Members' News
CLS/OC team raises money for RNIB
Old Citizens Michael Smith (2007-9), Ben Hartog (2002-9) and Ollie Davis (1990-
98) teamed up with CLS teachers Philip Marshall and Alison Eastman in May to run the BUPA London 10,000 (http://www.london10000.co.uk/), which is organised annually by the London Marathon group.
The CLS/OC team raised money through sponsorship for the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) by way of a thank you for helping Michael, following his recent sudden loss of sight. Philip Marshall said: "The idea to form a CLS/OC team came about from our desire to help Michael and give him some focus outside school during the first stages of his difficulties."
Alison and Michael ran together along the 10k route which started on Birdcage Walk, following the Embankment towards the City and Tower Bridge, and finished on the Mall, running towards the palace. Michael and Alison finished in a time of 45minutes 1 second, more than a minute ahead of their fellow team members.
Michael's next goal is a half-marathon in September.
Added July 2010. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Tom and Jon visit School
Old Cits, Tom Roberts and his former classmate Jon Baker, who left CLS in 1969 recently paid a visit to the School for a tour. Gary Griffin, the Second Master, organised the tour which was led by a prefect, and Kevin Rogers, the new Head of Careers, also touched based with Tom and Jon.
Tom commented: "Both Jon and I found it most interesting and enjoyable - not least as it's nearly 40 years since we left and the school on the new site looks terrific.
From the prospectus which Gary gave us the academic results look first rate which is a great credit to all."
Added June 2010. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Brothers unite for musical production
The combined talents of Old Cit brothers William Morris (1984-1991) and Chris Morris (1986 -1994) will be on show in a forthcoming musical production called ‘What You Will!', which runs from 4th May to 8th May at Hampton Hill Playhouse, Hampton Hill, Middlesex.
Written by William and Simon Warne, with Chris as production manager, the musical is a BROS Theatre Company production, based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - ‘a light-hearted cross-dressing love-story updated to modern-day New York'. Click here for booking information.
Added March 2010. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Combining a passion for music with medicine
Old Citizen, Dr Peter Newman (1969 - 1976) recently played principal clarinet in the World Doctors Orchestra in Yerevan, Armenia. This is the orchestra's fourth concert since it started in 2007 and will raise money for orphans in Armenia.
Click here for a video of their performance, broadcast on a Russian TV channel.
Peter has been combining a talent for music with his profession as a GP in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, for many years. Principal Clarinet for the Wycombe Symphonia and Aylesbury Symphony Orchestra, he performed with the World Doctors Orchestra in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall last summer, helping to raise 30,000 Euros for the Templeman Foundation for AIDS in South Africa, and for Victims of Torture, based in Berlin. He has also played in an Italian Doctors Orchestra at a concert in St Lorenzo basilica in Florence for the European Conference of Pathologists.
Professionally, Peter is also a company doctor at M W Kellogg, the Greenford-based petrochemical engineering company, and has a medico-legal practice in Slough and at Harley Street in London.
Added February 2010. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Raise funds and win a signed Pele shirt
Old Citizen and former CLS scholar, David Nzuruba, who is in his third year at Oxford University studying Chemistry, is doing a 10k run on 30 January 2010 to raise funds for the UCKG HelpCentre, which helps young people turn from a life of crime, broken homes and gangs etc to something positive.
David is asking other CLS alumni to support the cause by donating through his Justgiving page. The company or person who donates the hightest amount through David's page will receive an authentic signed Pele shirt, which would make a great Christmas present.
David commented: "If you can help this Christmas please do so as it's a great cause and really had a positive influence in my life - from being close to being kicked out of the school to studying at Oxford University!"
Added December 2009. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Celebration Concert for Martin Neary
A concert to celebrate the 70th birthday of Old Citizen and world renowned organist, Dr Martin Neary, is being held at St. John's Smith Square, Westminster on Sunday, March 28, 2010 in aid of the Music Therapy Charity. Click here for booking information.
For those of you who can't wait until March, you can hear Martin's arrangement of We Three Kings being performed by the Choir of King's College Cambridge in their televised Carol Service to be broadcast on BBC2 on Christmas Eve, at 6.15pm.
Former Organist and Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, Martin has twice been President of the Royal College of Organists and was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) by the Queen in recognition of his services as musical director at Princess Diana's funeral. He was President of the JCC 1997-98.
Added December 2009. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Maurice is on the button!
Old Citizen and Liveryman Blacksmith Maurice Greenberg threw caution to the wind earlier this year and showed his audacious side when he scaled the heights of a tall ship's mast, to raise funds for the Jubilee Sailing Trust.
Maurice volunteered for the 125ft sponsored climb from the deck to the ‘button' (the top of the main mast) of the S.V. Tenacious, following a visit to its sister ship, the S.V. Nelson, while it was undergoing a refit at South Quay, Canary Wharf.
On 10 May 2009, Maurice reported to Berth 104, Dock Gate 10, Southampton Docks, where the tall ship was docked. He takes up the story: "The weather was fine and dry and after donning a safety harness with safety line, the climb began.
"From the deck to the first stage up the rigging was easy, the rungs being wooden slates; the safety line was only needed when leaning back to climb through the hole on the second platform.
"From the second platform to the ‘button', the taper of the rigging meant that at the top I could only place my feet above each other, but the goal was achieved, and the descent to the deck was completed without incident."
Maurice raised just over £900 for the Jubilee Sailing Trust, which will help them continue to provide tall ship sailing experiences for people with any physical and sensory abilities and disabilities.
Added December 2009. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Corporate Lawyer with an eye on the ball
CLS Old Citizen Dov Katz recently won bronze for Great Britain in the men's table tennis team event at the Maccabiah Games, the Jewish Olympics. Held every four years, the Maccabiah Games are the third largest sporting event in the world with over 10,000 competitors from 60 countries competing in more than 30 sports.
Participating in an Olympic environment and winning a medal were the culmination of many years of hard training and dedication for Dov, as he explains: "I fell in love with the sport at the age of seven when my talent was spotted at a local youth club in West Hampstead.Inspired and fervently supported by my dear father, who used to play for Poland juniors, I travelled up and down the country and around the world from the age of 11 until 18, participating in domestic national tournaments and county competitions. I also represented Maccabi England and Great Britain at a host of international events. I won many medals, including bronze at the Jewish Olympics at the age of 14, achieving a top Middlesex county ranking and a top ten England junior ranking as well as becoming the national Jewish champion."
After leaving CLS he studied European Law, French and Spanish at university in Bristol, during which time he competed on the table tennis circuit for Avon county and then for Créteil in France whilst doing internships at Paris law firms. In 2006 Dov won the Mens national team championships and he now competes for Brighton in the British League division one, the equivalent of the Coca-Cola Championship in footballing terms.
In 2007 he joined London-based law firm Howard Kennedy, as a Partner, specialising in corporate finance.
[A version of this article first appeared on Legalweek.com]
Added December 2009. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Edward Evans helps trams make a comeback
As Commercial Manager at German engineering company, Vossloh Kiepe, Old Citizen Edward Evans (1977-1984) has been instrumental in the successful delivery of two recent projects reintroducing trams to major cities in the UK.
Next month the first passenger service is scheduled on new trams in Manchester. Five trams are currently undergoing testing in the city, as part of a consignment of 40 new trams manufactured by a consortium formed by Vossloh Kiepe and Bombardier Transportation. Vossloh Kiepe is providing the Electrical Systems from its Düsseldorf facility, while Bombardier Transportation is building the mechanical parts at its factories in Siegen, Germany and Vienna in Austria.
Meanwhile, as part of a contract won by the Spanish Company CAF, Vossloh Kiepe is supplying the propulsion equipment for 27 state-of-the-art low floor trams to Edinburgh. The first tram has been built, and is currently at CAF's works in Northern Spain undergoing testing. The trams are scheduled to begin operating in Edinburgh in 2011.
Elsewhere in the UK, Vossloh Kiepe has supplied the propulsion equipment for the Croydon trams, and for London Underground's Jubilee Line stock. Edward was also a key member of the project team in the supply of propulsion equipment for new trolley buses in Vancouver and Philadelphia which are now in operation.
Added November 2009. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
Keith Wilson publishes Thomas Hardy Companion
Keith Wilson, who attended CLS between 1957 and 1964, and is currently Professor of English at the University of Ottawa, Canada, has recently published ‘A Companion to Thomas Hardy' (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) in the Blackwell Companions to Literature series.
Bringing together new essays on all aspects of Thomas Hardy's work by thirty of the world's most distinguished Hardy scholars, The Companion is claimed to provide an influential reassessment of Hardy's place in both Victorian and modern literature.
According to the publisher it includes ‘essays that consider his complexity as a biographical subject, probe his ideas and attitudes in relation to their socio-cultural, scientific, and philosophical context, analyze his distinctive achievements in the remarkable variety of genres in which he worked, and assess his legacy for subsequent modernist writers'.
This is Keith's third book about Hardy, the first being ‘Thomas Hardy on Stage', which was published in 1995, followed by ‘Thomas Hardy Reappraised: Essays in Honour of Michael Millgate' in 2006. Keith is also editor of the Penguin Classics editions of ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge' (1997, 2003) and ‘The Fiddler of the Reels and Other Stories' (with Kristin Brady, 2003), and has published widely on nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature, the Victorian and Edwardian music hall, and the literary representation of London.
Added November 2009. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk
James Chau is named China’s first National Goodwill Ambassador for AIDS
City of London School alumnus, James Chau, has been named National UNAIDS (Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS) Goodwill Ambassador for China. He is the first person from the Chinese mainland to hold this position.
His appointment was announced at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, which took place in Bali on 9 August 2009.
James will use his recognition as a news anchor on the China Central Television CCTV-9 channel, which broadcasts to more than 80 countries worldwide, to bring awareness of HIV to young people who are at risk.
Speaking about his new role, James said: "I am honoured, humbled and very excited by this appointment. Young people are by nature dynamic and energetic and I look forward to helping mobilise and direct this energy towards contributing to halting the AIDS epidemic - first and foremost by fighting stigma and discrimination and preventing new infections by changing risk behaviour."
After leaving CLS in 1996, James went on to graduate in English Literature from Cambridge University where he was 'Varsity' News Features Editor. His career in journalism and broadcasting took him to Hong Kong and Beijing, where he currently resides.
Added August 2009. Send in your news to aro@jcc.org.uk