Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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zo THE ASHBURIAN NOTES Now, also, with deep regret we have to record the death of our Visitor, Lord Alexander, who died of heart failure in London on 16 june. His two sons, Brian and Shane, came to us when Lord Alexander was ap- pointed Governor-General. During his period of office in Canada he dutifully inspected the cadets, who are attached to the Governor-Gem eral's Foot Guards, and was well known to Ashbury as parent and friend. He became School Visitor on relinquishing the Governor-Generalship in 1952, when he returned to England to become Minister of Defence. Our sympathies go to Lady Alexander and her sons in their loss of this great and gentle soldier. The school closed this year on 12 June and details of the exercises are in the middle of this journal. Not long after the war, a retiring head- master stressed elsewhere that the aim of his school was breadth of interest and a capacity to elicit not only leaders but happy eccentrics of all kinds, placing more emphasis on correct self-expression than on ambition. The President of Brock University Ca former Rhodes scholar and disting- uished member of External Affairsj spoke most ably on this theme and extended it, and so did the Captain of School in his valedictory. Ash- bury, we think, is in one way and another taking notice of the point. CThe Graduating Class gave a hand-made clock for the school libraryj. There are perhaps fewer accounts this year of so-called club activi- ties. This is balanced by the introduction of more literary contributions and copies of drawings and photographs. Mr. Fordyce, who came to teach drawing and painting this year, has the promise of the coaching house being turned into a studio for the school shortly, and no doubt this side of Ashbury life will be developed. Mr. Fordyce, by the way, is a painter in oils and acrylic colours who sells profitably many of his pic- tures, especially those of Newfoundland. It was nice for the Masters' Common Room to be able to give one to Mrs. Blyth as a mark of their affection and respect for her. The Headmistress of Elmwood is going to England with her husband, Lieut.-Colonel David Blyth, who will be en poste there for the next three years. One of the biggest changes in school has been the replacement of four very courteous and painstaking Central European waitresses by boys who are detailed in turn for duty by their houses. VVhile the stan- dard of our waitresses has not yet been reached, we are glad to mention that the service is better now than it was when the boys first took over at the beginning of the school year. Another remarkable change is the wearing of shorts in the spring term by masters in the junior School. Mr. Beedell, a former Olympic canoeist, led, we believe, followed by Mr. Flynn with some interesting Australian measurements and Mr. Robertson with the standard, short South African version.

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Colour Photographs by VV. G. R. XYilSon

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THE ASHBURIAX ll lf we have to record that I2 bovs. after tuition in term time. obtained their motor driving licences in the year, we must sav that Ash, bury did very well in the .Xliles for Xlillions walk. As in the previous vear, all the younger entrants succeeded in completing the -HP-mile walk. Nlartin ll in 9A deserves special congratulations. At the annual sports dinner the guest speakers were Alt. Christopher Lang and Xlr. llarry jerome. Alt. -lerome, a gold medalist now living in l3.C. who has run in three Olympics, made an interesting point: the annual changeover of competitors from the United States is high, new entrants every year. Supplementing the films shown in school. an Ashbury Film Society was formed to show films of outstanding merit which are not often avail- able to the public. The programme included the Russian I,I'TllL'C .4le.1n111- der N e-cski and Battleship ljofevnkin, the japanese S6?'1'L'11 Si'!71lIlI'ilT. the Sicilian La Term T remit, and Buster Keaton in The GL'lIC'Ti1I. It had been hoped that membership of the Canadian Federation of Film Societies would keep costs down and give us access to an up-to-date catalogue of 16 mm films available in Canada. This has not proved to be so. lndeed. a charge of 535.00 by the Canadian Film Institute for The G6'7I6l'i1f, which is only two reels, is thought to be too high. Starting in September. we will show some films the Czechoslovak Embassy has kindly offered to lend us. In February the German Ambassador talked to the Senior School on an historical approach to European political union. The Ambassador, whose mother was English and who has been decorated with the KCYO, delighted the audience by turning the obviously loaded question with the suggestion that the questioner should ask his colleague the French Ambas- sador. In March the South African Ambasador explained his govern- ment's policy on apartheid. Both speakers were well received. Very worth mentioning, too, is the standing ovation given by Ashbury and Elmwood to Le Theatre du Nouveau Klonde playing Labiche's Les Deux Timides at Elmwood. This English speaking, Anglican audience made no bones at all about the warmth they felt for the French Canadian com- pany, whose political and theatrical sentiments were quite clear at ques- tion time after the play. About the turn of the century there appeared in a book by the late Anson A. Gard called The Hub and The Spokes, or. The Capital and its E11t'ir071s, the following two paragraphs on Ashbury, sandwiched be- tween comment on a reception in honour of Cardinal Gibbons and a note on the Ottawa Ladies College: A 'If one may judge by the prominence of its shareholders. and the high standing of its pupils. there are few colleges in Canada that will equal Ashbury, on Argyle Avenue. which. under the able Head Nlaster. Rev. Geo. P. XYoollcombe. and his competent