Encounter-Ed Haliburn

EDDY HALIBURN AND STENNY PEARS—the full circle
We last saw one another as manhood was dawning. We meet again in the twilight of our lives 53 years later.

The personal computer has certainly become the indispensable and affordable means of communication to many a retired person, a vital lifeline, a window to the outside world from the comfort of one’s own home. With time on their hands, ‘surfing the net’ has become almost a daily ritual and as such, many an old friend, a schoolmate or a long lost relative is back in touch through e-mails and reunion websites.

It was therefore no surprise when, out of blue cyberspace, I received an e-mail from Loftus Callanan in Melbourne Australia. Loftus is the Secretary of Campion Old Boys Association and therefore in touch with many of my contemporaries. A name leapt out of the circulation list – Sten Pears.

Sten and I were at Campion High School Trichinopoly, Madras in the early 50’s. Run by British Jesuits the school was a byword throughout the South for it’s academic and sporting excellence.

Campion, it can safely be said, was then the only A-I school in the South with a science laboratory attracting the ablest pupils from many schools. Rev. Fr. Fleming, the Headmaster, was loved and feared in equal measure, by parents & pupils alike. The standards he set were intuitively to become the starting blocks for many of us in our working lives and still unforgettable as we now advance into old age. School results were always exceptional; my year 1953 saw 24 First Class passes in the High School exams alone.

L-R: Rev. Fr. Royce Macedo SJ (Principal Campion) Ed Haliburn, Rev.Fr.Joseph Thambi, (Director, Sports St. Joseph's College), Hazel Haliburn and daughters, Wanda and Wendy in front. The Haliburn family's first visit back to India in January 1971.

The hockey team was the scourge of all others especially St. Johns Vestry, the Reserve Police and the local railway teams that boasted both state and regional players. We were just 15 & 16 year olds, the bare footed ‘fagans’ that brooked no intimidation however well known the opposition. Sten played center-forward and I inside-left. The resulting combination was lethal. Sten scored a hat trick in each of the District finals and the team scooped the coveted trophy. The passage of time has obscured the names of some other members of the team but Anto Patterson in goal, Nigel Giles right full back, Roy and Claude Vardon , Loftus Callanan, Clarence Narcis, George Evers, Stephen Cowie, Cromwell James, Eugene Horne, Lionel Delamos, Cedric De Rosario bring flashbacks of a most memorable team. Fr. Masters was the Games Master at the time and I was extremely fortunate to be the only day scholar in the team.

Vivid memories of our school days filled my mind and I ‘fired off’ (now there’s a good old Anglo word) an e-mail to Sten thinking he was in Australia only to be pleasantly surprised to learn that he was only living in the Emerald Isle. An early reunion came instantly to mind. There was no time to waste.

On leaving school, like so many others, we went our separate ways; I to university and then the Indian Customs while Sten joined the Railways at Perambur, Madras straight from school. We were not to set eyes on one another again till January 3, 2006, over half a century later.

I had moved on to Vizag, met and married Hazel Laporte, a local girl in 1960. Sten emigrated to England in 1959 met and married an Irish girl Mary Lavelle from Westport, County Mayo, Ireland and settled down in Wimbledon, London to raise a family and pursue a rewarding career in the Signals Division of British Rail. I emigrated at the end 1961 and settled in Ilford, Essex

After a series of clerical jobs, I became interested, quite by accident, in computers. In 1964, they were very much a rarity. Mechanization was becoming the ‘in thing’ in offices at the time and I was eager to get on in life. Seeing the potential for rapid progress, I enrolled in night school and completed a two year City & Guilds diploma in Computer Science. I then joined an American construction company in London as a trainee programmer. I thereafter spent the rest of my working life writing and implementing Computer Aided Design and Real Time software solutions predominantly for oil and gas exploration companies operating in Britain’s Offshore North Sea. Extensive travel around the UK came with the job as well as accreditation to many professional bodies principally The British Computer Society and the CAD Centre at Cambridge. I had been through the evolution of computers spanning some 3 decades: mainframes, mini and finally micro systems that are today’s desktops.

A worldwide recession in 1993 caused a downturn in construction activity and early retirement followed late that year. Too early to roost and by then an empty nest, I turned a hobby into what Londoners call a ‘nice little earner. Hazel and I turned our love of gardening and DIY into a house management and landscaping business taking care of foreign owned second homes in London’s West End. Our clientele included Elle MacPherson, the Australian super model. Now that is something for you younger chaps to drool about.

Our community: Typical whitewashed Spanish houses taken from our balcony

On reaching 65 in 2001 and after a lifetime of hard work Hazel & I decided that warmer climes were the panacea for our impending old age. So we bought a house in sunny Spain, to which we sojourn to as the whim takes us.

Sten left London to live in Galway, Ireland in 1976 and to start a new career there with the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) of Boston, Ma, USA. The company had set up a manufacturing facility to take advantage of Ireland’s entry into the European Common Market. His initial electrical background, first gained in railway carriage lighting at Perambur, Madras and subsequent experience of computerized signaling at British Rail held him in good stead. Sten traveled widely and often to the US and Europe in his capacity as DEC’s New Products Engineering Manager. Sten also found time to attend the Galway Institute of Technology at night and took a degree in Industrial Engineering specializing in Certification, Production and Inventory Management.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. So, as a hobby Sten completed a diploma in Theatre Studies and went on to direct stage shows both for his employer and for the local Amateur Dramatic & Musical Societies, culminating in his show being televised on Irish National Television at peak viewing time. He was on the panel of adjudicators for the All Ireland Amateur Musical Societies in 1999 judging some 75 performances across the wide spectrum of variety entertainment.

It became quite apparent that many aspects of our lives, both working and private, uncannily followed a near identical course. Sten had two girls and so did I. We roughly had the same occupation and loved travel. Once in touch but due to other commitments, we could not arrange a mutual date but found out that we both had second homes in Spain albeit 500 kms apart – Sten on the Costa Blanca and I on the Costa Del Sol. Distance was not a deterrent and the only way to get there was by road. So early on 3 rd January I jumped in the car and with my wife Hazel set off on a journey to span some 53 years.

Being a history ‘buff’ I was also looking forward to traveling through Don Quixote country. Also historic Cartagena, where Hannibal landed in 218BC with his Weapons of Mass Destruction, was en-route. Recent excavations have confirmed that his WMD’s were actually Indian fighting elephants accompanied by their mahouts, the ‘shock and awe’ element of his army. This was the start point for his epic trek to and over the Alps to defeat the Romans at the famous battle of Cannae in 216 BC. The rout of Imperial Rome, then the only super power, was so complete that the strategy of this battle, I am told, is still studied at all military staff colleges around the world to this day.

After a leisurely drive of some 5 hours and a fruitless search for Sten’s address coupled with a car breakdown, we finally met up in front of the local hospital. An extremely nervous man walked up and addressed me in halting Spanish. Now you cannot hide a good old Anglo-Indian accent even when speaking a foreign tongue and I instantly responded with ‘ are you Sten?’ And that was it. We had bridged half a century.

Now Torreveja is an outpost of the ex-pat Irish and Murphy’s bar is a very popular drinking hole. We retired there to meet Mary and have lunch and to meet Sten’s many Irish friends .A short ‘siesta’ followed in preparation for a belated New Year dinner /dance hosted at an even larger Irish bar. We had a most enjoyable night that ended at around 4 in the morning, very reminiscent of the Railway Institute dances, from which we went straight to church for Sunday mass. Can you believe the first mass on Sundays was at 5 in the morning!!!

The years have gone by ever so quickly but, undeniably, we both look back on our lives with pride and a sense of achievement amply magnified in the success of our children and the potential of our grandchildren. Our pride in being Anglo-Indian has been paramount without denial or dismissal of our deep Indian roots. Our education, delivered by those great British Jesuits, has stood us in good stead and can be vouched as amongst the very best and second to none. For that and for the team spirit that instilled in us a determination to succeed, those wonderful men forged our lives that were later to be honed, tempered and fired in the unforgiving crucible of foreign lands. It was a reunion that we hope will be repeated for a long time to come. We plan to meet up whenever the opportunity arises as Sten has brothers and sister living in London. With time on our hands, I, now a grandfather, and Sten, a recent great-grand-father, will have much to talk about. Our wives get on famously and that is a good starting point.

We would like to hear from other members of that illustrious hockey team or class mates. Please feel free to get in contact with either of us at any time.