Sing’s 50th Anniversary Dinner
In the words of Coldplay: ‘It was all … yellow’. The sunniest of colours enjoyed a rare winter outing as Sing’s parents, staff and pupils came together on Saturday night to celebrate the House’s 50th anniversary. There were yellow napkins, yellow ties, yellow dresses and a huge yellow cake — but the most exuberant outfit of the night was the dazzling yellow suit sported by Sixth Former Ken Laeremans. The House in fact began life as ‘Set B’ but was subsequently named Sing’s in 1925 after John Millington Sing, the Set’s first Housemaster. When the House moved into its present home in 1965 the building was opened on 27th November by former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. The anniversary evening on 21st November was a wild success, with the delicious dinner punctuated by plenty of fun and games. Amazingly, a number of Sing’s boys who were simultaneously performing in the last night of the School’s production of West Side Story were able to slip away during the interval to entertain guests. Henry Johnson sang Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirate King accompanied by Mr Powell on piano and Ben Swindells played Prelude from JS Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. Then it was the turn of Charles Maddison who, having been murdered minutes earlier on stage in the Hall, made a remarkable recovery to give an accomplished display of beat-boxing which drew loud gasps of admiration from the audience. Guests were also kept on their toes with frequent rounds of True or False as increasingly outlandish claims about House staff were offered up for scrutiny. Amazingly, some of the more outlandish were true, including ‘appeared in Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘was selected for the Syrian national rugby team’, and ‘used to catch crocodiles in the wild with their bare hands’. Fortunately, it wasn’t true that anyone had ‘appeared on Crimewatch’, although there was some disappointment that nobody had ‘been a contestant on University Challenge’. A competition to identify members of staff from baby pictures also kept amusement levels high. A wonderful speech by Head of House Horatio Scott Lyon emphasised the great spirit of camaraderie enjoyed by all members of Sing’s and clearly demonstrated his deep affection for the people and the place. Throughout the evening, guests were able to bid for a wide variety of auction prizes and we are delighted to report that nearly £5000 has been raised so far for the school charity, Restore. It was a wonderful evening of celebration and fun, and a fitting way to mark this important milestone in the life of Sing’s House. The link for anyone still wishing to donate is https://www.justgiving.com/Sings50th.