The story starts on 21 March 2015 at
the OFA annual dinner when College Principal Mike Potter, who has just been
admitted as an honorary old boy, says to the OFA President, Ian Sargeant, that
he would like to find an event for the college and OFA to organise together at
the college. He wonders if we can celebrate the 800th anniversary of
Magna Carta?
Next day, Ian Sargeant meets socially
with fellow old boy Peter Wisbey and wife Rosemary Wisbey and Rosemary mentions
that the daughter of a friend is very busy on the Magna Carta Project. This
sequence of events was clearly fixed in the stars and 6 months later, as a
consequence, a memorable afternoon took place in the college Performance Studio
when Dr Sophie Ambler, of East Anglia University, captivated an audience of
around 100 with her lecture on the project to which she is devoting all her
efforts.
After a welcome and introduction by
Mike Potter, Dr Ambler described the background of the turmoil during the reign
of King John, whose behaviour and treatment of enemies and rivals was
appallingly inhumane, even by the code
of behaviour in the medieval period. As we all know, an agreement was forced on the king by the barons and
established important principles of justice and also contained a condition
that, if the king broke the agreement, his properties would be forfeited. In
the aftermath of this, the then Bishop of Winchester (Pierre des Roches), a
supporter of the king, enlisted the help of King Louis of France, who invaded
the south of England and occupied, amongst other places, Farnham castle and the
town of Farnham. For 12 months our town was occupied by the French. The
audience was fascinated by this talk and there were several questions from the
audience before the lecture ended with a vote of thanks by the OFA President.
Visiting old boys yearning for a bit of
nostalgia then made a tour of the old school building, now named
Group photo
LtoR: Mike Potter (Principal), Jason Jones (Director), Pat Frost (Mayor of
Farnham), Stephen Pritchard (OFA Treasurer), Cyril Trust (Former President
OFA), Dr Sophie Ambler, Roger Edgell (OFA Vice-President) & Secretary),
Brian Williams (Former President OFA), Ian Sargeant (OFA President)
Ian Sargeant
Posted 21 September, 2015
£1000 was presented to the Halp
Barpak Foundation on 8 October 2015 from the proceeds of the lecture, topped
up by the OFA.