.

Photographs from yesterday's highly successful 100th Anniversary event at Southover can now be viewed on Facebook (you do not need to be a member of Facebook to follow the link)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.338261189534072.99385.100000505813333&type=1&l=c9119ba12a

The images are compressed for the web, if you would like a full resolution copy of any image to print at home or take to a photo processor, please contact Terry Gibson.

.

100th Anniversary Celebration

Sunday 11th December will mark the 100^th Anniversary of the Official Formation of the Cadet Unit at Christ’s College, Finchley in 1911 following its earlier creation as a Rifle Club in 1904.

This will be marked by an informal gathering at Southover on that Sunday afternoon commencing at 2pm with tea and light refreshments being served at around 3.30. We anticipate it being completed by around 5pm.

All Centarians and their families and friends are invited to attend and meet up with their former colleagues for an afternoon of reminiscences.

And if you have any historical artefacts or photographs that we might photograph or copy for the Trust, do please bring them along.

There will be a comprehensive display of archive material from the Stockdale Trust.

.

.

Remembrance Day Parade - Harrow 13/11/11

.

Today I had the honour of attending the Remembrance Parade at Harrow Civic Centre - where my daughter read her poem after the 2 minute silence (having won a poetry competition organised by the mayor). Proving what a small world it is, the Guard Commander was none other than Olaf Dudley, (CCF 78-85) and in the detachment from 131 Independent Commando Engineers was Tim Borrill (CCF 1972-77).

.

Ricochet 2011 - Now available for download

.

The 2011 edition of Ricochet is now available for download from the main CRA website at www.c-r-a.org.uk

.

Cricket Fans - OF News !

.

There will be a presentation of awards for the Herts Saracens Cricket League at a forthcoming Saracens Rugby match.

This year the O.F. 1st Team won Division 2 and the 2nds were runners up in Division 7 making them one of the most successful if not THE most successful Club in the League. So there is plenty to celebrate. Awards will be presented to both Divisional Winners and Runners Up.

The presentations will be on Saturday 10 December at Wembley Stadium prior to the Saracens v Ospreys Heineken Cup Match which kicks off at 18:00.

Watch this space for ticketing details.

.

Wreath Laying at the Menin Gate

.

CRA members may be interested to know that we have been given permission by the Last Post Association, Ypres www.lastpost.be/calendar to lay a wreath at the evening ceremony at the Menin Gate at 8pm on Wednesday 19th October.

Messers Fuller, Groom, Crick and Millen will attend during this year's pilgrimage to locate the remaining 28 ex-pupils of CCF who are commemorated in that area.

.

"Growing People" - A Charity worthy of your support.

.

Surely one of the purposes of an "Old Boys Club" is to support old friends from our cadet days - especially in charitable endeavours.

John Cliff  runs Growing People - a horticultural therapy project for people with mental health issues. The project is in with a chance to secure £6,000 from Natwest bank via an online and phone vote. This process is only open until the 24th October so if you feel able to support John in this way, please act quickly.

To vote on line

1. Go to http://communityforce.natwest.com/ and click on the ‘Register’ link at the top of the page;
2. Enter your name, email address and password in the form provided;
3. You will receive a confirmation email sent to your inbox. Click on the link supplied in this email to confirm your registration; (if you do not receive an email phone Helpline 0800 2100 246 and they will verify your registration);
4. Log in on the site, entering your email address and password;
5. To vote:

• Click on the Projects Tab
• Click on ‘List’ (blue button)
• Click on ‘by project name’
• Enter Growing Friends in the search box and click on the magnifying glass. When the entry appears click on ‘Read more’
• Tick the ‘I accept the NatWest Community Force Voting Terms and Conditions’ box;
• Click on the “Vote for us” red button.

To vote by phone

1. Contact phone the helpline 0800 2100 246 and leave your name and telephone number
2. They will phone back to validate your details and take your vote. (Your call may not be returned until after the closing date but your vote will still count)
3. Minicom line 0800 0155 545

.

.

CRA AGM

.
The CRA AGM will be held at Southover on the 17th November 2011
.
.

The CRA - Now on Twitter

.
Not content with a website, a blog and a Facebook page, you can now follow news updates from the CRA on Twitter.

Just search  CRA_Dpdate or follow the link.
.

Christ's College to be an Academy from September

.

I am pleased to be able to confirm that the Secretary of State has agreed an Academy Order for Christ’s College Finchley.

This is a major milestone in the school’s development. Subject to governors being content with all legal and financial issues surrounding the conversion the school can become an Academy on September 1st 2011. Head and Governors have been working hard on the process, ensuring that everything connected with the transfer of land buildings and staff to the new Christ’s College Finchley Academy Trust is done properly and goes smoothly. We want to be certain that the school is placed in the best possible position as it faces this next chapter in its development. Further updates will be posted on the website as the conversion process unfolds this term.

G Tucker

.

CRA Dinner 2011

The 2011 CRA Dinner was a great success. A full report will follow in due course - but here are some images. As always, click on an individual image for a larger version but if you would like a full resolution copy for printing at home, please email me.

The 2011 CRA Dinner

.

.

The 2011 CRA Dinner will be held at Southover on the 3rd June.

The usual letters and emails will be going out shortly - but make a note in your diary and please make every effort to attend this year. You can save a great deal of administration time (and postage costs) if you download the invitation letter directly from the CRA website at www.c-r-a.org.uk

If you were at the 2010 dinner you will know that the change of caterer allowed us to achieve sensible timings so that member with great distances to travel were not inconvenienced (and more local members could spend more time at the bar).

Our innovation this year is the ability to pay by Paypal which may be more convenient for some members. Simply email dinner@c-r-a.org.uk for a Paypal invoice.

.

.

CCF Remembrance Day 2010

.

Copied below is an address given by our President, Brian Fuller at the School's Remembrance Day service last year.

About three years ago Mick Crick, the Chairman of the CRA, embarked on a project to try and find out more about the names which appear on the school's two War Memorials.

On each memorial there are over 90 names of boys from this school who gave their lives in the two World Wars.

By this time last year some of you may remember, from the Stockdale Trust display in the dining hall, he had established the locations of nearly all of those names by

checking the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission who maintain the cemeteries and memorials of war dead throughout the world.

Many of them lie buried in France where there are over 900 cemeteries and memorials but some are in cemeteries spread across the globe from Canada, Australia, Singapore and Gallipoli in Turkey.

For the last two years, in November, he has been able to visit and place poppy crosses on nine graves of ex-pupils located in the North London area – five are in the cemetery next to this school.

Meanwhile, some others of us had also become involved and we had located and visited the graves or memorials of two ‘old boys’ buried in Cornwall, one in Oxford and, during a battlefield tour, two who had emigrated to Australia and joined the Australian Forces only to fight and die in the Gallipoli Campaign in Turkey. A further eight were found on the Naval War Memorials at Portsmouth and another two at Plymouth.

In October this year, three of us, all ex-cadets, went to visit the World War One battlefields in northern France to visit the graves and memorials of some of those on this memorial. We concentrated on the names on this memorial because we had established that over 70 of those 99 names were in an area stretching some 40 miles from Ypres in the north to Albert in the south along the lines of the trenches which formed the front line during World War One.

Over a period of three days we were able to locate and visit 45 of these in 27 cemeteries and the five memorials at Pozieres, Thiepval, Cambrai, Arras and Loos. Most of them we were able to drive to but one involved travelling down an unmade track and a short trek across a ploughed field. Pushing the car out afterwards gave us a taste of the “Flanders mud”.

At each we were able to place a poppy cross and, from the Commonwealth War Graves register at each cemetery, learn a little more about each individual and how and where he had died. We were struck by how many were barely out of their teens but also how many were junior officers probably leading their men into battle. Christ’s College, even then, were providing leaders – as they still do today.

As we placed a poppy cross at each grave or memorial we solemnly affirmed the exhortation; “They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning – we will remember them”.

The project continues and next year we hope to return to locate the remainder of the boys in northern France including seven who have no known grave but who are remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres.

In the dining hall is a pictorial account of this latest visit which I hope you will have time to visit and pause and consider what the boys of Christ’s College gave in those Wars.

.