Medical Graduates of 1961

50 year Reunion – Year of 1961

Much work went into chasing contacts and “lost souls” to develop interest for a fifty year Reunion. The year has been meeting on a five yearly basis so most contacts were still viable, but inevitably a few colleagues had disappeared, or moved to inaccessible locations. The year is now spread around the globe, from Australia, via Singapore and Geneva to Vancouver and Alberta.

We elected for a straightforward Dinner – only event on Saturday 17 September 2011, and gathered at the Alveston Manor Hotel in Stratford upon Avon, since Stratford holds many happy memories of previous reunions.

Including thirty graduates, fifty-three sat down to dinner. A few hadn’t braved a reunion for over a decade, and joined us with some trepidation. This proved to be misplaced, and the start of Dinner was delayed because of the difficulty in breaking up the jolly conversation and steering people into the dining room.

Tables of eight worked well, with some effort going in to placing friends together for dinner.

After dinner, groups mingled and circulated, picking up the threads of previous years. This activity continued long into the evening, and only began to wane when those who were non‑resident had to break away. There were some surprises which came out of the many conversations, not least that the Lien’s daughter and the Swan’s daughter actually work together, unbeknown to them and their parents!

We learned with sadness of the death of three more of our year since the Reunion in 1996 and the current ill-health of four more. Apologies were received from a dozen or so of our colleagues who had other arrangements, or couldn’t make the long trek from overseas.

There were no formal speeches, but a vote of thanks was extended to Charles Swan who had organised the event.

Those who had been resident overnight enjoyed a very pleasant “mini-reunion” over breakfast, and an agreement was reached that we should meet again in four years in view of our age.

Anyone interested in learning details of the next event should contact the Sands Cox Charity for my contact details.

Charles Swan

List of participating graduates:

Gill Armstrong, Diana Evans (Price), Brian Hopkinson, Barry Cooper, Tony Banks, Barry Hulme, Dick Hall, Louise Henly (Lewis), David Hewitt, Ann Smith (Hougham), Wing Ming Lien, Charles Swan, Ian McK. Thompson, Bob Washington, Mike Weeks, Adiokosa Adebunmi, Roger Dent, John Davies, John Gunn, Betty Davies (Morgan), John Masters, Bernard Juby, Nigel Gostick, Colin Leonard, Margaret James-Moore (Macaviney), Sheila James (Quinn), John Moore, Keith Perry, Ken Watwood, Sat Sood.

Dorothy Nicholas (Jacques) and Janti Shah were due to dine but were prevented by illness at the last minute.

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