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I joined in September 1954 and left eleven years later. At 8½ years, I was the youngest boy in the College and when I left in July 1965, one of the oldest at 19 years and 4 months. Will became the President of the Old Alleynian Association in November 2022 Meet the new Old Alleynian Association President Will Lewis
really wasn’t my best subject and, after one term’s obviously pathetic effort by me, his report sent to my parents was uncomplimentary. It said “Lewis is lazy and inept, and appears to think his ineptitude amusing”. I doubt if you could make a comment like that today and needless to say my father went ballistic. This was the low point; things did pick up from there. By a circuitous route, I eventually transferred to the History side, under two outstanding masters – Mark Whittaker and Ernie Williams; over the years they sent dozens of boys to Oxbridge. Sport figured highly in my agenda at the College, although never reaching the heights of either first teams. I really loved my time here. What a wonderful surprise it was when my granddaughter – little Florence – started at Dulwich College Singapore in August 2019 aged five; exactly 65 years after her grandfather started here. We picked her up from school and were amazed to see the frontage of their building, where they have replicated the Barry Buildings, including their own clock tower.
What do I want to achieve?
The role of the President has changed in that the Old Alleynian Association now has a Chairman who, together with the Secretary and the committee, will manage the affairs of the Association. I am sure that this change will give greater continuity and more member engagement in the Association’s activities. So in addition to enjoying meeting many of our members, I want to support the College as best I can by emphasising how we can contribute to “levelling up”, a popular theme at the moment. I benefitted from the “Dulwich Experiment” where my fees were paid by our local authority. What a far sighted man Christopher Gilkes was; he thought of levelling up 80 years ago. And we can replicate this process by building the Bursary Fund further, as a force for social mobility. It stands at £18m and has doubled over the last seven years; it greatly contributes to giving the College a wider social mix.
When were you at the College? What brought you here?
I joined in September 1954 (the same month as a young teacher, Terry Walsh) and left 11 years later. At 8½ years, I was the youngest boy in the College and when I left in July 1965, one of the oldest at 19 years and 4 months. My father had for a number of years driven past the College and admired the impressive Barry Buildings and all he heard about Dulwich College. He decided that his three boys would go to the College and he succeeded in that ambition. We moved to Dulwich Village in 1952. All three of us came home to lunch each day and so we got to know College Road very well. As a result, our mother couldn’t have had much time to herself.
What did I do after leaving the College?
played cricket for the OA Cricket Club in the 70s and then joined the OA Golfing Society and was Captain in 2014. I have run the Kent & East Sussex annual OA dinner for 13 years. The best career decision I made was to retire! Since retiring in 2011, I followed one of my passions and became Hon Treasurer of Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club for eight years and Captain thereafter for two years.
occasions …..mutton burgers, mutton sausages and so on. In those days, there were no roads on the Islands except in Port Stanley. Travel into the countryside (it was called “the Camp”) was arduous and had to be by Land Rover across many peat bogs. The annual horse race meeting took place whilst we were there. Farmers from far and wide had come into town and I shall never forget the sight on the hill behind the race track; there must have been 100 to 150 Land Rovers of various vintages parked across the hill. I later worked for 30 years in the leasing industry for two large banks – one a US bank and the other Dutch. For 10 of those years, I had my own leasing operation with two business partners. I have probably contributed more as an Old Alleynian than I did as a young Alleynian. I joined the OA Football Club after university, playing in every team over 15 years or so, and I was Hon Treasurer for ten years…. great days (and evenings!). I
I went to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. That was a wonderful three years where, after coming down to earth (no-one had heard of DC), I had the greatest time, graduating with a BSc (Econ). I qualified as an accountant with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell (now KPMG). One of the more unusual assignments was a seven week visit in 1977 to the Falkland Islands to carry out the audit of the books of the Falkland Islands Government. This visit was five years before the Argentine invasion and to get there we had to go via Buenos Aires to obtain accreditation and then catch a plane further south from Patagonia. It flew there and back once a week on a Thursday. We stayed at the joyously named Uplands Goose hotel. The accommodation was pretty average, but the fare was worse! Given that there are so many sheep on the Islands, out of the 49 lunches and 49 dinners we must have had mutton in some form or other on nearly 90
What am I currently reading?
I have just finished “Putin’s People” by Catherine Belton, a disturbing account of how Putin and the KGB have amassed unstoppable power. At the moment I am reading “Collateral Damage” by Kim Darroch, the former British ambassador to Washington, who was forced to resign when some of his less complimentary dispatches about President Trump were leaked; it’s an excellent read. However, I must confess to an addiction to Sudoku which seems to take up more time then it should.
How did you spend your time at the College? Do you have any particular memories?
Of course so many of us reflect on the Masters we met along the way. I had an early brush with the then Art Master, Mark Preston. He sported an impressive handlebar moustache and was quite a character. Being slightly colour blind, Art
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