News of Old Students

Lieutenant Commander Watts, R.N., new commanding officer of the 819 Squadron, is seen (front right) saying farewell to Commander Cunningham, RN, who was leaving to take up a promoted post at Portsmouth.

LIEUTENANT Commander Andrew Watts. R.N.. has taken command of the 819 Naval Air Squadron at HMS Gannet in Monkton.

The ceremony took place on Wednesday September 27 and heralds a busy period for the squadron ahead of the planned reduction of base manpower. Lieutenant Commander Watts, 38, joined the Royal Navy in 1981, serving with Naval helicopter squadrons throughout the world, including an exchange posting with the Canadian Defence Forces.

He has served as Principal Warfare Officer on HM Ships Northumberland and Campbeltown, returning to the Naval Air Station at Culdrose in Cornwall in 1997 to develop tactics for the new Merlin helicopter.
Most recently he served as the Operations Officer on board the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. He will be living in the local area with his wife Susan and children Jacob and Abigail.

The HUNNAM family
I THOUGHT you might be interested in hearing a little bit about my family.
Our most senior member is George's sister, Olive, who lives in a pleasant flat in Grange. She was 90 in late August, when about 20 of us had a very happy family party. Olive is very spry mentally, though she cannot walk as far or as well as she used to do. I see a lot of her.

David, now 53, is still living in Radcliffe-on-Trent. His American employers urged him to move to London but he refused to uproot his family, wife Elaine and daughter Rosie. He still makes frequent trips around Europe and is busy helping young people at home too.
Peter is 51. Last year he and his family, wife Val and 2 teenage daughters, left Fiji to resettle in Brisbane, where he is now working as a freelance marine conservationist. I very much enjoyed a 3-weeks' holiday there in the early autumn.

Judith, 49, and Brian, 50, lead very busy lives in Leicester, their 2 sons more or less having left home. Judith is the finance manager for a small charity, Riders for Health, which operates zero-breakdown motorcycle transport for healthworkers in Africa. Brian is still working long hours in the construction industry. Both of them are looking forward to Christmas in Brisbane. I should add that Judith and I enjoyed a week's walking holiday in Jersey in June.

Jan, 43, teaches German at Minehead in Somerset and also helps her husband Chris with their caravan site. Their 2 boys attend the community college where Jan works; their daughter goes to VIth form college in Taunton.

I am well and busy! I enjoy seeing many people through my voluntary work. Grange and its surroundings make a very pleasant area in which to live and I am most fortunate.

I should be delighted to hear or have a visit from anyone who would like to call or come! My telephone number is 015395 33744.
JEAN HUNNAM

Bill Richards
WE HAVE had a letter from Bill Richards who left the school in 1953. Bill makes reference to the good grounding in science he received under masters 'Fuzzy' (Newman), 'Caius' (King) and Liddle; and Parker for calculus.

Bill first worked for UK Atomic Energy Authority, at Culcheth, as a Scientific Assistant. From 1955-57, he did National Service in the RAF. He returned to his job at AE and over the next six years studied Chemistry part time. His leisure activities included athletics training and walking.

Drawn to Africa by its natural history, he emigrated to Northern Rhodesia to work in the bush as a Field Officer for Anglo-American Corp. SA.

After developing an interest in mineral exploration geophysics, he worked in that field in Western Australia from 1967-69, and in Wales and Ireland from 1969-71. He then went to Aberystwyth University to do Geophysical research. While in Wales he met Jill, and they married in 1973. In 1975 they moved to South Africa, where Bill was based in Johannesburg as a geo-physicist. He travelled widely in southern Africa on mining projects.

Later Bill studied Computer Science (just to keep his mind active!) and obtained a BSc. in 1987 when he switched to Scientific Programming. He retired in 1991.
Bill says walking is still a favourite pastime, particularly in the Drakensburg mountains. He and Jill have two daughters, one a Systems Analyst, and the other a Food Scientist.

· Great to hear from you, Bill Greetings from Lymm OSA to Melderkruin, RSA.

Jonathan SHERLOCK and family are now living in Lymm.

Mark DENTON (77-85) is now a consultant nephrologist in Boston, USA

John Beard of Lymm Rotary Club and Roger Lounds meet Rotary President Norman Proctor

ROTARIANS IN LYMM welcomed Norman Proctor, president of the club in England and Ireland as guest of honour at their annual club dinner.
Norman, a former pupil at Lymm High School, stepped back in time and was called before the school's new headmaster, Roger Lounds, when he returned to the village to pay the club a special visit.
And he is no stranger to jet-setting. In his role as chairman of the club, Norman has travelled as far as Sierra Leone and India as part of a pledge by the club to immunise all third-world children against polio by 2005, and he is planning to visit Afghanistan in early December.

Norman said: "I try to keep up to date with all the clubs but there are almost 2,000 in Britain so it's very difficult to visit them all. But it is nice to come back to Lymm and see the club and my old school."
Norman was presented with a book of the history of Lymm High School, inscribed by the rotary club, and a Lymm Rotary bannerett to take to his own club, Saltram and Plympton in Plymouth.
In the late 1930s, the Proctor family moved to Grappenhall, Cheshire, from Gloucester. Norman Proctor attended the School from 1940 to 1944. He then followed a career in the Royal Navy.

Our congratulations to Sheila Woodyatt, who is now nearing the end of her year as Mayor of Warrington. Sheila will be writing an article about her experiences for the OSA website later this year.