Jim Frew
Friday 26 April 2024
One of our regular contributors and all the way from Australia!Jim says"Thank you for your most recent mailing to OT members. I always look forward to receiving these as I still have many memories of my days at the College on the Hill where I was a student from 1941 to 1952. These years covered the WW2 years and the aftermath, during which time there were massive changes, not only to the College itself, but also to the UK and the world in general because of World War 2. When I joined the school, from my recollection numbers were very low as morning assembly didn’t manage to fill even one half of Big School and the same with morning service in the chapel! I think student numbers had tripled by the time I left TC in July 1952. You may also be aware that I was also the very last of Horace Pearson’s pupils to leave TC in July 1952.I migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1960 as a so-called ‘£10 Pom’, and it was the best £10 that I ever spent. I married my wife Beth, a Melbourne girl, in 1961, and we had a most happy marriage of 57 years until her passing some six years ago. I now live solo on the Mornington Peninsula south-east of Melbourne, which has been my home - both in working life and in retirement from 1964 until the present. At end of March this year, my son Graeme and I flew 1400km to Brisbane where my daughter Fiona and family live and where they helped me celebrated my 90th birthday with a small family luncheon just three weeks ago. The photo which I am holding shows my eldest granddaughter who couldn’t attend my party as she married an Austrian husband and now lives in his country, and they have my two great grandsons! Sadly, a bit too far for a very elderly grandpa to visit! The photo shows my daughter and son seated on either side of me seated at the table head.