We were really delighted to welcome back to John Lyon the leavers of 1969 for their 50 years on reunion and were very pleased that the event was gate crashed by some of the year of 1959 too - wishing to celebrate 60 years on!

When these OLs were at School the Head was R F Boyd Campbell and there were some 410 students.  During Boyd Campbell's time as Head (from 1951 to 1968) he grew the size of the 6th form from just 16 students to 115, with about half of those students going on to university.  (The current 6th form is around 140 and almost 100% go on to university.) 

The other obvious major changes are of course to the buildings, with our guests just about finding the familiar amongst the new.  What is known now as the Main Building was still new enough to be known as the New Building.  Temporary classrooms were dotted around the site where we now have the sports hall, swimming pool and dining room extensions; the Lyon Building was a hill and Oldfield was just that, an old field.  The somewhat grainy aerial photo below from 1970 shows the School as it was then. 
 

As we toured the School, we heard some blood curdling tales of crime and punishment, with Joe Kerridge recalling his house master who was aptly known as "Basher" and George Weedon's unenviable choice for boys in trouble: slipper or cord!  But we also heard about their lasting friendships and a tie to the School and each other that brought back this charming group for a lovely afternoon with us and a perhaps longer after-party at the Castle!

During the day, over a lot of coffee, we spent some time looking at the whole school photograph from 1969 and were challenged to find out the names of all the students in the picture.  More to come on that challenge!

Here are some photos from the day:





A very enjoyable lunch in the modern dining room, above.


1959ers puzzling over who is who!