The Haileybury Society was so delighted to host a very special event on Friday 1st December at the prestigious Oriental Club in London’s West End to mark 50 years since girls entered Haileybury in 1973.

Shared endurance and tenacity

Amid luxurious surroundings where the fizz flowed and the food was delicious, OH ladies from across the decades came together to celebrate, sharing memories of schooldays and the forming of lifelong friendships.

Our President, Lizzie Graham (K 76 & Alb), herself an ‘early girl’, spoke (above) of our shared endurance, tenacity, self-reliance, independence, confidence in oneself, compassion, charity, the ability to learn, the power of a constantly enquiring mind, true lifelong friendships and most importantly the value of loyalty.

David Summerscale present

David Summerscale and early Haileybury Girls — *Above: **David** and Pauline Summerscale (left), **Lizzie Graham** and **Martin** and **Jenny Stephen (**centre) remember those early days with some of the early girl pupils.*

In particular, Lizzie paid tribute to the 1973 cohort of 12, seven of whom were with us for the evening, and to special guests David Summerscale, Master of Haileybury 1976-86, and Martin and Jenny Stephen, the first HMs of Alban’s, the first girls house, all three of whom turned an experiment into a reality and laid the foundations of co-education at Haileybury.

Everyone enjoyed themselves

Like many Haileybury Society events, the real pleasure was in meeting old friends and catching up – and there was a special bag of Haileybury Society goodies for everyone to take home at the end! Here are just a few of the wonderful comments we have received:

“Please could you forward my sincere thanks and appreciation to Lizzie Graham and Jane Everard for a wonderful evening at the Oriental Club on Friday 1st December. It was great fun to see and catch up with so many friends from my Haileybury/Albans cohort and to meet older and younger girls from other cohorts too.

Events like this do not happen without considerable time and effort being made in advance and so I would like to say a huge thank you to them both for everything they did to make the evening such a success. The venue, the food and wine and the hosting were all wonderful and all conspired to create a lovely, welcoming atmosphere in which we could catch up on some long overdue socialising with old friends.

Thank you again Lizzie and Jane for everything!”

Best wishes,

Belinda Galliford (neé Smeed)

“Last night was absolutely brilliant and great fun. Thank you so very much for organising such a successful evening in such sumptuous surroundings. Friendships have been renewed and a WhatsApp group already created!”

“Just to say how excellent last night was. The venue was gorgeous, the food yummy and it was so lovely to be invited and chat with the OH Ladies. Lots of happy memories and it was very interesting to hear how things were from their point of view.”

Young and old Haileybury girls meet at party

“The event was most enjoyable and it was great venue and fabulous to meet so many Haileybury girls from down the ages!“

“I had a lovely evening. It was beautifully organised and a super venue. Lizzie spoke very well and hit lots of nails on the head. I am sorry it had been so complicated by the school. Thank you for a very happy evening.”

“Thank you for organising such a wonderful event to celebrate 50 years of girls at Haileybury last Friday evening. It was great to meet up with friends again and to reminisce about old times but also get up to date with everyone’s news. It was good that some of the old boys came as well. We had a few laughs!”