Back to contents

Dear OD

What is it about the Liesbeek water which so stirs the souls of those on and about the Bishops campus? While both the recent SGM and the more recent and ongoing staff-pupil revelations are serious and concerning, they are also extremely sensitive. Our considered response must be to give space and time to those closest to the matter to deal with them. We are 6,000 miles away and even though cyber chatter brings gigabytes of news buzzing to our mobiles in immediate nanoseconds, speedy information doesn't always mean accurate information.

This has been an unusually busy month. I was delighted to have caught up with Brian Lefson (F, 1954). I am a great fan of Brian's who single-handedly pressed Bishops into erecting a board to honour ODs who achieved international colours in sports other than cricket and rugby (Brian himself was a SA golfer and WP squash champion). I also met with Tim Loughton (O, 1992), Charles McGregor (F, 1969), Sean Rosenberg (F, 1974), Chris Anderson (F, 1978), John Hawinkels (O, 2010), Mike Taylor (G, 1959) Hamish Sinclair (S, 1992), Matthew Golesworthy (K, 2011), Anthony Gibson (S, 1973), Peter Arthur (W, 1965) and Richard Böttger (W, 1993). And then, reported below, Oxford and Cambridge lunches with, well, Oxford and Cambridge (based) ODs. Always interesting and always fun!

Saturday was our annual Oxford pub lunch. This is our fourth year (I think - maybe fifth) and grows each year. We were so pleased that Deborah Honoré could be with us. Her husband, Tony (F, 1939) who was, internationally, the doyen of Jurisprudence and so much other law, died in February this year (his obituary is in the upcoming ODU Magazine) and was a great supporter of these lunches. In a note to me afterwards, Deborah said,

"Just a line to say a big Thank You for including me in yesterday’s lunch. It is so heart-warming for me to be with such a variety of people who were nourished educationally by Bishops, and to enjoy their company. Certainly for Tony the school was a life-saver, and gave his mind the openings it needed in order to flourish".

We're back at the Bell next year on Saturday 17th October. For a short report and more pictures of this lunch, click HERE.

The following day was spent in Cambridge where I had lunch with Philip Hazel (F, 1961), his wife Judith and Nicholas Janisch (G, 2016). Philip completed his PhD in mathematics at St John's, Cambridge and remained on the university staff until his retirement about nine years ago. Nicholas is the Mary Gray scholar - also in St John's and also reading maths (just starting his second year). Philip and Nicholas obviously had much in common, none of which I could understand. In the photo, from bottom left, Philip, Judith, your secretary and Nicholas.

If there are any Cambridge students who know about this newsletter but are not on my list, please let me know. It doesn't take many to activate a pub lunch!

Nicholas Olds (W, 2009) has followed the sun south and relocated to Sydney. He writes,

"I am writing to let you know that over the past few months I have been in the process of applying for an Australian visa. This has happened super quickly as I was offered the opportunity of an internal transfer with Finalta (a part of McKinsey & Company) to start our presence in Sydney. Our McKinsey office isn’t too bad - see the photo below :) [a view of the Sydney Harbour and Opera House]

I apologise for not finding time to say goodbye, but everything happened very fast. I am now almost at the end of week 3 and it’s been great so far! If you guys are ever in the area please do give me a call (my new number is +61 437 540 640)"

We wish him well in his new role and new country and new view.

Kindest regards.

Nicky Bicket

Bishops, Paul Roos, SACS and St Andrew's are the only four schools in the world who enjoy(ed) the benefit of a named Rhodes Scholarship, a scholarship endowed only to that school for that school's pupils. In 2014, The Rhodes Trustees approached the four schools to ask them to extend the eligibility of their Rhodes Scholarships to pupils at other schools each could select (Elizabeth Kiss (see above) will cover this at the end of this month). The schools agreed and in 2015, Bishops invited Herschel, St Cyprians, St Georges and the LEAP schools to compete for the Bishops Rhodes Scholarship. In that year, Ashley Pople (St Cyprians) became the first ever non-Bishops pupil to win the Bishops Rhodes Scholarship. 

Ashley is currently reading for her DPhil in Economics (Behavioral and Development) at Oxford. Her talk will cover among other things the impact the Scholarship has had on her, her Oxford experience, and the direction of her degree(s) and what she plans to do as an economist once she receives her doctorate. Read more about Ashley HERE.

The lunch is on Friday 31st January, 2020 at The Carlton Club and including all drinks, costs £45.

We are limited to 30 places so to RSVP now, please click HERE. Invitations, if there are still places available, will go out closer the event
 

And talking of Bishops Rhodes Scholars, the scholarship has come home as it were, since Muhammed Razzak (M, 2014) was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for 2019. Muhammed will be taking up his scholarship next year, and we look forward to welcoming him to the UK Branch. He tells me he is looking forward to being welcomed.

Muhammed matriculated in 2014 with eight distinctions in the NSC Final Grade 12 Examination. In 2015 he started at UCT graduating in 2018 with a first-class honours BSc Engineering Degree in Mechatronics. He is currently studying for an MSc in Engineering at UCT, concurrently working at Mila in Professsor Yoshua Bengio's group on Humanitarian AI. Amongst his academic awards to date are the Klaus-Jurgen Bathe and Mandela Rhodes Scholarships.

Muhammed has served as the National Student Chairperson of “Engineers without Borders South Africa”; and on the local UCT Chapter Committee. These have been in various roles; one of them was to assist, support and develop socially conscious engineers; another was working on projects that assist under-resourced communities. Deeply passionate about using engineering to find solutions to challenges faced by communities in South Africa and on the African continent, Muhammed plans to work at the interface of academia and industry. For this reason, he plans to read for a DPhil in Engineering Science at Oxford, focusing on computer vision applied to resource-constrained settings. For recreation, you’ll find him playing tennis, squash, reading fantasy books or speedcubing (and what that is, you'll have to ask him ...).
 

CRAIG BELLAMY
WORLD CHAMPION ENDURANCE SWIMMER

Endurance athlete Cameron Bellamy (B, 2000) completed the longest recorded ocean channel swim on Sunday 15th September, covering the 151.7 km (94 miles) from Barbados to St Lucia in the Caribbean in 56 hours and 36 minutes, according to the official website tracking his progress.

As reported by Reuters,  the 37-year-old South African (and OD - my addition) set out from St Peters Bay in Barbados at 8.20 on Saturday morning, 14th September, swimming in flat seas with gentle swells but hot conditions, reaching St Lucia just before 5 p.m. local time on Sunday to be met by the country’s prime minister Allen Chastanet.

Local media reported that paramedics took Bellamy to a medical facility for mandatory tests, but he appeared in good spirits when he exited the water after being swept a little further by the current than planned.
 

Waterpolo:

Waterpolo goes from strength to strength, with the U14s unbeaten in seven games at the Hilton College festival. The U15s and U19s both finished 3rd in the SA national tournament.

Debating and Public Speaking:

During the September holidays, 8 Bishops boys participated in the National Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships at Michaelhouse in the Natal Midlands. As a school, Bishops had 5 boys in the top 10 (6 in the top 15), taking first, second, fourth, sixth, ninth and thirteenth places. Of the eight boys who competed, seven will be part of the South African team at the World Championships in Shanghai in April next year. 

Bishops Investment Club:

The text below is reproduced directly from Alec Hogg's BizNews Daily Insider put out at the beginning of October and was written by Alec:

"The most heartening part of last night’s roadshow presentation in Cape Town came from an unexpected source – the nephew of a long-time community member, introduced to me after the formal proceedings were over.

A well-spoken lad [Khelan Dheda], he turned out to be the chairman of the investment club at historic Bishops, a 170 year old boy’s school. I was surprised such an organisation even existed. And more so when discovering the club has 200 members. Youngsters taking a cue from Warren Buffett, who bought his first share at just 11 years old.

We never got around to discussing how and when the club started, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was encouragement from the chairman of the school’s council, Simon Peile. He is an actuary better known in financial circles as co-founder, with his high profile wife Magda Wierzycka, of asset management disruptor Sygnia.

With investing, the earlier one starts the greater the chance of success. Those 200 lads may not yet realise it, but joining this club is likely to be one of the most valuable decisions of their entire school careers. After all, Warren Buffett bought his first share as an 11 year old. And look at how that turned out."
 

Back to contents

Back to contents