Eight friends from university are having a reunion after ten years. It has been organised by Veronica Holt and will be held at her home in Bishop’s Cleave on 1 July 1964. All the girls spent their first year (September 1951 to June 1952) at the Cecelia Park Hall of Residence in Durham. It was where they met for the first time and became good friends. Daphne Appleby-Smythe and Avril Roberts stayed in hall all three years; Phyllis Drake and Gillian Forbes moved into a flat together for the second and third years and Jane Brown, Veronica, Georgina Cole and Betty Grange stayed at Cecilia Park two years before they moved into a house which was divided into a large and a small flat. The girls moved into the large flat which had to share kitchen and bathroom with the small flat, occupied by Peter Holt and a friend Nigel Binks. Peter had a degree in Electronics and was studying for a PhD. Nigel was also a PhD student with a degree in Philosophy. Peter had been going out with Betty since the end of her second year. It was he who told the girls about the large flat. Soon after the girls moved in, Peter stopped dating Betty and started going out with Veronica. The married in July 1955, two weeks after Veronica’s finals. That September Peter was awarded his PhD. But what has happened in the ten years since then? Will everybody pick up happily where they left off?
Meet the Cast
Daphne Wright nee Appleby-Smythe
Born: 12/9/32 in Bladen, Oxfordshire.
School: Roedean, Brighton
Awarded: BA in Psychology, 2.1
Marital Status: m. Ian Wright 18/9/59
Now living: Billingshurst, Sussex
Occupation: MP’s wife
Phyllis Drake
Born: 23/4/31 in Sheffield, Yorkshire.
School: Sheffield Girls, then Girton Ladies College
Awarded: B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering, 1st
Marital Status: single
Now living: Portsmouth Hampshire
Occupation: Commander WRNS
Gillian Forbes
Born: 5/12/32 in Richmond Surrey
School: Haberdashers Aske for Girls, Rickmansworth
Awarded: B.Med 2.1
Marital Status: Single
Now living: Portsmouth Hampshire
Occupation: Hospital Doctor
Avril Cooper nee Roberts
Born: 5/8/33 in Sandwich Kent
School: Lady Charlotte Hughes Grammar, Sandwich
Awarded: BA in French 2.2
Marital Status: m. Peter Cooper 6/6/64
Now living: Chiswick
Occupation: Bilingual Secretary
Jane Brown
Born: 2/3/33 in Barnsley, Yorkshire
School: Barnsley Grammar
Awarded: BA History, 3
Marital Status: Single
Now living: Glasgow
Occupation: Social Worker
Veronica Holt nee Burton
Born: 18/8/33 in Kingston, Surrey
School: Gumley House convent, Isleworth
Awarded: BA in Theology, 2.2
Marital Status: m Peter Holt 4/7/54
Now living: Bishop’s Cleave near Cheltenham, Glos
Occupation: Housewife and mother
Georgina Evans nee Cole
Born: 1/2/33 in Stoke
School: Stoke Grammar
Awarded: BSc in Mathematics, 3
Marital Status: m Alan Evans 4/4/57
Now living: Bristol
Occupation: Housewife & Mother
Betty Grange
Born: 12/9/32 in Wednesbury
School: St Ethelreda’s College, Wednesbury
Awarded: BSc in Mathematics, 2.1
Marital Status: Single
Now living: Bayswater, London
Occupation: Civil Servant Air Ministry
Peter Holt
Born: 8/8/30 in Durham
School: Isleworth Grammar, Middlesex
Awarded: B.Eng Electrical Engineering 2.1 and PhD in Engineering
Marital Status: m Veronica Holt 4/7/54
Now living: Bishop’s Cleave near Cheltenham, Glos
Occupation: Own Wireless and TV Repair business