Month: August 2020

Congratulations to Old Scardeburgian Matthew Harris for passing out as a Commissioned Officer in the Royal Navy.

Matthew left Scarborough College in 2015 with an IB score of 38 points, a DofE Gold and the CCF Sword of Honour. He read History at Edinburgh University and graduated in 2019. From there, he won a place at the Britannia Royal Navy College in Dartmouth.

Matthew will return to Dartmouth, where he will start his chosen career as a Warfare Officer. From everyone at Scarborough College, we wish you all the best.

Keith Rowe (1970-2002) has been involved in East Africa since 1991 when the now General Lord Dannet rang him and suggested he might like to take some Cadets to Kenya to join in the Green Howards training.

Keith’s response was very much the affirmative, but he did point out that it would be of huge educational importance if they could also undertake some sort of Aid Work.  This is where the Army stepped in to give their full support for whatever Aid work the CCF undertook.  It is therefore from here that he set up support work for the Nanyuki Orphanage and the Disabled Children’s  Unit at the Nanyuki Primary School.

From this time until Keith left the College, small groups of Cadets were taken to Kenya (usually 8-10 in number) to carry out construction and improvement work at the two sites – for example building two play areas , set up a shower unit, fitted out a classroom for the disabled children, set up a simple Kitchen and Food preparation area and financed and helped the Royal Engineers to build two classrooms at the Nanyuki Orphanage

Each trip always ended in a week’s Safari in the Aberdare Mountains and the Rift Valley around Lake Naivasha.  Keith believes that over this period of time over 100 Scarborough College Cadets made the trip to Kenya.

Since leaving the College in 2002 he has worked as a senior Youth Worker with the North Yorks County Council and made two more trips to Kenya, again sponsored by the Army.

In 2008 Gail & Keith moved over to West Yorkshire to the village of Luddenden where they now have a variety of animals on their 3 ½  acres of land.  After they had been in the village about a year Keith got involved with the Wakefield Diocese Support Project  for the Mara District of Tanzania.  He was then asked to be the Parish Link Officer for the Project and first travelled out to Tanzania 2010 to set up a Link with the village of Mmazame, not far from Lake Victoria.   The village was very much in need of help, as the support  given is centred on the village Church, which  has been fitted out and is now very much used as a community building.

The basic ethos of the project is to work with the villagers to help them to become self-sufficient.  To raise money for the project they have involved the two local Primary Schools as well as Rotary and a large number of individuals.  This ethos of working together is the basis of all that they do, it is the two communities working together to get to know each other and learn from each other all summed up in the Swahili phrase Bega Kwa Bega (Shoulder to Shoulder)

Since 2010, small groups of adults from the Luddenden area have travelled out to Mmazami to work with the villagers on a variety of projects.   These include setting up a water harvesting system from the Church, finance the sinking of a well in the village.  Setting up a solar powered power system in the Church, starting a nursery school for the 3-7 year olds. Building a house for the Parish Priest.  Setting up a community sewing project for the woman of the village so that they can earn money for their families.  They have also set up a Community Goat Farm so that again the villagers can begin to earn some money from the sale of excess milk.  The Project has  also financed the construction of five small shop units so that the products of the sewing projects and goat projects as well as produce from the newly started Market Garden can be sold to passers-by to bring money into the village.

It was the last trip that Bishop George Okoth of Musoma took Keith aside to inform him that in recognition of what he called the unique approach to Aid Work that they had developed around Mmazami, he would like to grant Keith the status of Lay Canon  of Musoma Cathedral.  Musoma is the Regional capital of the area, and that is where the story ends so far.

Many congratulations to Keith. Well-deserved recognition for years of important work in East Africa.

We were shocked to read, in this week’s issue of the local paper, of the terrible injuries suffered by Miss Berry (who served both at Lisvane and the College from 1974 until 2005) and her friend in a car accident in November.

What follows is some of the detail outlined in the Scarborough News. Dorothy was a passenger in the car driven by her friend Margaret. They were travelling along Seamer Moor Lane to York on a shopping trip. The single carriageway was clearly marked with double white lines due to numerous hidden dips. A car driven by a 17 year old, provisional driver who was not displaying L-plates was being driven on the wrong side of the road and ploughed head-on into the car in which Dorothy was a passenger.

Miss Berry was knocked unconscious, suffered a number of catastrophic injuries including a broken collarbone, collapsed lung, fractured hip, fractured chest bone, two spinal fractures, a perforated ulcer and a severely bruised breastbone. She was transferred to Hull Royal Infirmary and spent five months in hospital under the care of doctors and her extreme physical and mental trauma resulted in a stroke. After a spell in Scarborough Hospital where she underwent more surgery she was not discharged until the end of March and now requires round-the-clock care. She can no longer walk unassisted and cannot put the kettle on.

“Mine and Margaret’s lives have been turned upside down. Everyday tasks have become impossible. Ultimately, I’m thankful I’m still alive.”

The driver pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving without a licence or insurance. He was jailed for 14 months and banned from driving for 2 years and seven months.

We apologise for the lack of information at the time but were unaware that this had happened. If you would like to pass a message on to Dorothy please email it to osa@scarboroughcollege.co.uk, please make the subject of the email Miss Berry or send by post your message/card addressed to : OSA (Miss Berry), Scarborough College, Filey Road, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 3BA. We shall ensure that she gets the messages and cards.

Some two months after celebrating Gordan’s 100th birthday we are saddened to bring you the news that he  passed away – on 10th August. His  family informed us that his health had declined over the last few weeks.

“He was in hospital just for his final three days for his pain to be managed and to keep him comfortable. His daughter Pam was by his side as he passed.”

“100 years and 2 months was such an incredible achievement and he had an amazing life, of which Scarborough College was such an important part of and a time he always talked about.  He was still talking about the gifts and cards sent from the College and OSA for his 100th birthday, up to the very end. He was so grateful for them.”

“He will be laid to rest on Tuesday 1st September, he will be wearing his Scarborough College tie.”

“Again, thank you for your kindness shown to Gordon and ourselves, in 2017 when we visited, and also more recently at his birthday. We will always cherish the memories you helped to create.”