Ridley: Ralph Black OW 1982
15th October 2024
When were you here at King Edward's Witley?
I was at the school between 1978 and 1982, and was Head of House of Ridley.
What are your best memories of KESW?
The best memories I have relate to the camaraderie with my friends in Ridley. A couple of things stick out. Some of us (about four to six of us) used to regularly play cards after lights out from the Fifth Form onwards, usually in the room I shared with Phil Wills. I still regularly play our most usual game of ‘Chase the Lady’ (a form of trumps where anyone who wins a heart scores points and the lady – the Queen of Spades – counts as 50; the lowest score wins). We also worked out how to make the bells ring in the middle of the night. Whilst highly antisocial it was a laugh for us for the term we did it for. And for Valentines Day, I would organise to deliver carnations to fellow pupils in return for a fee that went to the Bursary Fund (my Dad had a business in Covent Garden so used to deliver hundreds and hundreds of red, pink and white carnations on the 13th, and my band of merry men in Ridley would stay up until the early hours attaching delivery labels to each stem and putting them in buckets of water. There was a bucket for each house, which I delivered to the respective Head of House on the morning of the 14th.
I also loved buying Maryland cookies from the tuck shop on a Saturday lunchtime or Sunday and enjoying them with a cup of tea. Maryland cookies still invoke an immediate recollection of school whenever I see them, even today.
Without a doubt, British Constitution was my favourite subject. Although I liked it a lot less after Miss Dickinson threw a pair of scissors at me to stop me talking to Matthew Carter-Windle (discipline was much more immediate in those days, and it never did the slightest harm to me). I played hockey for the school and football, but just for the House. And I was rubbish at cricket!
Where did life after KESW hold for you?
After KESW I went to Brighton Poly and did Business Studies. Then I went into financial services. I set up my own FS compliance consultancy in 1997 which was later sold. I then set up a commercial finance brokerage (in which I am now a silent partner) and I am currently setting up a consultancy / recruitment business in financial services to help organisations deal with PCP issues in car finance. But I am also semi-retired.
I have successfully raised three children, the youngest of whom has just started Cambridge. I’m also still in touch with several OWs from my era, although I don’t see them nearly as much as I would like.
