Parish of Leatherhead - Parish Church Choir 1952?

L-R: back/6th row: Ted Carpenter - George Dench - Dr Jim Williams
5th row: Tom Cottrell snr - Mr Taylor, who was Chief Postmaster - Dave Andrews - Jim Strudwick - Major Malcolm Power
4th row: Catherine Collis - Philip 'Gus' Goacher - John Harfitt - Mick Randall - Dave Anstey - Peter Woodward (head boy) ... Tom Cottrell jr - 8 - Michael Dickinson - Graham Power - Brenda Strudwick
3rd row: 1 - 2 - Brian Hennegan - Goff Powell - Dick Tyler - Tony Bullen - 7 - Nick Ridley - Alan Smallbone - Bob Shurville - Mary Dench
2nd row: Mr Collis (father of Katherine)* - Henry Gibson Rivington - Lionel 'Lucy' Locket (organist) - Canon Frank Page - Rev Michael Buckley (later Vicar of Stoneleigh) - Arthur Burnett - Edward Arnold*
front/1st row: Trevor Rush - 2 - Gerry Shepherd - Michael Bayer - Ian Mills - John Kelland

* Rosalind Corteen writes: Mr Arnold was a Lay Reader (as it was then) in the parish, and his wife was called Nellie, and they lived in either Highlands Road or Highlands Avenue. It is their son [Pilot Officer Edward Rolfe Arnold RAF(VR), Observer, 35 Squadron RAF, kia 10 March 1941] who is buried in the churchyard and who was killed by 'friendly fire' in the Second World War. I remember that Mr Arnold used to take the services for the patients at Leatherhead Hospital at one time.

Philip Goacher writes 3 Nov 06: Mr Locket was an accomplished and much liked organist and choirmaster known to the boys as 'Lucy' Locket. I'm pretty sure that it was taken in 1952, it certainly wasn't any later as I would then have been wearing my head chorister's medal.

Mary Hamilton (née Dench) writes from New Zealand 29 Nov 06:

I still have the gift Mr Taylor gave me for my 21st birthday.

Kath Collis was a very good friend and she, my father and I used to practice our singing together. Kath occasionally played the organ in Church. She and I were members of the Leatherhead Choral Society and she was also a member of the Goldsmiths Choir in London.

The Rivington family lived in St Nicholas Hill. Mr Taylor lived in the Crescent.

Brenda Strudwick is now Mrs Houston and she and Geoff live in Fetcham.

I have very many happy memeories of my 30-year association with the Parish Church.

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Image: Goff Powell
Identifications by: Mrs Bayer, Rosalind Corteen, Philip Goacher, Mary Hamilton (née Dench), Ros (née Elliott) & Brian Hennegan, Terry Millward, Goff Powell, Caroline Williams/Gill Deville/Anne Thomson, Edith & Warner Wright
row 4 no.8 is the brother of no. 2 in row 3

page last updated 12 Dec 06