AGM & Lunch: March 2020

As the day of the 119th AGM of the Old Felicians’ Club approached there were many telephone calls and emails enquiring ‘will it take place?’ as the country was in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.   But the years spent shivering on the freezing playing fields of Saint Felix or swimming in the unheated outdoor pool meant OFs were made of sterner stuff and so on 10th March 2020 the annual reunion took place in the magnificent setting of Fulham Palace.   For more than 1,300 years the palace had been the riverside country home of the Bishops of London and the AGM took place in the panelled medieval Tudor hall with portraits of former bishops looking down on the gathering.   We were delighted that the headmaster was able to attend and he gave an inspiring talk about the current situation at the school, which continues to flourish.

After drinks in a private room, we sat down to lunch in Bishop Terrick’s dining room over-looking the Victorian chapel and garden which was ablaze with golden daffodils. The chatter was loud, OFs of the 1940s remembered how life returned to normal after evacuation during wartime, the table of the 1950s definitely produced the loudest laughter, two former headmistresses were reunited with pupils whilst the headmaster was entertained by OFs of a slightly younger vintage.  The impromptu rendition of the School Song was a fitting end to the lunch, after which Fulham Palace volunteers guided one group around the palace and chapel whilst others enjoyed the recently restored gardens which contain a collection of historically significant plants, many of which had been collected over the centuries by previous bishops.

As fond farewells were made, we all breathed a sigh of relief that we had been able to gather together as just a few days later the country was on lockdown.  Let us gather together once more in 2021 and join together in the words written by John Masefield and sung by OFs over the last century and remember friendships which have lasted for so many years and will continue for many more to come.

“Here in this house, where we are singing thus,
Long generations will come after us;
Friends we shall never know will come to share
This life of ours, wondering what we were,
Long after we are gone their minds will take
The human pathways our endeavours make.
We shall not see them, but we can endow
This place with the beauty for them, here and now.”

Felix Quia Fortis.

Caroline MacMillan