19 August 2025
As a lad at Caldecott I read an article, London Letter, which began:
The other day at about midnight I was coming back from a wonderful dinner, and was just entering my flat, when I was pounced on by what I thought were two thugs. They turned out to be two ex-Caldecott boys, waiting outside my flat.
It was three a.m. before they left. We had spent the time talking about Caldecott, and that visit set me thinking. I wondered what all the boys I had known, or had ever been at Caldecott, were doing. There is only one time when they all meet - at Reunion every two years; and then only a small percentage come. There is such a diversity of occupations that I think ex-Caldecotts must be working in practically every branch of work, is there anything that binds all these people together?.......Yet when they meet, there is an affinity that is far more natural than many Public Schools' Old Boys' Societies.
The author was Simon Rodway. London Letter was in our Herald magazine in early April 1965. It went on to say:
'I met an old boy recently who had a very reasonable job, and he said he didn't know how to explain Caldecott to his friends, so he didn't mention it. This seemed foolish to me. Does Caldecott need explanation? Doesn't Caldecott evoke such loyalty that one is glad to claim that one has been there? I know I am. Glad to have been happy with others, and to have shared in a feeling of belonging somewhere. It is perhaps a pity that some children leave before they realise how happy they have been. Those who are most critical of Caldecott while there are often the first to run to its defence when they have left. Sometimes they are the first to rush back. For Caldecott does provide a continuity that is lacking elsewhere. One can sense this even from far away.'