SCARA Annual Reunion Report - London 2025

Every annual SCARA reunion is special, but this was particularly significant as it occurred in the year in which we marked the association's 20th anniversary of formation. The first SCARA committee meeting took place in December 2005 and since then reunion lunches have taken place every year except 2021 when the gathering had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.

On Tuesday 18 November 87 friends and former colleagues gathered at International Students House in London. Doors opened at 11:00 and within an hour the room was filled with OCL, P&OCL, Nedlloyd and P&O Nedlloyd people catching up and sharing memories.

The lunch itself seemed to go down rather well (those days of empty trays before some have reached the front of the queue are long gone) and it was then time for speeches. David Cross, in his capacity as SCARA chairman gave a summary of activities over the last year (six reunions, all well attended) before mentioning the recent passing of Ted Bouvier and Barry Williams.

Alan Bott had been due to be the guest speaker for this year but sadly had to withdraw a few days before the event. He did though ask David to read out part of his planned speech. One thing mentioned was an incident during the launching of the Resolution Bay at the Bremer Vulcan yard in 1977 involving former OCL chairman Sir Ronald Swayne MC, described in British Box Business - the History of OCL (see the book extract on the left and the Sir Ronald Swayne MC article).

Edward van Dorp (right) had kindly stepped forward to replace Alan as the guest speaker, telling us about his start as a graduate trainee with OCL at Barking, and then recollections of his long career in various roles with the company.

After the speeches, it was time for the raffle!

John Adams
Clive Allen
Mary Anthony
Alan Bacon
Soumen Banerjee
James Baxter
Terry Bethell
Paul Bines
Mike Board
Tom Boardley
Peder Braendeholm
Karen Brookes

Rosemary Cast
Joan Chapman
Mike Chapman
David Charlesworth
Nigel Chew
David Cross
Jane Cross
Julie Curran
Ray Davis
Sandra Davy
Haval Deen
Edward van Dorp

Henk van der Drift
Maxwell Edunyah
Dave Evans
Sue Evans
Carol Fielding
Edmund Filus
David Fox
Felix Gliffe
Eleanor Grady
John Hallahan
John Hallett
Jackie Honour

Mal Hurdidge
Richard Hyland
Sandra Isaacson
Patricia Johnson
Thomas Johnson
Dave Kelsall
Janet Kelsall
Agnes King
John Leach
John Loftin
Patricia Loftin
Ian Malcolm

Adrian Malupa
Tony Mason
Belinda McCormack
Iain McIntosh
Erica Merrifield-Harris
Michiel Messchaert
Diane Mill
Robert Milton
Todd Moore
Peter Morley

Les Morris
Stewart Moult
Joe O'Brien
Judith Ormston
Tina Osborne
Frank Palmer
Debbie Paxton
Tyrone Peiris
Lijo Philip
Steve Plastow

Dave H Potter
Mark Poulter
Sheila Radford
Zoeb Raniwala
Debbie Risbridger
Geoff Robbins
Srimi van Rossum
Colin Rumble
Mike Shoesmith
Richard Smith

Stanley Smulders
Christopher Terry
Neil Vanderhook
Mike Wallbanks
Karl White
Nigel Wilks
Martyn Willetts
David Wilson
Captain Charles Woodward

It was good to again be able to support the Mission to Seafarers and we thank their representatives for joining us with their stall on the day.

From the feedback received during and after the event, this was another successful gathering. The number of attendees was again strong, and it was particularly great to renew acquaintances with former colleagues who were attending their first reunion event.

The SCARA committee would like to thank everyone who made it on the day, and extend their best wishes for those who had booked but for various reasons couldn't make it on the day.

We hope to see everyone back for 2026, when SCARA will be celebrating its 21st birthday!

If the images immediately above don't automatically rotate then please hover over the first photo and use the left/right arrows to move from one to the next. You can also use the same arrows to stop the rotation.

The slides playing in the background to the lunch were made up of two parts: (1) photos and other materials related to SCARA events that have taken place over the last 20 years and (2) other materials relating to our companies' histories (YouTube video)

The slides playing in the background to the lunch, made up of two parts: (1) photos and other materials related to SCARA events that have taken place over the last 20 years and (2) other materials relating to our companies' histories (YouTube video)

Many thanks to David Charlesworth, Jim Baxter, Sheila Radford and Mike Chapman for providing the photos displayed here and in the Google Photos album (see link below).