Maurice Owen - Nelson House 1944 – 1951

I started in 1944 when the boarders had been resettled away from Shoreham so in my early years, the student numbers were reduced.

I think the boarders came back in 1945 and reoccupied that section of the school which had probably been requisitioned during the war, and occupied, from memory, as a Fire Station .

My lifetime as a Chartered Surveyor, which enabled me to become an International Proprietor in Jones Lang Wootton (now Jones Lang La Salle) was most satisfying, in both a professional and material sense, and probably could never have been achieved without my education at Shoreham Grammar School, for which I remain grateful .

I have a connection with Anglican (CofE) Education in Australia as I spend a number of years as Deputy Chair of the School Council at St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls in Perth, which was attended by three of my daughters and now is educating my granddaughters.

My son also went to an Anglican school, Christchurch Grammar, so something must have rubbed off on me from my years at Shoreham.

I have just turned 77 but going well and still residing in Perth, Western Australia. I still maintain some business interests but the passing of time seems to dim one's relevance to current commercial activity.

Regards to ‘Eddy’ Gray (or ‘Buster’ as he was known in our years) and anyone else who remembers me.

Maurice Owen

January 2012