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Old Elizabethan Lewis Crabtree has begun a new career, got married and called in at his alma mater as part of a team of visiting experts – all in the space of a year.

Lewis (1996–2003) retrained in 2013-2014 as an acoustic engineer, having previously worked in accountancy. He then took up a job in the field in October 2014.

He came to QE in June as a designated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Ambassador. Also last month, he married Winnie in a small family ceremony in Wandsworth, London.

After leaving the School in 2003, Lewis went to Edinburgh University to study Physics with Music (which, as it happens, is a perfect fit with his new career).

Following graduation, he worked for five years at KPMG’s London office, where he was a Business Intelligence Consultant. He next worked for Ernst & Young, another of the ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms, for two years.

Having decided on his career switch, he studied for a one-year diploma in his spare time with the Institute of Acoustics and then he began his current job with building services engineers, Max Fordham. The firm’s work encompasses everything that impacts on the internal environment of a building and its performance, thus including acoustics, as well as fields such as sustainability and the physics of buildings.

Lewis’s role revolves around the enhancement of sound quality inside buildings, noise and vibration control and environmental noise modelling. He is brought on board projects at an early stage and becomes part of the design team, working with the architect and other engineers and designers. They take a whole-building approach and have an emphasis on sustainability. He has worked in private and public spaces, such as galleries, museums, theatres, cinemas and schools.

Max Fordham encourages its employees to engage in outreach work, hence Lewis’ involvement with STEM. He came to the School under the auspices of the STEM Network, which was established to encourage pupils to consider a future in technical fields.

During his visit, he took Year 8 boys through the complexities of designing and building schools and concert halls. This linked to part of the curriculum they had recently been studying; Lewis pronounced himself impressed with their background knowledge of sound.

No fewer than 12 Old Elizabethans went to the wedding of Ramesh Paripooranananthan and his bride Millie – an indication that 11 years after he left the School, he retains very fond memories of QE!

In fact, Ramesh (OE 1997–2004) is clear that the School was instrumental in laying the foundations for his burgeoning career as an architect.

“I qualified as a Chartered Architect in November 2014 – the culmination of six years’ full-time education, two years’ working and studying, and three separate qualifications completed in this time. I do want to point out that the ‘QE way’ of resilience and perseverance was key, especially during the tough times.”

Ramesh studied at the University of Nottingham, which he says is rightly a popular destination for QE leavers, not least because it is in “a fantastic city with a lot to offer”.

He met his bride-to-be in his first year at Nottingham and they have been together throughout the subsequent nine years. Millie is a pharmacist. The couple have just stepped on to the property ladder, having bought a house in north London.

Among the dozen alumni at the wedding were three fellow 2004 leavers acting as his best men, Sandeep Dasgupta, Manan Upadhyay and Paraag Gudka.

Ramesh currently works at Atelier Architecture in Tring, a practice which specialises in bespoke modern design within the rural urban fringe. “The flexibility of my job is what keeps me motivated and enjoying it. My current work ranges from designing a luxury, one-off house to tackling a golf clubhouse & hotel.”

Ramesh was in the first A-level Geography class that Neil Enright taught at QE and the Headmaster retains fond memories of him and his classmates. He has twice been back to the School to assist with careers events, most recently when he gave mock interviews to Year 12 boys hoping to study Architecture at university.

“The School will always be dear to me,” he says. “Even 11 years detached from my time there, I believe many of my decisions are still influenced by the experience.

“The friendships made at QE are the most important of my life. Though life gets in the way and often much time passes between our socials, when we meet, we fall back into old ways, acting like the teenagers we were on the Red Square playground during our breaks.

With his successful career as a GP in a socially deprived part of London, Dominic Roberts could perhaps be forgiven for feeling he has paid his dues to society.

But far from sitting back, Dominic (OE 1989–1994) is now hoping to serve in a challenging new arena: he is applying to become a doctor with the Royal Naval Reserve.

“This is an interest that has come in later life: I wasn’t in the CCF at School or anything like that,” he says. “I want to strive to do something different and help to try and make the world a better place, having seen the atrocities taking place currently. I also have a love of being at sea.”

While at QE, Dominic was a Form Captain and Prefect and achieved grade 8 in flute and grade 3 in piano. After a gap year which included four months on safari in Africa, Dominic studied Medicine at Leeds University from 1995 to 2000. Whilst there, he nurtured a passion for sailing, competing in the sport for the university. Today he holds the International Certificate of Competence, qualifying him to skipper a yacht.

Dominic spent the summer of 1996 as a volunteer carer and teacher at a Romanian orphanage.

He began his medical career with spells as a houseman in hospitals in Scarborough and Bradford, before returning to London for a hospital medical training post. He then switched to GP training in Hackney and has worked in his current practice for more than ten years.

“I enjoy the teamwork in caring for a socially deprived and cosmopolitan area with all its challenges,” he says. “I have an interest in teaching and I am an educational supervisor, GP trainer and Programme Director for GP trainees in Hackney.” Dominic is also Clinical Director for Islington Clinical Commissioning Group and is a columnist for Innovait, the Royal College of General Practitioners’ journal for trainees.

Over the years, he has gained a number of further medical qualifications, including diplomas in child health, obstetrics and gynaecology, primary care ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and, most recently, a postgraduate certificate in medical education from the University of Westminster.

In his spare time, as well as sailing, he enjoys walking, camping, travelling and cycling. He rides to work from his home in London’s Docklands and also takes part in charity bike rides.

Dominic is hopeful that he will succeed in his application to the Royal Naval Reserve, but also realistic: “It’s actually quite tough to get in. I passed the psychometric test – the only one who did out of three applying to be officers.

“I am now ‘attesting’ at HMS President on the Thames.” This means he has started training, but a decision on whether he can continue will depend on him passing the medical and fitness test. “Then there is the Admiralty Interview Board, which involves two days of assessment.

“Fingers crossed, but it does seem tough! If I’m not successful I’ll still be glad I tried, as it’s been interesting.”

Lawyer David Taylor may not have planned to emigrate to Australia, but he is certainly now making the most of all that life in Sydney has to offer.

David (OE 1991–1998) read Social & Political Sciences at Cambridge after leaving the School, before going on to spend two years at Nottingham Law School. He then undertook his solicitor training in international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

“Having been in London for all of my life and worked at a large City firm, it was time to try something different,” he says. “Australia was not the original plan – I just knew I needed a change from London.

“The opportunity arose to work at what was then Freehills (now Herbert Smith Freehills) in Sydney and to bring my (now) wife with me, so we jumped at it. I did not have any idea as to how long we would go for, and certainly not that we would settle down here, but, almost nine years later, we are still here, own a house, have Australian citizenship, and have a son, born in Sydney.”

“One of the benefits of Sydney over London is that you have many more months in the year for outdoor activities. Me, I like to go diving and can pretty much go year-round. I don’t have to travel far and can often walk: I have about six or seven golden-sand beaches within less than 30 minutes’ drive from my house, and some much closer. As the weather is warm-to-hot nine months of the year, even when you do not have an outdoor activity planned, you can head to a beach, go for a walk around the harbour, or simply relax outside with friends and have a barbecue – a great Australian pastime.”

David is a Senior Associate in his firm’s Dispute Resolution group, specialising in shareholder class actions and product liability matters.

“The class action landscape has grown tremendously in Australia in the last decade. It is a relatively new system, having been introduced in 1992. Although, compared with the US, Australia is a far less litigious environment, it is now considered the second-most active class action jurisdiction in the world,” he says.

His cases are typically shareholder class actions, focusing on alleged breaches of stock exchange rules by listed companies. Aggrieved shareholders (including institutions and individuals) are able to bring a collective action under specific rules against the company.

“This is much more cost-effective than having to commence separate actions and so provides Australians with greater access to justice than jurisdictions which do not have this mechanism available. My firm regularly represents some of the largest Australian (and global) ‘corporates’ in the world in class actions.”

Understanding what it means to be a corporate lawyer without actually ‘living it’ is difficult, he says, but he does have some words of advice for anyone interested: “Although it goes without saying, I will say it anyway: you should forget what you see on TV. Being a lawyer at a top firm anywhere in the world requires a lot of hard work, long hours and sacrifice. I remember when I was doing my A-Levels and thought that I would never be able to work harder. Then I thought the same when I was doing my finals. Well, I can honestly say I feel the same all the time at work.

“Anyone who goes into corporate law thinking it will be easy, frankly needs their head checked! That being said, the work is wonderfully challenging and interesting, my colleagues are incredibly talented, clever and great fun, and my office is a fabulous place to work. As a lawyer, you are part of a privileged profession where people (generally) treat each other with mutual respect and push each other intellectually. I am very lucky to have chosen a career in the law.”

Three Old Elizabethans from the post-war generation have been working with today’s youngest QE boys as part of a new Year 7 History project about the School.

Kenneth Cooper (1942–1950), Alan Solomon (1951–1957) and John Keeley (1956 – 1963) regaled pupils with their experiences as schoolboys from the early 1940s to the early 1960s during a specially organised visit to the School.

The Year 7 boys were naturally very keen to hear about the discipline (the cane from Headmaster E H Jenkins – although the trio were not necessarily speaking from first-hand experience!) and the “horrible” School dinners. These were eaten in the Main Hall, as the refectory that was bombed during World War II was not rebuilt for many years.

The three alumni spoke to the whole of Year 7 in the Shearly Hall about their experiences. Earlier in the day, they met a smaller number of boys in the History Club, discussing a number of archival artefacts that had been laid out, including an old School cap and blazer.

All three visitors are actively involved with the Old Elizabethans’ Association. Kenneth (‘Ken’) Cooper, School Captain in 1949, was until recently Vice-Chairman of the School’s Governing Body; he is still a Governor and sits on several Governing Body Committees. John Keeley was part of the 1962 QE trip to Russia – reportedly the first-ever visit by a British school party to the Soviet Union.

The Summer Term project on the history of the School was organised by Helen MacGregor, Head of History. Thanking the three for their involvement, she said: “I really want the boys to understand both the changing and the continuity of the School through time.”

The project focused on distinct periods:

• The founding of the School
• The Civil War
• World War I
• World War II
• The post-war period
• The modern period, looking to the future.

The Year 7 boys have also been to visit the School’s original building, Tudor Hall, in Wood Street as part of this project. QE relocated from Tudor Hall to the current Queen’s Road site in 1932.

Old boys of the School took on present pupils in a specially arranged match this month to launch the week-long celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Old Elizabethans Cricket Club.

The Past team batted first and put in a strong showing, declaring on 253 for 2. Paul Lissowski (OE 2002-2009) was bowled out for 88, Nick Jones (OE 1997-2004) was caught for 60 runs and Yash Zaveri (OE 1999-2006) was 62 not out.

Captained by Richard Wells, the Past team also included OEs Peter Bush (1969-1976), Daren Norris (1977-1984), Barry Milligan (1972-1979), Matt Sears (2007-2014) and Jayaram Raghuveer (2007-2014), together with club players Saqib Parkar and James Fitzgerald.

The Present team then batted and scored 180 for 6, so the match was drawn. Rohan Radia reached his half-century (51), Milan Pindoria was 41 not out and Omar Mohamed scored 35.

Old Elizabethans Cricket Club was formed in 1940 and is based at the Old Elizabethans Memorial Playing Fields in Mays Lane. It has grown in size over recent years to include a thriving colts section, a ladies section and several adult teams, which play on Saturdays and Sundays.

The club achieved the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Clubmark in 2008 and has also been awarded ECB Focus Club status, which reflects its commitment to providing a high-quality, welcoming environment for young players, as well as its strong, established links with local schools, businesses and the surrounding community.

• Rain in the afternoon of Founder’s Day forced the abandonment of this year’s Stanley Busby Memorial Match between an OE team and the School XI before a result could be recorded. Earlier, many alumni turned out for the OE buffet lunch in the Main Hall, to which all old boys are invited. Attendees included distinguished retired diplomat and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex, Sir Leslie Fielding (OE 1943-1951).