Commandants
Notes

GRAND DAY

To any boy, or indeed to any contemporary member of staff, the Grand Day ritual must seem as unchanging as the seasons, familiar, regular, recurrent. In fact its ceremonial procedure has changed a good deal in detail over the years and continues to do so, but that is by the way. Symbolically, on the one hand, we demonstrate our acknowledgement of the honour of bearing our Colours and our acceptance and support of what they stand for; we also show to the three Services, in which all our fathers are serving or have served, our appreciation of their interest and support. Conversely, each Service in turn annually expresses, by provision of one of its highest officers as Inspecting Officer, the esteem in which the School is held by each. Less seriously, the day provides, we hope, a genial social occasion and pleasant spectacle for parents, relations, Old Boys and the wide range of the School's friends, supporters, and helpers. All this is worth a bit of trouble.
This year we are especially honoured by the presence of General Sir John Mogg, the Adjutant-General, as Inspecting Officer, and of Major-General Evans, the Director of Army Education, who is presenting the academic prizes.

STAFF

There have been no actual staff changes in the short period since the publication of the Christmas issue but at the end of this term we shall be losing Monsieur Garces, our young "attached" assistant French Master, whose year at the School comes to an end. This was the first of these "attachments" and certainly there could have been no happier beginning. M. Garces, unfamiliar with the UK and even more so with the strange tribal ways of Scotland, threw himself into all the activities of the School from the moment of his arrival. Squash, tennis, piping, hill walking were only a few of his experiments and in a few months he made himself very much one of our community. We shall all miss his pleasant personality but it is good to know that he has accepted a teaching appointment at Glasgow University, so we hope to see him frequently.
We were sad to record, in March, the death of the Rev. Vaughan Johnson, until a few years ago our officiating Episcopal Chaplain.
Mr Monaghan, who has patched and plastered the School fabric for more than thirty years, and was nearing retirement, has unfortunately been ill now for some months; we all hope for his early recovery and look forward to hearing the scrape of his trowel again for a bit more yet.
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THE VICTORIAN

This will be the last "twice yearly" issue of The Victorian. Henceforth it will be published as an Annual, or "Year Book", just before Grand Day each year, at a price of 25 new pence. While this change will, it is hoped, alleviate the unceasing struggle to hold down costs, which I mentioned in my last Notes, this is not the only reason for the change. Publishing the magazine twice yearly, in June and December, does impose a good deal of strain on all those concerned with its production, who are mostly fifth and sixth year boys with many other commitments. With the long intervening summer holiday, it has meant that the December issue has had to be thought about early on in the Christmas term, and there isn't usually all that amount of new material ready to go in by then. Some have thought the December issue rather redundant anyway.
The Annual, for which material will be gathered throughout the year, and not just during the few weeks before publication, will, it is hoped, provide not only a good overall review and record of the whole of the varied activities of the School during the preceding year, but also a better means of tapping the total potential of original literary composition in the School. We hope too that the greater scope and less intense pressure of preparation of the Annual will not only result in a generally higher standard of production but also make it easier to reconcile the diverse and sometimes contradictory aims of producing a journal which provides something of interest for boys, Old Victorians, parents, the Services, and other circles of Scottish society which have a friendly concern for the School; and in a form and style which will provide not only the essential historical record but a valued personal "souvenir" worth reading and keeping.

 COLONEL WHITE

An obituary notice, and tribute, concerning "Colonel Archie", as he was universally known, appears elsewhere in this issue. In paying my own personal tribute to my very distinguished predecessor I recall the debt I personally owe him for his guidance and encouragement when I joined his Company at Sandhurst as a very raw cadet, forty odd years ago. Up until nearly the last moment he almost defied the years, and died as he had lived, a scholar, a great gentleman, an outstanding fighting soldier. Truly a "Mr Greatheart". The School can indeed be proud to have had him as Commandant.