To our fellow Alumni at the Old Wimbledonians

“CANTIONALE” – THE HYMNS OF OUR YOUTH

It is hard to believe it but 2007 marked the 40th Anniversary of the closure of Beaumont College. For The Beaumont Union it was a vintage year with over 140 attending our annual dinner and more than 200 at the Remembrance Sunday Mass at the War Memorial in the grounds of Beaumont.

(More about Beaumont)

In addition to this 20 of us gathered in the Chapel of what was Beaumont’s Prep School, St Johns, to make a CD recording with the title referred to above. The idea for this was conceived by one of our number, Robert Wilkinson, on Remembrance Sunday two years ago. The tragic death in a car crash a few days later of the then Headmaster of St Johns, Dermot Gogarty, resulted in delay and it was only when a number of us on the HCPT Pilgrimage to Lourdes last Easter met there that a date was set for this recording to be made. Robert’s intention was to preserve for prosperity the music that had been sung in the Chapel at Beaumont.

Just as we used the Beaumont Cantionale, we believe that your alumni may have sung similar hymns and that at least those of our generation (the youngest old boy at Beaumont now being at least 55) may relish the opportunity to hear again the hymns of their youth.

Listen to brief extract

Tracks include

The proceeds of the CD are being divided between two charities:

HCPT - the Pilgrimage Trust &
The Dermot Gogarty Memorial Trust

HCPT is supported by members of the BU by their involvement in the annual Easter children’s pilgrimage to Lourdes and their presence then in Lourdes, as well. 2007 was the 50th anniversary of Beaumont boys first joining the HCPT pilgrimage. One of the groups in the London Beaumont Region of HCPT, led by Jerry Hawthorne, regularly has amongst its helpers, boys from Wimbledon College.

Dermot Gogarty was for 18 years the highly respected headmaster of St John’s, until his tragic death in a car accident in November 2005. A Trust has now been established in his memory. Richard Sheehan, Chairman of the Trustees, spoke at the inaugural presentation at St John’s in these terms:-

“Among Dermot’s qualities was his concern for social issues. Focusing on this and indeed as a witness to how this influenced the boys under his care, it was two recent pupils at St John’s who came up with the idea that we should develop a permanent fund to support initiatives suggested and developed by the boys in year 8 (post Common Entrance) which would be of benefit to the community. They would do this in groups supervised by a member of staff.  It would take place over a week after Common Entrance Exams and the boys would be encouraged afterwards to describe how they had gained from the experience. Since such projects will require financing it was felt that a permanent fund should be established in this way Dermot’s memory could be honoured in a manner of which he would have approved.”

Richard has suggested that the occasion should also be linked to the memory of Brian Burgess who died suddenly in May 2007. He was an old boy of Donhead, St John’s and Beaumont, a Group Leader of one of the HCPT Groups when aged only 20, Chairman of the Executive and a Governor of HCPT for many years. He had been looking forward to this occasion, linking as it did St John’s and HCPT.

The CDs are accompanied by an illustrated souvenir booklet which provides the words of each of the twenty five tracks listed on the Order Form available on this website.

We hope that the Wimbledon alumni will wish to support these two charities in the same way as has already been done by members of the Beaumont Union. At the time of writing almost 250 CDs have been sold, mainly to the Beaumont Union, and over £5,300 has already been received through orders for the CD and accompanying donations for the charities, with the result that two Charities have together received almost £3,600. To order the CD you simply need to print off the order form and post it to me with £16.50 for each CD inclusive of postage; donations to the two charities can be added if desired.

John Flood
Secretary to the Committee

Click here to download Order Form