LORD PEEL (B65) was appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Royal Household in effect from 11 October 2006. When he kissed hands on his appointment by Her Majesty the Queen, he was invested as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian and became Chancellor of the Order. He was sworn in as Member of the Privy Council.

Lord Peel is an elected member of the House of Lords. He was a member of The Prince's Council, part of theDuchy of Cornwall, from 1993 to 2006. He was Lord Warden of the Stannaries from 1994 to 2006. He was a member of the Nature Conservancy Council, with English Nature, from 1991 to 1996. He is President of the Game Conservancy Trust and was President of the Yorkshire Wildlife trust from 1989 to 1996.

The Hon DOMINIC ASQUTH (O74) was appointed the new British Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq on 14 June 2006. He took up his post during August 2006. He had previously served in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

JAMES WATT(A69) was appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador in Amman Jordan in October 2006. He had previously served as Ambassador to the Lebanon. more

JOHN HORN (B58) was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on Saturday 21 October 2006. The ordination was in his home parish of Cobham in Surrey. He is serving in the Parish St Mary's, Rydes Hill in Guildford; this is one of three parishes in Guildford just now amalgamated into one parish with three priests.
JOHN FLYNN (H93) was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Salford in Salford Cathedral on Saturday 22 July 2006

Fr John Flynn ordination

Fr John Flynn writes of the ordination [14 August 2006] "It took place in St John’s Cathedral, Salford on 22 July 2006, the Feast of Mary Magdalene.  I chose the readings of the Feast, all of which seemed highly appropriate.  My Bishop, Terence Brain, ordained me.  It was a very happy occasion.  People came from all over the place, including Australia, France and the United States.  The choir from Our Lady and St Hugh’s, Witney, my home parish, came en masse for the occasion, as well as a coach load of others from Witney and many family members and friends.  The choir performed beautifully, singing among other things, a rousing Tu es Sacerdos and Scarlatti’s Exsultate Deo.

It was wonderful to have some Ampleforth guests, including Fr Abbot, Fr Leo and some school friends (Marc Dumbell (H93), Georges Banna (H93), Andrew Crossley (B93) and Phil O’Mahony (D93). I celebrated the ‘First Mass’ at St Edward’s, Rusholme (in the middle of the ‘Curry Mile’), the following day.  It is funny being on the other side of the fence. I am appointed to St Kentigern’s Fallowfield.  Funnily enough, St Kent’s takes in St Edward’s too, since the parish priest has, for the last two years, had responsibility for both.  So I shall be trotting between one place and the other very regularly".

What is it that Scripture Says? - Essays in Biblical Interpretayion, Translation and Reception in Honour of Henry Wansbrough OSB [Edited by Philip McCosker] - T & T Clark 2006 ISBN 0567043533 (hardback)

On Saturday 25 November 2006, St Benet’s Hall hosted a party to launch a book of essays by distinguished scholars written to honour Fr Henry Wansbrough (W53) – a sort of life-time award. Cardinal Cormac wrote an appreciative preface, recognising Fr Henry’s work for the Church, and the writers included many of the most distinguished international figures in the biblical field, Cardinal Vanhoye from Rome, others from Rome, Holland, France, Ireland and Jerusalem. It is thought that this was the first occasion that such an academic honour had been paid to any English priest or monk. The presentation was made by Archbishop Vincent Nichols, thanked by Fr Henry, who said that he had not retired but refocused. Many friends and admirers flew in for the occasion, a good selection of parents, students and Old Amplefordians from Fr Henry’s three major activities, St Thomas’ House, Junior House and St Benet’s Hall. Some came from as far away as the USA, and wine for the party was presented by the monastery of Klosterneuburg near Vienna, in recognition of the care for their students during their (and Fr Henry’s) time at St Benet’s.

JOHN MICKLETHWAIT (O80) was appointed as Editor of The Economist on 23 March 2006. Described in one news report as "one of the most prestigious jobs in journalism" John Micklethwait has been the US editor of the Economist. John Micklethwait becomes the 16th editor since it was first published in 1843.

John Micklethwait has worked at The Economist since 1987, serving as Editor of the Business Section, New York Bureau Chief and Media Correspondent. He set up a Los Angeles office for The Economist, and recently edited the U.S. edition from a London office. The Economist is printed in five countries with a circulation of 1.1 million, including circulation for the North American edition of 569,336 in the second half of 2005.

John Micklethwait is the second Amplefordian to edit The Economist. ANDREW KNIGHT (A58) was Editor of The Economist between October 1974 and 1986. Andrew Knight, aged 34 when appointed in 1974, was the second youngest Editor in the Economist's history and was named International Editor of the Year by World Press Review in June 1981.

Councillor TIM AHERN (T66) was elected to serve as Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for the 2006-07 Civic Year at the Council of the Royal Borough held on 24 May 2006.

PETER FOSTER (T91) is the South Asia Correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. Peter has been the Daily Telegraph's South Asia correspondent since January 2004. His WebLog notes: "He lives in New Delhi with his wife, Clare, and his two children, Billy and Lila, both of whom were born in New Delhi. His 'patch' comprises India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives" Two days after returning from three weeks holiday in Shropshire and Yorkshire, Peter Foster flew to Sri Lanka. In The Daily Telegraph of 12 August 2006 he reported from Kantale in Sri Lanka on the fact that Sri Lanka was facing a "humanitarian disaster", according to aid agencies. Peter Foster reported that aid agencies had said [11 August 2006] that "up to 100,000 refugees" had "fled two weeks of fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in the east of the country". Peter Foster reported from a refugee camp on a 32-year-old fisherman Faisal Deen, who had fled to Kantale with his wife and four young children: "after four days sheltering from the shells and bombs in Multur's mosque, he tried to escape but was forced into the jungle by Tamil Tiger rebels...". Peter Foster - Daily Telegraph 12 August 2006 The Daily Telegraph [12 August 2006] carried an editorial on the report from Peter Foster. peterfoster blog

INIGO GILMORE (W87) reported for Channel Four News on 2 May 2006 from Shifa Hospital in Gaza. In a harrowing story, he reported on the effects of the US and EU ban on medical supplies reaching hospitals in Gaza, since the elections that brought Hamas to power. Dr Geoffrey Greatrex (086) is head of the department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He spent the first six months of 2006 on sabbatical in Munich with funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; he is working on a commentary for a new translation of the Church History of the sixth-century Syriac historian, Pseudo-Zachariah of Mytilene. Last year [2005] he published a chapter on the Roman eastern frontier in The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian. [posted 29 August 2006]. In December 2006 he is due to marry Helen Hardman at the church of Saint Columba in Knightsbridge, London.

SAM GRAHAM (T98) has worked since May 2004 as a lobbyist for Citigate Public Affairs - one of the UK's top public affairs consultancies. Between graduating from Edinburgh in 2002 and May 2004, he spent 18 months working for the Leader and Chairmen of the Conservative Party - during this time he worked for Iain Duncan Smith, Liam Fox, Theresa May and Lord Saatchi. Sam graduated from Edinburgh with a 2.1 in Ancient History in 2002 before moving to London.  In February 2006 he became engaged to an Italian girl, Emilia Falcetti - and they plan to marry in 2007 in Rome. [posted 27 March 2006]

BRENDAN KELLY (D88) was elected to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. One of his latest paintings has one another prize: the HKBC Investment Prize [posted 28 April 2006]

OLIVER MANKOWSKI (B04) writes [2 November 2006]: From completing my second year at Durham University, I am now undertaking a Year in Industry working at JCB as part of my Masters in Engineering. This so far has involved a design project and presentation, training in business & management and designing of Backhoe diggers. Over the next year I will also cover Development, Manufacture and Marketing & Finance with the time going towards my Chartership. I have also been training with the Army completing Military Training Qualification 1 & Royal Commissions Board as well as Cavalry training. I am now about to complete MTQ 2 & 3, finalising with the Commissioning course at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in September 2007.  Inline with the Army I have undertaken some Royal Marines and much fitness training,  and have been offered sponsorship to train with the Royal Engineers in Newcastle as a  Combat Engineer. Before arriving at JCB I was elected member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists also worked hard as a Sailing Instructor and over the next few months I will complete my RYA Sailing Senior Instructor, Powerboat Instructor and Coastal Skipper Yachting qualifications. Travels have included Spain and a History of art trip to Rome and, later in the year, weeks in New York and Australia to see relatives.

JAMES MORGAN (H87) has produced Juliette Pochin's debut album Venezia, which is to be released on 8 May 2006 on Sony BMG. It features music either linked to or inspired by Venice, including a new vocal arrangement of the Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Juliette also duets with world renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, and guitarist Craig Ogden, best known for hi recording of the music for Captain Corelli's Mandolin. James writes: "Juliette [Pochin] and I co-produced and arranged the record, and I conducted the BTA Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra (!)" [posted 1 April 2006] Juliettepochin

JOZEF MYCIELSKI (O90) became Director of Fundraising at Ampleforth on 16 October 2006. Since January 2005 he has worked with Greenhouse Schools Project, a registered charity that provides sports and performing arts coaching programmes for disadvantaged and marginalised young people, focusing on vulnerable children aged 11-16. In 2004 and 2005 Jozef organised a Triathlon at Wormwood Scrubs for Greenhouse Schools, and he took part in this again in December 2006

ANDREW OXLEY (A93) starts teaching at Worth College in September 2006.

PAUL PRICHARD (D99) continues to work on his PhD. He writes: "I have come out to Cern near Geneva for the next year or so. Cern is the worlds largest physics laboratory and will be in the papers a lot in the next year due to the enormous particle accelerator that is being built here. I am living on the French side of Geneva in a little town called St. Genis."

PETER ROBINSON (A61) is editor of San Francisco Books & Travel and has written a travel series on Hiking Through Monastic Yorkshire. The series was broadcast on San Francisco NPR’s stations and was featured as a travel article in the magazine. He organises an Ampleforth Lunch in San Francisco - another one on 20 January 2007 2007 San Francisco Lunch contact details

SAM STILL (W00) was injured in the Dahab bomb in Egypt on 24 April 2006 and is now recovering in London

ALEXANDER STRICK van LINSCHOTEN (O02) who is studying Arabic and Persian at the School of Oriental and Arabic Studies [SOAS], London University, spent the academic year 2005-2006 in  Damascus. He is in Afghanistan between 19 June and 20 August 2006, working on various projects: continued freelance journalism from the places that no-one else travels to (the south and east of the country), as well as hopefully setting up a media company engaged in Pashtu and Dari translation.  Alex is visiting the USA in first two weeks of September  2006 before returning for his final year in London at SOAS.  Alex has a commission from the Wall Street Journal to write on sufi groups in southern Afghanistan, and he writes occasional articles for The Tablet on Afghanistan.  Vanni Capelli, current President of the Afghan Foreign Press Association, recently described Alex in an article as "an intrepid scholar-journalist", and Alex hopes to develop his specialism in both journalism and Afghanistan in the long-term. [posted 1 June 2006]

FRANK THOMPSON (A84) has been appointed the Deputy Headmaster of Mount Saint Mary's, Spinkhill, Sheffield from September 2006. He is currently assistant Head of All Saints, a Catholic comprehensive school of 1,050 students in Dunkinfield in Manchester. Mount St. Mary's College is a private English coeducational boarding school situated at Spinkhill near Sheffield. It is known colloquially as 'the Mount', and was founded in its current form in 1842 by the then the Provincial of The Society of Jesus. Like at Ampleforth, Joseph Aloysius Hansom (OA about 1921 - born 1803, died 1882) and Adrian Gilbert Scott, both architects, designed buildings.

PETER THORNTON (B00) is planning to cycle roughly 300 miles from London to Paris in July 2006 on behalf of Action Medical Research. [posted 31 January 2006]

more detail - sponsorship

JOHN TOWNSEND (O01) was Called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn in London on 27th July 2006. He was a Lord Denning scholar of the Inn, and also held Hardwicke and Lord Haldane scholarships. He spent the summer studying international and comparative law at the University of Florence with the Dickinson Law School (Penn State University, USA), and had recently become a student member of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. In the next academic year, he will read for a Master’s degree in comparative law at the London School of Economics, before commencing pupillage at Maitland Chambers in October 2007.
GREG VILLALOBOS (C98) has been working through his company Bold Creative on a commission for Childrens BBC1 Newsround [1 December 2006, 4.45pm] about Child Poverty. He writes [22 November 2006] "The result is a groundbreaking animated documentary that tells the story of 5 children that have lived through extreme poverty in the UK".

FERDINAND von HABSBURG-LOTHRINGEN (E87) is Conflict Advisor, UNDP Southern Sudan. Ferdinand writes [23 August 2006]:  I am still in Juba in my fourth year of UNDP work, now as Advisor on Conflict, under a new Head of Office which is exciting, I am also supporting a Community Security and Arms Control programme (disarmament of civilians), very challenging.  I will be traveling to South Africa in September for one month for an Advanced Conflict Transformation course at a leading centre in Johannesburg.  UNDP appears to be enthusiastic to keep me on into the future which bodes well". He also writes of his family: "Luisa will start primary school at Msongari Convent school in January 2007, Laszlo is in kindergarten while Gisela’s vocabulary is surprising everyone including herself. Nyanut and I are well.  Nyanut is soon completing a Public Relations course in Nairobi, we have also moved house to a more beautiful house in a quieter place with a lovely little garden".  

PATRICK WILLIAMS (O84) joined Conde Nast and left The Economist.

JERRARD WILSON (A97) writes [14 February 2006] " I am in the process of moving to Bulgaria"  In Bulgaria he is setting up a holiday let company (www.bulgarian-holiday-rentals.com) and a project managing company for English property investors (www.JericoProperties.com), "as well as acquiring real estate before it goes crazy when the country joins the EU"  "Since SHAC I got my self a degree in Marine Biology from Liverpool Uni, worked in offshore finance in the Isle of Man, been a banker, baker, bookmaker, builder, barman and a dive instructor in Cyprus and the Dominican Republic" [posted 14 February 2006]

AGM Ampleforth Society The AGM of The Ampleforth Society was held at Ampleforth on 7 October 2006. A Dinner was held at Ampleforth on 7 October 2006

At the Annual General Meeting held in the School Library on 7 October 2006, Fr Edward Corbould (E51) was elected as Chaplain, and Fr Bonaventure Knollys (C53), Jonathan Brown (J80) and Thomas Fitzherbert-Brockholes (D04) were elected to the Committee for three years.

There were reports by the Hon Treasurer, the Hon Secretary and the President.

On 24 March 2006 70 members of the Armed Forces received honours and awards for services on operations in Iraq, Northern Ireland, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and other miscellaneous operations for the period 1 April 2005 to 30 September 2005  Among them were Captain Richard William McCombie SCROPE The Light Dragoons (E95) - Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service [QCVS] Lieutenant Benedict Charles David Neville BISHOP The King's Royal Hussars (E98) - Mentioned in Dispatches [MiD]. [also reported in Awards- posted 2 April 2006]

Major DAVID O'KELLLY (C81) has been apointed as Regimental Secretary of the new Yorkshire Regiment, to be founded on 6 June 2006. The Yorkshire Regiment is been formed by the merging of The Green Howards, The Duke of Wellington's Regiment and the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire (PWO). The Regiment is expected to have four battalions. The 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment will be sub-titled (Prince of Wales's Own); the 2nd Battalion will be (Green Howards); the 3rd (Duke of Wellington's) and the 4th Battalion is likely to be a TA battalion with two companies supporting each of the regular battalions. One regular battalion is to based in the armoured infantry role in Wiltshire; one battalion is to be based in Catterick in the light role whilst the third light battalion is likely to be based initially in Cyprus. The light battalions will rotate every 3 years whilst the armoured infantry battalion will be permanently located in Warminster. [posted 7 May 2006]

INWOOK KIM (J00) was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the South Korean Army in July 2006, and he is serving as a lecturer at the Korea Military Academy until 2009. After leaving Ampleforth in 2000, Inwood read PPE at St Benet's College, Oxford from 2001 to 2004, and then MSc Politics of World Economy at LSE in 2004 to 2005. He returned to Korea for his military service in October 2005.[updated 11 December 2006]

ADRIAN HAVELOCK (T99) and MARK REYNOLDS (C02) were granted commissions at the Sovereign's Parade, Sandhurst, on 11 August 2006. Adrian Havelock was commissioned in The Scots Guards and Mark Reynolds in the Army Air Corps.[posted 19 August 2006].

JOHNNY BLACK (H01) graduated from Durham in June 2005.  He writes [March 2006] that he "had a excellent summer travelling all over from Russia to Iceland.  I am in the final stages of finishing a ski season in Sun Valley, Idaho (USA). We have been fortunate to have a fantastic snow year and it has been great to be skiing every day. I am heading home to England in about a month and I am due to start Sandhurst in May [2006] all being well" [posted March 2006].

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