The Old West Downs Society

The OWD Society Committee

The Committee of the Old West Downs Society used to be appointed on an annual basis at its AGM on the morning of Founder’s Day, held each June at West Downs itself. We made an attempt to carry this on after the School had closed, by combining the AGM with a Dinner or Lunch to which all OWDs were invited. At the Dinner in 1992 it was agreed that the Committee as it was then should stand, including of course the two younger members that had been elected at that meeting. The names of the Committee Members are sent out every two years with the Dinner invitations, and anyone who wants to raise a point at a committee meeting, or to become a member of the Committee, is welcome to contact the Secretary and arrange to attend the next meeting if practicable.

Meetings of the Committee are held roughly once a year at a Pub called “The Old Cock” in Fleet Street, at 12 or 12:30 for 1 pm. These meetings are not normally subsidised by the Society. There is not a fixed date or season for Committee Meetings, except as dictated by the pressure of other events.

• The Chairman is Daniel Hodson (1952-57). His duties include taking the chair at meetings; making outside contacts, where necessary, such as with King Alfred’s, the new owners of West Downs; and generally geeing up the other members.
• The Secretary and Treasurer is Nick Hodson (1943-1947). His duties include taking the minutes of meetings; arranging the time and place of the dinners and of the committee meetings; dealing with incoming correspondence regarding the dinners, the school photographs and other memorabilia; keeping and publishing the accounts; dealing with any correspondence regarding the deaths of members or regarding any fund-raising activities entered into by the Committee, whether on its own behalf or that of persons it is interested in.
• The Membership Secretary and Keeper of the Archives is Nick Hodson (1943-47). His duties include maintaining the register of members and their addresses; dealing with enquiries by members about their contemporaries' addresses; setting up the pages of letters to be sent out to members; addressing the envelopes for mailshots to members; inserting the letters into the envelopes, stamping them and posting them out. He does not deal with acceptances for the dinner, for that is down to the Secretary. He also deals with the archives of printed and written materials, such as bundles of school papers handed to the Society by Old Boys executors, on their decease. He is responsible for editing the source books on the life at the school and other OWD Society publications, including The Masters’ Plays and the Life of Jesus. This work has required extensive scanning for OCR and sometimes retyping of documents. He develops software to aid his work on for the OWD Society. Future duties may include taking scanned images of the Tindalls’ Lantern Slide Collection; and dealing with the Society’s Internet Web Site.
• Mark Hichens (1935-39) is the OWDS Historian. He wrote the book “West Downs — A Portrait of an English Prep School‘. He and his two brothers were at West Downs, and he was the OWD Society’s Secretary for a decade after the War. His career as a Prep School master has given him a great insight into many of the issues which we discuss.
• Lionel Kay, a former Deputy Headmaster, is on the Committee, where his great experience of teaching at WD and knowledge of Staff matters makes him invaluable.
• The two younger members are: Edward Wake (1973-78), and Hugh Tottenham (1970-74). Although they do not yet have any of the official tasks of the longer serving committee members, they can and do advise on the interests of the younger members. Andrew Parker-Jervis and Nick Bloxam have also attended recent committee meetings (which are pretty informal affairs).

There are some gaps in the years covered by members. Apart from Staff members, we no longer have anybody whose years at WD were pre-1935, though there are quite a few such members still. Nobody dates from the period 1957-70, and there is nobody from the final years of the school, 1980-88.