Sixes & Sevens
An Eclectic selection of some of the interesting items that have passed across the Archive desk in the past few months:
Linguistic Scholar: Baron Donald Coggan
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Donald Coggan (1923-1928) former Archbishop of Canterbury was outstanding in oriental languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, and won a first in both parts of the Tripos examinations in 1930 and 1931 from Cambridge. He won the Tyrwhitt Hebrew Scholarship, the Mason Hebrew Prize, and the Jeremie Septuagint Prize.
Most OMTs will know that Baron Coggan was an alumnus of the school and retained a close association, returning in 1993 to open the Modern Languages Block and greeting pupils in 1993 by replying to words of welcome in French, Spanish, German, Russian and Japanese as well as in a language he learnt at the School: Hebrew.
We were delighted to receive a book prize that had been awarded to Baron Coggan in 1928 for his study of Hebrew, complete with the inscription and special Merchant Taylors’ Company binding. Baron Coggan had passed the book on to one of his students, Dendle French whilst he was Principal and Professor of Hebrew at the London College of Divinity.
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Dendle had been welcomed into the Coggan household during this time whilst studying and preparing for ordination and it happened that both he and Donald departed the College at the same time, so the book, a Dictionary of the Bible, was a personal farewell gift he went on to become Bishop of Bradford and Dendle was ordained. We are grateful to Alison Fearn, Dendle’s daughter for returning her late father’s book.
Caught on Camera: Michael McIntyre
Michael McIntyre (1989-1992) has never denied attending the School, but equally went out of his way to be rather disparaging about it. His autobiography (which we have in the School library) derided the grey uniform which he felt reflected the dullness of his peers – he describes a journey up the Metropolitan line surrounded by faceless characters. I have always thought that this was unfair and when former Head of Chemistry Tony Horrox donated several of his team photos to the archive, I was delighted to find evidence that young McIntyre had actually been at Sandy Lodge. Former tutor, John Pallant struggled to remember anything about the budding comedian, probably the gym was not his natural stage.
However, the Under 14 B cricket side from 1990 was filled with anyone but lifeless characters, looking at them now there was many a story tell about this bunch of rogues and intellectuals.
So where are they all now? Surely it is time to have a “Yearlings B Cricket 1990” reunion to enable his team mates to quiz the host of “The Wheel” on what he’s achieved in the years since Merchant Taylors’? Let’s hear from you in this photo so that we can put the record straight!
Gour(bli)met: The Ladies Association Cookbook, 1988
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the Ladies Association under the leadership of Brenda Skipper, wife of the Headmaster, pulled together a cook book from a loyal set of mums, with proceeds going to charity. I’ll leave you to judge which end of the market it was aimed at – fine dining, mid-priced or simply a student survival guide.
