Standing – David Mendus – David Stokes – Roger Beynon – Richard Thomas – Peter Kostromin – Mike Willis – Michael Rees – Victor Humphries – Geoff Kimmings – Roy Miller – David Wood
Seated – David Tamlin – James King – John Griffiths – John Barker – Edgar McCarthy – Roger Trollope
Photograph supplied by Edgar McCarthy
Here is Edgar’s account of the Reunion as he recalled it in his article in ‘The Old Dy’vorian’ No. 4. – March 2004
Getting in Touch
In January 2002 I received a letter from an old school friend saying that he was in touch with 4 other ex-pupils from the 1953 intake to Dynevor, and would I be interested renewing old friendships, and meeting up again. I had had no contacts with the school, and virtually no contact with old classmates since leaving in 1958, so I was very intrigued to see how my old school friends had got on during the intervening years.
I invited the letter writer to dinner, and we had a wonderful evening reminiscing, and speculating about the careers of boys we knew so many years ago. We agreed to keep in touch, and to try to expand our list of contacts. The Internet has been a great help, and to date we have traced and are in contact with 35 ex-pupils from the 1953 intake. Although some of our contacts still live in Swansea area, the majority are spread all around the country. We are even in touch with old school friends in America and New Zealand.
With so many people living in different parts of the country, it was decided to arrange a dinner in Swansea to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of us meeting for the first time at our entry to the school in 1953. That dinner was held in the Marriott Hotel in November, and the attached photograph is of the 17 ex-schoolboys who attended. These include company directors, headmasters, teachers, IT specialist, businessmen, and various other careers. Many are now retired, but a number are still hard at work. We also had numerous apologies from people who would have liked to attend, but could not make the venue.
The dinner went off extremely well, the only disappointment being that the evening went so quickly. With such a diversity of careers, and such a long timescale to catch up on, it was impossible to spend as much time with individuals as one would have wished.
As well as discussing careers, family, friends etc., there was obviously a considerable amount of reminiscing about our schooldays. It was amazing how memories were revived of the teachers, good and bad, of schoolboy pranks and incidents, of sporting successes and failures, of choirs and orchestras. It was also obvious to all of us that we had benefited from the academic and social education that we had received at the school
The original intention of the dinner was that it would be a one off affair to re-establish contacts after all this time. However, with so much to talk about, and so many years to catch up on, most people were keen to repeat the event. Thus in all probability other dinners will be arranged. If you were one of the privileged schoolboys who started at Dynevor Grammar School in 1953, why not get in touch via the Association?