Executive

The Executive Committee of the Wellensian Association

Alwyn Gillen (President)

Alwyn joined the Cathedral School staff in September 1972, primarily as Housemaster of The Cedars House with 54 Middle School boys : from 11+ to 13+. He taught Geography and History and coached First XV rugby, hockey and atheltics. He started the annual rugby tour, with very memorable trips to Paris and Holland. He also arranged ski trips.

Alwyn was a very active officer in the Combined Cadet Force: from a Flight Lieutenant i/c the Royal Air Force section he became Contingent Commander in the rank of Wing Commander. Alwyn took over the organisation of the annual Save the Children sponsored walk in 1973, raising around £4,000 every year for about 26 years.

In 1990 he was invited to become President and Membership Secretary of The Wellensian Association and thus has kept in touch with Wellensians all over the world. Obviously the development of the Web facilitated this contact, and with the newly developed web-site, monitored by the Development office in School, these contacts are proving to be very useful in the current drive to provide new and much needed facilities for the School. Alwyn has also been instrumental in arranging for the annual Wellensian London Dinner which has been held in the Royal Air Force Club in Piccadilly.

George Bunting (Chairman)

George was at Wells "a long time ago" (actually 1961-1970) but has a more recent connection as a parent. He says that there must be some ancient magnetism to the place that never quite lets you go. After leaving school and completing an economics degree he became a Social Worker in the Rhondda and then a hospital administrator for a few years before leaving the public sector for a career in consultancy. Over twenty years he developed skills in performance improvement and delivering large IT systems before retirement in 2007.

Now George shares his giving back time between The Wellensian Association and SSAFA Forces Help for which he is Secretary in the Mendip area (He formed connections with the Armed Forces through many years working on military bases). He and wife Julia have recently moved from Berkshire to Wiltshire, now there is no need to be near London or an airport.

George is enthusiastic to try some new ideas for the Association though he is very much aware that these will rely on the hard work of the Executive Committee and the support of members. George can be contacted at chairman@oldws.org.uk

Richard Harman (Vice Chairman and Secretary to the Executive Committee)

Richard attended the School from 1961 to 1968 having previously spent 4 years at the Junior School. Although he attained a degree in Applied Chemistry he has spent most of his working life as a computer software engineer specialising in IBM mainframe systems.

He has lived virtually all of his life in the Bristol and North Somerset area and so has never been far away from the School. He now lives in Nailsea with his wife and two youngest daughters. His eldest daughter left home some years ago and He now has two grandsons as well.

He became a member of the Wellensian Association committee in the late 1980s and has been the Secretary and Vice Chairman since about 1990. He has kept in touch with quite a few of his peer group and was encouraged when 12 attended the 2008 Wells Dinner in celebration of the 40 years since their leaving. In spite of this he is aware that the School and the Association have lost contact with a large proportion of former pupils. He would like to see the Association regain contact with as many former pupils as possible and he sees the value of social networking web sites in achieving this aim.

John Brookes (Treasurer)

John was at Wells from 1955 to 1962. When he left Wells he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and then joined the Westland Group in Yeovil where he spent 27 years going through all the ups and downs of the British helicopter industry. In 1994 Westlands was taken over by GKN and he had to move to Redditch to work in GKN's tax department where he spent seven very interesting years before taking voluntary redundancy and moving back to Yeovil to retire.

Since retirement he has become involved with several charities and as well as PCC secretary and chairman of the Friends for the parish church of Yeovil. He is also a church treasurer for another church in Yeovil, treasurer of Somerset Area of Cruse Bereavement Care, a governor of an independent school in Yeovil and of course treasurer of the Wellensians. He is married and has two unmarried daughters. Since retirement he and his wife have enjoyed many foreign holidays and have just clocked up their 25th cruise.

John values his connection with the School and had he not gone to Wells he knows that his life would have been completely different. His wish for the Wellensians is that more old Wellensians will support the Association both with their attendance at events and also the Foundation which hopefully will raise significant sums for bursaries and to develop and improve the facilities.

Catherine Hammon (Lead - Wellensian Connections)

Catherine Hammon (née Chibnall) left Wells in 1989 to pursue a career in the law, via Exeter University, a year in France at the Université d'Aix-Marseille III, and law school in Guildford.

She has spent most of her career in the City of London at the international law firm Ashurst LLP and is a specialist in competition law and merger control. These days, she no longer works directly on client transactions but is responsible for knowhow, training and related client support.

Outside the office, Catherine spends most of her time looking after her toddler son and/or supporting her extremely sporty husband as he cycles up mountains and competes in marathons and duathlons (run-bike-run). She occasionally fits in a bit of yoga or gentle cycling herself and loves cooking for friends and family.

Catherine is delighted to be heading up the Wellensian Connections initiative, which aims to match the experience and knowledge of the OW network to the questions of school leavers both as they leave Wells and as they go about their careers going forwards.

Ben Phillips (Sports Organiser)

Ben enjoyed ten years at Wells from 1997 to 2007 before leaving to study at Loughborough University. At school he played a wide range of sports and represented the first teams in Rugby, Hockey, Cricket and occasionally Football. During his younger years Ben played for Somerset at Cricket, but found a particular interest in Hockey and represented England U16's whilst at Wells.

After school, Ben continued with Hockey and has subsequently played for the England U21 side, as well as representing Loughborough in the English Premier League.

In his third year, Ben joined Morgan Stanley on placement and worked in London to gain finance experience in commodities. Now back at University and in his final year, Ben aims to represent Old Wellensians sport and fuse the relationship between the school and the Association with regular sporting fixtures.

Chris Seaton (Secretary, Wells Cathedral Choir Association)

Chris started at Wells as a chorister and a boarder in 1971, staying through to complete ‘A' Levels in 1979. He ran away to the join Dartmouth and the Royal Navy that September, before University and eight subsequent years before the mast.

Chris's last job in the Navy saw him back in Bristol at HMS Flying Fox and he stayed in the City once hequalified as a lawyer (specialising in Employment Law). He is now a partner at Burges Salmon LLP and has moved to the Chew Valley, halfway between Bristol and Wells.

Chris had his arm firmly twisted by Alwyn Gillen to join the OW's committee as the Old Chorister's representative a few years ago and is a current parent at the school with two daughters enjoying all that the school has to offer. Chris is also a trustee of the School Foundation and chairs the relatively newly formed Wells Cathedral Choir Association (WCCA), which is designed to be an alumni for ex- choristers, organists, vicars choral and choral scholars. Chris therefore provides a link between the three Associations and is keen to hear from anyone who is keen to be more actively involved with the WCCA.

Michael Jarvis (Newsletter Editor)

Michael (Wells, 1959 - 1963) is a writer and editor who has recently retired from his former work as director of a social entrepreneurial charity where he dealt with projects as diverse as taking poetry into inner city schools and editing a walking guide to a Canary island which he has still not visited! His special interest was the promotion of natural burial grounds, a subject on which he has written, lectured and broadcast extensively.

More generally he has written for newspapers and magazines and produced newsletters for alumni associations and special interest groups. In that connection he studied graphic design at the University of the Arts London College of Communication.

As a firm believer that associations' newsletters belong to the membership he would like to receive a wealth of contributions for the Wellensian Association Newsletter and may be contacted at wellensian.editor@gmail.com.

Nigel Legg (Social Media Organiser)

Nigel was at Wells between 1978 and 1986 and was in Shrewbury House.

He studied at the University of Bristol and at Bangor. He has lived and worked in a number of countries, but now runs a social media research company based in Bristol,

Nigel runs Wellensian groups on Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210725429
and Linked in: www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3403703

Wellensians are invited to join and contribute to both.

Wallace Yip (Hong Kong Representative)

Wallace was at Wells from 1986 to 1988 under a School scholarship (grateful thanks to the School indeed). Being a specialist cellist musician at Wells, Wallace managed to get offers from three music colleges and won the first place for the Mid-Somerset Music Festival Open String Concerto Class.

After leaving School and completing a mathematics degree at Oxford University, Wallace trained to become a professional accountant and has been working in the auditing profession ever since, with work-related travels to more than eight countries. Currently, Wallace is settling back in Hong Kong as his base (so as to have more time with his wife and son), working for a blue-chip listed group in Hong Kong as Internal Audit Manager, with direct reporting responsibilities to the Audit Committee of listed companies.

Apart from being the Association's Hong Kong Representative, Wallace is also a Director of the Wells Music Society of Hong Kong. Through organizing Wellensian functions in Hong Kong, Wallace believes that Hong Kong Wellensians can have closer bonding together because of Wells Cathedral School, a place so far from Hong Kong yet so near to the heart of each of the Hong Kong Wellensians.

Joy Hawes (Wells Events Organiser)

Joy joined Wells in 1970 and completed her Upper Sixth year in 1976, subsequently graduating from Cardiff University with a Sociology degree.

A variety of career experiences followed, including working as a research assistant; a period in retail administration and then financial services. Then came marriage to Jeremy and the arrival of their three children, now aged 21, 18 and 17 years. Becoming a parent provided another catalyst for change and she studied for a Diploma in Counselling. She also became familiar with the workings of the criminal justice system through working as a Magistrate.

Three years ago she combined the benefit of the knowledge gained working with people in a therapeutic context with my interest in spirituality and her personal experience of Christian faith and belief, by taking a part-time job as Chaplain to The Blue School in Wells and more recently also to a young people's in-patient psychiatric unit.

Returning to Somerset some years ago led to meeting up with Alwyn Gillen (her former History master!). Alwyn's tireless enthusiasm for the Association and her own very fond memories and gratitude for my time at Wells convinced me to give some time and effort to the School through the Association. Her first task is to take on the co-ordination of the Wells dinner. We hope to increase the opportunities for Wellensians to get together in this beautiful city through a variety of other events too.