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Letters 2002
John Eveleigh
5-i-02
Dear Nick
I do hope 2002 is a good year for you with outlets for your remarkable musical
talent - and no doubt others including your editorship of the OC Newsletter
which I received on Christmas Eve with the greatest pleasure. It was so good to
see one of Norris Ackroyd's pallet knife oil paintings as the front cover so
well reproduced and David Koster's colour washed with water colours, and my
water colour too on the back cover; also very well printed. So not for our sakes
but for purposes of establishing a good beginning to establishing an OC Annual
Scadding Art Prize - David and I hope the auction of donated works (including
Tony Hart's Hartoon - although what is the significance of the clothes hanger
and articles of clothing in the thought bubble has yet to reveal itself) gets
off to a good start. Backed up with postcard sales (if printed), and possible
further donations from other sources to build up the fund.
I never knew Muriel Henbest but it was my wife Grete who saw the connection
between her daughter Jenny (Caroline) who is featured on one of the Australian
Chamber Orchestra publicity publications as its Viola Leader. We know the ACO's
Director and Violinist Richard Togeetti (and his family) very well and his
mother, Irene, came to stay with us on the conclusion of the ACO's European tour
last year. Richard's father Keith was reader in Mathematics at the University of
Wollougong where I was on the staff of the School of Creative Arts - (and
recently Richard T was awarded an honorary Doctorate) from 1984 to 1991. I drew
Richard playing the violin when he was 16 and painted his father too. At the
time the family refused to have a TV so he used to come to our flat to listen to
Wagner's 'Ring' then performed on TV so I painted him. The painting was shown a
couple of years ago in the old Parliament Building in Canberra along with
paintings including one of Charles Darwin.
I note you were at Clayesmore as both a pupil and later a staff member. You may
well know Roger Walton (Freeman) who was, as a teenager, friends with our eldest
son Aldous. He went on to become a staff member at Clayesmore. I saw him again
recently when he came back to his step mother's funeral (his mother had been
Headmistress at East Kennet's primary school) and he spoke of his days at
Clayesmore. "I enjoyed it so much I often wondered why I was being
paid!" So he also spoke at length about given staff who were still teaching
then and who had taught me, and how NAS became the C of E Parish Priest at East
Kennet( where of course he is buried) and two parishes close by at the end of
his life. As a school boy NAS joined the staff shortly after I went there and I
saw how he began to change the whole orientation of the school where the Arts
became respected; boys were challenged to think for themselves; and how he
brought out the best in other staff who followed his example in opening their
rooms to informal visits by boys. John Simpson introduced me to Bach by way of
his gramophone and, aged 15, gave me 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley and
'Ends and Means' to read and works by Bertrand Russell, among others. Whilst
John Appleby introduced us informally to the Romantic Poets in his room as well
as in the class room. And Verrinder directed excellently Auden and Isherwood's
'F 6' in the old school theatre. And 'Shifty' Sessions who taught me to play the
piano quite well (rather poorly compared to my brother Michael) and thrust a
bassoon into my hands. And Hillier taught us biology at the foot of Hambledon
Hill. I knew I was lucky then and have never doubted it since. I wish to
discharge a debt.
With every good wish and many thanks.
Sincerely,
John Eveleigh (40 - 44)