Bilborough 1957-2000
Portrait of a College

Appendix Z

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Biographies

D K (Ken) Rowat (Art, 1957-61)

I left Bilborough to take up the post of County Art Adviser to the Derbyshire LEA; following that I spent three years lecturing at Mansfield College of Art (life drawing and complementary studies); five years at Leeds College of Art and six years at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Metropolitan University). I retired early and for fifteen years reviewed art exhibitions for the Guardian newspaper and wrote occasional book reviews for The Lecturer.

[Ken submitted the above in January, 1999; sadly he died on 9th June, 1999. Ken was born in Bristol in May, 1920, and on leaving school trained and worked as a draughtsman with the Bristol Aeroplane Company for 11 years. He studied at the West of England College of Art and taught in Portsmouth for five years before moving to Bilborough. Ed]

Arthur Gilliver (Modern Languages, 1958-62)

In 1962, I went to be head of Modern Languages at Bede Hall Grammar/Technical School in Billingham, County Durham and in 1966 I went to the Army's Higher Education Centre in Germany as a Lecturer in Modern Languages to the army (BAOR). Although my original contract was for only 3 years, I managed to prolong this to 21 years and 2 terms and retired in Summer, 1987, to Folkestone, where I still live with my wife Molly. Our two sons, John, born in Nottingham in 1960, and Peter, born in Middlesborough in 1964, both have good jobs. John is a Research Scientist working for GEC/Marconi in Chelmsford and Peter is one of the editors of the OED, living and working in Oxford (he has, I'm pleased to say, a Cambridge degree).

[Arthur died in February, 2000]

Ian Bartlett (Music, 1958-62)

After Bilborough, where he taught music from 1958-62, Ian Bartlett took up a lectureship at Bretton Hall College of Education, Yorkshire. He returned to school teaching in 1965 when he became Director of Music at Banbury Grammar School (soon to become Banbury (Comprehensive) School), where he also established the North Oxfordshire Junior Music School. At Banbury he was able to put into practice a conviction, the seeds of which were sewn at Bilborough, that opera productions involving close collaboration with other departments such as English, drama, dance, art and technology should be central to the life of a school's music making - for demonstrably social as well as artistic and cultural reasons.

In 1970 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Music at Goldsmiths College, London. The College's music department has developed into one of the largest and most active university music departments in the country. At various times he was Acting Head of Department and from 1982-86 was Dean of the Faculty of Music in the University of London. He had written widely on music and music education in periodicals including Music and Letters, The Musical Times and Music Teacher, contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and edited works by the eighteenth-century English composer, William Boyce, for the BBC. His scholarly edition of Boyce's serenata Solomon was published by Stainer and Bell in the Musica Britannica series (Vol. 68) in 1996.

After retiring from his full-time post at Goldsmiths in 1989 he has continued to teach part-time there and, from 1995, at Trinity College of Music. Throughout his career he has remained active as singer, choral and orchestral conductor, piano accompanist - and long-distance runner (London Marathon in 1992).

John Pick (English, 1959-61)

After leaving Bilborough, John Pick taught Drama at Cambridge and then was head of Drama at Clifton and St Peter's College, Birmingham. He then was appointed Principal of Dillington College in Somerset. In 1976 he moved to City University, London, where he was the Founding Professor of the Department of Arts Policy and Management. After teaching spells in Hong Kong and the USA, and a six year appointment as Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, he retired from the university as Professor Emeritus, in 1990.

Robert Breckles (1958-66)

Born Wollaton 1948. Russell Infants 1953-5, Fernwood Junior School 1955-9, Bilborough GS 1959-66. St Edmund Hall Oxford 1967-70, Hull University Cert Ed 1971-2. Taught history Ashfield Comprehensive School Kirkby 1972-7. Durham University Diploma in Theology 1977-9. Ordained Church of England deacon and priest, Curate at St Mary's Bulwell 1979-84, Vicar of Lady Bay, West Bridgford since 1984. First Green Council candidate in Notts, for Wollaton division, 1981. Nottm University MPhil in history of Ashfield 1993. Married Kate, we have two girls and a boy, and currently share our home also with Robert's father John who became first Chairman of the Bilborough PTA in gratitude for the help of the school in general and of his neighbour Ivor Williams in particular.

Melvyn Hill (1962-1967)

Thirty two years after leaving school, I am now working for the railway and have a wife, two sons and two grand-daughters.

John Martin (1961-68)

Where they are now

Robert (Bob) Hallam - living in beautiful surroundings in a remote area of Cheshire, England.

Michael (Dick) Dennis - last heard of being thrown out of Communist Russia by the KGB - possibly I'm not supposed to mention this.

John (Joe) Martin - living in Richmond Hill (north of Toronto, Canada), working for multi-national as a computer guy.

David (Johnno) Johnson - living and teaching in Nottingham.

Graham (Lofty) Stocker - living and fishing in Norfolk, England.

John (Mitzi) Morley - living in London, England, practising alternative medicine from an address on Harley Street.

Tim (Wal) Wallace - teaching chemistry at one of the universities in the north of England, Manchester-way I think. [Salford, Ed]

Elaine (Elaine) Golding (née Straw) - living and teaching in Nottingham, England.

Janice Ware (1961-68)

I was Janice Matkin at BGS and went on to the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to do a BA and a PGCE. I taught for 24 years in various High Schools, ending in 1997 in Mitcham, SW London. I applied to British Airways in 1974 for their Graduate Training Scheme reaching the final 6 but no further, but was successful in 1997 - tenacity? - and I now work for BA at London Heathrow in Cargo.

Gillian Godbeer (née Hull) (1972-79)

I am just about to return to work at the QMC, where I work in the Immunology Department analysing blood and urine for disorders of the immune system. I am married with two young daughters.

Janet Browne (née Bass) (1972-79)

1983, graduated from Surrey University with BSc (Honours) Psychology; 1985, renal transplant; 1988, married and moved to Redhill; 1991, birth of son, Alexander; currently working part-time at HM Land Registry, Croydon.

Alison T Buttery (1972-79)

The business card which accompanied Alison's letter reads 'ALISON T BUTTERY, BA (HONS), ACIS, LLDip BARRISTER & CHARTERED SECRETARY [Ed]

Kay Eade (née Drury) (1972-79)

After my seven years at Bilborough I started at Boots Pharmaceuticals and worked as a laboratory technician for 16½ years. The business was sold to Knoll Pharmaceuticals in 1994 and I now work in drug safety. Whilst working I have taken an ONC, HNC and a degree in Biological Sciences all as part-time courses.

Simon Fricker (1979-81)

I went on to Manchester University to study Chemistry. Dr Salthouse was my tutor and I helped him present his 'Flash Bang Show' (and prepared the odd compound for him as I was better at it!).

I have worked as a Musical Director in the theatre now for nearly 16 years. I had just finished conducting Blood Brothers in Leicester one night last year and was informed that I had a visitor at the stage door. Tony Goodchild was waiting for me, and with a smile and a shake of the hand he took the opportunity of reminding me that he had always said I should follow a career in Music.

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Mike Robinson
18th September, 1999

URL: https://bilboroughgrammar.tripod.com/1957-2000/appendix/z.htm