Alumni / ‘Old Boys’ Association | ENFIELD GRAMMAR SCHOOL

The Enfield Grammar School Old Boys Association was founded well over 100 years ago and its current aim is to promote good fellowship amongst its members by arranging social gatherings (principally the Annual Dinner) and also to support the school in whatever way it can.

We have an active old boys’ group that does a lot for the school through fundraising and support and meets formally once a year for the old boys’ dinner. In an attempt to maintain links with ex-students of all ages we strive to organise additional meet-ups such as sporting events and social gatherings ( i.e. Cheese & Wine evenings).

We are very keen to keep our club alive and attract new Old Boys so if you are an ex-student or staff member, or know of one, please sign up to join (details and links below). We are also open to any new ideas / suggestions and for any help in the running / organising of the club and it’s events.

Thank you to all of you who continue in the support of our association and our school.

For more information:

Visit the website: Enfield Grammar School Old Boys Association (EGSOBA)

Email: [email protected]

To sign up to the Association email: [email protected]or click here

Meet some of our ex-boys…

Ralph – Music Centre Manager

Deniz – Studying Commercial Law

YOUSIF – Youth Politician

SONNY – Law Student

Daniel Phillips made his senior debut for Watford FC – Sept 2020

Oliver Leith – Guitar teacher & Doctoral Composer in Residence at the Royal Opera House Sept 2019

Notable EGS Alumni through the ages:

Notable Alumni - Academics, Poets, Authors, Journalists

Academics / Professors / Authors / Poets / Journalists

Tom Latchem – Broadcaster, writer, journalist; BBC, Sky, Channel 4 & 5, News of the World, Daily Mail, Loaded, The Spectator

Joseph ‘Joe’ Ambrose Banks – Professor of Sociology at Leicester University, academic author (1920 – 2005)

John Coote – (1936-2017) Professor of Physiology at the University of Birmingham

Professor Jeffrey A Jupp – University of Manchester, Aerospace Research Institute, Non-executive Director on the Board of Cranfield Aerospace Ltd., Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, joint holder of the 1987 Royal Society “Esso Energy Award” Gold Medal (for the design of fuel efficient wings for Airbus), Royal Aeronautical Society 1992 British Bronze Medal and 2002 Society Gold Medal

Henry Wells Sullivan – Professor of Spanish Literature, Tulane University, New Orleans; author; poet; translator, Guggenheim Fellow (1985), Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (1978-80)

Professor Philip Tew – Academic author and scholar, Brunel University, Fellow Royal Society of Arts, Member Royal Society of Literature

Frederic Wood Jones – Professor of Anatomy Manchester and Melbourne universities, naturalist, anthropologist, public speaker, trustee Public Library, Museum and National Gallery, Victoria, Australia

Derek Austin – Librarian; author; developer of innovative digital cataloguing systems, creator of PRECIS indexing language in 1974; Supernumerary Fellow Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. Royal Signal Corps 1941–6

Alan G. Walker – Author; Director of Education at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists; recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Western England, 2002

Geoffrey Soar – Passed 2014) Essayist, librarian, former curator Small Press Collection at University College London (UCL) Library and painter

Graham Handley – Author and lecturer (born 1926)

Norman Lewis – Author, influential British journalist, travel writer (1908-2003)

Keith Chapman – Genre novelist, author of Black Horse Westerns under pseudonym Chap O’Keefe; journalist, author (born 1943)

Bob Cobbing – Avant-garde soundtext poet, performer and publisher; manager famous underground Better Books on Charing Cross Road in 1960s; founding member and vice president Association of Little Presses; council member Poetry Society; 1920-2002

Jim Crace – Prize-winning English novelist, former journalist

David Eames – Esquire Bedell to the Chancellor of the University of London, HRH The Princess Royal; formerly Secretary and Registrar of the University’s Faculty of Medicine

Walter Pater – nineteenth-century essayist, critic

Notable Alumni - Science & Medical

Professor Matthew Pieri PhD in Astrophysics

An Enfield Grammar School student from 1988-1995 then on to King’s College London to study Physics and Philosophy. Matthew is now a Professor of Astrophysics in Marseille, France.

MSc in Applied Optics at Imperial College London, 2000
PhD in Astrophysics at Imperial College London (supervised from Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge) 2004
Postdoctoral Researcher in Quebec City (Canada), Columbus Ohio (USA), and Boulder Colorado (USA) from 2004-2011
Lecturer at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth 2011-2012
Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth 2012-2014
Excellence Chair at Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille and Aix-Marseille Université 2014-2019
Professor of Astrophysics (full professor) at Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille and Aix-Marseille Université 2019 – present

Professor David Warburton OBE, DSc, MD, FRCP, FRCS, FRCPCH, FAAAS

Attended Enfield Grammar School 1960-67 / St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School 1967-73 The Saban Research Institute / Children’s Hospital Los Angeles / University of Southern California.

David Warburton is best known for his contributions to basic and applied maternal and child health as well as environmental science and public health impacts across the lifespan. Most recently he is heading up a Hub in the NIH RECOVER COVID, a major research effort on long-COVID effects in children.

David has also devoted significant effort to global women’s and children’s health, directed to understand and intervene in policy on the impact of air pollution and its effects across the lifespan, but especially on fertility, pregnancy, fetal, neonatal and child health. His work has been focused over 20 years specially in Mongolia.

He also founded a field called molecular embryology of the lung, devoted to understanding the fundamental development of the lung in human neonates.

He is based at the Saban Research Institute at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where he built a large team of researchers, with an operating budget over $20 million per annum, tackling tissue development and regeneration of many organs including the lung, heart, kidney, liver, intestine, pancreas, bone, spinal cord and brain.

Awards received: Order of the British Empire, Hero of the Order of Friendship of Mongolia, the Presidential Medallion of the Mongolian National University for Medical Sciences, the Medallion of the National Centre for Maternal and Child Health of Mongolia, Knight Grand Officer of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia, elected Fellowships of several Royal Colleges as well as Fellowships of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Thoracic Society and the American Physiological Society.

He is passionate about EDI, being himself a US immigrant from a disadvantaged minority background in London (cockney).

Group Captain John Joseph Skipper MB BCh BA LLB FRCS

Enfield Grammar School 1962-1968

Southgate Technical College
Thee Welsh National School of Medicine (Cardiff ) graduated 1979
Trained as Ear Nose and Throat surgeon in NHS: Bristol, Sheffield, London, Leicester

Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons 1985

Joined Royal Air Force as a Specialist in ENT 1986

Consultant Otolaryngologist (ORL/ENT) 1991

Tri-Service Defence Consultant Adviser in ORL to Surgeon General 1996 – Responsible for training and standards of all three Services’ ENT specialists

Pristina Field Hospital, Kosovo. (NATO Medal) 1999

Consultant Otologist (Ear surgeon) at Ygia Polyclinic in Limassol, Cyprus 2000-2019

French interpreter diploma MOD / Westminster University 2005

The Open University: BA (Hons) Humanities (Classical Studies (Greek and Latin ) with French) 2006

Consulting for the Metropolitan Police Occupational Health Clinic Otological and Audiological service, 2006-2011

Visiting Otologist Nepal (BRINOS Charity) – Visiting once annually and performing approximately 40 major ear operations annually in Nepalgunj. 2010-2019

LLB (Hons) (Bachelor of Laws) 2011

Worked in RAF hospitals then the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar in Portsmouth until all military hospitals were finally closed. Worked with NHS in Portsmouth until 2014 when I retired from the RAF with rank of Group Captain.

Medical Expert Member of The First Tier Tribunal, Social Entitlement Chamber hearing appeals on disability benefits in the London area. (Judicial Appointment) 2013-2021

Cyprus University of Technology: Level 3 Modern Greek 2017

Post Retirement:

Honorary Secretary of Senior Fellows Forum of the Royal Society of Medicine
Past president of the Hunterian Society, current treasurer
Member of the Medical Society of London
Liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London
Organiser of EGS Older Old Boys annual lunch

Sir Alec Merrison – D.L., B.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc., LL.D., F.F.C.M., F.R.S., physicist; Institute of Physics’ Charles Vernon Boys Prize 1961; Vice-Chancellor Bristol University (1969 to 1984); Director of Lloyds Bank; Fellow of the Royal Society; High Sheriff of Avon 1986-1987

Walter George Ridewood – Biologist, anatomist after whom a method of cranial dissection is named (1864 – 1921) [published five important papers on the cranial osteology of teleostean fishes]. He was the son of W. S. Ridewood who was headmaster from 1877 to 1909

Professor Mike Paterson, F.R.S.- Computer scientist, University of Warwick

Notable Alumni - Sports Related

Daniel Phillips – Footballer for Watford FC 2020

Michael Duberry – Association Football player – Michael Wayne Duberry is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He started his career with Premier League side Chelsea, and also played in the top flight for Leeds United and Reading, and in the Scottish Premier League for St Johnstone

Steve Morison – Association Football player. Steven William Morison is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently Cardiff City’s under-23 lead coach. Morison started his career at Northampton Town at the age of 16, progressing through the club’s centre of excellence inc Stevenage Borough F.C.

Kevin Stewart – Footballer for Hull City

Jake Livermore – Footballer for West Bromwich Albion. Played for England. He began his career at Tottenham Hotspur, spending most of his tenure out on loan at clubs in all three divisions of the English Football League.

David Hutton – Footballer. English born Irish footballer who plays for Hayes & Yeading United. He has also been capped by the Republic of Ireland at Under-15 and 16 level. He helped the school (EGS) football team win the Middlesex Cup. He joined the Tottenham youth academy in 2006–07

Michael J. Smith – Cricketer. Played most of his cricket as an opening batsman for Middlesex County Cricket Club. Together with Mike Brearley he formed a successful opening partnership. He also played five One Day Internationals for England in 1973 and 1974.

Colin Metson – First class cricketer for Middlesex and Glamorgan

Christo Kasabi – international rugby union player for Cyprus. Player for Enfield Ignatians

Mason Caton-Brown, also known by the nickname of “MCB”, is a Jamaica international rugby league footballer who plays as a winger or centre. He has previously played for the London Broncos in the Super League, and on loan from the Broncos at the Hemel Stags in League 1 Rugby League

Notable Alumni - Actors

Acting

Trevor Peacock – Actor screenwriter, and songwriter. Appeared in numerous films and series but he is best known for playing Jim Trott in the BBC comedy series The Vicar of Dibley, alongside Dawn French

Boris Karloff – Actor, aka Eric Pratt – has appeared in over 45 films (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Karloff_filmography), some of the most famous; being Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein

Notable Alumni - Music Related

Music Related

John Francis Picard – Jazz musician (Trombone player) – Picard starting learning music in 1941 by taking lessons on the piano aged 7. Served in the RAF, member of the London Jazz Big Band, Rocket 88 and later the Charlie Watts Big Band

Terry Lightfoot – Jazz bandleader and musician, played alongside Louis Armstrong; British Music Industry Award For Excellence for CD “The Special Magic of Louis Armstrong” l996; Gold Badge Award from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters 2000

Robin Millar – Successful record producer, for Sade’s “Diamond Life” album, Everything But The Girl’s “Eden”, and for the Style Council, Randy Crawford, the Christians and Fine Young Cannibals; Brit Awards Judge since 1993

Oliver Leith – Composer, Doctoral Composer in Residence at the Royal Opera House 2019, British Composer Award 2016, Royal Philharmonic Composition prize 2014

Vernon Handley – Conductor

Ronald Edward Perrin – Organist

Frank Bayford – Pharmacist, English composer, co-founder Compass Composers Association, From 1993 President of Enfield Chamber Orchestra (orig. Enfield String Players) & joint artistic director from 2005

Notable Alumni - Politics Related

Politician / Political

Mark Tami – Politician

Andrew Turnbull – Baron Turnbull, KCB , CVO, former head of the British Civil Service and Cabinet Secretary; life peer as Baron Turnbull, of Enfield, on 11 October 2005

Hugh Jenkins – Later Baron Jenkins of Putney, politician, member of National Theatre Board, chairman of CND, elevated to Life Peerage, Lord Jenkins of Putney; July 27, 1908 – January 26, 2004

Leonard Vivian Biggs (1873 – 1944) – Journalist and politician in Melbourne, Australia

Notable Alumni - Business, Military, Other

Other

Ryan McCarthy – graduated from EGS in 2014 and went to the University of Leeds to study Economics where he joined a subsidiary of Paragon Banking Group in summer 2016 as an intern and worked there for 14 months before returning to Leeds, graduating in 2018.

Career: senior partner practice of St. James’s Place worked in wealth management, MASECO Private Wealth, a US/UK specialist wealth, Chartered Financial Planner at Farrier Rose Wealth Management, a principal partner practice of St. James’s Place.

He is also a passionate triathlete and has competed up to half Ironman distance, and working towards his full Ironman in summer 2025.

Andrew Boylett – Attended EGS 1981 to 1986 (favourite teachers Mr Batty & Mr Gross!)

Career: Royal Ordnance in Enfield until it closed.
London Underground as a guard in 1995. Became a driver, then instructor and then a trainer and is now an operational manager for the Northern line and still enjoying his work life.
He regularly does bike charity events

Derek Taunt – Mathematician, codebreaker (Hut 6, Bletchley Park), successively Lecturer, Director of Studies, Bursar and President, Jesus College, Cambridge

Martin Cole – Controversial ‘sexologist,’ directed, produced and performed in the explicit, once infamous educational film “Growing Up” (1971)

Lewis Vieusseux – Founder and Principal of Melbourne Ladies’ College, Australia, pioneering nineteenth-century educator of women, civil engineer, architect, surveyor

Maddox, L. G. Second-Lieutenant , MC with Bar, 22nd (Queen’s) London Regt.; born Nov 1st 1898; attended EGS 1907 – Nov 1915. Joined up Feb 1918 – awarded MC for ‘Conspicuous Gallantry and Devotion to Duty’ – killed Combles August 30th 1918. See: Smith, Samuel. (ed.) “Enfield Grammar School Book of Remembrance: The Great War, 1914 – 1919”. Enfield: Meyer Brooks, nd.

John Morrell Band (1902-1943) – Naval officer

Stuart Gebble – Entrepreneur

Peter Joseph Hobbs – Marketing manager of BOC Murex, Managing Director 1965 – 1992 UK subsidiary of the Swedish welding and cutting company ESAB, from 1980 Hobbs fellow of Welding Institute, Cambridge, awarded distinguished service award 1998

Alan Hopes – The Right Reverend, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, Roman Catholic bishop

Jack Howe – Architect (influenced by Walter Gropius), designer: Royal Designer for Industry in 1961; Master of the Faculty of RDIs, 1975-77; President of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers in 1963-64; recipient Duke of Edinburgh’s Design Prize in 1969

Sir Peter Large – Shell executive until 1962, disabled by polio; subsequently Civil Servant; disability campaigner; founded Association of Disabled Professionals, parliamentary adviser; appointed MBE 1974, CBE 1987, knighted 1993 for services to disabled people,; 2004 lifetime achievement award from the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation

Christopher Hughes – Quiz champion. Worked as a train driver and railway worker. He has been a winner of Mastermind (1983), International Mastermind (1983) and Brain of Britain, 2005. He is one of only five people ever to have won both Mastermind and Brain of Britain. He also appeared on The Weakest Link (host Anne Robinson declared Hughes to be “the best contestant we have had on the Weakest Link). He is currently a member of the regular panel of quiz champions on the UK quiz show Eggheads

Oliver G Pike – Pioneering wildlife photographer, British naturalist, author and early nature documentary pioneer, specialising in the study of bird life

Peter Gross – Assistant Headteacher, Enfield Grammar School, Maths teacher. Received a New Years Honour 2013 for services to Education

…..the above list is and will always be…..a “work in progress”!…..

If you would like to be featured in our list of notable alumni, please email: [email protected]

*Information researched and images from / credit to plus more information at;

British History Online / The Enfield Independent / Enfield Local Studies & Archive / EGS Archives / Local Facebook groups / Friends of the school / Wikipedia / www.23hq.com/robkittle /www.harris-bristol.com/egs / The Enfield Society / www.enacademic.com / www.everything.explained.today

A Short History of the Enfield Grammar School by Samuel Smith, 1932
A Brief History of Enfield Grammar School 1558-1958 by Leslie Birkett Marshall, 1958