Bobby) Holdbrook (03-10) returned to the College last October after an absence of 12 years to talk to the Climate Change Society. As a microbiologist he is fascinated in using bacteria to reduce the impact of industrial processes in water management. Here Bobby speaks about his journey from the College to becoming Joint Head of Research and Development at ABS (Advanced Bacterial Sciences), a company that prides itself on finding environmentally friendly solutions to the challenges facing our planet from climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. It feels like a long time since you left the College in 2010. What brought you to Dulwich in the first place? My story is probably different to most of the boys in my year. My dad is from Ghana, and his family grew up not being able afford shoes and only eating meat for birthdays and Christmas. We actually spent last summer there and seeing the poverty that his family still live in made my sister cry. My dad was one of the few who managed to leave. He worked hard and essentially studied his way out of poverty. Why did he leave Ghana to come to Britain? He came to do his undergraduate degree here in the 1970s. He did a short stint in Germany and won a scholarship to study at Sheffield University. He studied Economics and has worked as an accountant in the civil service since graduating. My education was actually paid for by three families because, despite having three jobs, my dad couldn't quite afford it. I had one uncle pitching in for school lunches and another who helped with the fees. I have two siblings as well, so my dad was also having to support them. How much of a struggle was it for your family to send you to Dulwich? Do you think there is a sense of determination and resilience that was instilled in you? I hope he doesn't hear this because it will give him a big head, but my dad is my biggest inspiration. It sounds really clichéd but when I'm working late nights, I just think back to my dad who would have been out of the house by 5am and only getting back at midnight. That was his whole life to be able to give us a life. Were you aware of that as you were moving through the College? I was and that was one of my biggest motivators. In a typical African household,
Black history at the College. Mr Freddie Witts, Archivist
there are constant reminders that your parents expect their investment in you to bear fruit for the family; there is a real sense of community alongside a tradition of giving back. What did you choose to study at A Level? At the time, I thought I wanted to do Medicine, so I was making decisions with Medicine in mind. But even back then, I wanted something more holistic and people- focused. My choices of A Levels were the clichéd double of Biology and Chemistry, but with Art and Italian which were a bit left field. This was a bone of contention with my dad, but I thought the mix would make me a bit more well-rounded. What did you go on to study after leaving the College and where? Unfortunately, my medical aspirations ended there because I didn't get a place at university, and I ended up taking a gap year. My grades were good enough, but the stars didn't align. I did though get a place to read Biological Sciences at Leicester the following year. As Christians we saw it as God's plan. How did you approach your time there? I absolutely loved Leicester. I felt at home there and I knew immediately that it would be a stepping stone to something bigger in my life. I have always been a generalist, and that didn’t change while I was at university. I mixed Human Sciences with Environmental Sciences and Zoology, and played rugby.
George and Harold Bemand George Edward Kinsley Bemand was born on 19 March 1892 and was the first of the Bemand Brothers to attend the College. While here, he was in the 2nd XI for cricket, the leader of the contemporary Engineering Society, and boarded at
Ivyholme. He left the college in 1911 and went on study Engineering at UCL. This was cut short by the outbreak of the First World War when he joined the Officers Training Corps to help his country. He was then a part of the 2nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery and travelled to France in November 1915. Unfortunately, he was killed by a shell on Boxing Day 1916 near Bethune. George’s younger brother, Harold Leslie Bemand, was born on 17 October 1897 and joined the College in 1913 after going to Ealing Grammar. He played in the 4th XI for cricket. He was an aspiring lawyer, but when he left school the war broke out. Harold completed his military training with the 56th Reserve Battery in Woolwich, after which he joined the 23rd division Trench Mortar Battery. After a year fighting in France, he died on 7 June 1917, aged just 19. He was buried at Bedford House Cemetery within the Ypres Salient. Ivan Shirley Ivan Owen Belgrave Shirley, known by friends and family as IOB, was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 6 July 1895. Arriving in the UK in 1911, aged 16, he was known for his subtle sense of humour and warm-heartedness. After enrolling in multiple independent and grammar schools, he was rejected from all of them on the grounds of the colour of his skin. In July of 1911, he reached out to the captain of cricket at Dulwich College Carl Nunes, who vouched for IOB’s academic integrity. Ivan led a distinguished school career: a Christmas prize-winner for science in 1911, as well as achieving the (still current) public school record for runs in a cricket match against Brighton College – he started at 171 runs for 9 wickets and made it to 370 before declaring. Ivan served as an officer in the British West Indies Regiment during World War I, in which his brother was sadly killed in 1917. IOB then qualified as a doctor in 1930, going on to have five children, one of whom was tragically killed in Italy in 1945. He also had the opportunity to work with physician Dr Moody in Peckham, a prominent campaigner for racial equality within the medical world. He later set up a successful doctor’s practice in Epsom, living as he saw himself - a middle-class English gentleman - with black and white friends and family. Ivan Shirley passed away in August 1964.
During my first year I did well enough to get the grades that would enable me to
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