SCARA Annual Reunion Lunch 2024 Report

Another fabulous gathering! As someone said afterwards, we aren't sure how the stars managed to align, but the day's threatened tube strike was called off, we had beautiful November sunshine and a great turnout!

This was the 18th Annual SCARA Reunion Lunch and in the opinion of many, the best one yet. 100 had booked and inevitably not all could make it, but 91 came through the door on the day. It was great to see a number of people for whom this was the first reunion lunch, and a good number of those had travelled some distance to join us (first prize for that one went to Mark Yong who was over from Hong Kong, but we were also really pleased to welcome those who had come over to London for the event from Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands).

The venue this year was again the hall at International Students House near Great Portland Underground Station in London. Name badges were ready, flags were up, the revolving slide show as running (a new feature for 2024) and the memorabilia stand was stocked ready for the first arrivals from 11am.

It didn't take long for the hall to fill with friends and former colleagues meeting again, in some cases for the first time in 30+ years. The couple of hours before we took our seats for lunch seemed to go quickly, and from feedback received the food was worth the wait!

After the lunch it was time for the speeches. SCARA chair David Cross opened the proceedings, welcoming everyone for coming. He expressed particular thanks to those who had travelled some distance to join us, and sadness for those who couldn't (founder SCARA member Bernie Heard, and reunion regulars Anton Ratnakaye and Captain Ken Owen who had passed away in the weeks before the event were given a particular mention). It was noted that SCARA had gained 25 new members since the last reunion, and David thanked the SCARA committee for their efforts after the past 12 months (a special mention was given to Belinda McCormack who had been instrumental in organising this year's event).

David gave an update on the current status of the shipping industry (including the introduction of the MSC Irina which has a capacity of 24,346 TEUs so is almost ten times the size of the Liverpool Bay class launched in the early 1970s), before introducing our guest speaker, Richard Smith.

Richard described his career with the company which had started in 1994 and ran through to 2006. He then spent 17 years as the Director of the Tank Museum in Bovington before moving to be Executive Director at Gresham College in central London. Richard gave us a comparison of his experiences working in the global shipping industry, the military heritage sector and then education, before telling us a number of highly amusing observations about cavalry forces around the world!

After Richard, SCARA President Robert Woods said a few words before David again took centre stage. He spoke about our challenge for 2025, marking SCARA's 20th birthday by getting 200 attendees to the next annual reunion lunch!

Following the raffle draw, we had an unplanned 'quiz', David setting the task of naming everyone in a photograph taken in Dubai in the mid-1980s (see right - answers at the bottom of this web page!)

Attendees:

Clive Allen

Mary Anthony

Doug Bannister

Stephen Barraclough

Mark Barrett

Jim Baxter

Mike Bernard

Terry Bethell

Jens Peder Braendeholm

Tom Boardley

Alan Bott OBE

Caroline Bott

Jackie Brown

Wendy Carr

Stan Chalk

Joan Chapman

Mike Chapman

David Charlesworth

Steve Corkhill

David Cross

Jane Cross

Michael Daly

Ray Davis

Sandra Davy

Margaret Eames

Dave Evans

Carol Fielding

Eddie Filus

Tim Fisher

Barry Fletcher

Jane Fletcher

David Fox

Graham Foy

Alistair Grote

Luciano Gusmeri

John Hallahan

John Hallett

Emile Hoogsteden

Mal Hurdidge

Sandra Isaacson

Jon Jolliffe

Dave Kelsall

Sharon Knorr

John Leach

John Loftin

Martin Lloyd

Ian Malcolm

Adrian Malupa

Tony Mason

Belinda McCormack

Michiel Messchaert

Diane Mill

Clifford Miller

Rob Milton

Todd Moore

Peter Morley

John Neal

Bill Nelson

Joe O'Brien

Tina Osborn

Frank Palmer

Christine Phillippo

Steve Plastow

David Potter

Mark Poulter

Vicky Revill-Whelan

Andrew Richardson

Geoff Robbins

Daphne Roberts

John Roberts

Graham Russell

Fiona Ruxton

Trevor Ruxton

Lindy Seymour

Michael Seymour

Geoff Sharman

Hazel Sharman

Richard Smith

Peter Snow QSM

Suzi Steinke

Andre Toet

Michael Wallbanks

Nigel Wilks

Martyn Willetts

Barry Williams

David Wilson

Richard Winch

Robert Woods CBE

Hendrick Wormgoor

Steve Wray

Mark Yong

Mission to Seafarers

Tessa Perfect

Loris Sanson

With apologies from Eleanor Grady, Danny Hallahan, Bob James, Martin Johnson, Colin Johnston, Sylvia Norton, Alan Robertson, John Sprigings and Srimi Van Rossum who had booked but at the last minute found they were unable to attend.

While 2024 is done and dusted, planning now starts for 2025... Can we make our 20th annual reunion lunch even better, maybe hitting the magic 200 ?!!

Dubai 1980s photo quiz answers, from left to right:

Shaukat Ali Bhatti
Chris Stiebelt
Julian Bevis
Gerry Rickcord
Ewen Robertson
Hugh Ligertwood
Hazel Gray
Keith Nuttall
David Cross