October 2007

Hello there!
 
My very good friend - and former mentor,  Alan Marshall,  has drawn my attention to your/our website.  I am a '64 vstudent and,  over the intervening years have written a number of times to the college,  and personally to then Bursar, (Wilson?  With a club foot?),  asking if we had an almumni,  or an old boys' newsletter,  - or something,   but never received even the courtesy of a reply.  So I assumed that,  having gone to the Antipodes,  I was now classed as a leper and an untouchable.   ( I do remember once discussing a teaching appointment in the Channel Isles with a member of the staff and he said that,  "If you go to work there this college will have nothing more to do with you!").   So I reckoned that I was probably now blacklisted by STC.   But heck,  there WERE good reasons for my deserting UK!   We had a ghastly domestic accident where one of my daughters was maimed - and I had an overwhelming desire to get as far away as possible from my (then) mother-in-law!!!  So I became a "Ten Pound Pom" and emigrated to Perth,  West Australia after teaching in UK for only 3 years.   I played-out my full working life teaching in these parts and retired at age 65.  I am now 78.  Regrettably I did not do much teaching of "Manual Arts" - as it is called out here.  Most of my career was as a TD and Maths teacher.
 
My address is:-  Roger Dracup,  11 Kempenfeldt Avenue,  Sorrento, West Australia,  6020. 
My e-mail address is:-     rojun@alumni.ecu.edu.au
 
I am quite happy to make contact with anyone who wants intercourse with me.  Alan Marshall has told me that there is a Perth address in your www which,  despite a cursory glance,  I have not managed to detect.
 
My 3 years 'in a Ditch'  were most enjoyable and memorable;  a truly valuable experience which,  obviously, changed the direction of my life.  I came to Shoreditch as a mature student having previously served 2 years in a bank,  followed by 13 years in the Colonial Police serving in Palestine and Kenya - combatting terrorism in both countries for many years.
 
I have a few anecdotes which might be of interest.  Our History Lecturer,  Ted Joy,  a man for whom I had a great respect and liking, once told us that history recorded that the first person ever to be killed by a motor vehicle was killed at the gateway entrance to STC.  I can't remember the details, but it might be an interesting bit of history.
 
One of the English lecturers,  a Welshman by the name of,  I think,  Thomas,  once told me that the golden years of STC were just after WW2 when all the students were ex servicemen - all keen to excel,  all mature students and all keen to get out and earm money ASAP.  He told me of one sports meeting when some students,  who were ex RAF,  hired a Tiger Moth and came over the venue and bombarded it from the air with flower bombs.
 
I was privileged to spend 2 weeks on the Foudroyant;  a great experience.  I know nothing about the capstan.   My understanding is that Foudroyant was/is built of teak  -  NOT the traditional oak.  It was built in Trincomalee hartbour,  (Ceylon - now Sri Lanka),  hence the teak.  I forget what its first name was but it was captured by Napoleon and re-named Foudroyant,  which means 'Thundering'.  When Napoleon was defeated we got it back and left the name unchanged.  Your www suggests that it has been refurbished and is still afloat in, presumably,  Gosport Harbour.
 
The STC Principal who took a chance on admitting me to the hallowed halls of STC as a mature student without even the barest of academic qualifications,  was Ted Marshall.  He was the first to occupy that delightful new house by the college gates. He died in harness and, as the college was on Easter vacation at the time,  and as I lived fairly close,  I was asked to represent the student body at the funeral.  My wife was heavily pregnant with twins at the time,  (we arranged our pregnancies so that the births would hopefully occur during vacation times so that I could be at home and look after the other kids while worthy spouse was confined!).   The day was 10 April 1964 - a date I remember well - a bright sunny spring day with hosts of golden daffodils everywhere,  and,  as the coffin was coming in one door of the church, the Bursar,  Wilson?,  was running down the aisle to find me to tell me that my wife had just been taken to hospital.  So, as the coffin came in one door,  I exited hastily through another.  My twins were born a few hours later at Guildford.
 
"Willy-bobs"  took over as Principal.  I had a great love and respect for him,  and he did me some good services later on.  I remember once when some students must have climbed the 2 towers on either side of the entrance and had strung a banner between the towers, proclaiming "NATIONAL WILLY-BOBS WEEK'.  I never worked out how they managed to do it; they must have had mountaineering experience.  Willy-bobs took it in good part.
 
Out here in Oz I dragged my 4 children kicking and screaming into sailing.  We did very well and won quite a few accolades - culminating with one of my twins being chosen to represent Oz in the World Championships,  which were held that year in the Gulf of Mexico.   After that we tended all to be burnt-out with sailing, so we all switched to the comparatively new sport of Triathlon where,  again,  we all did fairly well.  I represented Oz 5 times at World Championships and finally won the World Championship for my age group in New Zealand in 1994.  My 48 y.o. son and 2 grandchildren still compete at State level with considerable success.   I was awarded the ASM  (Australian Sports Medal),  for my services to sport.
 
On the distaff side we have had some terrible accidents,  starting, of course,  with the one which part-caused us to emigrate in the first place.  I have 3 daughters - and they have all had broken spines - 2 from sky-diving and one from 'rolling' her MG.  One of them,  on her 13th jump,  fell 6000 feet with both 'chutes failed.  She did a lot of damage but has lived a normal life ever since she recovered - that was 25 yearsago.
 
I was delighted to see the photos of the old place.  We were the first students to inhabit the new halls of residence. I thought they were luxury.  Three square meals a day - and all for free.  I loved it.  On looking out of my window one morning I found that the grass quadrangle was 'different'.  I did a double-take and realised that there were large 'candle-cactusses' everywhere,  and a few cows and other impedimenta.  The boys had raided a film set during the night and had brought their loot back to college.
 
Sincerely,  
Roger Dracup   '64
rojun@alumni.ecu.edu.au

October 2007

September 2007

My email has changed to   m(at)sheehan2(dot)wanadoo(dot)co(dot)uk   <where (at) is replaced by  @  and (dot) is replaced by  .  in both places, because of problems with spam email;  if you click on the link it will translate automatically into the correct format>

Skype:  thames.rower

Thank you  
Mick Sheehan  '73 Yr