The 1970s was a decade marked by paradoxes. For many it was a time of fun and freedom, flared trousers and kipper ties, beige settees and avocado-coloured bathrooms, disco music and Angel Delight. It didn’t seem to matter that the economy was faltering with inflation well into double digits and all the major industries engaged in industrial action. Such was the all-pervading sense of optimism. Television dominated family entertainment and this was a time when the family would gather to watch shows such as the Generation Game or Family Fortunes. The Dick Emery Show, Morecambe and Wise, and the Two Ronnies were all familiar faces. There was a sense of communality arising from the fact that families from all generations and different social classes would come together in a shared activity. Theatres, music halls, pubs, were also vehicles of social cohesion points of reference that knitted society, indeed the nation, together. Historians must be careful not to sentimentalise or gloss over the challenges that face every age. Football hooliganism and discrimination against all sorts of minorities were characteristic of the age.

The microcosm that is St Anthony’s reflects all that was great about the 1970s. The school is well known for its warm and caring ethos, and there is no doubt that all the staff here want the boys to grow and flourish in all their multifarious tasks. What makes this place different, however, is that the boys themselves share a responsibility in the pastoral wellbeing of each other. At a time where individual choice is held up by mainstream society as an article of faith, the boys here understand that personal satisfaction is of true value when it is rooted in relationship and service. The Catholic Church defines this more concretely when it states that man is saved by faith and good works c.f. The Council of Trent. When Cain killed his brother Abel, God asked him where Abel was, to which Cain replied: I do not know: am I my brother’s keeper? I am confident that if the boys here asked the same question they would reply in the affirmative. This is not wishful thinking on my part because we see it in sports teams, the choir, debating, on the stage and in everyday acts of kindness that enriches the lives of all of us fortunate enough to be part of this great school.