NO.119
Hots were held……
…in Delhi: on 10th March 2015, 24
members of the Wykehamical community
joined former Director of Win Coll Soc,
DWL Fellowes (I, 63-67) and the Deputy
Director of Development, Tamara
Templer, at a gathering in Delhi at The
Claridges. The drinks reception and
dinner were generously sponsored by KBP
Singh (A, 89-94), who had also done
much to encourage attendance, including
OWs and past, current and even
prospective parents. It was a wonderful
evening of reminiscing, rounded off in
with a hot on the lawn in front of the
hotel.
T H E T R U S T Y S E RVA N T
54-59). Not to be outdone by their
counterparts in Delhi, a second hot,
smaller but no less energetic, was held on
the [Test] cricket ground, under the cover
of darkness!
Footnote from the archives: the first
overseas OW Dinner on record took place
in India on 16th September 1887, in
Simla. The first to be held in [then]
Bombay was in 1930 and in Delhi in
1932. General Sir Archibald Wavell,
C-in-C Far East, reporting to the
Headmaster on an OW dinner he had
given in Delhi in 1942, wrote: ‘An
attempt to send you a telegram of greeting
was defeated by the Indian censor, who
ruled Latin inadmissible!’, whilst as
Viceroy, he gave another dinner at the
Viceroy’s House in Delhi, on 11th March
1944, on which occasion 31 OWs were
dined ‘in the Mughal Garden among the
dwarf orange trees’.
…and in Mumbai: the following evening
14 gathered at the Cricket Club of India
in Mumbai for a second dinner,
generously sponsored by R Poddar (E, 8789) and past parents Rustam and Lia
Gagrat. This venue was particularly apt as
photographs were in evidence of at least
two eminent cricketing OWs: Douglas
Jardine (C, 14-19) and Tiger Pataudi (I,
60 Years-on Reunion for the Classes of
’54, ’55 & ’56: 56 OWs gathered on a
cold but bright March 14th. A div hour
was hosted by Dr Geoff Day, giving a
spell-binding discourse on 16th Century
Winchester. An attendee wrote
36
afterwards: ‘Thank you for an exceptional
talk – full of facts and a wonderful analysis
of an amazing period of Wykehamical