Category Archives: Locations

New Venue for Oldboys Summer Lunch

Following the closure of “The Black Bison” which had reverted to “The Cricketers” after Christmas, it has been decided to try a new venue for the mid summer lunch on June 22nd.

Annie & I have just returned from lunch at “The Anchor” at Pyrford near Ripley, Surrey. It wasn’t too busy – we had a minimal wait for a hot lunch – and there’s plenty of car-parking. Very handy for the A3 and M25. I asked about a ‘large number’ (25) of attendees and it seemed to present no problem. As you will see there is plenty of outside eating space – the website claims 400(!) I will update after the weekend when I have emailed them and made a booking – their online booking system will only cope up to 20, it certainly coped for the two of us!


John Wilson RIP

The funeral and committal for John Wilson has been arranged for 11:30 on
Thursday 9 February at:-
St Mary’s Church,
Haddenham,
Bucks.
HP17 8AH.

This will be followed by a reception at:-
Thame Barns Centre,
Church Road,
Thame.
OX9 3AJ.

This is about ten minute’s drive from Haddenham, and there is plenty of parking at both places.
John’s wife Rosemarie says, ”I will be very pleased to welcome John’s BBC friends, I might even meet a few people who have just been names in the past”.

No flowers please, but if anybody would like to donate to a charity it can be done through the Funeral Directors (FJ Wilson, Greenway, Haddenham, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP17 8BJ) to one of the following:-
Florence Nightingale Hospice
Stoke Mandeville Hospital
Medecins Sans Frontieres
RNLI
Or send it directly, or leave a donation at the church.

60th Anniversary of the VR1000 launch

Keith Graham has just commented:-

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the launch of the Ampex VR1000. The Santa Clara (California) chapter of the IEEE, in conjunction with the San Francisco section of SMPTE unveiled a Historical Milestone plaque at Stanford University, where there is one of the first VR1000s on display.

Here is the link to a 30 minute documentary I made with footage of the event and reminiscences from people, including Fred Pfost, the last surviving member of the original development team.
Please forgive my “stealing” John Naull’s animation from the Christmas tape so many years ago.
You can find the video on YouTube here

(Keith is the originator of our photograph of the Ampex Sign)

Change of date for mid Summer Lunch at Guildford

Following today’s announcement of the date for the EU Referendum, I have brought forward the Oldboys (and Girls) Summer Lunch from June 23rd to June 16th. Please adjust your diaries accordingly.

There will, obviously, be the standard advance notice email before the event.

The Black Bison 600