Celebrating 160+ Years
HMS Conway School Ship 1859 – 1974
The club exists to foster social relationships between former cadets of the training school ship HMS Conway. If you are an Old Conway and not yet a member we would strongly urge you to join so you can get back in touch with your old chums.
From the President – Paul Heaver (66-71)
I feel both honoured and privileged to have been elected as President of the Conway Club for a period of two years starting on 1st January 2025. Firstly, I wish to pay tribute to my predecessor, John Noble for his fine work during his tenure as President.
I started as a New Chum in September ’66; a Kenya hand and one of the first intakes directly into the New Block. I spent four years in Maintop before becoming SCC Foretop for my last year finishing in July ’71. In actual fact I was expelled, along with CCC James ‘Chinky’ Hall, a few days before the end of that Summer term by the Headmaster, Mr Basil Lord, for not getting our haircut! I didn’t go to sea but started my Commercial Air pilot training before joining BEA as a Second Officer in ’73 flying Hawker Siddeley Tridents around the UK and Europe. In ’86, now in British Airways (BA), I flew Boeing 747s on worldwide routes, gaining my first Command in ’96 on the Boeing 777, becoming a Training Captain soon after. In 2003 I converted back to the Boeing 747 for my final 14 years before retiring in June 2017 after nearly 44 years with BA.
During my time as President I aim to visit as many branches as possible. I have been invited to attend the Canadian Coast Guard College Graduation ceremony in June for the award of the Conway King’s Gold Medal and hope to report on that in the July edition of ‘The Cadet’. I shall be in Australia in July and hope to meet up with as many OCs as I can.
The 2024 AGM approved a strategy for the club’s future based on the ‘The Conway Club Closure Passage Plan’ and I hope that we, as a club, may proceed in harmony and unity as the years go by and the plans unfold. The club is in good health and that has a great deal to do with the conscientiousness and diligence of the Committee members, to whom I am and remain hugely grateful.
Stop Press: The 2025 AGM weekend will be in Bedford, not Reading as mentioned at the last AGM. The Reading hotel insisted on unacceptable financial terms so we decided to go elsewhere. Full details of the new venue will be in the next The Cadet.
