KCL Class of 67

Kings Physics 1967

This website was set up in 2014 just 50 years after group of students started their Physics course at Kings College, University of London. It aims to record the events at the time, what has happened in the intervening 50 years and and events that may be happening now.

A group of 5 of us; Ray Symes, Andrew Ennis, Nigel Wood, Graeme (Sam) Tayor and Will Howard got back together on 7th June 2014. We met up again at the Alumni event for 2014 (organised by Kings) and caught up on the old days at the Mad Hatters Tea party. Ray and Andrew even persuaded their wives to come too!

If you have the time and the energy to write I'd love to hear from you, my email details are under the 'Contact Us' tab even if its just to correct errors or to point out where my (still atrocious) spelling has gone astray.

However if you have any memorabilia (eg Photos) from your days at Kings or any stories you'd like to share then I'd be eager to put them on this site so that the others from our year can read and enjoy them too.

Will Howard - June 2014

2016 Alumni Events

The Aumni Events for 2016 are now up on the web. I am attemtping to contacts others from our year and get a concensus as to what event (if any) we will meet at. Two years ago we met up at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and last year the Principal's lunch was the chosen venue.
The Alumni event is hosted on the web HERE
Margaret Beynon

I have just had a short email from Margaret Beynon (now Davies) and I have updated her profile on this website.
She is currently living in Harrow after retiring from some 22 years of teaching at a local secondary school. The shock (?) is that she taught Maths rather than Physics! She married Gordon Davies in 1970 and they had two children, one of whom still lives at home with her.

No up-to-date picture so far...
Brian Acreman Photos

I had an email from Brian Acreman who found some old Kings photos. They feature the 'plug together' molicule kits much loved in Drury Lane and include photos of 1. Harry and Denis ( Kelly? ) at Tooting Bec baths, 2. Ezra, Stuart Denis and Brian with a DNA model, 3. Colin Pykett with a DNA model

I also got some new photos from Bob Webb over the Christmas from his trip to England earlier this year, including a couple of lovely shots of the Pennine way.
Bob Webb in the UK

Bob Webb was in Europe for a conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen and popped into London on the way back to Australia, almost 50 years to the day since we started at Kings. Sam Taylor arranged to meet up with him and invited Nigel Wood and myself. We met at Kings and had a look round the old haunts and then finished with a curry near Covent Garden. In Bob's section there are (besides the Kings ones) a couple of really nice countryside ones.
I took some photos and so did he - they can be found under Bob Webb under the people tab.
Alumni Events - 12-14th June 2015

The full detail of events will not be known until next April but the theme for 2015 is Happiness. We will have to see nearer the time who is attending and to which of the events.
I have to say that the Mad Hatter's Tea Party was a good choice for a reunion as the venue allowed us to sit, scoff cakes & chat about old times. It was also very convenient to nose around at our old haunts and see how they'd changed over the years.
The link to the Kings Alumni event is HERE
New Contacts

Thanks to some internet research & help from the Alumni team we are now in back contact with:-
Brian Acreman - Has retired (twice) from teaching and living with wife Pam in Rickmansworth
Mark Watts - Who married Lynda Dobson (from the group 2 years after ours) and now lives in Geneva
Bernard Brown - Lives in Canada and is a consultant to the government on Electronic Warfare
Pete Roberts - Who met with Ray Symes at the Royal Society summer exhibition
Keith Bannister - Who only stayed a year with 'our' group and then decided that Physics with Maths was for him and went on to join the Royal Navy
For more details see under the People tag
History since Kings - Ray Symes

Ray Symes has sent me his 'history' since getting his degree at Kings.

He is still working but is now interested in property development and investment.
His Write-Up
Update from Colin Pykett

I had this in from Colin Pykett. It appears he is a leading expert on Church (and other) organs! It makes a really good read and takes me back to those heady days at Kings... Reminiscences
Updates from others from Physics 67

When five of us met at the Mad hatter's Tea Party we agreed that we would provide an updates on what's happened to us in the last 50 years. I have provided a brief summary of my life since then (which I really do need to expand) and I'm eagerly awaiting text from Andrew, Nigel, Sam and Ray.
This being the start of the holiday season, (plus exam marking time) it may be a while before I can add these.
Alumni Events - Actually a very good experience

I have been avoiding the Alumni events for n years on the basis that (a) I wouldn't know anyone (b) I didn't want to be tapped for donations (c) I generally try to avoid today's students... I was wrong on all counts. Meeting up with the others was great, true they didn't look the same but they still had the same voices and quirks of character. Nobody was asking for money (although I'm sure that you could find someone to take some if you tried) and the actual event, to me, seemed good value for money. As for the organisers and staff, they were nice as pie¹ and genuinely interested in us and the 'old days'.
Note 1: Not the gristle pie as served in the Chesham
Love to hear from You!

If you were at King's 50 years ago in the Class of '67 please do get back in contact. Any photos or other memorabilia, stories or emails/contact details for others from the group would be much appreciated.

Anecdotes of your time at Uni, of Kings, the Halley-Stewart (and Holly Bush Pub) or Drury Lane labs or even your memories of the outside world will help to make the experience alive again. More than anything we'd just love to hear from you and find out what you have been doing since Kings.
Practical Notebook from 1965

At the Mad Hatter event I mentioned that I still had my old Physics Experimental notes books. Someone (can't remember who) expressed an interest, so I have scanned the first couple of experiments and put them into the Memories area. I have to admit they are Embarressingly bad, and rather 'School-Boy'ish.

You will also see a new link from the Photos page that takes you to the Group Photo. Thanks to Ray and Colin we now have nearly all the people identified.

If you have fond memories of the King's Days, and have time, drop me an email, and share them with the others of the Class of 67