Trafalgar 200

Thursday, July 28. 2005


A coffee stop at a National Trust nature reserve on the A3 provided a welcome break and we arrived at Portsmouth at 12.30.

Although we had a good idea of the planned itinerary. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh reviewing the International Fleet in the afternoon; an air display with The Red Arrows etc later in the afternoon; a re-enactment of a Napoleonic sea battle in the evening with a Son et Lumiere; The Illumination of the Fleet; and culminating with a massive firework display, it was not easy to find out what was going on in the afternoon.


Continue reading "Trafalgar 200"

Annual Golf Match Report

Tuesday, May 3. 2005

The annual golf match OHGS v The School was held at Etchinghill Golf Club on Friday 15th April.

OHGS have never won this match at Etchinghill
whereas we have won all the matches held at Sene Valley except for 2003 when we halved.

On paper OHGS had a very strong team this year
which we needed to have to take on the boys, as there is a very high standard of golf at Harvey at present.

Our successes were John Edwards (15) and Geoff Cooke (12) playing on their home course and they won 2 up; Richard Young (7) and John Denham (13) had a good win of 5 & 4; Ian Gavin (6) and Graham Furneaux (12) Captain of OHGS, had a very tight match and halved with Graham playing against his son Hugo Furneaux. That was the end of our successes.

The lead match turned out to be crucial to the result as we always knew it was likely to be. Duncan Pike playing off 1 and Luke Jennings off 5 playing for The School are a formidable pairing especially at Etchinghill which is Luke's home course, so we needed our strongest possible opposition which we had in Henry Law playing off scratch (Henry is the Assistant Proffessional at Littlestone) and John Young off 5 (John is the current Vice Captain of Littlestone Golf Club). That proved to be a very tight game with OHGS almost coming back from being 3 down but losing on the last hole 1 down.

Derek Wood (14) and Bob Chappell (16) went down 3 & 2, and that just left John Oliver (14) and Dave Green (21) to take on Matthew Davy off (28) and Dean Law off (30). Mat's drive on the first hole virtually sealed the match before it started and having to give 11 and 12 shots to Mat and Dean respectively proved far too much an obstacle for OHGS and the match was over with Mat only dropping
7 shots to par off a 28 handicap!!!

The School won 3 1/2 to 2 1/2.

It was a great day played in the best spirit of golf and the highest standards of friendship and association with The School.

There was an impromptu Longest Drive and Nearest the Pin competition won by John Young (OHGS) and Charlie Homphrey (School) respectively. Earlier names on the board showed 'longest drive- Richard Young aged 68 1/2 years and ' nearest the pin' John Denham aged 71 years, which hopefully will be an encouragement to the boys that life does not finish at 30 or 40 but some of us are still active in spite of our advanced years!

Gordon Gavin (Harvey 1936-42)

Tuesday, January 11. 2005


I have received the sad news that Gordon Gavin (Harvey 1936-42) died last Sunday from leukaemia. He had been unwell for some time.

His funeral will be at Saltwood Parish Church on Wednesday 2nd February 2005 at 2.30pm followed by a reception at The Castle Hotel Saltwood at 4pm to which all friends are cordially invited. They will be joined by family after they return from Hawkinge Crematorium.

Family flowers only but donations welcomed in favour of Leukaemia research or Cystic Fibrosis Trust can be sent to Chittendens Funeralcare, Windmill Street, Hythe, Kent CT21 6BH phone 01303 262762.

Gordon is survived by his widow Elaine. His son Ian, and brother Peter are stalwarts of the Old Harveians Golf Society of which Gordon too was one of the original members on foundation in 1997. Gordon was a keen sportsman and a well known local footballer. He was also a keen birdwatcher and a member of the RSPB (also of the local RSPB SE Kent Group).


Continue reading "Gordon Gavin (Harvey 1936-42)"