Many thanks to Alex for sending me this picture of the official opening of the County Hall Museum. The Royal personage who unveiled the plaque was Prince Richard, The Duke of Gloucester. The last time The Duke of Gloucester visited Abingdon was for the opening of the Resource and Wellbeing Centre in October 2010. I didn’t get a picture of him on that occasion either.
Michael St John Parker, Headmaster 1975 – 2001, gave a very interesting talk this evening about the exhibition at Abingdon Museum – Abingdon to Zanzibar – an A to Z of Abingdon School over 450 years. The talk was in the Roysse Room – the one time school room.
In the talk there was high praise for some ex headmasters such as Thomas Woods 1716-1753 during whose time a lot of the nobility sent their sons to Abingdon, when it became a top school in the country. There was less praise for another headmaster who started off with a good complement of pupils but ended up with just three, then did a similar act of decimation at his next school.
One ex pupil, Colonel Bringfield, became a national hero when he stopped a canon ball with his head – was decapitated, but saved Lord Marlborough whose horse he was holding on the battlefield. As a result Colonel Bringfield has a monument in Westminster Abbey. Another Old Abingdonian, called Ridley, helped stop the Slave Trade in Zanzibar.
The talk also gave a new angle on local historical figures like John Roysse and the Tesdales. I expect it will be printed in time so well worth reading.