Tower and Town, February 2016 (view the full edition)The New ChairmanMy first encounter with Marlborough came in summer 1960 when my father brought me here to look at the College. I joined the school that year and headed for Cambridge to read Theology in December 1964. More importantly, I left with a clear hope and desire to return one day and raise a family in this lovely town. Later, in a prophetic interlude during my PGCE year at Bristol in 1969, I was assigned to Marlborough Grammar School for my Easter term's teaching practice. Ten years further on, in September 1979, my hope of return was fulfilled when, together with Wanda, my late wife from Augusta Georgia and our children, Alan and Georgia, I arrived from the USA to take up a place in the Religious Education department at Marlborough College. I still live in the town, now married to Angela, retired from teaching, retired also from a second career as software engineer for the Church Mission Society in Oxford, and delighted to have been recruited by John Osborne to the Tower and Town team. My aim as chairman will be to sustain the sterling work of my predecessors and to build on it by adding an online extension that will, I hope, offer a natural and accessible channel through which Marlborough's rising generations can express themselves and make their own contribution to the community. An excellent beginning has been made through John Osborne's initiation of dedicated editions produced by Marlborough's schools, and the time is now ripe to entice Marlborough's young writers and artists into feeling they can contribute year-round on a routine basis. On the one hand we want to hear their voices; on the other, we are glad to offer them a chance to be published, whether in print or online, in a magazine dedicated to good writing and exciting artwork. Of course it is not just young people that we'd like to hear from. The opportunity to publish online, where space restrictions are vastly reduced and speed of response greatly increased, means that letters to the editor and other reactions from readers can be much more readily accommodated than in a once-a-month printed edition. I would love to see a lively online correspondence page: please send your thoughts to chairman@towerandtown.org.uk and we shall give every consideration to publishing within the bounds of the appropriate and constructive. Marlborough is most fortunate in the quality of the culture it offers, whether it be through its many musical events, its book clubs, its Jazz Festival, its Literary Festival, or its many and varied publications and magazines. I am honoured and proud to have been entrusted with Tower And Town. Please help me to develop and enhance the already excellent contribution it makes to the life of our community. Hugh de Saram |