Circular No 692

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 7 February 2015 No. 692

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Dear Friends,

Have a look at:

http://vimeo.com/52231459

You made it.  Hurrah for this generation

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Nigel Boos

Feb 3

Thank you, Graham. Thank you, Don.

Nigel

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On Feb 2, 2015, at 7:17 PM,

Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com> wrote:

Thanks, Graham.

I remember a thread of emails about his death a few weeks ago.  Ladislao has not yet sent out the January Circulars, so it will not have been announced generally on a Circular.

Keep well.

Don 

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From: Graham Gonsalves

Sent: Monday, February 2, 2015 7:42 PM

Don,

Please let Nigel Boos know that Peter Webster passed away on the 15^th January, 2015 after a long battle with cancer.

Thanks,

Graham Gonsalves

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From: Don Mitchell [mailto:idmitch@anguillanet.com]
Sent: Monday, 02 February 2015 05:46 PM
Dear all,

Ladislao’s last two Circulars of 2014 are now up at http://abbeyschool2014circulars.blogspot.com/

Best wishes for 2015.

Don

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Kazim Abasali

Feb 2

Yes, I have already updated our MSB Database concerning Peter's passing.

Thank you for sharing Graham.

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People

Nigel Boos

Jan 20

Thank you for informing me, Bernard. I am referring this info to Kazim Abasali, who is now maintaining the MSB Database.

God be with you.

Nigel

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date: January 20, 2015 at 2:09:43 PM EST

Subject: Death of Peter Webster

From: Bernard Tappin <bernardtappin@gmail.com>

Read in the Trinidad Guardian of the passing on 15th January, 0215 of yet another Abbey School Old Boy, Peter Webster, the youngest of the Webster brothers, Stephen, Richard and Christopher (dec'd). Peter leaves to mourn his wife Shareen ,his son Brent and his daughter, Denessa. Shareen's brother is Peter Chandler, also an alumnus of Abbey School. Funeral is to take place on Wednesday 21st January, 2015 at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help in San Fernando. May Peter Rest in the Peace of the Lord.  Bernard.

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From Ladislao Kertesz

Some of you must be wondering about my correspondence with the priests at MSB through the years.

I have found an interesting letter that was written to me by Fr. Cuthbert years back.

The letter has interesting information on the date of the closure of the school, July 1985.

Effectively today the school does not look the same as when I was there.

I am going to write a short resume leading to my stay that started in 1955.

I went to the Abbey School because of concerns by my parents of the need to learn English.

My father was a friend of Matias Fedak´s father who recommended the school.

My father got my uncle interested and I was enrolled in their idea.

I was told of the impending trip in July 1955 after I finished primary school here in Caracas.

I remember starting to make a list of English words that I knew, they did not number more than 25 if my memory is right.

No problem, I did not know that in TT people spoke only English with a few exceptions.

And what a treat, an airplane flight of over an hour. I had never been on an airplane before.

The airplane was a Viking, if I find a photo in the future I shall include it, specially for you pilots.

The day of the flight approached without a sweat, I had no way of knowing what the future had for me.

I have tried to think of my bravery but I believe that the opportunity for a flight overwhelmed reason.

The trip was long enough at about 10000 feet, I could see people walking in the streets and vehicles on the road.

Then suddenly the announcement that we were about to land. Here suddenly I got nervous, as my parents were not close, etc.

I disembarked the airplane and walked apprehensively towards the terminal building together with the rest of the passengers.

I had in my hand a slip of paper with my future address, The Abbey School and the contact. Fr. Bernard,

Suddenly I saw a white robed person and three kids.  I only remember that it was Bro. Vincent, Manuel Prada and two other kids.

The immigration part was fast and off we went to the school, which was clearly seen at the distance, just as today, a monument.

I had arrived a week early, which was good as I met all the priests and the Venezuelan boys with whom friendship was obvious.  Only then I realized that there was a language problem.

The rest of the story shall be posted in a new circular. I believe in equal time.

Ladislao

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2002

Elspeth O'Connor" <peth9@ca.com.au>

Richard and Leary have been working on the list for some time but we never seem to have time to complete what they do know about old boy's whereabouts.

In the meantime we have been getting the Circulars from Esmond Lange, Richard's brother-in-law.

Could you please send them direct to us and register Richard.

His address is 44 Aldridge Road, Booragoon, Western Australia, 6154.

He was at Mount from about 1942-50 so he must be an elder in the Community now! 

We immigrated to Perth in 1967 with Leary and Gillian and their children.

We have lived in Booragoon since then and have multiplied. We now have four children and ten grand-children. Richard worked in Oil all his life and retired in 1992. 

We now enjoy the family, lots of friends and travel regularly keeping in touch with friends and family all over the world. Our email address is as per this letter. He'd love to hear from anyone else who remembers him. When he went to Mount he says he was the thirteenth boarder.

In 1996 he returned to Mount for a visit and met Fr. Ildephonse and was very disappointed to find that the College had changed so much!

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2002

So we now know the date that the Abbey School opened, January 1942, since the start of the year must have been in January and year end in December, and of course there must have been at least 50 kids to start the school.

The School closed in 1985 July. Well this gives 43 years, unfortunately a sad ending.

I wonder who was student number 1, and if anyone knows other old very old boys. There has been a lot of questions as to the years before 1958. I believe that I have the names and graduation dates for only about 10, in that period.

I am after all the old boys in a list that I have been sending you in groups of ten. There has been very little response to the listing, so that I believe that either the list is incomplete or our memory is hazy, since the event has been over 50 years ago, many do not remember and a group is with the Lord.

Additionally there are no photos taken before 1958, which makes it difficult to reconstruct the era.

I hope that Richard will send me the list of his classmates, so that we can start with the 1950 group.

I am sending a photo of a group of students that was given to me by Fr. Benedict, can anyone recognize someone???.

God Bless

Ladislao

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Photos:

Bandit p12f The Early Times

13LK0001FB, Graham Gonsalves and Family

12LK0002FB, Peter Webster

13LK6654LMA, Llewellyn Macintosh,