Ealing Hotel School 1964-1970 Reunion

On Friday 20 March, graduates from Ealing Hotel School classes 1964-1970 returned to the University for a reunion lunch. Judith Cannon (Hotel & Catering 1968) explains more.

"The idea for the reunion came about when Tim Dawson and I attended a special lunch for one of our former tutors, Victor Ceserani's, 90th birthday.  We talked about the possibility of reuniting our two classes (National Diploma in Hotel and Catering 1968 and 1969), as I had kept in touch with 11 out of 14 classmates and Tim wanted to do the same for his classmates. We were also keen to reunite with our past tutors and to extend the invitation to other classes who graduated from Ealing Hotel School between 1964-1970.

We arranged to host the reunion in Pillars training restaurant, formerly known as the Mary King Room, on 20 March. We utilised the University's alumni database, advertised in The Caterer magazine and searched LinkedIn, Facebook and Google to try to locate people. With the help of the University's Alumni Office we tracked down many of our class.

The turnout was very good with nearly 30 attending. It was lovely to meet people we had not seen for 50 years and re-introduce ourselves to them as a different generation! Some were even recognisable despite the grey hair. Conversation flowed so naturally that it seemed as if the time since we last met was just a few weeks ago.

It was interesting to discover where people's career and life had taken them. Many of us have stayed within in the industry for the whole of our career and owe the college and tutors an enormous debt. It was especially rewarding to have some of our former tutors, Brian Price, Eric and Helen Beckley, and Gerry Craven, join us for the event.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the event so much that emails have been flying around since among our classmates, with future events already planned. Many more of the 60s classes would love to come to future get-togethers, as the word has gone out that it was an excellent party."