The re-coupling of the annual Speech Day, held this year on Sunday June 29th, with OC Day seemed especially welcome as this was the final one for Guy Waller, retiring after 17 years in office. All five speakers paid tribute to Guy, including the chairman of the governing body, Anthony Townsend, who referred to his “extremely distinguished service” and to the raised standards of academic and sporting excellence, as well as the £35 million pound building programme of his headship. Townsend also announced the opening of Cranleigh School Abu Dhabi this September.
Addressing parents, pupils and Old Cranleighans for the final time, the headmaster began with a reminder that the School was founded as the Surrey County School “with Christian values at its heart”. Taking impetus from Trollope’s use of Psalm 16 (“My lines have fallen in very pleasant places”) he praised the beauty of the School’s setting in the Surrey Hills and thanked those at the School who have visited, and will again soon visit, Cranleigh’s partner school in Kawama, Zambia.
Guy went on to talk of the School’s long-standing commitment to the creative and performing arts as well as an ethos of sport for all. One of three recent sporting highlights mentioned was the boys’ cricket Under 15 XI winning the South Championship of the Lord’s Taverners’ Trophy. He went on to assert that the School’s Emms Centre (opened by Chris Patten in 2009) was now the heart of the School and thanked two of his predecessors, who were present: David Emms himself and Marc van Hasselt, both Second World War veterans.
Guy thanked the governing body and the two chairmen he worked with: Dudley Couper (also present) and Townsend. He told the listeners he would miss the whole range of bursarial staff who serve the School under Paul Dunn and Patrick Roberts. From the Common Room he singled out deputy head Andrew Griffiths to whom he owed, he said, a personal debt of gratitude. He praised the leaving UVIth year for their leadership. And, finally, he explained that Cranleigh School “reflects the values of the families who entrust their children to us”. This led to an emotional tribute to his own family who all joined him on stage.