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Annual Reunion Dinner 2008 - Friday or Saturday 7/8th November in the McGregor Suite, Villa Park.

The Annual Reunion and Commemoration Dinner, to give it its full, correct title, is a fascinating blend of solemnity and ribaldry, of nostalgia and anticipation, of an AGM and an ad hoc gathering of interested parties! I am not sure of its origins but I suspect it might have emerged from the carnage of the Great War, when Aston Old Edwardians foregathered at the school to see who had survived.*

It has a timeless quality about it because the basic structure hardly changes - only the people do. Those changes occur among the speakers and more often, sadly, the faces missing from previous years - never to return.

Following Grace, a meal and the Loyal Toast there follows the moment of commemoration: 'The Immortal Memory' - the Act of Remembrance followed by a minute's silence in honour of the 193 AOEs who gave their lives in two World Wars. Toasts to 'The School and Foundation' and 'The Association' are later proposed by AOEs with responses from the Headmaster and an invited guest speaker, often an AOE of some distinction.

Wherever the dinner is held, and the location has changed over the years, there is always a bar! This affords diners the opportunity to renew old acquaintances before (and after!) the necessary restraints imposed by the formalities.

So, the differences from year to year lie in the detail. Here are my accounts of some of the shamefully small number I have attended:

If you would like to be kept informed of details for the next Annual Reunion Dinner please email me and I will add you to the mailing list I maintain for that purpose.

In the same way that every good Catholic tries to make the pilgrimage to Rome once in their lifetime, and a good Muslim will undertake the Haj, it would be nice to think that every AOE would come at least once to the Annual Dinner.

* First held on 10th December 1927.