Following a recent visit to St Mary’s on the occasion of 51 years since the commencement of our studies at the University and the 50th year of our Club, we were very kindly asked to write a brief account about our group. So here goes!
Way, way back in 1973, students made their way from around the UK and beyond, treading well worn paths, to embark on Teacher Training courses at St Mary’s, Strawberry Hill. Little did we all know then, that in addition to the acquisition of teaching qualifications, many of us would form wonderful friendships, some of which would last a lifetime.
The ‘Birds of a Feather’ adage was never truer than for one such group who, having met and bonded in the Autumn of ‘73, formed a Club in the Spring of ‘74, loosely based on the dubious premise of catching each other out when not conforming to agreed rules and regulations, in particular the suppression of bad language. The F.H. Swear Club had been born!
Together we enjoyed many extra curricular activities, fun, games and typical studentjapes, with ‘Dead Ants’, The Generation Game Disco and the 23 Legged Pub Crawl immediately springing to mind. However it may be appropriate at this point to apologise to those who knew us back in the day (lecturers included!) and may have witnessed any unseemly behaviour, but some 50 years later, surprise, surprise, not much has changed. Leopard, spots and all that. Without realising it though, support for each other in good times and bad, cemented our friendships, strengthening bonds that would hold firm for our lives way beyond college and far deeper than contravening Swear Club rules.
Following the completion of respective courses, we all went our separate ways in search of employment and the commencement of life outside the comfort and security of our college bubble.
Fortunately, and somewhat unsurprisingly, the friendship of our ‘Band of Brothers’ entered its next phase, namely, the reunions!
As a number of the group remained in the Twickenham area, of the first three annual get togethers, two were in Strawberry Hill. The itinerary for these weekends followed a similar format, and suffice to say, involved the consumption of more alcohol than was advisable and also the rendition of songs, many of which were learned in the college bar from older students. More importantly however, it gave us the opportunity to catch up on the wellbeing and developments of everyone in the group and reminisce on our college exploits, (stories that predictably would be repeated and increasingly embellished in subsequent years!).
As members of our group began to establish more permanent roots in areas further afield, our meetings began to be organised by individual members close to, or even at, our own homes. In Blackpool 1980, the decision was taken to meet annually, in early June, with subsequent meetings agreed one year in advance. We are proud to say that this has been upheld to date, some 50 years later. Lucky Liverpool will be our venue for June 2025!
In addition to these annual events, most of which see in excess of 15 of us in attendance, other smaller gatherings take place regularly and the obligatory WhatsApp group keeps us in touch and up to date with each other’s news and is used for ongoing competitions, generally of a sporting or musical nature, just to keep our competitive juices active! Weekly Zoom meetings during and post Covid had many highlights, including a Murder Mystery Evening in full period costume.
For those who knew us and were aware of our aforementioned exploits at College, in particular the odd person who may have had doubts about our future prospects (again, lecturers included!), you may be interested to know that within our ranks, we have several retired Headteachers all of ‘outstanding’ establishments, Senior School Leaders, Senior Social Workers, Lecturers, Business Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Published Authors, Playwrights, a Justice of The Peace and a couple of C.B.E’s thrown in for good measure!
However, we would all acknowledge that without the experience of Simms and all it had to offer, our lives would not have been so rewarding and productive.
Finally, it would be very remiss not to mention those no longer with us, in particular three of our group, namely Tony Nickson, Jim O’Brien and Pete Kane (whose names we proudly displayon our Club shirts), and also all those not in our Swear Club who shared in our fun and enriched our lives, who have also passed away. R.I.P. friends and thanks for the many wonderful memories.
So, there we have it. A group of ex-Simmarians finding, establishing, developing andmaintaining special relationships. We know that this is not without parallel, indeed we have strong links with other groups of past College students who were as fortunate and blessedas us. In particular female students who were randomly placed together in College hostels and also a number of older students who, in our 1st Year, took us under their (dubious!) wings and helped make us realise the importance and truly unique nature of being a Simmarian.