Monthly Archives: March 2009

Sesquicentennial Celebrations in October 2009 and the Proposed Itinerary

9th March 2009 from D.C. Anand – President OCA India

PROPOSED ITINERARY SESQUICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS

Day

Date: 2009

Programme/Event

Tentative Timings

 

 

 

 

1

Fri 2nd October

Train Kalka – Shimla

1200 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

HM’s Dinner 1st Flat

1930 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

Sat 3rd October

Chapel Service

1000 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

High Tea & Games

1100 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUNCH (DC Anand)

1300 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Son et Lumière 2nd Flat

1800 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musical Programme

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner 1st Flat

2000 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dormitory Accommodation (150 people)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

Sun 4th October

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sports activities

1000 hrs

 

 

Massed PT Display & Tattoo

 

 

 

Inter-house matches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Play by BCS

1900 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner 1st Flat

2100 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

Mon 5th October

Golf Naldera

0930 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5

Tues 6th October

Memorial Service – Demise of GEL CottonChapel Service – 6th Oct 1863

1000 hrs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 sesquicentennial-dca1

sesquicentennial-dca2

BCS Living Treasures in Australia


An exchange of emails from OC’s in Australia, initiated by Rishi Rana:

Michael Pratt Lefroy( 1943 – 1951)
From: Michael J Pratt
Sent: 20-Feb-2009 9:05 AM
To: Rana, Rishi
Subject: Re: BCS Sesquicentennial Celebrations October 2009

Thanks received your recent e-mail enquiring whether we had received the earlier message regarding the 150 year reunion in October, well I think I received it and I responded to enquire the best way to travel from Melbourne. with particular regard to whether any any approved travel agent had been recommended.
There are several who arrange tours around the area but I am not really to interested in travelling around on buses.

Regards
Michael Pratt

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Peter Maidment Rivaz( 1941 – 1943)
From: Peter Maidment
Sent: 20-Feb-2009 9:21 AM
To: Rana, Rishi
Subject: Re: BCS Sesquicentennial Celebrations October 2009

 Hi Rishi,
I received it. Sorry I’m unable to attend.

Regards,
Peter Maidment. Rivaz (1941 – 1943)

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Peter Rollo Rivaz( 1934 – 1942)
From: Peter Rollo
To: Rishi Rana
CC: manjulrana
Subject: Celebrations.
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:48:11 +0900
Hi fellows…Many thanks for your circular. It is indeed great to hear from you and to know how things are progressing. Unfortunately, age has caught up with me and I am not in any position to be able to join in. However, as a very old Cottonian I would on behalf of all Aussie OCs wish you the very best of luck and hope that everything will turn out 110%…..
By the way Rishi I was Captain of Rivaz in 1941/42. That’s a long, long time ago. Wonderful days.

Cheers and God Bless.

img_0382
The Rollo Family

From Peter (Rollo) 1934 – 1942.

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Ian Claridge Lefroy( 1943 – 1944)
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:38:18 +1100
From: ianbev01
To: manjulrana
Subject: Re: FW: Sesquicentennial Celebration of BCS this year in October

Thank you, Rishi for all the info,

I will try to pass it on to the few OCS members I have had connection with in Australia.

I am now aged 73 but am still active in a number of things – still working as an Accountant from an Office under our house.

My wife Beverley and I go to the Indian Tea and Curry Restaurant, Pacific Highway, Turramurra (20 minutes drive from here) for an informal meal (2nd Tuesdayof the month) as Present or Past Bellringers and Partners at St James Anglican Church, Turramurra. We had been going for a year before I discovered that the owner Nana was an Old Cottonian! In fact a few years ago we had an Old Cottonian Dinner at which regrettably we could only muster 4 OCs – very few seemed to have settled in Sydney.

I actually went to BC Prep School in 1943 for a year after my mother died in Shimla. I then moved to Rawalpindi to live with my uncle who became my Guardian My father died in Ajmer in1936, a year after I was born and my mother became Housekeeper to a number of Viceroys – we lived in Viceroy’s House, Delhi and Viceregal Lodge in Shimla until my mother’s death.

In 1945 I and my Uncle’s family moved to England and I lived there until I was 16 when I moved to New Zealand (on my own) and lived there until 1959 when I came to Australia where I married a local and I’ve lived here ever since – interrupted fr ten years by a divorce, after which I re-married someone else and have lived in Sydney since.

Seven years ago we went to India and spent three days in Shimla, visiting BCS where Col Diwan found the page of the Registration book where I had been enrolled at BCPS – it was quite an emotional moment for me!

Kind regards,

Ian Claridge
19 Merlin St, Roseville NSW 2069

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Dick D’Abreu Curzon( 1936 – 1946)
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:10:24 +0900
From: bpbb9334
To: manjulrana
Subject: RE: Sesquicentennial Celebration of BCS this year in October

G’day Mr Rishi,

Thanks for the email in regards to the Bishop Cotton School 150th celebrations that will take place in Simla. I was forwarded your email through George West whom I am in regular contact with in Perth Western Australia. I was in school with Malcolm Petters. Peter Rollo and George West, and we have been in close contact for many years as we live in W.A. My time was from 1936 to 1945. And I enjoyed a happy school life. My working life was with the Australian Army and Air Force from 1946 t0 1976. I had 30 years of ‘Service Life’ and left with my superannuation and a war disability allowance. At 81 years of age, although I live a reasonably healthy life, I am unable to travel long distances by air any more. I would have loved to say that I would be over for the school celebrations, as even though I left school 64 years ago, it all seems like yesterday. We have also had kind invitations to attend the celebrations in the U.K. By the OC’s committee there, many of the older boys I still remember. I regrettably had to decline.

I wish you and all the OC’s organizing this big event every success. I am pleased to know that the school traditions and standards are much the same as when I was a boarder there.

My best wishes, Dick D’Abreu.

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Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 17:29:50 +0900
From: bpbb9334
To: manjulrana
Subject: RE: Sesquicentennial Celebration of BCS this year in October

Hi Mr Rishi,

Malcolm Petters is the oldest of us in W.A. He and Fred Brown were good mates in school and played hockey together for the school team. I knew Fred when he was an older boy in school from 1936 to when he left in 1939. He then came back as my House Master of Curzon in my last year of school. Malcolm left school in 1939, when he joined the British Army in Deolali, (not too sure of the date) I met up again with him in Perth W.A. Malcolm is not very well these days as he is getting on in age. His wife Evelyn looks after him at their home in Perth. Peter George visit him frequently, while I try to visit him from Bunbury whenever we come down to Perth. His email address is petters@xxxxx His wife Evelyn now answers his mail for him…a very nice lady. Peter Rollo can be reached at COP007@xxxxx  He is going quite well, but like me has slowed down quite a bit. George West is at gdwest33@xxxxxxHe was a few years younger though I knew him in Curzon House in 1945… 
 new_pa1 
In my younger days!!!

 

new_pa2 
At age 81!! 

Hope this can help your research… Cheers, Dick.

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William Cartwright Rivaz( 1941 – 1944)
From: william cartwright
To: manjulrana
Subject: RE: E-MAILS
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:29:23 +0900

RECEIVED YOUR E-MAIL MANY.MANY THANKS, PLEASE KEEP INTOUCH, ALL THE BEST.

WILLIAM (BILL) CARTWRIGHT RIVAZ 1941 TO 1944

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Hitesh Uberoy Rivaz( 1948 – 1955)

From: Hitesh Uberoy 
Sent: 20-Feb-2009 7:38 PM
To: Rana, Rishi
Subject: RE: BCS Sesquicentennial Celebrations October 2009

Hi Rishi.

Glad to learn you are in Adelaide. I’m in Sydney. My Mobile No. is xxxxxxx. Both my sons are here. Elder Vikas is working as B.D.M with Avnet, an American Security Software company, his wife is in Medicare. Younger Vishal is with Dyno Nobel, the explosives Gigiants and his wife is in Railcorp.

Yes I knew R.K.Simha, Prashida, Prabal {who was a year my senior and Om who was my batch mate. They were all Rivazites. Next year we were together in Delhi University.

I have just returned after a 3 months holiday in India. In Delhi, 12 of us OC’s got together for Lunch at the Golf Club.

i have a couple of relatives & friends in Adelaide. One is a Deputy Director at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Dr. Yugesh Caplash.

Do keep in touch.

Warm Regards,

Hitesh

What Bishop Cotton School means to me

What Bishop Cotton School means to me…..

The Year: 2009

Echoes of the past constantly enter my head, from the young squealing little five year old entering Linlithgow to the little chump and later teenager. Having finished my ISC at the tender age of 15 I left school in the sixth form wearing a rag of a Lefroy shirt, a rusted metal badge and my roll number that could have well been tattooed on my arm…forever. Forever 123.

Its Sunday the 8thof March 2009 and the time 20:27 hrs UTC* as I sit here in Weybridge Surrey. Outside its windy as though the ‘winds of doom just howl and moan’**     A shiver runs through my spine and a feeling of melancholia envelopes me. I am not sure at this moment if it is sadness or remembering something from the past that flashes by and the echoes return. Its been 37 years since I left…singing…’we sing of days now past and gone,  we sing of days to be’.

I seem to connect everything to my days in School..my life, my work, my friends, someone winning a golf tournament…the birth of my children….someone in hospital..in anguish, in a dilemma, upset…the happy, elated, overjoyed and all the good stuff that goes with it….

Then I realise what it feels to be an eagle flying high in the sky with 6/6 vision…

Down there on terra ferma..the land may look parched…but I can see these tiny little creatures emerging from all nooks and crannies of the earth….they arrive as little boys and as they approach the pearly gates they have matured. Some clean shaven, some clean shaven heads, some beards..full, some with goatees, some having wigs, some walking with sprightly energy and some lumbering up and then down, some on old walking sticks and some with burberry umbrellas…some in Blazers and Flannels and school ties…They all congregate in large numbers….from the parched earth, from the hills and the valleys, from across oceans, from neighbouring borders, some from roof tops and some from next door.  The eagle in the sky accepts this moment of truth…nah…he ain’t going to stoop down with claws and flaming beak….no not this time. He knows what it means when a reunion of such great significance means to these men. They are coming around full circle…..He stretches his wings even more and shoots even higher..heading for his zenith. …

Its time for Bishop Cotton School to celebrate…150 years……its time for the Boys to worship the ground, the flats, the dorms, the chapel, the classes, the bogs, the short cuts, the memories and much much more.

For all you Cottonians, Big, Small, Tall, Straight, crooked or bent..remember we are Blessed that we are HERE!  We must give back what we received and let the world know the meaning of Bishop Cotton School. Par Excellence!

Yes, its time for the Boys to come home.

Vivek Bhasin
Lefroy
1961-1970
(08th march 2009)

 *UTC= Universal Time Coordinated/ Greenwich Mean Time
** No Quarter-Led Zeppelin