Head boy flies in to share school memories

One of the original pupils of St Christopher’s will be flying into Bahrain to make a guest appearance at the school’s 50th anniversary golden ball on Friday.

Former head-boy Michael Stokes will be able to reminisce over the school’s incredible journey from humble beginnings in a hut in Manama to state-of-the-art premises in Saar.

The ball takes place in the banquet hall at the Crowne Plaza Bahrain’s Conference Centre and the guest list includes alumni, former parents and teachers who have been associated with the school and some are flying in from different parts of the world to reunite with old friends for the occasion.

But Michael, 54, now a relationship manager for banks and financial institutions with Thomson Reuters in Dubai, is likely to be the star turn as he and his brother John were among the first batch of students to be enrolled in the school back in 1961. Their mother Joy, now 85, was the school’s art teacher.

Michael said: “I think I am the only student of that era still in the area. I have also lived in New Zealand and Hong Kong but my heart and soul has remained in the Gulf.

“It is good to come home. I have great memories and strong connections. My parents would have loved to come to the ball but they are too frail to travel. Mum sends her regards to everyone connected to the school.”

Michael arrived in Bahrain when he was four with his mother Joy and brother, John, then aged nine, in September 1961, after taking a 20-hour flight from London via Rome, Beirut and Kuwait. The family lived on the island until 1979 when they moved on to Muscat.

Michael’s father, James, 86, was a former Fleet Air Arm pilot, a branch of the British Royal Navy responsible for the operation of naval aircraft, and had taken up a pilot’s position with Gulf Aviation. Michael’s wife Gayle, a former banker, is also linked with the region as her father was also in the UK Royal Air Force and later sold aircraft in the region.

He said: “I remember staying at the Speedbird House, off Hoora Avenue opposite the Ibn Sina Health Centre. My first teacher was Patsy Edwards, wife of a Gulf Aviation captain, whom I am still in touch with.”

The school was then part of the St Christopher’s Church in Manama and the kindergarten classes were held in a Barasti – a traditional hut usually built on a wooden frame made out of mangrove poles, split-palm trunk or any other available wood and palm leaves – next to the Church Hall, or on the stage of the hall.
 
The primary school classes were conducted in the hall separated by a screen. The classroom block was only completed in 1962 and the school remained at the church compound until it opened a facility on the Old Palace Road for the junior school students four years later.

The saying goes that school days are the ‘best days’ of your life … they were certainly different than today in Bahrain.
Michael said: “We were about 80 pupils and even at that time we were very multi-national, although I recall that most of the students were Roman Catholics because the school was associated with the church.

“Neither the school nor the church had any air conditioning at the time. An external air conditioning unit was in front of the school hall which was not particularly effective.

“The climate was very humid and in summer it was very hot and so the school assemblies were very short. There was no playground. It was all stones and mud that would flood when it rained!”

The old school uniform included khakhi shorts, socks and a white shirt and in winter the students wore grey shorts, white shirt and a red tie. There were no fancy facilities as the youngsters carried packed lunches to school and drank Spin, a locally-produced soft drink as fresh milk was impossible to find, and they bought sweets from a village shop using Indian rupees, which was the currency at that time.

Michael said: “Bahrain was an incredibly safe place. We would drive on the left-hand side of the road and there were only two traffic signals in the entire place. We would go around in a blue Holden car and lived in a compound of villas near Juffair Gate.

“We used to zoom around the island on our bikes. We loved going to Shaikh Isa’s beach and BAPCO beach and another called Thompson’s beach.

“There were plenty of fresh water springs and a familiar sight was the hard-working donkeys pulling their loads. We would walk through palm tree groves and smell the reed water. It was lovely. We would run and play at the Bahrain Fort site which was at that time being excavated and at the foundations of the Gulf Hotel which was built at that time.

“Bahrain was part of a mini-boom and there was nothing much in the neighbouring states. There were no facilities anywhere-else – everything appeared to be focused on Bahrain.

“Abu Dhabi had no roads or schools, for example, although Dubai had a thriving port. To go to Oman or Qatar or UAE you had to get a clearance from the political agency office which is the present British Embassy. So, Bahrain was indeed the gateway to the Gulf states!”

Michael was the school’s head-boy until he left St Christopher’s to attend RAF School Muharraq in 1968. One year later he was enrolled as a boarder at Woodroffe School, in Lyme Regis, in the English county of Dorset.

However, the family’s association with St Christopher’s was renewed in the 1990s when Michael enrolled his elder daughter Charlotte into the infants school in Barbar during a time when he worked for a software company in Bahrain.
 
Michael has two daughters, Charlotte, 22, studying Material Science at Queen Mary’s College London and Caroline, 20, studying Animal Management at Kingston Maurward College, near Dorchester, England.

The St Christopher’s School golden jubilee celebrations include the inauguration of a photography exhibition and musical performances by current students. Entertainment for the evening includes a DJ and a live band and an international buffet with live cooking stations.

The past 50 years have seen St Christopher’s mature from its modest beginnings in a villa in 1961, into a large, highly-respected, non-profit making school with more than 2,000 students representing 70 nations. Its infants, primary and junior schools are based at its Saar campus and the senior school is in Isa Town.

Around 450 guests are expected to attend the ball and Michael is preparing a speech remembering the olden days. The photography exhibition of the school throughout its 50 years will be inaugurated at a reception before the dinner and will be on display at both campuses before becoming a permanent fixture at the junior school.

Principal Ed Goodwin said: “The golden ball is a time to reflect the past, celebrate the present and look forward to the future. Having Michael Stokes with us – a pupil from 50-years ago – adds so much to the sense of occasion that is building as we get closer to the event.”