Did any eagle-eyed parents spot the very distinctive Emanuel School uniform in The Telegraph a couple of weeks ago? The outfit might have changed in style since 1967, but the Portcullis badge, remains unchanged. We may no longer use rowing boaters, but the tie is also relatively similar to more current versions.
Many Old Emanuels (OEs) contacted us about the article “The public-school conundrum” and others noted the mistake associated with the caption “What brains we had were used to depersonalise ourselves: public schoolboys at Henley Regatta, 1967”. In 1967 Emanuel was one of the top rowing schools in the UK and so one guesses The Telegraph author assumed that this unnamed group of boys in the photo must have been a public school to be attending the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta, when in actual fact Emanuel was a grammar school until the mid-1970s.
One of the OEs did ask whether we could identify the boys in questions. When we reached out to our contacts it took less than an hour before OE Tim Douglas responded naming many of those featured:
“Extreme left unknown, myself, background in paisley shirt unknown, (but looks familiar but no uniform so possibly unconnected?) Paul Sibert, (my friend since age seven!) Ken Berry (later founder member/director Virgin Records) and extreme right Steve Beeken. We were all great friends in same year at school and possibly there to support Iain Reid and the winning ‘66 crew! and were probably camping, so we were there a few days!”
This was a great recollection from Tim and he was only out by a year!
Mr Jones (School Archivist)